8th August

Okay so first some quick clean up. First of all, I know I said I wasn't going to watch the Olympics, but I've already caved on that one so I will be briefly replacing the "Hard and Fast Section" with "Olympic Watch" where I will briefly highlight what's happening in the Olympics, specifically with Team GB but anything else that has caught my attention. Secondly, after another terrific test match, I felt that that had to be the centerpiece of this blog post, so my review of Arsenal's season is here, but lower down this time. All good? Right, let's dig in.

England Show Their Class

I've been saying all series that England were just a superior team to Pakistan, which is why it has been so frustrating at points to watch them flounder. And for the first two days of this test match, floundering is exactly what England were doing. Soft dismissals again on the first day cost them dearly, as they were bowled out for a sloppy 297, with only Gary Ballance and Moeen Ali able to salvage some dignity from yet another lackluster batting display. Then, on Day Two, Pakistan served to show England exactly how inadequate 297 was, as they batted exceptionally, despite losing Hafeez early, as Azhar Ali finally turned up in this series with a stunning hundred, and Sami Aslam immediately showed that he is a vastly superior batsman to Shan Masood, making 82 and 70 in this test match, exactly what you'd want from an opener. But Azhar's dismissal on the last ball of Day Two proved the turning point, as England turned up on Day Three. From 257-2, Pakistan crumbled to 400 all out, as Younus Khan failed again, Shafiq made a duck and the lower order offered absolutely no support to firing Sarfraz. If you'd offered England a 100 run deficit at the start of Day Three, with Pakistan in total control of the test match, they'd have taken it, and looking back it was a really poor display from Pakistan's lower order. 

And England went on to prove exactly how superior they are to Pakistan, and how poor the Pakistan collapse was, by taking advantage of an absolutely dead pitch to somehow, inexplicably, snatch the test match from Pakistan's grasp. If England started Day Three well, they finished it sensationally, with Cook and Hales both making 50s to guide England to 120-0 at close, going into Day Four having eradicated all of Pakistan's hard work to force a lead. 

And England's exceptional work with the bat continued all the way through Day Four. Even after Cook and Hales played sloppy shots, Root and Vince picked up the slack, the former making a hard fought 62, before they both threw their wickets away as well. But it was Jonny Bairstow and that man Moeen again who propelled England, taking Pakistan apart in the evening session as Bairstow scored 83 and Moeen 86* as England made 445-6, rendering Pakistan's 400 every bit as inadequate as England's 297 had looked on the first day. 

A declaration on Sunday morning made the game situation clear. 84 overs, Pakistan needed to hang on for a draw, or somehow hit almost 350 to win. It quickly became obvious that a Pakistan win was off the table, but a draw would have been possible if they had batted with composure. And for large spells, it looked like they might do just that, with Sami once again impressing alongside Azhar Ali. Even when Azhar fell after lunch to make it 79-2, there was still plenty of batting to come. Another failing from Younus left them 92-3, but with Sami looking good and Misbah at the crease, it was far from game over.

And then England turned up the heat. It was an absolutely phenomenal team bowling performance, all five bowlers taking two wickets, but it was a sensational burst from Finn and Woakes that won the match, as Finn removed Misbah, then Woakes got Shaifq for his pair, and Sarfraz for a duck, before Sami left a brilliant ball from Finn that cannoned into his off stump. With Pakistan 148-7 at tea, it looked like a matter of time before England cleaned them up. Sohail Khan put up resistance but eventually slapped one back to Moeen to end the match.

This was an excellent team performance from England, as all five bowlers contributed and six of their top seven made at least one fifty. Under pressure, with Pakistan in total control, they produced two fine bowling performances on the third and fifth days, with an exceptional batting performance inbetween to overturn the mediocre batting and bowling of the first two days. It just shows how talented this England team is, and how much potential they have, that after being dominated and underperforming for two days, they could turn in one of the best team displays in their history over the last three days, to win so comfortably over a Pakistan side that just three days ago were being hailed as potentially the best side in the world.

I'm going to do a piece in a few days about the state of world cricket, which is finely and interestingly balanced, but for me, this England side are the best team currently operating in world cricket, as there are no other serious contenders. Hopefully, victory in the subcontinent against India (and Bangladesh) will show that.

ARSENAL 

Okay so Arsenal. Once again, it feels bizarre for me to be sat here and saying that Arsenal's best finish in a decade (albeit with their 4th lowest points total in that period) was a failure of a season for them. And once again, the reality is a lot more nuanced than just: this was another poor season for Arsenal. But, bluntly, with Leicester City winning the Premier League title, none of the big clubs can come out unscathed. It was a colossal failure for Chelsea, a poor league campaign for Liverpool, an underwhelming and poor league campaign for Man United, and a big failure for Man City. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly less of a failure for Arsenal, as they finished above all of those clubs and their local rivals Spurs, despite mounting less of a title challenge, but nevertheless a failure it remains. In a season where the league title was as up for grabs as it ever has been for Arsene Wenger's side, where they should really have won the title having finished ahead of Spurs, City et al, once again it was a season-less trophy, where any attempt at a title challenge was well and truly, as much as I hate using the word, bottled by Arsenal (calm down Arsenal fans, I used the B-word to describe City and Spurs too). 

