From The Ridiculous To The Sublime
Sep 30th, 2008 by 'holic
What was broadcast prior to the Champions League clash was perhaps as telling as the ninety minutes that followed. Arsene Wenger vigorously defended his policy of promoting from within and not signing the players that would hinder such development. He got sterling support from Stuart Pearce. The England U-21 boss was an uncomplicated, no-nonsense defender, and showed similar qualities in the studio. It was the best performance I have seen from a television pundit in a long, long time.
The match itself was a game, not of two halves exactly, but certainly two phases. The opening half hour could have belonged to Porto but thankfully the visitors failed to convert the best two chances of this spell. Not surprisingly one of these came from a corner and Gael Clichy spared our blushes with a goal-line clearance.
From the moment Arsenal opened the scoring the emphasis shifted. I had predicted in my preview that the back five and front two would remain unchanged. The much maligned Adebayor and van Persie combined with the Dutchman applying the finishing touch to the cut-back from his Togolese partner, and for the remaining hour Arsenal again played with a freedom and desire that delighted.
Star of the closing hour was unquestionably Theo Walcott, although Cesc Fabregas was probably approaching somewhere close to his best again after an uncertain opening to the season. Adebayor headed a second before the break and shortly afterwards van Persie took advantage of some poor defending to put the outcome beyond doubt.
Even the introduction of three second-half substitutes didn’t take the edge off the performance. Indeed Nicklas Bendtner seemed to give us another string to our bow, and when the big Dane was chopped down for a penalty, Adebayor took the opportunity to match van Persie’s brace.
Walcott and Nasri could have added to the rout, but both are likely to be more prolific creators than takers of goals this term. I hope Le Boss is now persuaded to give them a run in tandem. Vela too came close to a remarkable goal and the resulting shot of Wenger and Pat Rice chuckling like naughty schoolboys at his impudence should provide the memory of the night.
It was great to see the laughter return after a couple of awful days.
26 Responses to “From The Ridiculous To The Sublime”
I fear we will continue to blow hot and cold throughout the season, however I still love my Arsenal. Up the mighty Gunners
couldn’t of said better my slef holic’…and what a nice change it was havin a pundit in arsenals favour!!! havent heard one of them in a while!
tonight makes saturdays horror show even more frustrating in my opinion. half the performance of tonight against Hull and we would have at least got a draw.
pint of lager and gin please.
I think we would be much more consistent with a Djourou/Gallas or Djourou/Toure back pairing and Song in for Denilson. The inconsistency of Gallas/Toure and Denilson are the cause of our inconsistency this season. With Denilson along side Cesc, I fear we are too lightweight and inexperienced.
Fine blog `holic.
Cesc`s best game of the season.Walcott now plays like he knows he is a first team player.
Youv`e got to love Clichy.Vela looks like he could be the real deal.
And I`m finally convinced after a long time of Manuel.
All in all quite a positive night.
Coffee and Remy thanks.
Good response after the shocker of Saturdays result. Listening to the after match interviews I get the impression that following the Hull defeat Le Prof had made it clear to the squad they’d not only let themselves down – but also the fans!
Highlights: Besides all the goals, RVP getting on the scoresheet and his determination. Cesc, Bendtner and Walcott improving further still. Sagna and Clichy dependable as ever!
Lowlights: Eboue attempting to showboat. Ade badge kissing (as well as his stupid dance) goal celebration. Ades’ profligacy in front of goal. Ades’ repeatedly getting caught offside. Our continued defensive frailties.
NB. Apologies to Ade. He just got on my nerves more than he does [usually] tonight.
Ooh….a large glass of that Chianti and a bag of Cashews please ‘holic ๐
NB. I really don’t want to dampen what was a great result but Porto were pretty poor tonight. Lets hope we can do the same again against Sunderland.
Great great performance tonight put this is what is required every time we play……..can they achieve that kind of performance every time ???????
I think the starting eleven tonight was close to our “A Team”. It’s great though, than it can be bolstered by the addition of Djouru and Silvestre at the back, Song, Eboue, Wilshere and Ramsey in the middle and the Bendtner, Vela duo up front (not to mention the long term sick brigade). Arsene does indeed know.
