I am one day late with my post, but on Saturday morning i went to see the International Auto Show, so below i have posted a few nice looking vehicles as a compensation for being late.
I watched the game on tape today and to be honest, there is not much to write about. Reading pretty much didn't show up and allowed us to use them as a punching bag. With 70% to 30% possession and 26 to 5 shots, it's pretty obvious we dominated the game for 90 minutes. Reading rarely came forward and made a ton of mistakes at the back, which allowed us to create plenty of chances. It could have been worse for them than 4-1, but even that result is a good indication of how one-sided the game was.
As i mentioned earlier, our defense was rarely tested. Fabianski didn't have much to do most of the game. Throughout it, Mertesacker and Koscielny had to make one important tackle each and to their credit, they executed those tackles great. Sagna was also very lively and tormented Reading's defense non stop. Monreal was the only guy from our back four that didn't have that great of the game. He got beat once by Robson-Kanu in the 51st minute and then got beat again by him for their goal in the 68th minute. He is still wayyyyyyy better than the clown Santos and apart from those two mistakes he had an ok game. I definitely see him and Gibbs as two very good left backs that give us options for rotation without a drop in quality.
Cazorla was again the best player in our midfield. He has been in great form of late and he continued his great play yesterday. Almost every move we made went through him. Before he scored, he assisted for Gervinho's goal, and throughout the first half, had numerous shots blocked at the last second. It was just a matter of time before he got on the score sheet and he did it with a great strike in the 48th minute. Rosicky was our second best midfielder of the day. Even though he didn't score, he was constantly putting Reading under pressure and together with Cazorla was running things in the middle. He also played 90 minutes and i am always happy to see him on the pitch. Ramsey had a decent game. He continues to drive me nuts with his carelessness at times. The score was 0-0 and he back heels a pass in the 7 min, which ends up going to a Reading player and they catch us on a counter attack. He has a moment of stupidity like this, every single game he plays! I should stop writing about it, because by now i have to accept that's just the way he plays. It still pisses me off though. Anyway, the rest of the game Ramsey played OK. Arteta was his normal self, covering a lot of ground, passing the ball around. He took a very good penalty and pretty much finished the game off with it.
Let's talk about good old Gervinho. He did have a very good game for his standards and apparently everyone is super impressed with his performance. I don't want to be a hater, but to me, he is still an average player at best. Yes, his pace yesterday gave Reading tons of trouble; he was very lively and had some great runs that help set up two of the goals. He also scored one himself. But he also blew another 4 or 5 very good chances by doing what he normally does: ran himself out of space; took too long on the ball and lost it; his final ball/pass was fucking horrible. So to summarize: he had a solid game, but he is still super clumsy at times, and let's not forget Reading have the shittiest defense in the Premier League. For the money he is getting paid, he is definitely not the quality i expect.
Giroud didn't do much for most of the game. He missed a good chance when he tried to lob Taylor at 1-0 for us and he had some good one-two's throughout the match. His best contribution was the goal he scored and considering that was one of his few chances for the game, he took advantage of his opportunity.
So, great win for us yesterday. We can't make big conclusions, based on the fact that we were rarely under pressure from Reading, but another important three points for the race for top 4. Next week will be a good indication of how well we are playing, when we play West Brom away. If we can continue playing well and get 3 pts there, it will help us tremendously to continue put Chelsea and Tottenham under pressure.
p.s. On a side note: Diaby is out for ANOTHER 9 months. If we don't cut our losses and let this guy go, we are even dumber than i think. Nobody likes when players get hurt but we have supported him for the past few years with almost no return for us as far as the minutes the guy has been on the pitch. When healthy, he is a good player, but the simple fact is: ever since his first injury when he got his ankle broken at the Emirates Cup, he has never been completely healthy again!
OK, as promised, some of the cars from the car show are below. Enjoy
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