Arsenal vs QPR 1-0

Positive news: we got a win. Reality: we still played shit. More reality: our goal was from an offside position; Reading had two 100% chances to score with 10 men on the field in the last 5 minutes of the game!!! What does that tell you? We are nowhere close to being a top team right now. And we got away with a very, very lucky win. Let's hope Wenger and his staff will be honest with themselves and get back to work, because if we perform like we did today against Man U next week, i see a painful 90 minutes ahead for any Arsenal supporter.

The best thing that happened to us today was seeing Jack Wilshere back in the starting 11. He was our most impressive player while he was on the pitch. The guy looked like he hasn't missed a beat in the last year and a half without football. He was energetic, hungry to play and was involved in every decent move we had going forward. What i love about him is that, when he gets the ball with his back to the opponent goal, he always looks for an opportunity to turn and advance forward and then look for the pass or his shot. That opens up space for other players and also makes us much more dangerous when we try to attack quickly and more direct. A lot of the other midfielders, when they get the ball with their backs to the opponents goal, they play the ball back or start twisting and turning at the same spot. That's fine, but slows down our attack and our runs are not very penetrating. Not to mention, defenders recover and we have no space to work with. Bottom line, Wilshere was great today and i was really happy to see him playing again! That guy is a true fighter and plays with his heart, let's hope he stays healthy for many years to come!

Another positive today, was the return of Sagna. I really like Jenkinson, but Sagna is very important for us with his quality and the need for rotation. He also had a great game today. Had some good crosses, made a very important stop in the 65th minute when Hoilett was about to be one on one vs Mannone. He looked sharp throughout the whole game and that was great to see. Mertesacker and Vermaelen were steady in the back up until the last 10 minutes of the game where we allowed twice Granero and Mackie to be one on one vs Mannone. I am not saying it was only their fault but the defense (with the exception of Santos whom i will talk about, in the next paragraph) was pretty good for most of the game and then it collapsed the last 10 min.

Now the Santos topic. The guy is a liability at the back against any player with some speed. Not only that, but often he is in the wrong parts of the pitch, thus creating even bigger challenge for himself to get back and keep up with players. To give you some proof i took pictures during the game today of two situations when he was nowhere near where his position requires him to be and that allowed for huge pockets of space on his side and i am amazed QPR didn't do better on those chances. The first sequence is in the 21st minute:

The ball is in the middle of the pitch, Santos pushes way up to attack the guy with the ball who passes to Shaun Wright-Phillips...

..now there is a huge gap on the right side, Santos is no where near the guy with the ball...

...which leaves with a 5 vs 5 situation....

The next situation is in the 53rd minute:

High ball towards Zamora, Vermaelen is right behind him. Santos LEAVES his position to try to win a high ball from Zamora!....

...obviously Santos loses that duel, and now...

...Wright Phillips has the ball again with lots of space to work with...

The point i am trying to make here is that not only Santos is not fast enough to keep up with people, he is also NOT DISCIPLINED enough with his positioning to make up for it! I am going to make a little prediction today: if Santos is our left back for the Man U game, we will get scored on at least twice. Let's hope i am wrong but the way i see it, good teams punish mistakes like this. p.s. If you look at my post from an year ago when we beat Chelsea 5-3 at Stamford Bridge, you will see similar pictures with our boy Santos being the main hero again.

The midfield today was not great. We still didn't create nearly enough chances to win the game and at times in the second half we were dominated by QPR. Wilshere was the bright spot as i mentioned earlier. Ramsey had a decent game but neither him, or Cazorla  created many chances. A lot of times guys were not on the same page for one-two passes; Cazorla did a bit too much of dribbling the ball and turning 360 degrees instead of passing it quicker. He also missed a great chance with an open goal. Podolski was working hard but also didn't create much. We just need to get on the same page as to what we are trying to do offensively. Be more direct with our runs, have more through balls and be decisive in the final third.