We played well but not brilliantly tonight. Just as we played well but not brilliantly last Saturday. Margins in this game are fine and outcomes can turn on a flash of excellence (Giovanni’s goal) or lapses in concentration (our defence on every corner).
I’ll take tonight’s result just as happily as I took Saturday’s unhappily and look forward to a win at Sunderland on Saturday to get the good vibes flowing again.
Coudnt agree more smiley. I do love my Arsenal!!!!
How fun was that to watch, heh? Theo you beaut…..
lovely game soccer ,played properly,went on another blog saw a bunch or racist abuse posted about ade,slaggin him off also saying he was rubbish tonight,this seems like a nice decent post!
A good and informative post as always Holic. I did not see the Stuart Pearce interview as I was on route to the ground, so would love know what he was saying. Anyone let me know please???
I thought we played better, but against a poor Porto side. Let’s be honest, Hull would have beaten that lot tonight as well? Their defence was awful. We could have been caught out early doors but managed to survive. Then we just took over and dominated the game.
Thought that Theo was outstanding.He has just come on leaps and bounds. There was a moment in the 2nd half when he tried to turn, was kicked and pushed from several angles and he just rode the lot to mount another attack. 6 months ago he would have ended up on the floor. I shudder to think about how good he can be. Nasri I also thought adds so much to the team. He does the job Hleb did but with a goal threat! An end product! At last….. Someone to fill the boots of Robert Pires????? Lets hope so.
Lst few words about Vela and Bendnter. Vela has impressed me from day 1. Tonight no exception. Bendtner for me has just quietly got better and better. I just have this feeling that he might just have a big part to play this year.
The future is bright………
…………….Forgot to add that I thought that Don was near enough spot on with his post, except I don’t like nuts.
“Vela too came close to a remarkable goal and the resulting shot of Wenger and Pat Rice chuckling like naughty schoolboys at his impudence should provide the memory of the night.”
That was a quality moment.
Thanks Steve. Wenger’s pre-match interview was a robust defence of his policy, effectively saying if he had bought three or five players and blocked the progress of his Young Guns then he would have got stick for that, and it would have been the wrong thing to do.
Pearce effectively backed him up, praising Arsenal for the way they alone try to run the club on sound business principles. The mythical thirty million figure came up and Pearce said that wouldn’t even buy Robinho. He pretty much argued that the thirty million wouldn’t make a jot of difference last Saturday, or as the season progresses.
I would still argue two more players would have made a difference, but this was a manager and a highly-knowledgeable pundit firing back at us ‘armchair bosses’, and very impressively. Fair play to them.
A good blog as usual.
โVela too came close to a remarkable goal and the resulting shot of Wenger and Pat Rice chuckling like naughty schoolboys at his impudence should provide the memory of the night.โ
Wasn’t the chuckling after Vela had passed the ball to Bendtner and the tall Dane, still getting used to his grown-up frame, tried something special and got tangled with his feet so funnily?
I laughed too, and I hope/am sure that Nicklas doesn’t take it badly, if he sees it. He is a great talent for the future.
Cheers Steve. Agree with you completely about Vela. The kid looks so comfortable on the ball and seems a great prospect. The goals will come with the appearances.
Re Ade, I don’t want to come across all churlish or anything like that. At the end of the day he scored two goals last night, so respect has to be given for that. And I disassociate myself totally from those other websites and posters apparently spewing out racist inspired messages of hate aimed at the fella.
Though my single problem is Adebayor already thinks he’s a superstar…..his demeanour gives the impression he thinks he’s one of the worlds best players…..when he so clearly isn’t. Yet he seems to overlook those other areas of his game that repeatedly let him down and that need further training, further development (areas that have already been mentioned). Then he would most definitely be a superstar!
As long as he plays and scores goals for Arsenal I will always support him. But I really hope someone is pulling him to the side and drumming the message into him. Stop with the badge kissing (after you’ve scored a fairly routine goal – but missed a bucket load of other gilt edged opportunities). Stop with the silly dancing. Stop with the over-the-top ‘holier than thou’ gesturing. And just bloody well get on with developing your game man!!!!
I’ve probably put myself in the firing line so forgive please. My comments are genuine. It just really rankles with me!!
