Lukas Podolski had scored in three games in a row against Liverpool. Southampton and Montpelier. Since then he has had two quiet games against Manchester City and now Chelsea. Difficult games granted but I do get the sense that we are not getting the very best out of him. It almost feels as if we are playing two left backs on the left hand side. Podolski gives everything he has for the team
Arsenal team moved the ball around as quickly and slickly as we did. Ramsey drifting in from wide gave us the advantage in midfield and Mancini's men were chasing us for long periods. If it was the first time I'd ever watched football without knowing any of the history then I would have assumed that
Arsenal sides may have felt a little sorry for themselves and struggled to impose their game on a team with their tails up but this Arsenal side full of players such as Arteta, Podolski, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Giroud and Cazorla are all experienced fighters who will play with their heads held up. We
It took me back down memory lane, I remember being frustrated at our manager for dropping an aging but quality Davor Suker who had scored roughly a goal in every 2.5 games for his new club but instead moving a left winger into center forward, a left winger who didn't exactly look like a goalscorer. I didn't follow the rest of that guy's career so I'm not quite sure how that move turned out for him.
The strongest part of our team was clearly the midfield area. Not only Abou Diaby but Mikel Arteta was amazing as the deepest midfielder. While we lose Alex Song's physical presence, we gain Arteta's distribution. He plays the game so simply but so effectively. He is always an option when we have the ball but for me, his winning of the ball was top class. I have read the view that he is wasted as the deepest player, I completely disagree and believe his game is perfect for that role. Barcelona and Spain have proved that you do not
Benayoun's early goal was not going to be the only similarity to the Norwich game. Andre Santos had dashed inside to close down a passing option, Vermaelen was goal side of Shane Long but decided to push out and catch the forward in an offside position which to be fair, he was exactly that. The assistant referee did not give the call and Long raced clear to side foot past Szczesny. At that stage of the game with the Norwich errors in mind, the sensible option may have been to
Jack Wilshere came into the team the following year and played a duel role with Alex Song. Both players having the licensee to join Cesc Fabregas in a bid to create chances, especially against more defensively minded opposition. This season Mikel Arteta has made the Wilshere position his own albeit in a different way. Arteta who has played as a defensive
In the first half Aaron Ramsey thought he had more time than he actually had and was dispossessed on a few occasions. It was telling that he improved dramatically when Diaby came on in the second half and allowed Ramsey to play further forward. Although we were not at our best, we still fashioned enough good chances to have won the game. van Persie met a Walcott free kick at the far post but could not steer it in, Koscielny headed onto the crossbar after yet another free kick, this time from Robin van Persie. Cech blocked van
The game was pretty much Tomas Rosicky vs Wigan and Rosicky had lost. He was the only player who was making things happen but he couldn't play on his own. He might have had Mikel Arteta to play with but Arteta got badly injured in the first minutes of the game. Gary Neville pointed out that Wigan caught us on the break when Arteta could not walk, Yossi Benayoun was signaling to the bench, assuming that we had maintained possession but instead Sagna's header was cut out by a Wigan player and they swiftly broke on us bypassing
I spoke Arsenal pre match about Theo Walcott making a difference to this game and in the 11 minute match, he was the player that made the difference. Our first real attack of the game saw van Persie clip a pass into the stride of Theo Walcott who raced through ahead of former Tottenham defender Sébastien Bassong, Bassong rather clumsily bundled Walcott over in the box and the referee made the correct decision by awarding the penalty. As Bassong prevented a goalscoring