Comeback prepares Arsenal for Fenerbahce test
39 comments October 20th, 2008
Arsenal 3 – 1 Everton (Osman 9, Nasri 48, Van Persie 70, Walcott 90) Highlights
At half-time, this wasn’t looking good. It would be easy to blame the selection: Alex Song at right-back was the most bizarre of Arsene’s choices. But the performance from every single player on the pitch had not been good enough. An early Everton goal, coming when Denilson had failed to track Osman’s run, had evaporated our currently fragile confidence.
Fortunately, Everton’s confidence is slightly more fragile than ours, and when we came flying out of the blocks at the start of the second half, their blue heads noticably dropped. Their despair was compunded by a Samir Nasri strike from the edge of the box after a corner was cleared. Nasri had been quiet in the first-half, but was instrumental in the second-half turnaround. He is a really gutsy player, and has an almost typically-English spikiness. Does anyone miss Hleb?
*waits*
Anyone?
*waits. tumbleweed passes*
Ok, good.
There were chances for more goals, with Robin van Persie converting (in the rugby sense, not the goal sense) a marvellous opportunity when substitute Walcott squared from the right. The Dutchman eventually got the goal, however – Emmanuel Adebayor twisted in the penalty box in a manner that was reminiscent of his dances with Thierry Henry, before squaring for Cesc’s shot to be parried into the patch of Van Persie, who nodded home.
The third arrived in injury time when Walcott played a one-two with the returning Abou Diaby to fire a shot somewhat fortunately through Tim Howard’s legs. Undoubtedly Theo made an impact, but as Arsene intimates in this article, it’s not as simple as his introduction sparking the turnaround. We were terrible (as a team) in the first-half, and significantly improved (as a team) in the second.
The side are obviously a bit low on confidence, particularly the two strikers, and hopefully this win will go some way towards gettings us back on track. There are some big fixtures on the horizon that could well define our season.
Mikael Silvestre made his debut at centre-back and I have to say I thought he did very well. He was up against Yakubu, who is a hell of a handful, but showed good composure to help us regain control in the second half. Whilst he may no longer be good enough to play regularly, his ability in the air and left-foot add a balance to our defence that lacks when Toure and Gallas start.
Tomorrow night in Turkey, we’ll have to do without both our regular centre-backs after Toure picked up a shoulder injury in the game against Everton. Fortunately, Johan Djourou is back to partner Silvestre in what will be another make-shift backline.
With Gallas and Toure absent, Manuel Almunia will presumably wear the captain’s armband, just as he did against Everton.
Why? Almunia is a lovely bloke and a decent keeper, but why are we seemingly consciously preventing a man who consistently denies stories of disloyalty to the club and shows more committment and heart on the pitch than perhaps any other player from inheriting the captaincy? Cesc as captain is an inevitability, so why not give him a bit of practise as third choice now?
Nothing would please me more than to see Cesc walk out with the armband tomorrow night. Other, perhaps, than a stonking Arsenal win. Preview tomorrow.
