Posts filed under 'Match Reports'
October 26th, 2011
Park celebrates bending home the winner against Bolton
Arsenal 2 – 1 Bolton
Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
Arsenal went through to the Quarter-Finals of the Carling Cup for the ninth successive season with a 2-1 victory over Bolton. It wasn’t televised anywhere in the world, so the 56,628 or so lucky enough to be in the statdium are, thus far, the sole witnesses to another encouraging victory. If you haven’t seen the game at all, you might have an interest in this audio report I put together in the match’s immediate aftermath.
The team was the expected mix of youth and experience. The headline inclusion was Thomas Vermaelen, though it passed almost without notice that his partner on the night, Sebastien Squillaci, was making his first appearance of the season. Lukasz Fabianski kept goal, with youngsters Ignasi Miquel and Nico Yennaris (a debutant) at full-back. Coquelin and Frimpong patrolled the midfield, with Benayoun, Arshavin and Chamberlain pulling the strings behind Ju-Young Park.
Arshavin had not originally been intended to play, with Tomas Rosicky pencilled for inclusion. However, a slight injury to the Czech midfielder saw the far from slight Arshavin handed his central playmaking role. It would prove to be the game’s crucial factor.
The first half was a relatively quiet affair. Yossi Benayoun flashed one effort over, and on a couple of occasions Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain seemed to try and do too much when released on the right. It wasn’t a poor performance from the young winger, but it was his certainly his least eye-catching in an Arsenal shirt. Perhaps he is feeling the pressure of expectation.
The second half started ominously, with former Gunner Fabrice Muamba side-footing in to the roof of the net to give Bolton the lead. It was at this point, however, that Arsenal’s experienced players began to seize control of the game. Arshavin was the key figure. First he picked up the ball on the right, skipped infield, and fired a fizzing shot in off the far post.
Within three minutes, he’d created the winner, scooting inside from the left before playing in Park in the space that had been created. The Korean’s finish was exquisite, opening his body and bending a first-time shot around the goalkeeper and in to the far corner. Thierry Henry would have been proud.
Afterwards, the manager spoke in glowing terms about Park’s performance:
“He had a very, very good game. His movement was exceptional and his finishing is absolutely fantastic.
He is ready to play in league games.”
Park battled well against two experienced Premier League centre-backs in Gary Cahill and Zat Knight, and considering Marouane Chamakh’s terrible form in front of goal, is bound to get his chance sooner or later.
Arshavin, however, was the undoubted man of the match. There were still errors in his game, but in the final third it’s hard to question his efficacy. However, listening to Arsene post-match, we’re unlikely to see him in his favoured position again anytime soon:
“You cannot play with two wingers and two offensive players like that, you are too short in midfield. He is normally a wide player but he wants to grow in a role behind the striker.”
Whether or not that growth takes place at Arsenal or elsewhere remains to be seen.
Thomas Vermaelen departed with a solid 85 minutes behind him and whispers of a calf strain, but the man himself has taken to Twitter to dispel those fears and confirm his availability for Saturday’s game with Chelsea. With so little match practise behind him, I don’t expect him to start, but simply having him around the squad is a positive boost at the moment.
Tonight I fly to Spain for a week of exile from, among other things, the internet. If I happen to stumble in to a WIFI-furnished cafe I will update while I am there – if not, you’ll have to cope without me for a week. Chins up.
October 24th, 2011
Arsenal 3 – 1 Stoke
Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
Imagine, if you will, that Arsene Wenger had been dismissed following Arsenal’s defeat at Blackburn on September 17th. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility – certainly, a large proportion of the fanbase were calling for just that to happen. Now imagine that the new manager – some idealistic lovechild of Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, conceived in a bout of passionate hate-sex, had achieved exactly the same results Arsene has in the last seven games.
It’s six wins from seven games, with 15 goals scored and just six conceded. It’s a run that’s taken us to the top of our Champions League group, and within three points of both Liverpool and Tottenham in the Premier League.
Had these results been picked up by a new manager, divorced from the stigma that Arsene has collected in his 15 years at charge, he’d be being praised for the impressive and pragmatic turnaround. Arsene, too, deserves that credit. I want to stear clear of cliche and avoid claiming that we’ve turned round any corners or over any leaves, but there is an increasing confidence in this Arsenal squad – a confidence underlined by the fact that Arsene felt he would be able to start Robin van Persie on the bench yesterday.
