ARSENAL 2 STOKE CITY 0
BY GOODPLAYA AT THE EMIRATES
WHEN wheeling out an Invincible for a wave to the crowd before a game, it’s all to easy to whimsically think “how we could do with him now”.
With Freddie Ljungberg yesterday there was never any danger of that. Don’t get me wrong, he was a very good player for us. But truth be told we’re hardly gagging for a slightly built 5ft 9ins attacking midfielder blessed with trickery rather than pace and the instinctive urge to drift in from the wings.
There were certainly no shortage of potential Freddie’s against Stoke. But crucially we had Comrade Emmanuel Eboue too, who offered welcome pace and directness down the right.
Not that he was the star of the show though. That was an honour shared by Thomas Vermaelen and Andrei Arshavin. The former decided he was the man to take charge every time Rory Delap took a long throw and because he did Stoke were utterly nullified.
The latter gave by far the most convincing audition we’ve seen to replace RVP as the lone front man. The irony was that despite his excellent goal, Arshavin’s finishing was actually uncannily off. Twice – once early on and once late on – he was played in only to be let down by the most untypical of heavy first touches.
The manager correctly noted that the chance he did take was probably the hardest. It was classic Arshavin, deliberately bouncing off the defender to give himself a tiny new angle with which to play with and slide the ball in off the post.
By then our number 23 had already won us a rare penalty. Cesc’s miss from 12 yards capped a frustrating afternoon for the captain, who often came off second best in midfield tackles.
But we can hardly complain about our captain taking responsibility from 12 yards. Just as we could hardly complain about a lack of midfielders in the box when Eboue blocked Cesc’s goal-bound effort on the line after Traore’s cross had deflected off the post.
There can be few greater strokes of luck in football than being spared conceding a goal by an opponent blocking a teammate’s effort on the line. Arshavin did it against Liege the other week and Bendtner painfully in the CL quarter-final against Liverpool two years ago. Can anyone remember us being the beneficiaries?
The second goal was classic Aaron Ramsey. Yes, he’ll give the ball away sometimes, but he’ll make things happen too.
All in all, this was no bad performance. Stoke didn’t get a sniff up front and while our finishing could have been better, we were a little unlucky not to be three up at the break.
In the pub after the game it was like pantomime. Chelsea scored. Boo. People realised it was an Adebayor own goal. Cheer. City equalise. Cheer. It’s Adebayor up the right end. Boo.
All good anyway and suddenly their lead looks a lot less big. But it’s Liverpool next week and then in one of the cruellest ever quirks of the fixture computer the extra round of games sends us to Burnley on a Wednesday in December. Great.
Still, this weekend was a good weekend where we did the important things well.
Ratings
Almunia 6.5
Zilch to do.
Sagna 7
Typically solid I thought and got forward decently. Last week John Cross of the Mirror said he'd been poor this season. Can't say I agree.
Vermaelen 8.5
Took complete control in the air.
Gallas 7.5
Worked well in tandem with Vermaelen.
Traoré 7
Unsurprisingly is settling into his role. Not a bad crosser by any means.
Cesc 6
Set-up the goal and put Arshavin in with a great pass for his early chance but otherwise struggled at times.
Denilson 6.5
Fine without being anything spectacular. Doesn't to the holding role as well as Song does I think it fair to say.
Nasri 7
Enjoyed playing centrally and was often heavily involved. Few moments to take your breath away but to his credit got stuck in a lot.
Eboué 7
His directness and pace offer something different.
Rosicky 7
Kept us ticking over but could now be out for a while. Shame.
Arshavin 8
Didn't appear at all intimidated by being up there on his own. Welcome return to form.
Vela 6
Not used as much as he should have been. Struggled to get into the game.
Ramsey 7.5
As a sub for Eboue he played more on the right than centrally but was still very effective. Players who can score goals like the one he got are very handy.
Silvestre 6
A brief, uneventful performance.
Nice write up, and good rating. Really summed up the game nicely
Traore definitely had his best game in his short run in the team. But he’s going to have to do something spectacular to have any hope of getting into this team long term.
Not saying Diaby is a better player by any means, but for our team, I don’t think I’m the only one who is content to trade Rosicky for Diaby next week.
Nice website you have here. Organized and not a bad writer either. Keep up the good work
Actually, I thought Vela made as much impact in the second half as Rosicky did in the first half. I wonder if he’ll get a chance to make that left-midfield position his now that Rosicky is out and Arshavin set to play up front? Definitley prefer to see him given the nod over Diaby. I’m warming to Traore as well. He may yet have a future at the Emirates.