Giroud put a good effort today. He wins a lot of high balls but the guys around him almost don't expect him to do it, so they sit around watching, instead of making runs anticipating that he will win the high balls! The good news today was that Gervinho didn't start and even though i am sorry he got injured, i promise i won't miss him a lot. Walcott has to get more playing time if we want our offense to become more dynamic. We will take the points today but let's not kid ourselves, we need to IMPROVE! C'mon You Gunners!!!

Norwich vs Arsenal 1-0, Arsenal vs Schalke 0-2

One of my good friends was getting married this weekend, so i didn't have a chance to either watch the Norwich game or write about it. My initial plan was, when i got back home on Monday, to watch the tape and then write my blog. I obviously checked the score and heard  that we lost; then one of my buddies who saw the game said we played shit; Wenger in his post match interview admitted we played shit; so i decided i am not going to go through the suffering of watching 90 minutes of shit football. I have seen plenty of those games in the last 7 years: lots of possession, no real chances, mistake in the back, lose away from home. I did watch the extended highlights of the game and we maybe had 1 or 2 decent chances for the whole game. What i did watch today, was our Champions League game against Schalke 04, and i will share my thoughts about it, without going into great detail as i normally do.

First and foremost, i have to mention our team selection. The SAME team from this weekend against Norwich, with ONE change: Coquelin for Giroud. I repeat: ONE change! I am not a math scientist but i am pretty sure that if you had a match on Saturday and you played shit, and then you have a match on Wednesday and you play the same exact team, the result is not going to be much different. Obviously with Walcott, Diaby and Gibbs out injured, you don't have a huge choice, but you DO have other options. If i am not mistaken: Arteta, Cazorla, Podolski, Vermaelen, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Gibbs (before he got hurt) have played in EVERY single Premier League or Champions League match this season. And then you have Ramsey (after Diaby got hurt) and Gervinho who played ALMOST every game.

Wenger said after the Norwich match and i quote "I felt we lacked a bit of sharpness. But we missed what makes the success at the top level - that is complete focus. And they were sharper than us" ; "We had a lot of the ball but did not create much with it. It was an illusionary domination. It was a disappointing performance on our side" Well, no shit Sherlock, if we play the SAME core group of players in EVERY single game of course there will be lack of sharpness. Players get tired both mentally and physically. I am surprised Arteta, Cazorla and the rest, have not gotten injured yet. If Wenger does not start rotating the team more and mix and match the teams for Champions League and the Premier League, i expect more of the same results that we had this Saturday and today. 

Today's game against Schalke just proved that if ANY team, plays very organized and presses well up the pitch against us, we have no answer, except keeping possession and not creating much. It's not "we don't have a good scorer" problem; it's "we don't execute well enough to CREATE chances" problem. Not to mention our current left back, good old Mr. Santos is slower than a turtle and leaves the defense exposed every time he goes forward. Heck, we are exposed even when he stays back, because he can't catch up to anyone. I don't know how many times Mertesacker had to clear the ball from our penalty area because Santos got repeatedly beat down the left and balls/crosses just kept coming in. If you are Wenger and you know your second left back is liability, you manage Gibbs better, and give him breathers on less important games during the season, so you don't get stuck with Santos when Gibbs gets one of his regular injuries. Or maybe you go BUY a left back that can run. I would even put Koscielny in at centre half, and put Vermaelen at left back. But then again, that means the SAME  four defenders would have to play every game.

I have said this many times in previous posts, but i honestly feel that if Wenger doesn't change and adapt his management style, our mediocrity will continue. We will be a top 4, top 6 team, maybe pass the group stage at the Champions League but that's about it. I don't think we should let Wenger go, but HE should stop repeating the same mistakes he always does and then give us the same bulshit excuse: "We were a bit tired today; We lacked sharpness and focus; But our attitude was great and i can't ask for more from my players". Fuck man, i am tired of bulshit. Enough for today.

p.s.I don't support the idea of bringing in a new coach that spends like Chelsea and Man City because we don't have sugar daddies like they do. And i do feel that many players nowadays are unrealistically overpaid. I like the way we run our wage structure and so on, but we must NOT buy and pay decent salaries to awful players like Almunia, Squilaci, Djourou and so on. And we also have to manage and use the good players that we do have, in a smarter/better way.  