As we know, the Dutchman eventually stepped on to the field to resume his customary role as match-winner. He is now just one off double-figures for the season, and has a staggering 25 goals in 26 league games in the calendar year of 2011 (thanks Orbinho). His evolution in to a central striker has been fascinating to watch. He arrived at Arsenal as a lanky teenager who had, like another great Arsenal striker, Thierry Henry, spent most of footballing career on the left-wing. Unlike Henry, Van Persie was not blessed with blistering pace, and so was ear-marked by many (including Arsene) as a potential successor to Dennis Bergkamp in the support-striker role. When we made the necessary switch to 4-3-3, however, Arsene needed a centre-forward who could receive the ball with his back to goal and bring the midfield in to play. He needed someone with an immaculate first-touch, and Van Persie was that man.
What he and others could never predicted was that the Dutchman would unearth in himself such a goalscoring instinct. Both finishes yesterday were instant near-post strikes – real poacher’s goals. If he somehow manages to avoid injury, he promises to have his highest scoring season to date.
For both goals yesterday he owed a huge debt of gratitude to Gervinho. The Ivorian winger had his best game in an Arsenal shirt, scoring the opener after a lovely clipped pass from Aaron Ramsey, and then setting up the second and third with darts to the right and left byline respectively before cutting the ball back in to Robin’s path. Whilst his first touch and finishing can be erratic, he does seem to possess that burst of pace over five yards than allows him to get past a man in the tightest of situations. And, unlike Theo Walcott, he seems to be able to take the ball with him when he does it too, and find a pass at the end of it. Hopefully his goal yesterday marks the start of a scoring run – we need the likes of Gervinho and Walcott to take the pressure off Van Persie.
Finally, I wanted to speak in praise once more of our centre-back pairing of Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny, who (for the most part) coped admirably with Stoke’s aerial bombardment. Stoke’s goal was the unfortunate product of a lapse on concentration – I think fans and players alike thought they’d hoofed their free-kick out of play, only to see it catch in the wind and turn out to be a perfectly clipped pass to the near post.
Koscielny has been getting a lot of praise of late, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that having the giant German alongside him is helping him enormously.  It means that Thomas Vermaelen will have a genuine battle to get back in to the side when he returns from injury, which is a luxury we couldn’t have dreamt of a few months ago. While we’re on the defence, I also though Andre Santos and Johan Djourou performed very ably in the full-back positions.
Right, Carling Cup tomorrow, and another chance to look at Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, among others.
October 19th, 2011
Aaron Ramsey netting the winner against Marseille
Arsenal 1 – 0 Marseille
Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
You know what, Chelsea? You can keep your 5-0 romps. Truly, there is no sweeter way to win a football match than with a solitary last-gasp goal. More than ninety minutes of turgid entrenchment punctured by one sweet strike from substitute Aaron Ramsey. Cue much air punching, back-slapping, and (in my house at least) spilling of tea.
To say it was an average game would probably be generous. After a promising start, it fizzled out, which felt a little like seeing Joey Barton on fire, and then having some jobsworth health and safety officer throw water over him. The closest we came to goalmoath action was a shout for handball at either end, with Carl Jenkinson and Souleymane Diawara the men lucky to escape censure.
Andre Santos also carlessly handled the ball having already been booked, and was probably lucky not to be sent off. If you knew nothing of Santos, just five minutes watching him would enable you to guess he was Brazilian. Plenty of skill and imagination on the ball, but a tendency to overplay and take some quite insane risks. Needless to say, he is fitting in perfectly at Arsenal.
The basic problem was a lack of quality in the final third. Marseille lacked ambition; Arsenal urgency.  Andrey Arshavin had been selected ahead of Gervinho but was having a nightmare of a game. At least he would occasionally find himself on the ball – the same could not be said for Theo Walcott.
The second-half introductions of Johan Djourou and Gervinho for Carl Jenkinson (injured) and Theo Walcott (AWOL) threatened to bring our right-flank to life, but it looked for all intents and purposes as if Arsenal were playing out a creditable 0-0 draw. I even began composing a blog, now thankfully discarded, which reported the result as fact.
