Arsenal started strongly, got on the
board in the 29th minute, from a beautiful Ramsey header that looped
over the Cardiff keeper and into the far corner, controlled the rest of the
first half, almost gave up the equalizer in the second and then killed off the
game with two late goals. Things began quickly with a nice shot from outside
the box by Wilshere after a strong buildup that almost opened the scoring on 1:37.
Then things got a bit odd when on 14 minutes, Ozil flicked a pass from Wilshere
through to Giroud, who appeared offsides. Rather than shoot on goal as he
waited for the whistle, everyone stopped, including Giroud and the opportunity
was lost. But Ozil, looking the best he has in a month, sent a tight and quick
cross from the left that Ramsey finished like a tall striker 15 minutes later.
Things went pretty much to plan throughout the rest of the first half, though
Arsenal had some opportunities to put in a second.
The second half started much as the
first, with Giroud just missing a goal when Ramsey cut back across the goal and
sent him a peach of a pass, that was beat the keeper but was saved on the line
by Ben Turner. From there, Cardiff, a team that has beaten Man City and grabbed
a late draw against United, moved into the ascendancy and would have equalized
but for a spectacular reflex save by Sz of a strong Frazier Campbell header
over Gibbs, in the 51st minute. Soon after, Giroud tried to chip the
goalkeeper and then had a shot deflected, though Lee Mason called for a
goalkick (the third questionable decision of the day). In the 75th,
with the game still in the balance, Flamini came in for Cazorla (with his
sleeves rolled up rather than cut!) and five minutes later Monreal subbed in
for Wilshere. Arsenal began to reassert their control and Ramsey sent it just
wide from distance in the 81st minute. In the 86th
minute, Ozil sent a wonderfully weighted through ball to the charging Flamini,
who scored his first goal since his return, with a powerful, high shot from close
range. Up 2-0 Arsenal continued to press and after Walcott came in for Ozil in
the 90th minute, Odemwinge lost possession in the Arsenal box,
Ramsey charged up the pitch with the ball, passed off to Walcott on the right,
who cut it back across for another great finish for Ramsey.
And that’s how it ended, 3-0 Arsenal,
with 56 percent of the possession and 15 shots with 6 on target (compared to 10
and 4 for Cardiff). Ramsey added two more goals to hit 13 for the season in all
competitions and Ozil added two more assists, looking comfortable for most of
the game. Wilshere seemed more in control as well, and after his brace Tuesday
against Marseille might be coming back into form, after a relatively average
return this season. A few thoughts on the game …
1.
Rambo Returns: The
incredible rise of Ramsey continues and his goal threat should be opening up
more opportunities for Giroud, but he appears to be experiencing a slight dip
in form. Though he is essential in the buildup and in holding the ball up, in
addition to being an extra defender on set pieces, he appears ready for a
break. He had a great chance to score early but just stopped, then missed two
other good opportunities later. The reality for Arsenal at present is they have
the best midfield in England and with goals possible across the squad, they are
a team to be reckoned with going forward. With Wilshere starting to chip in and
Walcott returning, this could be the season when they finally end the drought.
2.
No Gibbs Left
Behind: The rise of Kieran Gibbs has been quite impressive since the beginning
of the new year. His defense has improved, his speed and dribbling skills get
him into dangerous positions and his cross is substantially better than it used
to be, though it is too often blocked by the right back. But he needs to work
on his defending in the box. But for the excellent save by Szczesny, Cardiff
would have equalized as Frazier Campbell towered over him with Gibbs not even
jumping. This is not the first error this year – off the top of my head, I’d
say seven or eight at least – and several others have led to goals. Monreal is
more solid in many ways than Gibbs, with a better cross, better ball control and
better positioning, but has become a late defensive sub this season. This is
not a call to change, but to work on that aspect of Gibb’s game, as someone
appears to have done with Giroud and his hold-up play, which has improved
phenomenally in the past two months.
3.
Pressing wins: Pressing
up appears to be the way for Arsenal to dominate teams. While they can often
lull teams to sleep with their incredible passing and movement, before
attacking at will, by pressing up the pitch they tend to force their opponents
into errors that can lead to scoring opportunities. When Arsenal sit back, as
they do on occasion, they look porous and tend to give up opportunities, as
they did again today. But when they are pressing high up the pitch, they can essentially
cut off the attack before it ever gets started. This shouldn’t be done against
teams that have trouble scoring or those that like to send balls over the top
(like Stoke used to and West Brom appears to at times), but it can disrupt the
attack of the better teams (as Man U showed against us a few weeks ago). This strategy
has been a key aspect of Barcelona’s dominant recent spell that casual fans,
and some lazy pundits, ignore and one of the reasons Dortmund overachieves
based on their spending and revenue. It is difficult to do this for a whole
game, but with all of the options in the middle, particularly when Ox and
Podolski return, it is a formula that could win them more big games this season.
4.
The comeback
kids: the growing stature of Mertesacker and Koscielny is really something to
see, particularly if you look back a couple of seasons when Per was being
criticized for being too slow for the EPL and Kos made far too many mistakes
(though we can forgive him for that flub that gave Birmingham City the Carling
Cup in 2010, it still hurts). Add to that list the rise of Ramsey, the return
of Wilshere, the brilliant free capture of Flamini and the aforementioned improvement
in Giroud and Gibbs and this feels like a talented team that is also hungry to
win (something that sometimes seemed lacking over the past five or six
seasons).
COYG!
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