Arsenal Rebound Continues

The 3-0 victory over West Brom yesterday was not the prettiest game Arsenal have ever played. But it was effective and showed traces of the teams of prior years, who could actually keep the occasional clean sheet and win some easy matches.  The passing was quite good (over 90% accuracy overall), we controlled the game from beginning to end (first shot on goal not until the 50^th minute), finally got another goal from Arteta, who looked much better to me, and an unexpected contribution from Vermaelen (his first in two years) – in addition to really shoring up the defense.  The combination of Vermaelen and Koscielny looked quite strong and begs the question of whether Mertesacker might be spending some time on the bench. Jenkinson also looked better and actually showed some impressive skill on the ball, though he still has to work on the quality of his crosses. A report card:

Van Persie: got one of his easiest goals of the season after a blown opportunity by Walcott, who kicked it right to the goalkeeper while fully open. And then assisted on the Vermaelen goal with a nice pass across the crease. Otherwise a solid game sometimes moving further from goal to assist with the buildup.

Walcott: the performance against Chelsea certainly offered hope that he had woken up and was now going to become the player he has promised on occasion. I feel like this game was a step backward, showing tendencies and weaknesses that really do seem worthy of eliciting speculation about his future. He often underwhelms from dangerous positions, gives the ball away when openings exist, has this infuriating habit of dribbling around and in for his crosses when they could come much easier from the wing and has an average shot at best (forgoing the beautiful goal against Chelsea). He is a dangerous player given his speed, but I’m still unimpressed with his form this year.

Gervinho: a solid game on the other wing, though not involved in any of the goals directly. He is still growing into the role and the weakness in the West Brom defense appeared to be on the other side today.

Arteta: a strong game for our main late summer signing, who finally put a lovely game-sealing ball in the corner after a nice pass from Van Persie. He appears to have picked up his game, pushing the ball forward to the wings and center with much better accuracy.

Ramsey: looked dangerous at times and came close to a goal early. Another player who is growing in confidence and consistency each week. I believe, as Wenger does, that his scoring record will improve as time goes on.

Song: solid as usual in the middle.

Vermaelen: it is abundantly clear how important he is to our defense every time he’s on the pitch. We had a rare clean sheet with him in and can just look at the statistics when he plays versus when he doesn’t to fully appreciate his importance. A fine effort with a rare goal.

Koscielny:  another solid performance from a player who is clearly growing into his own, becoming our second best defender. The difficult question now is who starts in the middle with Vermaelen going forward. If Mertesacker is to start most games, can Kosi move out to the wing? Certainly a better conundrum than those that preceded it.

Jenkinson: as I said above, he appears to be getting better after a rather appalling debut against Man U. West Brom was without two of their speediest forward players, so I don’t want to take too much out of this game, but he did look good going forward and nothing started on his side that I can remember.

Santos: he often looks good going forward but I’m still worried about his speed and positioning on the wing. I’m not sure when Gibbs is coming back but it might be bad news that Wenger seems so happy with the Brazilian. He really needs to work on getting back, on holding ground and not getting so easily beat. It wasn’t an issue in this game but when West Brom came down the left side, I noticed that others were often covering for him.

Szczesny: not much to report. Did have two saves but a quiet game.

Arsenal has pulled level with a Liverpool team that is clearly on the decline at the moment, lucky to have gotten draws against promoted squads Norwich and Swansea, though they should have beaten Man U. The Reds just can’t seem to put the ball in the net and that will cost them dearly if they don’t turn it around soon (as Arsenal can attest to in far too many games I’ve watched over the past several years). Unfortunately, Newcastle and Tottenham both look really good at the moment (Tottenham up 2-0 away at the half against Fulham and Newcastle scored an impressive 2-1 victory over struggling Everton). Liverpool’s next two matches are at Chelsea and home against Man City, while we have Norwich on the road and then Fulham at home, so we should arguably rise to sixth soon, or maybe better. We are also, of course, only 3 points behind Chelsea, so the top four is certainly back in reach at the moment.  I feel like Newcastle will come back down to earth at some point, but Tottenham really do look strong on the attack, with unbelievable speed and more scoring threats than most clubs in the Premiership. In any case, better days as we head into the last international break of the year. 

P.S. Tottenham did in fact net all three points at Fulham, but they didn't deserve to. Fulham had one of the most sustained pressure attacks I have seen for an entire half, but it only resulted in one goal and Totti held on. Among the seemingly two dozen opportunities they had was a rather obvious penalty appeal, as a defender fell on the ball and held onto it in the box. To be fair, there was also a rather obvious penalty against Scott Parker toward the end as well that wasn't awarded. But Tottenham looks sublime and then very beatable from one moment to the next. It will be interesting to see if they can keep the winning form up for the whole season with what appears to be some serious defensive frailty.