There were positives to be drawn. Laurent Koscielny was quite outstanding at centre-back, with Per Mertesacker equally assured alongside him. Ahead of them, Alex Song added to what is becoming an increasingly impressive portfolio of performances this season. He breaks up the play well, and uses the ball intelligently. Next to him, Mikel Arteta showed more graft than craft with a number of crucial and crunchy challenges. The advantage of signing players with Premier League experience is that they usually know how to scrap.
The frustration was that Marseille were clearly there for the taking, if only Arsenal could up their game. In the end, the man to release the figurative handbrake was subtitute Aaron Ramsey, who collected a Johan Djourou cross, miscontrolled by Gervinho, and fired low in to the near post – the perfect way for him to prepare for a game with Stoke at the weekend.
And so it finished: 1-0 to the Arsenal, with our first clean sheet away from home in Europe since Milan ’08.
Afterwards Arsene said:
“We left it very late but we had a difficult start. We lost some balls in the first half due to the fact Marseille pressed us well.
They didn’t find their fluency but in the second half we took over and I don’t think Marseille were dangerous at all [after half-time]. Marseille defended very well but you could see in the last 15 minutes we created some chances and were rewarded because we kept going and got an important victory.”
It leaves us top of the group, and a win in the return fixture would all but guarantee our qualification to the knockout stage.
Quietly, without anyone taking much notice, Arsenal have won five of their last six games. It’s not quite a resurgence, but it’s certainly a relief. Long may it continue.
October 17th, 2011
Robin van Persie celebrates the winning goal
Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
Arsenal are more reliant on Robin van Persie than ever…
There are two reasons we have relied quite as much on one Robin van Persie. Â The first is that it hasn’t been possible, simply because he hasn’t been fit. Â The second is that it hasn’t been necessary, because we’ve had a more even distribution of talent. Â At the moment, especially with Jack Wilshere and Bacary Sagna injured, he is the sole world class performer in our team. Â He’d grace any team in the world, and finds himself as the talisman of a struggling side. Â Fortunately, he is seizing responsibility with relish, as his match-winning display yesterday demonstrated. Â This Robin is, unlike his comic-book name-same, no ‘boy wonder’: he’s all grown-up. Â And we desperately, desperately need him.
Robin is swiftly becoming too good for this side…
The sad truth is that as Robin’s shooting star is looking lonely in a darkening Arsenal constellation. Â He has less than two years to run on his current deal, and Arsene didn’t exactly sound confident of him signing an extension any time soon:
“The ideal situation is that he extends his contract but if he doesn’t you have to respect that. You know what is important is that he plays like he plays because we are all here to see special football players and he is a special football player.”
In other words: enjoy it while you can. Â As I said above, Van Persie would not look out of place at Real Madrid or Barcelona. Â If he keeps playing like this, he’ll have his pick. Â Perhaps his future will depend on our Champions League status.
Carl Jenkinson has one oustanding quality…
There may be question marks over his defensive positioning, but you can’t argue with the fact that he is quite possibly the finest crosser of the ball at Arsenal Football Club. Â For anyone who has spent years watching our corners hit the first man that won’t be a huge surprise, but yesterday Jenkinson’s delivery of the ball was consistently excellent. Â It was a solid performance from the young lad, and hopefully he’ll grow in confidence and stature as the games go by.
Andrey Arshavin can be a great impact sub…
Yesterday he was introduced for the patchy Gervinho, and made a real impact, drifting infield and showing a willingness to run at defenders and try to make things happen. Â I know I have a reputation as something of an ‘Arshavin apologist’, but when you witness cameos like he produced yesterday it’s easy to see why I can be seduced by his talent before being appalled by his attitude.
Arsene does not trust Park…
Had Van Persie not spared our blushes with that sumptuous free-kick, surely questions would have been asked of his Arsene’s continued unwillingness to make use of his new striker. Â Against both Spurs and Sunderland, Arsene chose to introduce Yossi Benayoun ahead of our number nine. Â Perhaps it comes from an unwillingness to change our shape, but with only two years in which to make his mark at Arsenal, Park will surely be conscious of the early lack of opportunities.
October 3rd, 2011
Bacary Sagna writhes in agony as Arsenal go down at Spurs
Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
The table makes unpleasant reading for Arsenal fans today. Â Spurs are in the top six; Arsenal are in the bottom six. Â If Tottenham were to win their game in hand, they’d have more than double our points tally. Â Seven games in to the season, we have less points than the promoted trio of Swansea, Norwich and QPR.
