The lack of natural full backs really affected our game and you could see the difference when Richards surged forward on the right for the home team. He gave them a great outlet that we simply didn't have. They used that option to push us back especially in the first part of the first half
I would be very surprised if Arsene Wenger and the players did not think along those lines, playing for the draw will not be on the agenda come kick off. I will be very interested to see how Mancini approaches the game given the recent defeat at Chelsea, he will be more than aware of the threat posed by Theo Walcott and Gervinho on either flank. I suspect that Vincent Kompany will be responsible for looking after Robin van Persie
I hear a lot of talk about the need for a back up for RVP, complaints about Park and Chamackh, heck even talk about Torres for twenty million quid. All of this is interesting. But, you want to know what I think is interesting? The two goals scored by Vargas on perhaps one of the biggest stages in South American football. Here is a player that knows where the back of the net is, and is able to
Nonetheless, assists aren't the only way to create chances; in most cases (excluding stoke city) it takes more than a pass and a shot to score. In this respect, Rosicky is excellent. Firstly, he has an excellent awareness of space in the final third. His uncanny ability to spot gaps between the opposition defense and midfield means he often assists the assist (similar to Hleb few years back). These 'pre-assists' are not statistics often mentioned, but the fact is, these passes are often just as important as the assists. He has made 5 'key passes' this season (a key pass is a pass that is instrumental in creating the goal but not the assist itself), joint highest at arsenal along with Ramsey (note that Ramsey had 3 times the amount of starts). A great example of this is in the video below against West Brom (jump to 0.40), where he gives the pass to van
In midfield, Arteta and Song stood out for me and their partnership gets stronger with every game played. Defensively they are both solid and together they form a great wall to protect our defence. Offensively they were both magnificent and took turns pushing forward. In one of their forward runs
Robin van Persie was not having a good game, he was uncharacteristically losing possession and he was not able to influence the game as he usually does. Well that was the case until 70 minutes when Song who had played a number of over hit passes in the final third, played a perfectly floated pass to van Persie who spun off his man and volleyed first time past Howard and in off the post. A world class strike from a world class
For the last few seasons, Everton have pressed us hard from the front and have not allowed our defenders and deeper midfielders time and space on the ball, the back up players have just had a tough time playing against that tactic, so it will be interesting to see how Arsene counteracts that if