West Ham vs Arsenal 1-3

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.

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!!!

Arsenal vs Chelsea 1-2

Even though it's hard for me to admit/accept it, we got outplayed and out coached today. Not that Chelsea were that much better than us, i actually think we have the capabilities to win this game, they just played better as a team, and Wenger came out with the wrong starting 11 which he has only himself to blame for.

Ramsey and Gervinho should have not started for us. After the decent game he had last week, today Ramsey was horrible. Made so many mistakes in his passes, his crosses were bad, he looked sloppy like he has been for most of the end of last year and the beginning of this season. Gervinho scored a goal; DID pass the ball at least 2 times to an open teammate, and had one good run to help the defense in the 26th min. Other than that he was invincible. Continued with his clueless dribbling today as he always does; gave away the ball in the 64th min which gave Chelsea a great chance for a counter and we got lucky they didn't score a third. I still firmly believe he is not good enough to play against the good teams, not until he learns to play quicker and combine better with his teammates.

Which leads me to my next point. After the good performance Giroud, Walcott, Arshavin, and Chamberlain had against Coventry, at least two of them should have started. I would have liked for Theo to get a start and hopefully build on his good performance on Tuesday. Giroud up front would have also helped because he could bother Chelsea's defense with his size. The only change Wenger made, was Koscielny for Mertesacker and you could argue that it backfired a little bit in the sense that Koscielny didn't have a good day. I understand the rationale behind it because Mertesacker is a bit slower, but he would have given us some extra height for the set pieces.

Talking about set pieces, both goals we conceded today were from free kicks. For the first one, our
marking was terrible. I spoke about that in my last post and today again, we didn't mark man to man
in our box. Even if Torres had not scored, we had no one even close to Luiz on that cross. If the last
two Premier League games don't convince Bould and Wenger that we have to start marking man to man on set pieces, i don't know what will. Our defending today especially in the second half was all over the place but that can sum up our performance as a whole as well. Too many times we looked a bit unorganized; not pressing as a team; offensively people were not on the same page.

Jenkinson had another good game, i can't recall to many attack going through his side. He was also constantly going forward and had some good crosses in the box. Gibbs was a bit more vulnerable today but also had a decent game. Koscielny as i mentioned has had better days, he didn't look very comfortable out there. Vermaelen was ok, didn't make any mistakes but wasn't as influential as he normally is.

Cazorla had his worse game of the season. Nothing was working for him today, he missed a lot of passes, wasn't as sharp with his decision making as he normally is. A few times during the game i saw him getting frustrated and giving up on chasing people. He also, dived a bit for a penalty and even though there was contact, he definitely over reacted. I already mentioned that Ramsey and Gervinho were useless. Diaby didn't play long enough to be judged. Chamberlain had some good moments, he had a great assist for our goal; had some good runs on the right. But he also made a lot of mistakes with his passes, gave away the ball plenty of times. The one bright spot today was Arteta. That guy continues to do most of our dirty work, joins the attack when he gets a chance, covers a lot of ground and shows enormous desire for 90 minutes. Podolski is the same way as far as effort and desire. He didn't have any chances in the first half, 2nd half he played better, forced Chech into a
great save and had some good runs on the left. I have no clue why Wenger took him off instead of taking Gervinho out. You know that if Podolski gets a chance, there is a great chance he will score. You also know that he will be pushing hard for 90 minutes.

Theo and Giroud didn't do much after they came on. But to be honest, after we conceded the second goal we never found our fluency until the end of the game. Giroud had a good chance at the end but it didn't go in for him. Again. So today, i really think Wenger messed up the starting line up but i also give credit to Chelsea. They were very organized when they were defending, and they made better decisions with the ball than we did. We looked a bit edgy and nervious, and when we finally settled down and looked like we can win the game, we let in another goal and that's all she wrote. Hopefully, today's loss will help Wenger realize that he has to rotate the team and make sure he keeps the right players on the field, not subbing Podolski in the 65th minute and leaving Gervinho in for all 90. Time to move on and get ready for the Champions League. C'mon You Gunners!!!

