At
halftime of the first leg of the UCL qualifying tie against Fenerahce, Arsene
Wenger and the squad must have felt good about their dominance but troubled by
the scoreline. That all changed in the 51st minute when man of the
match Aaron Ramsey slid a perfect pass through to Walcott who made the right
decision, sending it across goal to Kieran Gibbs, who popped it into the top of
the net. From there Arsenal took the game in hand and all but secured their
qualification for the tournament yet again. Ramsey added a goal of his own in
the 64th minute, bringing the ball across the edge of the box before
booming it past longtime Fenerahce keeper Vulcan. In the 77th,
Giroud stood at the spot to complete the scoring, after a lovely first touch by
Walcott on a long ball from Wilshere led to a penalty. It was a resounding
victory in one of the toughest stadiums to play in in the world, but certainly
doesn’t plug up the holes in this squad.
In
fact, right after the game Wenger finally squelched any chance of signing
Suarez by claiming the deal is dead. This is confusing, given we didn’t even
take a shot at a 50 million pound bid. Instead, for the fourth time this
summer, at least, we put in a low bid that was rejected by the team. In the
other three instances, the player then joined a different team. In any case,
Wenger does promise signings in the next 12 days and we can look forward to UCL
group stage football yet again. We shall have to see if he follows through with
this promise and what kind of quality we get but one does have to feel that
this will be Wenger’s swan song at Arsenal – barring a miracle season. A few
lessons from the game …
1. Defensive Cover: while
we look strong in midfield and decent up front (though weaker now that Arteta
and Ox are out for long periods), we are clearly short on the defensive end.
When Kos was kicked by a Fenerbahce player and went out, we were forced to push
Sagna to centre half and put Jenkinson out wide. It was good to see Monreal
back on the pitch for a short cameo, but what this means is we are now one non-left-back
injury away from calamity. Among this purported spending spree, we need a
centre half (and arguably one that can play right back as well, in a pinch).
2. Aaron Ramsey:
around the Christmas season last year, I was among the growing hordes screaming
for Ramsey to be benched. He lacked confidence, missed scoring chances and,
most importantly, gave the ball away far too often. Since that purple patch,
Ramsey has become among our strongest and most versatile players. He shined in
our strong run-in that put us in the game today and looked good in preseason as
well. Today we saw what he can bring to a game, with his creativity, work rate
and, though he has shown it too rarely, rather strong shot. Ramsey has become
the key pivot with Arteta out and could be an essential ingredient in how well
we fare this year.
3. Wilshere: our young
Englishman still needs time to get back to 100 percent and I must admit sometimes
thinking he is overrated because he is British. He too often dribbles into
double or even triple coverage, losing the ball and really needs to work on his
finishing touch. That said, you could really see his talent in a few patches in
the game and it would be nice to see him grow into the player we all hope he
will become this season.
4. Giroud: it’s early
to make any sweeping statements about improvements in the Frenchman’s game, but
after an impressive preseason, Giroud has continued to shine with two goals in
two games. While he still makes me apoplectic at times with his choices or poor
shots, he is a real talent and could very well come into his own this year. He
has a rifle of a shot, is quite good at the top of the box in 1-2 exchanges and
had a lovely reverse cross today that was truly sublime (though it led to
nothing). He has been better in his second year at every club, so I’ll predict
at least 23 goals in all competitions and hope to be right.
5. Wenger: watching
Wenger watch the game, it felt like nostalgia in advance. Looking at his
demeanor, even when they score, and his expression in the press conference, and
I see a manager and legend who has simply lost the plot. He knows that the loss
to Aston Villa was as much down to his failure in the transfer window as to the
truly awful refereeing decisions and seems unable to secure any of his primary
targets. I will be sad to see him go, but barring a miracle (as I said above),
I just think we shall bid our fair adieu to Le Professeur next May. Let’s hope
he bows out with some silverware, even if it is just the Capital One Cup.
We head to Fulham
Saturday, and really need all three points. Let’s hope the team takes
confidence from this convincing win and powers to an easy victory.
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