Sunderland 1:0 Arsenal (A)

A very disappointing loss straight after the international break. An away game to Sunderland is always gonna be tough, especially when most of your players were just coming back from their international games.

The injury of RVP and fatigue of Arshavin resulted in a new front three of Rosicky, Nasri and Eduardo, while injury of Diaby and Denilson opened path in midfield for a young Ramsey. The various changes in the starting line-up somehow disrupted the fluency of our game. The front three were all individually capable players, but far too often they were isolated and didn’t really combine well. Eduardo was rather disappointing this season as he kept missing those 1-on-1 chances which I expected him to put away. Afterall, he is supposed to be our most clinical finisher and I thought RVP’s injury had finally given him a chance to prove his worth. Ramsey had a bad game and showed he still had to learn about positioning and quick decision making. Song was great in midfield, and his surging run forward reminds me of a certain Vieira. Fabregas had a rather quiet game though.

Credit to Sunderland for their continuous pressing and depriving us of spaces. It worked well as our players had very little time to pick up a pass. It was game like this when you realized the importance of players like Arshavin (who came on as substitute), Diaby and Walcott, who are more direct and provided more pace and power. Apart from the loss, its great to see Walcott and Vela coming back and hoped to see more of them.

It’s not time to hit the panic button yet. We lost three games, but so did Man United. Hopefully we can bounce back and win Chelsea next game. 

 

Two big wins

After a big win over AZ Alkmaar in mid-week, we went on to beat Wolves 4-1 in BPL. Suddenly, everyone seemed to take note of us as we silently went about doing our jobs. Now, we need only one point from the remaining two matches in Champions League to qualify for the last 16.

And with Man United losing to Chelsea, we are now second place in BPL, five points behind leader Chelsea with one game in hand. Well done, guys!

 

Arsenal 3:0 Spurs (H)

Woohoo, a 3-0 victory over spurs at Emirates Stadium.

In actual fact, we didn’t play that well. The first 40 minutes we had a lot of misplaced passes, and players looked nervous. Then al of a sudden, a goal came from nowhere. A seemingly harmless low cross from Sagna was met by RVP and RVP scored. Its more of a lapse of concentration in Spurs defence, combined with one moment of brilliance from RVP, who missed a few easy chances earlier on.

Then, within minutes, Captain Fabregas scored a fabulous solo goal. He intercepted a pass, dribbled pass a few Spurs players and unleashed a powerful shot that went straight into Spurs’ net. From then onwards, I knew victory is gonna belong to us.

The third goal was again due to some confusion in Spurs defence, and Sagna was again the one making the assist. Good work from him, and hoped he could keep up the standard as I always thought Sagna was a bit one-dimensional in his attacking play.

In defence, Almunia didn’t have a lot to do. Gallas and Vermaelen worked hard to contain Crouch and Keane. Sagna was solid in defence and gotten two assists in attack. Clichy didn’t make any mistakes either. In midfield, Song looked a bit nervous in the first half, but slowly stamped his authority in midfield in second half. Cesc got a wonder goal, so kinda make up for the few losses in possessions he given away cheaply. Diaby was…..still the same old Diaby. The front three, Bendtner had done well before his injury, Arshavin was dangerous in the first half but faded in the second, while RVP gotten two goals. Eduardo had some terrible misses which I really expected him to put away. Substitutes Eboue and Ramsey were decent, other than that chance which Ramsey screwed up or else we would be 4-0 up. But that’s still within acceptable range for a teenage player, and Ramsey obviously had the talent and physical attributes to make it in EPL.

We were now third in league, with one game in hand which if won would have overtaken Man United to second place. The loss of Liverpool and draw of Man City would also means that we are more secured of a top four place right now.

 

Two straight draws

After the 1-1 draw with AZ Alkmaar in Champions League, we drew 2-2 against West Ham in BPL after leading 2-0. The champions league match wasn’t a big issue, as we are still top of the table.

The draw against West Ham was a rather disappointing one. To draw after leading 2-0 says a lot about our fragile defence. The whole team wasn’t performing, and as usual we became sloppy after leading two goals which again tells how much we have learnt from past lessons.

Let’s see how the team respond to this disappointment. Before that, it will be interesting to see how our kids fare in Carling Cup against Liverpool.

Arsenal 3:1 Birmingham (H)

The first game after international break is always quite dangerous due to possible players fatigue. We looked great when we scored two early goals by Van Persie and Diaby. However, soon after we slipped into our usual sloppiness and began to treat it like a training session. The goal from Lee Bowyer was a wake-up call to signal that the game was far from over, before a late Arshavin goal killed off the match for us.