Manchester City vs Arsenal 1-1

I got up this morning a bit early so i can see the Liverpool vs Manchester United game. Boy, did i regret that. There is nothing more that i hate, than seeing a United team that is playing shitty being helped by the refs and handed a victory. It's absolutely disgusting. 

Luckily for me and my nerves, Mike Dean (who is also a douche bag and has ruined plenty of games)  had a decent performance at our game. He could have given a few more yellow cards but after the pathetic refereeing at Anfield maybe it was better he let the game go a bit.

I feel that i am pretty honest when i give my opinion about our players and their performances each game. So i did admit that last week Gervinho played much better against Southampton than he did the previous few games. But today he was back to his usual idiotic/selfish style and i have no clue why he stayed on the field until the 89min! He, single handedly, prevented us from winning today. The ball he got from Ramsey in the 15th minute was so good that 100% of most players will at least have a shot at goal and 60% to 70% of decent forwards/wingers will score. He couldn't even control the ball to have a shot. And that's not why i am mad at him, i am sure even the greatest players have had moments where they lose control of the ball. What pisses me off is that he made so many runs and had the ball so many times, and 90% of the time all he wanted to do is dribble and try to get by people. So many fucking times! Look up and pass the ball! Look up and shoot at goal! Do whatever the fuck you want, just don't do the same stupid dribbling every single time. And when you lose the ball, which he did plenty of times, get back and defend! At times he just chills in midfield without getting back and helping people to press on the ball. At least twice, him and Ramsey ran into each other. And to top it off, after a decent move to open some space for himself, he couldn't even hit the target in the 89th min! I realize that he has speed and that makes him really dangerious when he gets space, but his brain is the size of a peanut. He either has to learn to share the ball or he should be benched and replaced with someone who is more of a team player.

Overall i thought we played a very solid game. The first half we were definitely the better team and with a bit more luck and better execution we should have been ahead instead of City. The midfield players were exceptional the first 45 min. We had a lot of possession, we were controlling the game with quick passes and good build up game. Then we conceded a silly goal. Mannone could have definitely done better but i also feel the zone marking we did on corners today left us a bit vulnerable. When you don't cover man to man, you have 5,6 guys getting a head start to run and jump which is tough to defend. Maybe a mixture between zone marking and having at least 2 or 3 of our players covering their best ball headers would be a better idea. The goal stunned us a bit and in the second half we didn't start very well. The link between the midfield and the defense was breaking down and City had a few counters where they could have done much better and maybe score again. Towards the end of the second half though, we started controlling things again and got a deserved equalizer.

Koscielny came in for Vermaelen and had a great game. Besides scoring, he was very sharp throughout the whole game and looked just like he did most of last season. It will be interesting to see if Wenger will try to give him more playing time, especially after Mertesacker had another solid game. The full backs were good again, Jenkinson had a very good game both offensively and defensively. Gibbs was less active on the wing than the last few games but that was partially due to Gervinho dribbling forever on the left and not passing the ball to anyone. Mannone had the blunder for their goal but other than that he made some great saves.

Diaby had a phenomenal first half, it seemed that he was everywhere. His technique is so good for a big guy that sometimes he gets carried away and gives away the ball at bad situations. On Tuesday against Montpellier, he slipped while dribbling in our own penalty area and we got super lucky not to get scored on. Same thing happened today in the 53rd min, when he lost the ball because of too much dribbling and City had a great chance to score a second goal. He got a bit tired in the second half and disappeared a bit but if he stays healthy he can be very dominant in midfield. Cazorla just like Diaby was awesome in the first half and then was on and off in the second. Regardless, his work rate and passes were priceless, and he was very unlucky not to score after a great shot in the 81st min. Arteta was also great today, did the majority of the dirty work in the back. Ramsey had a good game. Gave a phenomenal pass to Gervinho in the 15th min, and was involved in  most of our attacks during the game. Defensively he has to do much better, a lot of times he strolls back when we lose the ball instead of quickly getting back and pressing.  