After the game, Arsene trotted out the now-familiar refrain of Arsenal’s problematic braking system:
“In the first half I felt we played a little but with the handbrake on.”
Maybe. Â But I thought a handbrake was supposed to stop you going downhill fast?
This wasn’t, by any stretch, our worst performance of the season. Â But that only makes the fact we failed to take any points away from it all the more damning. Â The first half was a fairly even affair, and we should have taken the lead when great work from Van Persie down the left saw the Dutchman cut the ball back to the onrushing Gervinho, who put his effort wide at the near post. Â It was a fantastic chance, and underlined some of my concerns about the Ivorian. Â When he signed I compared him to Chelsea’s Salomon Kalou, and it was as much for his inconsistency and erratic decision-making as his pace, trickery and versatility. Â It’s clear Arsene is a big admirer of the winger, but at this level you simply have to put chances like this one away.
Spurs had opportunities of their own. Â When Alex Song overplayed in defence, Wojciech Szczesny spread himself well to block Scott Parker’s goalbound effort. Â There was little he could do, however, about the goal that gave Spurs the lead.
Rafael Van der Vaart uses his arm to control the ball
When Emmanuel Adebayor brought the ball under control on the edge of our area, Kieran Gibbs and Bacary Sagna were nowhere to be seen. Â Adebayor looped the ball over Mertesacker, for Van der Vaart to bring it down and finish smartly in to the far corner. Â The German immediately appealed for handball, and whilst replays yesterday still left me feeling it was a marginal decision, the photograph on the right provides little room for doubt.
With Van der Vaart already on a booking for a lunge at Kieran Gibbs, a deliberate handball could even have seen him dismissed, which would have altered the pattern of the game enormously. Â Some suggested he was lucky not to go for his celebration, which saw him embrace fans in the crowd, but that’s a rule I’m neither fond nor keen to take advantage of.
The start of the second half saw Arsenal looking purposeful, and we swiftly had an equaliser – Alex Song danced to the byling and pulled a left-footed cross in the box for Aaron Ramsey to tap in.
From then on, however, we simply failed to impose ourselves. Â Spurs grew as the game wore on, switching from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 to combat our midfield trio.
The winning goal was one strewn with errors. Â First Arteta and Ramsey were slow to react to a quick Spurs throw in; then when the ball was cleared Kyle Walker was not closed down and allowed room to hit a screamer from range. Â Powerful though the shot was, Wojciech Szczesny (who had produced another outstanding save to deny Adebayor) will know he ought to have done better, allowing himself to be beaten by a late swerve on the ball.
At this stage there were still twenty minutes to go, but instead of laying the Tottenham goal to siege, we lay down and meekly accepted our fate. Â Even when we threw Per Mertesacker upfront in stoppage time, we seemed reluctant to hoist the ball towards him. Â There was a lack of urgency and a clear lack of belief.
At full-time Arsene Wenger shook hands with Harry Redknapp and his assistant, before being pursued by the demented figure of Clive Allen, who felt he’d been overlooked for a handshake. Â Allen himself overlooked the fact that he’s about one above ‘kit man’ in the Spurs pecking order, and that he did little to endear himself to Arsene by giving him a shove on the touchline in this fixture last year.
As I said, it wasn’t our worst performance of the season, and young Francis Coquelin can be very proud of the job he did holding midfield. Â However, there were still plenty of negatives. Â Aaron Ramsey, goal aside, had a dreadful game and seems to be making countless wrong decisions on the ball. Â His performance highlighted a longer-term problem – without Wilshere or Diaby, we don’t have anyone in central midfield with the acceleration to beat a man. Â It means our game is inevitably slower and more predictable.
Defensive organisation was again an issue, and both Gervinho and Walcott will have reason to feel they didn’t contribute enough to turn our possession in to chances. Â The greatest blow could yet be the injury to Bacary Sagna, who is expected to miss three months after breaking a fibula. Â Sagna remains an outstanding right-back and relatively consistent performer, and without experienced cover could prove to be a huge loss. Â Although Carl Jenkinson replaced him yesterday, I wonder if Coquelin might be given a go in a role he played several times for Lorient last season.
Another international break now. Â A fortnight of stewing over how to put this right. Â Just what we don’t need.
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