Alex Song was my man-of-the-match again. This lad is improving by leaps and bounds. Now, he is certainly one of the first names Wenger put onto the team selection sheet. Diaby had a good game, making less mistake this time. With Nasri set to come back from injury, Diaby would have to work harder to keep his place. Eboue again have a great game at the right-back position, while Gibbs is becoming more and more reliable as Clichy’s deputy. RVP scored a great goal from Song’s assist, and in general had a lively game. Walcott was lively but was very unfortunate to get injured again. And Rosicky was class as usual. Hope he could stay injury free this season.

Arshavin looked unfit but it could be due to fatigue from the international match. Anyway it was great to see the third goal, which is a classic Arsenal counter attacking goal that we have rarely seen since the invincibles. Ever since the departure of Henry, Pires, Bergkamp and Ljunberg, our counter attack became literally non-existence. Quite often, we made too many passes and our passes eventually got intercepted, or our attackers just hesistated and allowed the opposition’s defenders time to reorganize. Arshavin’s goal reminded us how counter attack is done correctly.

Two convincing victories at Home

We carried on our winning streak by beating Olympiacos 2-0 in Champions League, and then thrashed Blackburn 6-2 in BPL.

We had a good game against Olympiacos but were only able to find the net late in the game. Against Blackburn, we were rather shaky at the back in the first half, but we managed to come back from behind twice. Vermaelen, yet again, scored a wonderful goal for us. Is he a striker in disguise?

The combination of Arshavin, Rosicky and RVP up front was very lively and full of technical brilliance. This is what you get from experienced and technically competent players. Fabregas had an excellent game, providing 4 assists and even scoring one himself. There’s always a difference when great players play alongside other great players. They helped one another to step up their game instead of having mediocre players that break up the fluency.

Song was as usual pulling the string in midfield and breaking up opposition’s attack. Diaby was rather average. If he still doesn’t improve, he would find himself behind Ramsey in the pecking order soon, as the latter fit into the team very well when coming on substituition. Bendtner got a great goal when he came on as a substitute too, but his composure in front of goal still has much room for improvements.

Special mention to Walcott, who is playing his first league match of the season coming back from injury, and manage to score a goal as well.

With most of the players back from injuries (except Almunia, Djourou, Nasri and Denilson), I would like to see a first eleven like this:

Mannone

Sagna–Gallas–Vermaelen–Clichy

Song

Fabregas–Rosicky

RVP–Eduardo–Arshavin   

However, I think Wenger’s first eleven would be something like this instead:

Mannone

Sagna–Gallas–Vermaelen–Clichy

Song

Fabregas–Diaby

Rosicky–RVP–Arshavin   

Anyway, we are back having a strong squad now, with attacking players like Walcott, Vela, Bendtner, Wilshere, Eboue all capable of coming off the bench, and players like Djourou, Nasri, Denilson, etc still coming back from injuries. We are still quite thin at the back and just hope our two first choice CB don’t get injured.

P/S: Henry was watching the blackburn game in the stadium.  One of my favourite player. An Arsenal Legend!

Four straight wins….

After our disappointing defeat to Manchester City, we went on to collect four straight victories in premier league, champions league and carling cup.

We came from behind to defeat Standard Liege 3-2 in a tricky Champions League away fixture. Its a hard-fought victory but the way we concede 2 goals within the first few minutes was quite alarming.

Three days later, we were at home against Wigan and thrashed them 4-0. Ironically, our first premier league clean sheet of the season came from our reserved league keeper Mannone. Wigan rarely threatened us though Mannone looked a bit nervous in his premier league debut.

Next, our carling cup kids managed a 2-0 victory over WBA. From the highlights, Vela had a good goal and I hoped to see him soon in the first team action.

The away 1-0 victory over Fulham was a rather lucky one. Credit to Fulham, they played very well and pressed our players for every ball. Young keeper Mannone had a man-of-the-match performance and single-handedly kept his second premier league clean sheet.

Fabregas and Arshavin were both below their usual standards. Song didn’t looked as dominating in central midfield as he usually did, but I would say he still did a decent job. Diaby was in his usual dribbling-and-then-lose-possession mood. I hoped Rosicky could get back to 100% as soon as possible so that we don’t have to see Diaby in the starting line-up. Or even Denilson, whom I don’t really rate, is much preferred over Diaby. RVP was still below par even though he got the winning goal. In short, it wasn’t a convincing victory and somehow Danny Murphy was right when he commented that Gunners had lost the intimidating factor (something along this line). Gone were the days when opponents knew they would lose before they stepped onto the pitch with us. No matter what Wenger thinks, our current squad does not have players of the class of Henry, Bergkamp, Pires and Vieira.

Man City 4:2 Arsenal (A)

This is our second league lost, after a rather promising start to the season. There’s a feeling that all those frustrations of the past few seasons were going to happen again this season. Maybe, we haven’t change a bit afterall.