Podolski didn't have a lot of chances except one in the first half, when Gervinho (shockingly) passed the ball to him around the penalty spot but unfortunately it was on his right foot and he hit the stands. The thing i like about him is that he is a very hard worker even when he doesn't get a lot of chances. He always chases people and comes back and helps defensively. I don't think Wenger should have taken him out. Talking about substitutions, The Professor waited way too long to make a change (well known fact about him). I also think he took off the wrong people. Gervinho should have been the first man to go after his clueless display and i would have taken out Ramsey instead of Diaby. To be honest even though Walcott is also clueless on the wing sometimes i would have liked to see him start instead of Gervinho today. He has the same if not better speed and unless Wenger is freezing him out because of his contract issues he should start some games. Not to mentioned he wouldn't have missed the 15th min chance Gervinho did, that's his favorite spot to score goals from.

So at the end, we will take a draw but i feel we deserved more and we are definitely capable of more. I hope Wenger learns his lesson and saves Gervinho for the games against the shitty teams because his decision making is obviously not good enough against the big boys. I would love for us to whoop Chelsea next week. C'mon You Gunners!!!!

Arsenal vs Southampton 6-1

Great win today! I thought we would have a tougher time with Southampton but once we got the break with the first goal, it looked like we can steamroll them, as it happened. Scoring early at home is very important for us because then we can control and open up the game which is when we are at our best.

I was also very happy that Wenger made some changes ahead of the Champions League trip on Tuesday. I wasn't too excited seeing Gervinho starting, but he had his best game of the season thus rewarding Wenger's faith in him. He still had some stupid mistakes but compared to previous games, he was much smarter with the ball and tried to combine more with his teammates instead of just doing his usual goal line run. He did a good job scoring the third goal, those 100% goal scoring chances are sometimes tough to convert and he did a good job of making it 3-0. Coquelin starting was good to see, he needs some games because he is a pretty good player. I hope Wenger will make some more changes for the Montpellier game because Gibbs has been known for getting injured, so has Jenkinson. Santos could play left back and maybe Coquelin slotting at right back so Jenkinson can rest. I would also love to see Koscielny start, he needs some games to get back in rhythm. In reality, i doubt that Wenger will reshuffle the defense except maybe for Koscielny.

The defense had another solid performance. If it wasn't for Szczesny's stupidity they could have probably kept another clean sheet. We had periods of pulling back in our own half but compared to past years our pressing of the ball is so much better! I noticed it even in the 72min when the score was already 5-1 and we could have easily sat back and relaxed but i am guessing Bould is trying to create a culture of proper defending for 90 min and so far he is doing a great job! Mertesacker is getting better and better, i didn't see too many times today when he got bullied, which would happen in other games. So he is finally starting to play more physical and use his size. Vermaelen also had a good game and almost scored just before the 6th goal. Both Jenkinson and Gibbs were good, the latter having a big impact on both own goals.  The only negative was Szczesny's performance. Maybe he was a bit rusty but not only he basically handed Southampton their goal, he also had horrible kicks in the 65th and 69th mins which led to counters for the Saints in each occasion. He better step up his game or Mannone will gladly take his place.

The midfield was great today. Cazorla was involved in everything we tried to do and the reason i like him so much and i think he is even better than Fabregas is that he keeps things so simple. Short passes, great control and he is able to make the right pass/decision 90% of the time. He didn't score today but was involved in almost every attack we had. Arteta was very good as well. Gave a great pass to Gervinho for his 1st goal; and was controlling the midfield together with Cazorla. Oxlade-Chamberlain was invincible for big periods of the first half. He would do something positive and then disappear for 10 mins. He needs to be constantly involved and look for opportunities to attack people. He definitely played better in the second half with a few good shots at goal and some good combinations. Podolski had a good game. It was his great hustle that set up the first goal. He scored a great goal from a free kick and was combining very well with Gibbs on the left flank.

Both Ramsey and Walcott came in and played well. I want to single out Ramsey because i always bash him when he comes in and is very sloppy. Today he had a positive impact on the game and pretty much made Gervinho's second goal with his good run and shot. Giroud didn't have much of an impact but he also didn't have many chances today. To sum it up, we got a great result today against a team who will start winning because they have some quality. I also saw some changes in the starting line up from Wenger which is good to see and a lot of goals which is great for our confidence. I am expecting a good performance in France and then a huge game next Sunday at Manchester City. If we can get a win there, a lot of people will start taking us more seriously. C'mon You Gunners!!!

