We had a very disappointing first half but credits to the young gunners for fighting back aggressively from behind in the second half. Gibbs made his premier league debut and was very lucky not to be sent off for the foul on Valencia. In fact, we were lucky not to be down by two goals in the first half, as the freekick given away by Gibbs’s foul hit the bar. Djourou got injured and now we are really depleted of defenders. With Almunia, Gallas, Clichy and Djourou all in the treatment room, we were forced to field a rookie goalkeeper, an inexperienced leftback and an old & rusty centre back (Silvestre). Will this makeshift defense hold their ground against teams like Villarreal and Chelsea in the coming week?
Song looked good in the last few matches, both defensively and offensively. He was arguably the most improved Arsenal player in this season. Arshavin was great, had a hand in three of our goals. Walcott had the raw pace to trouble any defenders, but he needed to couple it with good decision making.
Anyway, we are now 8 points cleared of Aston Villa, who drew with 6th-placed Everton in yesterday match. I still don’t think we have the 4th place in our pocket, as we still have to face Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea in the last 6 matches.
