Arsenal vs Norwich 3-1

I don't know if i should be happy that we won, or sad that we almost blew a great chance with a very lackadaisical approach to the game today. We never seemed to have any urgency in our play. Even after Norwich scored, nothing really changed. Only after we got the penalty and converted it, did we wake up a bit and won a very important game for the future of this club.

The first half we dominated play pretty much until the 35th minute of the game. We weren't playing great, but we had the majority of possession and we created some chances. The best one of them was thrown away by Gervinho (who else), Cazorla fed him a phenomenal through ball, all Gervinho had to do was control it, go around the keeper and score. Typical for his abilities, his first touch was awful and it basically killed the chance off. Towards the end of the half Norwich woke up and started attacking a bit more.

In the second half we continued to play slow football. Our attacks weren't developing fast enough and you could tell that Norwich were starting to look for a break on the counter attack. We gave away a silly free kick in the 56th minute and after some horrible marking, Turner scored pretty much a free header to put Norwich one up. Only then did Wenger decide to take Gervinho and Wilshere out (who both had poor games). We started pressing a bit, but to be honest we didn't really create anything and we almost gave away a second goal on a quick counter. We finally got a break when Giroud was pulled down and we got a penalty. I don't understand what all the fuss is about that penalty, the guy is clearly tugging his shirt and even though those things go unpunished sometimes, if they get spotted, it's a clear penalty (check out the picture at the bottom of the blog). After Arteta scored, we finally showed some urgency in our game and a great one-two between Oxlade and Podolski led to the Bassong own goal (they better not give that goal to Giroud because that's some serious fantasy football pts on the line). Podolski's goal was the final nail in the Norwich coffin and if they had to complain about any of our goals, it should be third one, because Theo was offside.

The defense didn't have to do much for big parts of the game and somehow they still managed to give away a very bad goal from a set-piece. Our marking has been shitty all season long and it doesn't seem to be improving much. Koscielny was marking Turner but once the cross was made, he decided he doesn't have to follow Turner and no one else picked him up. The result was a free header and a goal. Speaking of Koscielny, he didn't have a great game. Besides the mistake he made for Norwich's goal, he also had some sloppy passes which gave away our possession. Vermaelen on the other hand was very solid. I don't recall him fucking up anything major throughout the game. Hopefully he can keep that up and get back to the form we are used to seeing him in seasons past. Gibbs and Sagna were both very active on the wings throughout the whole game. Sagna had some horrible crosses and some good ones, but no one was ever on the end of them. Gibbs was flying all over the left flank and was involved in almost every attack, but again, not much end product.

The midfield was average today. Cazorla was absolutely brilliant in the first half. His passes were spot on, he was releasing players on the wings with some great touches. His through ball to Gervinho should have been a goal 10 out of 10 times. In the second half, he disappeared a bit and the his crosses today especially from corner kicks were fucking awful. Arteta was doing his usual dirty work. He kept his composure for the penalty and executed it very good. A few inches to his left and Bunn makes that save. Gervinho as i mentioned, was fucking useless. He had a few good runs in the beginning and then he was back to his stupid self.  Besides fucking up the great chance Cazorla created for him in the 28th min, he also failed to pass the ball to either Ramsey or Giroud in the 26th min when both of them were in a very good shooting position. He should be on the subs bench for life and only if we have no one else, we should put him in the game. Wilshere had a rough day. He was rusty, a lot of his passes were off. He lacked his usual sharpness. Missed a great chance to create a 1 on 1 for Ramsey in the 19th min, he lofted his pass instead of rolling it on the ground. Anyway, unlike Gervinho he IS a great fucking player who just had an off day. Ramsey had another good game and he is finally starting to get on my good side. For a second game in a row, he didn't make any stupid passes or bad giveaways; he was also very involved going forward and was very active around the pitch.

Giroud was decent. Too many times he fucks up good opportunities with fancy back heels and misplaced passes. He did have some good touches today and was involved in the first two goals that we scored, so not a bad game for him, but he has to be much better. I thought Oxlade was great for the few minutes that he played. He was the main guy behind our 2nd goal and i better never see Gervinho playing ahead of him in the line up. He has had his bad games this season but his potential is so much bigger than fucking Gervinho's, that he should be playing more often. Theo was rusty but you could feel his pace and presence immediately creating confusion in the Norwich's defense. Podolski is another guy who should be starting ahead of Gervinho. Lukas is a proven goalscorer and i would even rotate him and Giroud rather than sit him on the bench. Even though he has some off games as well, Podolski is a good fucking player.

So, another good result for us, but another shaky performance. We need a really good showing against Everton. That's a good team that won't give us shit, so we will have to perform way better than today to take care of business against them!

p.s. Just added this pic for the clowns that say this wasn't a penalty...