Traore could become a player similar to Eboue but on the left. A player that can operate in midfield or defence and make good use of direct running and athleticism. A handy squad player.
7 not good enough 4 sagna and ebou sagna was one of da best on the field defensively and i think fabregas shouldnt get the penalties vermaelen or rosiscy if he is on
It’s worth saying how well we coped without Song. Ok Stoke aren’t a good team, but they certainly are a strong physical side who you might have expected to benefit from the absence of our strongest midfielder. Combine this with the potential shown by Ramsey and the return of Denilson and I’m not too worried about the ACN absentees.
almunia didnt have much to to do and when he did have something to do he consistently made a mess of it -
asharvin didnt even play that well missed better opportunities and didnt really pressure the defence at all -
poor performance by the whole team in general good then stoke were even worse than us -
rosicky was the only person on the pitch creating anything effective -arshavins goal was due to his pass not cesc ez tap-
ramseys goal though well taken was not really engineered at all just lucky it got back to him and then he finished well
wtf arsenal
ratings way too high for such a poor performance
denilson might have well been standing on his head
every time cesc or nasri got the ball they just got knocked straight off of it
arsharvin is ridiculous 1 second he shooting the ball out the next hes shooting a goal from the same position with more pressure on him
only reason we won was stoke was terrible
i think arsenal best on ground should b tuncay for being offside 1000 times
worth noting that Traore is the fastest player in the Premier League… and has the second hardest shot at Arsenal (to RVP… of course)
this boy has bags and bags of talent… he just needs a run of matches
Traore was solid – he stayed on his feet and did well with heading the ball away. Also he did get support from Rosicky in 1st half and then from Vela in 2nd half.
It was a quality performance yesterday, imo. We ticked all the boxes yesterday – were quick (too quick sometimes), sorta clinical, solid in defend.
If this formation has to work, then we have to defend from the front. Which we did with Roiscky, Eboue and Nasri. So Stoke kept giving the ball back to us. We didn’t give them any cheap throws or free kicks. And whenever we did, we defended well. Best defensive performance yet from Arsenal.
Some one touch stuff was just brilliant. The partnership between Nasri & Fabregas was awesome. I loved that.
And Wenger was right! The team around us will drop points, so it is upto to us stick around with them and sneak in at the right time…
Let’s hope for a good week. Finger cross.
The latest is AW is interested in a 173 cm barca reserve striker. I hope it aint true because the gunners really need some powerhouse guys to head in corners and set pieces.
we have heard the gunners are being bullied . Well if AW really goe ahead rest a ssured the gunners will be in for another transition season.
I think we need to see arshavin up front in an away game before drawing any conclusions over whether he can play there long term.
To be honest I was really annoyed when I heard vela wasnt starting considering we have literally no other strikers left and he played well midweek. How must that make the kid feel? He plays well pretty much every time he plays yet he keeps getting overlooked or stepped over by walcott.
Anyway, arshavin is one of the best finishers around, and he showed that. The main thing is we did win, so l dont mind so much.
I really cant see it working with arshavin being the lone striker in tough away games. Id prefer vela as he has the superior 1st touch – but I was wrong about yesterday so maybe arshavin can prove me wrong again! He was saying before the game his form was poor – he looks to have turned that tide.
This is what we need, when big players are missing, we eed others to stepup
Im glad eboue is getting some credit too – he played this well many times at the start of the season but wenger never allowed him to keep his place – I dont blame him for wanting to leave!
As i said when we originaly lost R.V.P. Watch Arshavin go now he’l play down the middle. Surprised it’s taken so long. Ramshit,still waitng to hear your thoughts on the welsh boy wonders goal? Good to see verminator bounce back strong after the dissapointment of the chelski game, and troure has loads of potential,just another class left back in the history of A.F,C
we’ve dropped 14 pts (chelsea: 9, United: 11).
next sunday, i fancy diaby back in the side, with song and cesc in the midfield, plus nasri, arshavin and someone else (perhaps eduardo, could also be eboue).
Agree that when almunia did have to do something he made a total mess of it and is completely unconvincing. Manone or fabianski please since they have some balls at least.
Still no response from ramshit then!
Careless headline. If we’re missing 19 players in Leige it could be to do with the fact that we’re playing in Greece!