Archive for November 22nd, 2006

Arsenal 3 – 1 Hamburg: The Return of 4-4-2?

67 comments November 22nd, 2006

I was preparing my “falling behind then coming back to 1-1” template as early as the fourth minute, when Rafael van der Vaart curled a brilliant opener with his supposedly weaker right-foot. On a night when Arsenal were desperate for a win, it was exactly what they didn’t need.

If there was anything positive about conceding the goal, it was that it came so early on: there was plenty of time for us to get back into the game. But apart from a couple of inspirational Kolo Toure runs and an Aleksandre Hleb shot that crashed against the bar, we were struggling to break the Germans down, and at half-time it remained 0-1.

At the interval, Arsene made a significant tactical change. Philippe Senderos had, as expected, replaced the injured William Gallas, but not many expected Freddie Ljungberg to play. As it happened, Gilberto wasn’t available for selection, so Ljungberg was part of a five man midfield. At half-time, five became four, with Robin van Persie moving up alongside Henry.

It wasn’t long until the switch payed off. Just seven minutes after the break, a subtle turn and pass from Cesc Fabregas slipped van Persie in, and he became the second left-footed Dutchman to net with his supposed “swinger” after he slipped the ball in at the near post.

Arsene Wenger, it seemed, had turned into Midas. In the course of the game Arsene made three substitutions, bringing of van Persie, Ljungberg, and Hleb for Adebayor, Walcott, and Baptista. Between them, these three helped create the two goals that completed Arsenal’s impressive come-back.

In the 83rd minute, the impressive Walcott slipped in Emmanuel Eboué whose driven cross-shot cannoned in off the goalkeeper. A bit lucky? Yes. But I can’t have been the only one reminded of Belletti’s almost identical strike in the Champions League Final – these things do come around…

And the icing on the cake came when a brilliant one-two between Walcott and Adebayor led to the teenager crossing to the back post for Baptista to power home a header and net his first Arsenal goal. The Brazilian’s relief was palpable.

And relief is the best word to describe the emotions surrounding last night’s second half. As Arsene puts it:

“It will convince my players not to make an obsession of conceding the first goal and thinking ‘oh, here we go again’. Once you know you can come back and win the game it makes a big difference. I was quite confident because I saw that the team refused to lose the game, you know, and I see a lot of character in the side, even in the first half.”

The other major talking point was the performance of Theo Walcott, who produced a dazzling display on the right-wing. Consistency can’t be expected of someone of 17 years old, but it’s clear Walcott can make an occasional impact against tired defences. Wenger says:

“When Theo came on he gave us a little more power and pace and that made a big difference. Theo at the moment is in the kind of mental state where he believes he can affect the game when he comes on. I involve him a lot. He has played a few games already and I am watching him closely and he will soon get another start. We play so many games now that his time will come again. I feel he learns from being in a team which is under such pressure to win the game.”

The performance wasn’t brilliant, the crossing of Eboué and Clichy was most terrible, and Thierry got himself suspended for the crucial final game away to Porto. But we now know that a draw there will be enough to get us qualified. What’s more, this was hilarious.

It won’t go unnoticed that our improved second half came in a 4-4-2 formation, which gave us a lot more options in and around the box. I think part of the problem is that we’ve missed Tomas Rosicky in the 4-5-1: he is someone who is willing to run beyond Henry and into the box. Until we have that, perhaps we’re best to go two up top, especially at home.


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