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Thoughts on Man U, Ramsey, Podolski central & More
You've watched and read enough about the match details but I would like to bring up a few points. Walcott's goal reminded me of Giroud's goal in Munich. We are at our most dangerous when playing one touch football. Even the best of the best cannot stop us when we are slicing through teams without having to think of the next pass. I wish we would try and attack in that way more often rather than holding onto the ball for too long. The team need to accept that some through passes or combinations
Stability is key to closing gap with champions & Moving on to concentrate on ourselves
Fulham (a) – No points for artistic impression / Theo / Set piece joy
I have slapped my knee with envy every time I have seen top sides fail to play well but then score from a well worked set piece so our goal was pleasing from that respect. And it was a well worked set piece, clearly something that had been worked on at training. Just look at the two runs from both centre backs and two players who finished as the best Arsenal players on the pitch. Koscielny sprung
Fulham (a) Thoughts & Line Up: Turn the small margins in our favour and win
2-0 up and strolling, the game got turned on it's head by some lovely Fulham attacking and some forgettable Arsenal defending. Being Arsenal, the twists and turns did not end there. We scored the equaliser and had a chance to win the game from the spot in stoppage time but Arteta had his spot kick saved. After his pressure kick against Norwich I have forgiven him and promised not to harp on
Everton (h) – Late thoughts on Emirates stalemate
Aaron Ramsey was once again the best player on the pitch and he deserves so much credit for grabbing his place and fighting to keep it. His engine is actually quite ridiculous when you consider how much ground he must have covered a few days ago against Norwich. It is too early to say whether or not he has taken that next step in his development but should he keep this up until the end of the season then Arsene will need serious convincing that another box to box midfielder should replace him whether that be
Everton (h) Thoughts & Line Up – I Hope We’ve Learnt From Rocky Balboa
Walcott and Podolski will not start out wide together, it just will not happen. Arsene will want to win the all important midfield battle so I expect Santi to be pushed back to the left with hopefully (prays to Dennis) Rosicky coming back in to the number 10 role. Ramsey and Arteta have formed a very good relationship in the engine room so I do not expect that to be broken up which could mean a place for
Podolski is Rosicky’s Polar Opposite & Can He Be Wenger’s Center Forward?
In defence of our defenders (and Flying Pole too)
So how about the rest of the defence? In Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker we have two of the best defenders individually in the league, but as a unit they are even more impressive. The way they complement each other is very good. Mertesacker is the leader, the cool head, who reads the game excellently and uses his height to good advantage on corners and his periscope legs to make impossible tackles. Koscielny has the pace, one of the best last-ditch tackles in the world, the ability to win the ball back off anyone and has man marked players like Aguero, Torres and Rooney into insignificance. Both of them have decent ballplaying skills, which puts a slight onus on getting the ball to the midfielders, rather than playing the long ball Vermaelen likes to do. This fits our system better, even if it at times does put the midfielders under pressure from harrying opponents. The two not only fit well together in the theory but also in the actual working of the game. In fact to me it seems almost like the combination of Campbell and
Norwich (h) – Controversy as Arsenal awarded correct decision
Mikel Arteta, you can lose any guilt you may feel over the Fulham penalty miss because this was a major pressure situation and you buried it. That said, I still think Lukas Podolski should be first choice if on the pitch. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain deserves a lot of credit for his taking the situation by the scruff of the neck and assisting the winner. We were passing it outside of the area and Norwich had the whole team behind the ball, without dribblers, it is so hard to pass through a team with that mindset. Without Gervinho on the pitch we lost the ability to pull people out of position. Chamberlain was positive, direct and this victory could well be down to that one moment when he took the pass from Cazorla and then drove straight at the heart of the Norwich defence. I still cannot