Much better, although I thought that on the night Porto were poor; and it helped that their keeper was wearing teflon gloves. I was unavoidably delayed and arrived 10 minutes before the first went in. Lovely to see Nasri back, and how we miss him when he`s out. Theo had a tremendous second half, and I would have brought Vela on earlier. Carlos is pure solid gold, and the more we play him the quicker he will mature. In a coulple of years this guy will be one of the most feared strikers in the world. Nice to see Eboue come on and do his Charlie Cairoli clown act for the fans. The second one really was a classic.
this is my first time to post anything on this blog n it has been prompted by this anti ade bull….
wat the hell is wrong with you ‘gooners’?????
would you be mad at cesc for kissing the badge after scoring a routine goal????
did any of you ever berate ian wright for ‘stupid goal celebrations’??? let the lad have some fun for chrissake!!!
ade was by far one of our better players last night n instead of getting praise all you do is bitch for the guy. do y’all remember one of our players who left coz he was feeling unappreciated????
walcott,nasri,bendtner,vela,van persie and ade all missed chances but the only guy getting backlash is ade.
don: if vela was doing the stepovers would you classify it as a lowlight??? we were 4-0 up with 5 minutes to go n the guy tried something that he’d never have dreamed of in a tighter situation……personally i was amused coz i thot eboue would never pull off stepovers in my lifetime. Eboue’s link up play was not bad n i bet he had more accurate passes than bendtner. (eboue has improved from last season n it’s time we acknowledged it)
You guys need to get off ade n eboue’s backs n step back abit…maybe then u might notice they actually play a huge role in our team!!!!
Huzzah! The doom and gloom of the Hull defeat has gone. Last night was only half the job done. We now need to obliterate the Mackems on Saturday!
‘Ere ‘holic…. that Strongbow was a tad flat! Got any Blackthorn Dry instead?
Cheers me dear! *waves*
Hello samsonbryan.
It’s all opinions!
Well I did start my tirade by giving the guy respect for his two goals. I also made my position clear with respect to some of the other more hate fuelled stuff directed at Ade. And let’s not forget he has had some pretty big boots to fill (in the name of his predecessor Thierry Henry).
However I certainly don’t think you can compare him to Cesc…..let along Ian Wright. He is not a superstar (in the way his body language exudes such an air). The other players you mentioned have earn’t their stripes. I don’t think Adebayor has yet. Perhaps I’m sensitive [also] to all the shenanigans over the transfer window, which comes to the forefront of my mind every time he kisses his badge.
As regards your question about Vela doing step-overs, I think it has about as much relevency as asking the same about Sagna!? Or Clichy!? Or even Almunia!? The fact is non of them did it….apart from Eboue. I personally prefer players that leave the showboating on the training pitch……and simply get on with playing their game for the FULL 90 minutes. Otherwise it can come across arrogant – we’ve been accused of that enough times!
NB. By the way I have no personal angst directed at Eboue (in the way perhaps other posters have). My ‘lowlight’ was just an aside comment. He has served us well and seems to me a fine and improving utility player.
Like I say….it’s all about opinions mate. I respect yours. I just don’t completely agree.
i’d like a cold keo and a bag of pistachios with a whiskey chaser please ‘hols.
arsene and pat laughing at carlito dancing around porto’s defence is the best bit of tv i’ve seen this year!
Much better but we have to make sure this is no flash in the pan and that means the Boss keeping the players motivated. A slap with a wet kipper should do it. Had the pleasure of sampling Belgian Guinness last week, 9%, black as night with a good head. I’ll have one of them Holic.
Evening Dutch. I remember a night on the Guinness with an twerp one night. I woke up the following morning covered in bruges. It was cold, I think I may have spoken with a winter slag…
Sorry, I’ll get me coat.
Thanks for the update. Always liked Stuart Pearce.
I also agree that we are a tad light. We have let in 4 this season, 3 from corners. I wonder if Mr Wenger has so much faith in Diaby that he is just waiting to for him to get fit…………………..again!!!!!
The side we have is superb and very pleasing to see so many make it through the system. If we could just find a new Adams and Vieira? Then we could become the most dominant force in Europe.
*hic*
Hiya ‘holic!
Great post – but you already knew that.
I just hope for a more consistently good team. I love the lads but I wished they love me back too by playing like they did against AC Milan (last season) and FC Porto.
Onwards to the Stadium of Light then.
Come on you Gunners!