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.