But once again, it's unfair to be bluntly negative against Arsenal. As usual they had a huge amount of injuries, and as usual they threw away their season in key games, but they showed that they have genuinely developed to some extent under Wenger, even if their shortcomings remain unforgivably obvious. United's squad is lightweight in multiple positions, City's is aging and they chronically underperformed in big games. But Arsenal? Every single Arsenal fan can pick out two or three key areas and say: add one player here and we'd walk the title. Sign a world class striker, a defensive midfielder and some proper centre back cover and it would be easy for Arsenal. They have the money, they have the pulling power, it should be as easy as that. 

But that's not what happened. Wenger signed one decent defensive midfielder in January, made an excellent goalkeeper signing which was needed in Petr Cech (albeit one for the short term) and then Arsenal struggled with injury depth in defence and attack. Overall, like Spurs and City, their loss of the title can be pinned down to several key fixtures where they just lost their heads. The pressure was on them as potential title favourites before the season, and they promptly lost 2-0 to West Ham. They had the chance to go top of the league on Boxing Day after Liverpool beat Leicester, and they promptly lost 4-0 to Southampton. After beating Leicester 2-1 to move within two points of them they won just one of their next eight games in all competitions, knocked out of the FA Cup, Champions League and picking up one point from three league games to well and truly blow the title, with defeats to Swansea and United compounded by a 2-2 draw in the North London Derby. 

Most of these are on paper not bad results, West Ham, Southampton, United and Spurs are all good teams, but Arsenal have proven that they're a better side than all of them (except perhaps Spurs but they were in prime position to win that game before Coquelin lost his head). It's rather telling that at crucial points of the season, Arsenal lost their heads. 

But enough about the negatives. The shame is that the few results that had a serious impact on Arsenal's season will overshadow how excellently they played for large periods. And crucially, they looked like they finally knew how to win the big games that weren't against Chelsea. They did the double over Leicester, turned over Man United, picked up four points against City and didn't lose to Liverpool or Spurs. One of the biggest question marks over Wenger in recent years has been his results against his rivals but this year he went a long way towards answering that question.

And despite some scratchy early results, Arsenal turned up the heat, winning five in a row early doors and scoring sixteen goals in the process, including five against Leicester and three against United. They also played well over the Christmas period, excluding that defeat to Southampton, and as usual finished the season strongly, not losing a game after their humbling to Swansea, winning five of their last nine. 

In terms of major positives, defensively Arsenal were excellent for a team that often only had one or two fit central defenders, and often had no natural defensive midfielder playing. Koscielny, Monreal and Bellerin remain three of the league's best defenders, and Cech in goal behind them was a real boost. They were only one goal off the best defence in the league and kept their joint lowest goals goals conceded in eight years, level with last season. They still have the best midfield in the league and despite missing Wilshere, Cazorla and Coquelin for large periods of the season in Ramsey, Ozil, Sanchez and more they have a really really creative and powerful midfield. I don't even dislike Olivier Giroud up front who once again came up with the goods. It almost seems unfair for criticising a team for only scoring 65 goals, but for a team of Arsenal's quality, I don't think it is unfair, as Leicester, City and Spurs all scored more, and it was their lowest goalscoring total since 2007, the only time they've scored less in the last 15 years. 

But Arsenal are nearly there. It seems like they've been nearly there for too long now, but with the introduction of Xhaka to their midfield, they're a world class central defender and a world class striker away from walking the title. The question is just whether they'll sign them or not.

Olympic Watch

• Adam Peaty smashed his own world record by almost half a second AGAIN as he won Team GB's first gold of the games.
• Also congrats to Jazz Carlin, who picked up our second with a medal in the 400m freestyle.
• Whilst I was in bed too early to catch our medal winners in action, I did see the unfortunate Richard Kruse lose his bronze medal match in the fencing. Gut-wrenching stuff.
• And Lizzy Armistead also proved close but no cigar to a medal, coming fifth in the Road Race. 
• But there was good news for Team GB in the tennis, as Murray and Konta made it through, but Murray's biggest rival Novak Djokovic crashed out. 
• And in terms of amusing stories, Djokovic's conqueror Del Potro got stuck in a lift in the Olympic Village and had to be rescued by his country's handball team. Now that's a weird one. 
• And a word has to go out to Ellie Downie, Annemiek van Vleuten and Samir Ait Said who all suffered potentially very horrible injuries in their various sports. Mercifully, it sounds as if they're all not too serious (in context).