Almunia is just a clown. He is at best a backup keeper. To think that we went from David Seaman and Jens Lehman to this bloody clown. And its the same old story about how Bendtner, Denilson, Diaby and Eboue were average and not good enough (yet?) for Arsenal, I think I am beginning to sound like a broken record. Bendtner was still inconsistent, Denilson was still easily pushed off the ball, Diaby was still the clueless dribbling master that dribbled to a dead end, and Eboue was still lacking end product. And add Sagna and Clichy to it, when it comes to useless crossing. This team never change. Wenger never change.

The only good thing about this match would be the return (finally) of Rosicky. Hopefully he can stay injury and pushes D&D out of the first eleven.

Manchester United 2:1 Arsenal (A)

Blunders from Almunia and Diaby gifted Man United 2 goals.  It was rather sad to see us losing that way. We started the game without key players like Rosicky, Nasri and captain Fabregas. It was rather obvious that the absence of the trio resulted in a lack of creativity from the centre of midfield.

Our front three comprised of Arshavin, RVP and Eboue. Arshavin scored a wonderful goal seconds after he was wrongly denied of a penalty.  RVP was, in my opinion, neither strong nor mobile enough to be the central striker.  He really needed to step up and not take a starting place for granted. His decision making and lack of mobility is holding up the fluidity of our attacking play. As for Eboue, I don’t really understand why the preference of him over Bendtner or Eduardo. He wasn’t a bad player but he was being deployed in too many different positions.

One look at our midfield trio of Song, Denilson and Diaby, you will wonder where would the creativity come from. Song seemed a bit tense up, but still went on with his defensive job well enough. Denilson showed that he was average in both the offensive and defensive aspect. His forward passes were inaccurate, he had no vision for killer pass, and he was too easily knocked off the ball to be a defensive midfielder. In short, he was a jack of all trades but expert in none. As for Diaby, apart from the outrageously idiotic own goal, he did show a lot of his dribbling skills. However, I really wonder whether he could fit into our passing game as he was too individualistic and didn’t have the quick thinking and passing skills to play a fast passing game.

Our back four did well, except for maybe Clichy as he still had the habit of placing our defence in a dangerous position. There was once whereby he tried to dribble the ball out of our own penalty box and almost lost the ball. And lastly, Almunia had shown once again that he is an average goalkeeper. I had always have reservations about Almunia, particularly his decision making. Almunia did pull off quite a few good saves in the past, but a good goalkeeper isn’t one that makes those hollywood supersaves. A good goalkeeper should have a good judgement and decision making, knowing when to come out  to claim the ball and when to stay on his line. A good goalkeeper should be able to command his defenders and give them confidence. Almunia offers none of those. That’s the difference between him and previous keepers like David Seaman and Jens Lehmann.

Let’s hope our team can pick themselves up and come back stronger in the future matches. Show us you are different from last season!

Arsenal 4:1 Portsmouth (H)

We registered our league second victory in the new season, beating Portsmouth 4-1 at home. After the demolition of Everton at Goodison Park, everyone expected another big win.

We rested Sagna, Clichy and Song in this game, while Eduardo gothis first start in the new season in place of Bendtner. Diaby was playing very well and got two superb goals, while Gallas and substitute Ramsey got the other two.

Almunia did not have much to do but he was totally at fault for Portsmouth’s only goal. He was outjumped by Kaboul in the six-yard box and in my opinion that was unacceptable for a goalkeeper. Gallas and Vermaelen did well, and looked solid as a partnership. Gibbs was very shaky while Eboue was solid in defence and offered much more than Sagna going forward.

Denilson was playing the role of Song but we really missed the physical presence and ball-winning qualities of Song. Diaby and Cesc was playing a slightly offensive role in central midfield and both did very well.

The front three of Arshavin, RVP and Eduardo still did not get any goals. Eduardo was lively and his off-the-ball movement was very good. RVP was rather static in my opinion and didn’t really combine well with the rest. Arshavin was ok, having a few moments of brilliance but was rather isolated by his teammates. As for the substitutes, Ramsey fitted well into the central midfield, Bendtner seemed a bit too eager to prove himself but didn’t have much support from a very static RVP, while Merida didn’t look out of depth either.

We were a bit complacent, especially after we went 2-0 up. The whole team was playing as if it was a training session, until Portsmouth scored and reminded them that this is a competitive match. If there is something that I felt this team needs to learn, it would be respect for your opponent no matter who they are.  A better team may just punish us for being complacent (and arrogant). And seriously, until we really win some trophies, we are not in any position to feel arrogant.

So, let’s hope this team can continue to grow and improve.