Liverpool vs Arsenal 0-2

 Big win for us today!! Very needed win as well, because now everyone can shut the fuck up about who will score goals for us and so on. The team will also be able to get ready for Southampton with less pressure on them compared to after a draw or a loss today. I thought we were the better team throughout the game. We had good possession spells and we controlled the game for big parts of it. Created some good chances and more importantly we finally took advantage of them!

Defensively the third consecutive clean sheet is great but today we had bad defensive mistakes that could have been punished. Mertesacker for one, got beat by that fucking diver Suarez as early as the 6th minute and his lack of pace was badly exposed. Thank god later in the game Vermaelen started to guard Suarez and was able to better keep up with him. We also had a bunch of bad defensive passes that all led to dangerous counters. For big parts of the game we were pressing pretty good and we kept Liverpool under control but there were spells in the second half between the 50th and 60th min and then towards the end of the game where we stopped pressing and allowed them to create chances. Sometimes the front people would press but no one else would follow and big gaps would open up in the middle of the field. To be honest, Liverpool had a tough time pressing constantly as well and that allowed us to create some chances. The reason i am bringing this up even though we didn't concede a goal is because pressing is so crucial if you want to limit the other team's chances. A great example is the Southampton vs Man U game today. I was ready to celebrate the 2nd consecutive away loss of these shitheads and then Southampton just invited them in their own half and let them pass the ball around until they lost 2-3. RVP scoring a hat trick didn't improve my mood either...

I like that Jenkinson keeps things simple but sometimes when he is under pressure and has to pass the ball, he panics a bit and that leads to mistakes. He needs to get used to passing the ball under stress without allowing it to affect him. Mannone was solid today, even though he had a tough time with some high balls during the game. He did have some good saves as well though, especially the shot from Shelvey towards the end. I thought Diaby had a great game, he was one of our best players out there, especially in the first half and the beginning of the second. He got tired towards the end but the way he played today makes me wish he can just stay healthy. He reminds me of Viera with his size and has a good touch on the ball. The other guy who was vital today was Cazorla. As i predicted in the last few posts he is becoming a key figure in our team with his vision and passes. He can also shoot the ball well and we saw a confirmation of that today. His only negative is the lack of effort sometimes. I see him giving up on pressing people when he is tired. Oxlade-Chamberlain on the other hand was disappointing. He is too individual and continually tries to out run and out smart people instead of passing to his team mates when they are in a better position than him. He has alot of energy and desire but he has to channel it the right way.

But the most disappointing guy today was hands down Olivier Giroud. Unless i am missing something, this guy couldn't do anything right today. He looked slow as fuck, had many heavy first touches and a tough time controlling the ball. And most importantly: had 3 very, very, very good chances to score a goal and couldn't even hit the target. Fuck man, it's like watching Bendtner all over again except Bendtner would score once in a blue moon and he cost us way less than this guy. Let's hope i am wrong but right now, i don't see too much to be excited about him. Not just that but Wenger didn't even sub him. I guess he was pleased with his performance...I thought towards the end of the game he should have put Wallcott on his spot, because Liverpool were starting to push forward and we could have used Theo's pace for counters. Anyway, the one person i am happy Wenger didn't use is Gervinho, i was tired of watching his clueless repetitive runs on the flanks with no end product. 

And let's not forget Podolski. Great goal from him. Typical shot with his left foot, we will see a lot of these types of goals from him: on the left, good through ball, he scores diagonally on the keeper. He gave a great pass for Cazorla's goal too. So, a hint of excitement for our new signings (except Giroud ofcourse). They are finally starting to deliver and in the case of Cazorla and Podolski it was just a matter of time. Giroud will be a question mark for now, hopefully he will improve fast. Let's pray for no injures during the international break and for a decisive win at home vs Southampton, who for big parts of the game today completely outplayed Man U, so we have to be careful with them and get it done!C'mon You Gunners!