Sunday 8 March 2009

Progress continues


The wheels go round, the unbeaten run continues and Burnley have been calmly dispatched. A good day all round. I will dare to predict that the media report a la Cardiff and concentrate on Burnley's weaknesses rather than our excellent performance. I won't tire you with a detailed match report, there are many other places you can read to your fill on this front, what I will do is tire you with my own boring and biased opinion.
The team is playing much more like a team, we are working harder and the morale appears better than earlier on this season when we were in so called 'crisis'. Gibbs and Djourou had solid enough games at the back, Gibbs in particular impresses me more and more with each appearance, he really looks to have the quality needed, he also has a great ability to time and win important tackles. Fabianski did all he did well in goal.

The combination of Diaby and Song worked well in the middle, in particular Song had a very decent game, he intercepted well and broke up play effectively while distributing the ball well. Arshavin is adapting fast and looking fitter, even comrade Eboue had a good game, capping it with a very well worked third goal.

As always with football, if you take your chances at the important moments you invariably win games, and we need to continue in this vein if we are to win some silverware this year. Eduardo has that divine ability to put the ball in the net, his majestic finish with a cheeky heel flick demonstrated just what he adds to our attack. Vela looked more at home up front, he made some excellent runs and his impudent finish capped a fine performance.
The bottom line is that we're still in the running for two big cups and with some key players coming back at just the right time, the momentum is starting to gather. Theo is back, Eduardo is back, let's just hope we can keep everyone else fit. So next up it's Chelsea at Wembley, a tough game, but we're not afraid of Chelsea, they'll be much more afraid of our attacking players than we will be of theirs. Come on you Gunners.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

what bout hull in the quarters?!!

Anonymous said...

there is the small matter of hull b4 chelsea.. agree abt the anti 6+5 thing though.. epl is not limited to england as of now.. ppl all over asia watch it.. dunno abt other continents.. we dont care which country a player comes from.. we need quality.. and we get it in epl

dunno wat the fat bastard is thinking..

Anonymous said...

err Hull beat us at the grove when we had Walcott,Adebayor and Cesc in the team ... so lets see them off first,shall we,before we speak of chelski at Wembley.

@bops above :
if u want quality/exciting football look beyond the epl/bpl; try catching some games at *ahem* sources from the bundesliga and la liga ... miles ahead than the english league(nothing premier in this anymore).

Ted said...

Yes. I think we've all spotted 1979's deliberate mistake to overlook the Hull game.

It was great to see that level of performance from some of the frine players. Djourou, Gibbs, Song, Eduardo, Vela, all had good games. Song in particular.

I suspect Bendtner and Ramsey will come back against Roma in the funny 4-5-1 formation we played against them at the Emirates.

Its a formation that suits Diaby well, who was pretty unimpressive against Burnley, but I am tipping Abou to have a good game again against the Romans.

Obs and I are making the trip, so you can all expect a match report at some point on Thursday. Or Friday. Or maybe not at all.

Ted said...

Didn't mean Ramsey. I meant Nasri will come back against Roma. Another deliberate mistake.

Obsinho said...

Another intentioanl mistake was claiming Fabianski did all did in goal well.

In fact he did the very little he had to do with a certain degree of amateurishness, in my opinion. Yes he didn't concede, but he is no way near ready to push Almunia for a starting line-up.

Great to have Theo back as well - I'd forotten that he is actually a good footballer, and not just a glorified sprinter. It is still quite stunning when he opens up the tanks though - proper gas that lad.

1979gooner said...

We'll beat Hull (famous last words)!

K man said...

Some players played well, others not so much. Fabianski was not good 1979, which game were you watching? Diaby was also poor, barely in the game. Song was excellent, Gibbs solid and Vela and Eduardo added real class. Arshavin still looks way off fitness but clearly is bloody good.

Roma is going to be interesting - I agree Wenger is likely to go with 4-5-1 but RVP isn't good on his own up front...I'd prefer Bendtner up front with RVP withdrawn in midfield but I don't expect Wenger to play 2 strikers...

Si said...

Roma? Would have been nice. I got married in Rome, lovely gaff. I've been to the Olimpico three times, love that ground me.
Unfortunately as I write this via my blackberry, my plane has been hijacked and I'm on my way to Cuba.