Another good day for the Gunners nation! I can easily get used to this :) ! Look, there is no doubt that there are a lot of things we can improve on, but the simple fact is that this team is finding ways to win and looks much tougher mentally then any of the teams we have had in the last few years. They play with confidence and belief and you can't teach those, you either have them or you don't.
There were times during the game today, when Swansea were dominating possession and preventing us from imposing our style of play (another big reason i am a huge admirer of Michael Laudrup), but we never looked panicked or rattled. We limited them to very few chances in the first half and towards the end of it, we were starting to look more like ourselves with Giroud missing a great chance, just before halftime. That confidence and calmness is what stands out to me the most so far this season. We waited for our time to come and then hit Swansea hard with two quick goals, which could have been three, if Ozil had scored his chance.
What puzzles me though, is how our passing style disappears as soon as we have to protect a lead. It's in our DNA to look for quick counter attacks when a team is pressing us hard, but once we go two goals up on a team, i expect us to just start passing the ball around and frustrate them, instead of continuing to look for quick counters and giving the ball back to the opposition. The last twenty minutes of the Swansea game were a perfect example of that: we gave them the ball and simply defended - for the most part, very well. But every time they missed a chance or we won the ball, we immediately tried to run a counter or just boot the ball up field. The more we did that, the more possession they got and eventually created a good enough chance to score. Don't get me wrong, i thought our defensive display today was very solid. I just feel that with our passing skills, instead of booting the ball forward, or looking for a counter, we should simply pass the ball around and make the other team expand energy and patience to chase us around.
We still recorded a tremendous victory. The games like today are the ones we need to win - when our main rivals are losing or drawing, we are collecting points. We are going to need all the points we can get because we will have a very tough stretch of games in November and December when we play back to back some of the top teams in the league. The more points we can get now, the better it will be for us. It's a very long season, but we have definitely made a promising start and i think this team looks good enough to keep going!
Some quick notes on things that i noticed:
- Some of our passing moving forward today was sublime: very accurate passes done in very high speeds without losing composure or awareness of where your teammates are. Both goals were great examples of that!
- The defense was very good for long periods of the game. Some tremendous challenges from Gibbs and Koscielny. Mertesacker was solid in the air too, and even though he could have done a bit better when Swansea scored, it wasn't all his fault - Bony gave a great pass.
- Ozil's vision and passing are unreal. He needs to improve the physical aspect of his game though, he got bullied of the ball more than once today.
- Szczesny had a great game and looked very comfortable coming out and catching crosses in the box. He just needs to stay grounded and keep working and not get too cocky after a few good games.
- Gnarby is starting to settle in and is showing some great qualities. After a quiet first half, he bursted through the middle and set up a great chance for Giroud at the end of those first 45 minutes. He then showed great composure in scoring his first goal in the Premier League. He is strong physically and not afraid to go into a challenge. If he keeps working hard, the future looks bright for him.
- Ramsey continued his hot run, it seems that he is always at the right spot and his scoring boots have been ON since the beginning of the season!
Seeing Arsenal on top of the table is something i have been waiting for a long time, i want to see them stay there until May and if we stay healthy and keep performing well, this team looks good enough to achieve it. C'mon You Gunners!!!
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