Arsenal 4 – 1 Portsmouth: Diaby shines as people look for reasons to complain
1 comment August 25th, 2009
Arsenal 4 – 1 Portsmouth (Diaby 18, 22, Kaboul 37, Gallas 51, Ramsey 69)
Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
Apologies for the delay in bringing this report to you. I’ve been at a weekend wedding in a hotel so posh that when I arrived I thought someone had nicked my bags because they were so swiftly whisked off to my room.
Before heading down to this matrimonial jolly, I attended our comprehensive 4-1 win over Portsmouth. The gap between the two sides was massive, and whilst we were a little slack at times one felt that whatever Pompey mustered we had the neccessary artillery to hit back.
Arsene made a few changes, with Gibbs and Eboue coming in at full-back for Clichy and Sagna. Both were effective going forward though occasionally suspect to balls in behind. In midfield Song was rested, which meant Denilson holding and Abou Diaby coming in alongside Cesc Fabregas. Diaby was outstanding, netting two goals on his 100th Arsenal appearance. Whilst the first was a cracking finish, the second was a particularly magnificent break – Diaby headed a Portsmouth free-kick clear, and within fifteen seconds was firing past David James at the other end.
After the game, Arsene was effusive in his praise of the young Frenchman, drawing up parrallels again with Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira:
“Abou is a more offensive player but if he decides to play defensively he is exactly like Vieira. At some stage when Gallas moved out I put Denilson centre back and put Diaby central midfield in a defensive role. And he looks completely similar to Patrick to win the ball back. But he is a guy who has a quick transition from defence to offence, from box to box, that is his fantastic strength, to change quickly. Nobody can go with him when he has that, when we are on the counter-attack. He is fantastic.”
I’m not sure how helpful a comparison it is, but obviously Diaby’s potential is enormous – he’s just never found the consistency required to fulfill it. It’s interesting to note that this isn’t the first time Arsene has said that “if Diaby decided to play defensively” he could emulate Vieira. It seems that is what Arsene envisages Diaby becoming, but the player’s natural attacking instincts have hindered that development. Whilst the manager has spoken before about the futility of trying to make an attacking player defend, surely at some stage it is his responsibility to sit Diaby down and tell him that if the team require him to sit back then he must do his duty.
Perhaps it won’t matter – I think Arsene’s estimation that “this could be Abou’s year” is in large part due to the new formation, which suits Diaby’s roaming style. With Song or Denilson holding, he is free to rampage up and down the pitch as he pleases. It’s a good start to the season for Diaby (he made a vital contribution as a sub at Celtic park too) so let’s hope he can maintain it. One can’t help but fear that an injury is due any minute.
Before half-time we conceded a horrendous goal when our defence got too deep and Manuel Almunia completely misjudged his jump, allowing Younes Kaboul to bundle the ball into the net.
The second half contained some lucky escapes – William Gallas avoided a red card in a situation where you’ve certainly seen them given, and there was some crucial last ditch tackling from the likes of Kieran Gibbs. Going forward, however, we were still excellent, and after Gallas knocked in his third in three games with his face, Robin van Persie slipped through Aaron Ramsey (who had replaced the injured Cesc Fabregas) to fire in his first Premier League goal.
It’s an excellent result, however poor Portsmouth were. And yet around the ground there was audible disapproval about the fact that our strikers (Van Persie, Arshavin, Bendtner, and Eduardo, who was starting his first league game since his terrible injury) have scored just one goal between them this season. Well, frankly, I couldn’t give a damn. Having averaged four goals over our opening three games, I can’t wait to see what happens when the attack clicks into gear. Andrey Arshavin is enjoying his new position, and when you add Theo Walcott and Carlos Vela to the mix it’s quite the… well, quite the arsenal.
Tomorrow we face Celtic, and the big news to come out of Arsene’s press conference today will be the prognosis for Cesc’s hamstring injury. More on that as and when it’s made known.
