Huge win for us today! Mostly because we have a tough time against physical teams in general and going a goal down today, doesn't make it any easier. Not to mention, despite a lot of possession in the first half, we barely had any clear chances until Giroud's equalizer. So from this view point this was a massive win for us!!! It redeems us a bit for the bad loss/performance vs Chelsea and it will also give this team a lot of confidence going forward.
The performance today was up and down. The possession we had during the game was great (69%). Even if we didn't create a lot in the first half, we still kept the ball very well and controlled the game. West Ham were counting mainly on high balls to Carroll and unfortunately that wasn't a bad tactic for them because we couldn't deal with him all game long. Defensively we were shaky the whole game and we continued to struggle with crosses. Nolan could have single handedly scored 3 goals against us today! At the end of the first half (46m) Carroll won ANOTHER ball from a cross and Nolan had the ball in his feet 1 yard away from Mannone. How he missed that, i have no clue. He then missed 2 more chances in the second half which could have been goals as well. Carroll missed an open goal header when Mannone stupidly tried to come out for a cross but simply got man handled. And for West Ham's goal today, Ramsey allowed to be passed by way too easily and then Mertesacker decided to guess incorrectly what Diame will do, instead of closing the distance to the ball and trying to prevent the shot. So, regardless of the result and the great win, let's not kid ourselves that we played well defensively today.
Individually i don't think the defenders had a bad game. It's the unit as a whole, that allows too many opportunities for teams to score against us. Jenkinson was great again today. Solid performance throughout the whole game. I would say our best defender this game. Gibbs was solid, hopefully his injury is not too bad ( i will speak about this at the end). Mertesacker as i mentioned, made a bad mistake for their goal but then had some very important blocks and tackles, one being the breakaway chance Nolan had in the second half. He also did well in the air, especially in the second half. So, good game for the German. Vermaelen has been a bit disappointing for me lately. Not that he had a bad game today, but he is just not as dominating in games as much as we are used to seeing him.
The midfield today was great with one exception. Yes, you guessed it: Gervinho! To be honest, i can't complain about him doing stupid shit with the ball today, because he was almost unnoticeable the whole game. I wrote after the Man City game, that the chance he missed in that game - on the right side, when he miscontrolled the ball, would have been converted and scored had Theo Wallcott been on the field; and i hope today is a proof of that for people who disagree with me! This doesn't mean that Theo never misses but he has a very high % of scoring when he is through on goal with 1 or 2 men to beat. And i do believe his finishing and decision making is better than Gervinho's. I also couldn't believe Wenger made a change in the 60th minute, that by itself made my day. Normally he waits until the 75th, so credit to him. Arteta was solid as usual, the way he has played this season i might as well even stop mentioning him every time, instead you guys can assume he had another great game working hard and being everywhere on the field. Ramsey, i guess got tired of me writing shit about him and had a great game as well. Fucked up big time for their goal, but other than that he was very active and had some great passes, nice to see a good performance by him. Cazorla was by far our best midfielder today. I am glad that he bounced back after the really bad game he had against Chelsea. Especially in the second half today, he was very dangerous. Had 2 shots heading for goal unluckily blocked by teammates; scored a phenomenal goal; gave an unreal pass to Giroud at the end of the game which the Frenchman should have scored. Great game for him! Podolski was great as well. I love how this guy works so hard for the team, today his crossing was off the charts. Gave a great ball for Giroud's goal; constantly was breaking on the left delivering good crosses in the box where Cazorla twice got his shot blocked. He also forced a great save by Jaaskelainen towards the end of the game.
The midfield today was great with one exception. Yes, you guessed it: Gervinho! To be honest, i can't complain about him doing stupid shit with the ball today, because he was almost unnoticeable the whole game. I wrote after the Man City game, that the chance he missed in that game - on the right side, when he miscontrolled the ball, would have been converted and scored had Theo Wallcott been on the field; and i hope today is a proof of that for people who disagree with me! This doesn't mean that Theo never misses but he has a very high % of scoring when he is through on goal with 1 or 2 men to beat. And i do believe his finishing and decision making is better than Gervinho's. I also couldn't believe Wenger made a change in the 60th minute, that by itself made my day. Normally he waits until the 75th, so credit to him. Arteta was solid as usual, the way he has played this season i might as well even stop mentioning him every time, instead you guys can assume he had another great game working hard and being everywhere on the field. Ramsey, i guess got tired of me writing shit about him and had a great game as well. Fucked up big time for their goal, but other than that he was very active and had some great passes, nice to see a good performance by him. Cazorla was by far our best midfielder today. I am glad that he bounced back after the really bad game he had against Chelsea. Especially in the second half today, he was very dangerous. Had 2 shots heading for goal unluckily blocked by teammates; scored a phenomenal goal; gave an unreal pass to Giroud at the end of the game which the Frenchman should have scored. Great game for him! Podolski was great as well. I love how this guy works so hard for the team, today his crossing was off the charts. Gave a great ball for Giroud's goal; constantly was breaking on the left delivering good crosses in the box where Cazorla twice got his shot blocked. He also forced a great save by Jaaskelainen towards the end of the game.
Theo Walcott obviously had a big impact on the game. He didn't change our attacking strategy much, nor did he all of a sudden took over the game, but he converted the first chance he had with a much needed goal at the time. I am really happy for him and i think he deserves to start more games for us, hopefully this performance will force Wenger to think about it. And finally Giroud. We can say that today was his breakout game performance. I personally think he should have done much better and scored at least one more goal, but the reason i feel this is going to be his breakout game is because he scored a great goal at a very important time for the team, which will give him a lot of confidence. The cross he got from Poldi was a tough one to connect with, making his finish look even more impressive! He showed a lot of hustle and desire today, and a bit of sloppiness missing a great chance to make it four after a great pass from Cazorla. Anyway, i definitely think his size and presence bring a different dimension to the team, so let this game be a starting block for many more goals from him.
Before i write my last thoughts on Wenger, i do have to mention that today's last 3,4 minutes of regular time and the 5 minutes extra time given, was the most comfortable i have seen our team in an away game of some importance in the past 3,4 years. We did a great job keeping the ball and just passing it around, compared to our really bad habit of just kicking the ball away, and then defending for our lives from crosses in the box which often ended up with goals against us, thus raising my blood pressure to immense heights.
As far as my thoughts on Wenger. I firmly believe that despite his undeniable genius of knowing what the fuck he is doing at his job, his rotational policy is absolute shit. I do hope Gibbs is ok and there is nothing wrong with him, but you can't expect to make only 2 changes per game when you play Wednesday-Saturday schedule and not have people get injured eventually. Champions League games are important but we have enough quality players to have a good rotation. The douchebag coach at Man U is super annoying but he is not scared to make rotations to his team, i give him big credit for that. Most recent example: Man U's team vs Tottenham you have Giggs, Carrick, Nani, Scholes and Kagawa. Champions League game vs Cluj you have Anderson, Cleverly, Fletcher, Rooney, Hernandez. That's 5 fucking players and that's how you should make rotations when you have a lot of games. I am sure having Santos, Walcott, Arshavin or Giroud start against Olympiacos wouldn't have hurt our chances of winning the game. Especially when you know Gibbs's track record of not being super durable.
So, we do have a lot to improve on, but today's win was very important for us, let's pray for no injuries during the International break and then it's time to spank Norwich! C'mon You Gunners!!!
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