Both Arsenals Back On The Winning Path
Dec 13th, 2007 by 'holic
It has been a frustrating few hours. Unable to attend the final Champions League group stage contest I was restricted to the ATVO coverage, and the utterances of my fellow unfortunates who filled the forums.
I am at an age where confusion is usually self inflicted, yet what I have read has left me to draw some interesting conclusions. Firstly, Jens Lehmann played very well, and although he should have saved it, he could do nothing about the goal he conceded! Ahead of him Philippe Senderos managed to look solid whilst generating panic every time he didn’t look solid!
In midfield Denilson was clearly the difference between this performance and the last couple, although he didn’t display any consistency at all! Theo Walcott looked the finished article, and was outstanding, apart from when he wasn’t! Alex Song displayed a confident touch, despite convincing some he was the leaden-hoofed offspring of a wildebeest, and Abou Diaby showed how much he has been missed even though he can not be considered regular first-team material!
Thank goodness we could welcome the return of the superb Robin van Persie, who obviously in some eyes was far from match fit, to partner the excellent Nicklas Bendtner, clearly an old-fashioned English centre forward with the continental touch.
Apparently we took the lead when Diaby nearly burst the net with a carefully placed sidefoot? That was doubled by Bendtner, and for once there were no conflicting reports. Lehmann apparently was at fault for Zaharia’s consolation goal, although he could only have got to it if he was thirty centimetres taller!
Our opponents in the next round will come from a select group of Porto, Milan, Real Madrid, Barcelona, or Internazionale. It looks like being another classic European encounter for us to look forward to.
Oh well, at least we won, and I will get a chance to see the highlights on ATVO at some stage. The people whose opinions I value seem to have been pleased with the performance, and that is good enough for me.
Roll on Sunday when I will be able to make my own mind up, Guinness and senility permitting.
4 Responses to “Both Arsenals Back On The Winning Path”
A good performance overall, but a bit of the repeat of the games against Villa, and to a lesser extent, Sunderland. The team took their foot off the pedal in the 2nd half. But the 1st half performance was sublime. Denilson made the difference IMO, good creative engine in mid field, and showed us what we missed against Boro.
Bendtner was immense, winning every ball in the air, good 1st touch, excellent work rate. His finish was calm, composed from his 1st goal scoring chance. I was also impressed by RVP (class act), Diaby and Theo (who really should have scored atleast one).
i see dead people, walking around like regular people
Thank you for that, Mark. I do not have the gift, as I am an extra large, not a medium.
😉
Too much should not be read into our performance on Wednesday, BUT:
Denilson indeed looked good, although there wasn’t a ton of pressure being applied by Steaua. In the past I’ve seen Denilson play a little too laterally and make mistakes when defenses have applied a lot of pressure. I’m not try to be pessimistic– I do think that when he is playing well, he gives us possession and creativity, which our offense thrives on, and can be an able backup for Fabregas.
Diaby also gives hope, as he is terrific on the ball and likes to take defenders on 1-on-1. Sometimes he thinks he is Michael Jordan and keeps the ball a bit too long for my liking, but I’ll take that kind of initiative over passivity any day.
I am starting to like Bendtner over Ade. Like Ade, Bendtner is a handful for defenses, but he has much better touch, vision, and holdup ability. Ade is more of an athletic presence, but for me Bendtner plays better in our possession offense and plays primarily in the center of the pitch where we need him, instead of out wide.