Arsenal 2 . Sunderland 1
Our fortunes got a little better. We got the 3 point. That was a lot relieving than watching man utd , liverpool, newcastle , spurs drop points. The game started at a blistering pace. Arsenal on 5th gear from the whistle. RVP scored within 30 seconds. What more do u need for settling your nerves. We were rampant. RVP's next chance a beautiful Vela style chip, that deserved to be a goal. Just for the sheer brilliance. And then after 20-25 mins we were back to first gear. I dont know why but the comments from Arsene Wenger before a few weeks about playing with a hand on the brake annoys me. We are too nervous. We lost the plot again. Looked completely out of our way. Concentration of just 25 mins.? Seb Larsson then scored a wonderful free kick. Only thing nice about that goal was his no-celebration after the goal. Showed a lot of respect for the team that made him and also about his character.
We could've won the game 5-1 but we could've as well lost 2-1 or 3-2 . Thats how atrocious our luck has been. Watching our team play so unlike arsenal is hurting. We were struggling and could've conceded 2 goals. Grevinho apart from the first minute assist was nowhere to be seen. On came Arshavin . His trickery , that one awesome dribble deserved to be a goal . After a while on came benayoun for rosicky , who in my opinion had a good game. Big fan of his swift turns. Got to see a lot of them . Benayoun played well. His movement was nice. We created more chances with Arshavin and Benayoun on the pitch. Then we had our captain fantastic RVP's brlliant freekick to set us en-route for the 3 points which were actually deserved. His celebration was good to see. And it finally looked as if our season has started after a delay for a few times.
Got the 3 points in the bag. Happy ending for the day. But a lot of things were in dis-array for us. Just to let you all know i'm an optimist but i'm rather worried about a few certain points.
1) The Formation . 4-3-3 worked wonders for us. That was when Cesc was there . It was exclusively designed for him. When he was there he performed well and also brought the best out of others around him. Now that he is gone, I wonder if we should carry on with our current formation. For large part of the game we looked to play 4-3-1 Grevinho and theo were a lot less involved in the first half.
2) The lack of movement. This first came to my notice when i heard a football pundit on espn talk about it and i gradually began noticing about it. Our players seem to wait at a spot for the ball to arrive. They take up positions get the ball, and as no body is making runs we pass it sideways and sideways and now a lot of times backwards too. And when there are runs made we dont pass the ball. Next time when u see arsenal play try noticing this. We were once kings because we were the masters of this trick that is when we were the Invincible's. It is our trade, we don't have to learn this outside. We know how to do it effectively , just need to find it back.
3)Fear. The team is lot scared. Scared of conceding a goal. They are not able to play the free-flowing football properly. Yes we have lot of injuries but other players are more than capable of dominating the field and help us continue our free-flowing football. The new system of playing with the hand brake on is good when its done sometimes. It is a self-destructing thing to do frequently. I mean we are the mighty Arsenal- we play the most attractive football in England., to be honest i find it more attractive than Barcelona's style. If we stop playing in our own style of free flowing , fearless football we are going to find it a long long year. We need to defend as a unit - yes but not at the cost of something that we do the best. Good thing is that for 25 solid mins we got to see the old arsenal playing scintillating stuff.
4) Free-kicks and corners - Long time since RVP scored a free kick., good that he finally scored one. We have to score more from free-kicks and corners. We had Henry who was superb at free-kicks. Now we dont have someone like him. There is RVP , he'll take it if its positioned for a left-footer but we need a right-footer too. I wonder if any of our players stay behind in the training and work on free-kicks.?
And thats about it. There are a lot of positive signs for Arsenal.
- The return of Vermaelen is not far away.
- We have finally started our new season .
- The atmosphere at the Emirates its improving every day.
- With time we can only get better. Team chemistry is improving.
- RVP the leader. We've got (Robin) "Van the man ".
- Our squad has got competition for places now.
We are rising. Everyday we are stepping up. Not to forget about the performance of certain players in the game against sunderland. Robin was phenomenal , but for me Alex Song was equally outstanding. Rosicky, Arshavin , Benayoun , Jenkinson ( apart from 1-2 sloppy moments) , Szczsney had a good day.
If you've read this blog do let me know about your thoughts about the 4 concerning points i made. Thank you.
We are the Arsenal.
This is us.
