That was easy, lemon squeezy. Two silky smooth games in a row. A nice way to wave good bye to November. Long live December.
How enjoyable was it to see 10 man Arsenal decimate Basel. It’s a pleasure to sit back and watch the fluent play of this team when it’s humming. Again, it only works because of the movement of Alexis and Ozil. You could see when Giroud came on how we lost that penetrating speed. But at least Giroud does give us another option.
How fluid are we currently? The interchange and quick movement is in stark contrast to a month ago. It’s as though we’re starting to solve our non-Santi problem. I know the opposition today and on Saturday were not the sternest test. But you have to enjoy these games when you can. This is our little purple patch. It won’t take long to return to earth. Let’s hope it last more than 2 games. But since Santi disappeared this is as smooth as we’ve looked. And all with 10 men 🙂
Hmm, why would I say that? Oh, I know. That person occupying the #8 shirt was basically not present. His first touch of the game involved him loosing the ball. His first header went right to their player. His entire contribution was negative. He’s far too stationary. Early in the first half you could see Obe1 come off the flank to pick up the ball from our center halves. Xhaka (ours not theirs) made angles to receive the ball from our defenders. Where as our Welsh Jesus was hidden behind their players. He does not seem to understand where he should be positioned to receive the ball. He’s quickly turning into to last year Theo and Ox combined. Frustrating and destabilizing to the team. He can’t win tackles and is too slow to recover. There was another instance when he and BigEars bollocks’d up their passing and yet he could not track back.
Taking a break from that issue…..In truth Basel had a number of chances – we’re just more clinical. It was great to see Gibbs set up the first two and for Perez to score three. He still needs more playing time. But you can see his mobility allows him to slot into our playing style quite nicely. He was, most importantly, in the right place to take the straight-forward chances. He still won’t start but he really helps provide different options of the bench. And you know with our injury luck he’ll get another chance soon (against Preston I’d guess).
I liked the performance of both BigEars and Holding. BigEars is definitely a better option than Jenkinson. But we, obviously, still need our Hector back asap. Holding was quite impressive again. Apart from his sloppy passing that lead to their goal. If that is the price of him learning a valuable lesson then, in a walkover game like this, then it would have been well worth it. Except, that right after that, he switched off again. But he’s young and so much better than his natural competitor – Chambers (not that I’ve seen him playing for Middlesborough yet). Anyway, I can just imagine the team-sheet in a year when he’s established himself in the team – it will read Holding My Coq…..
Xhaka is also part of the reason for our improved play. Compared to our #8, when he receives the ball he looks to immediately play forward; his passing is forcefully forward. Whereas #8 is sideways and misplaced. Xhaka is settling in and learning to link up with Ozil and Alexis. This is – along with Kolscleny – the spine of our team now (whereas Ramsey was the spine of their team). Once you add back our Coq for Ramsey you now have a strong core to the team from which you can play Theo and others. Today we saw Ob-one. He’s still not found his groove. Though he scored a goal he’s still not figured out when to pass and when to dribble. He still has a tendency to give the ball away outside of our penalty area and put Gibbs under pressure. But he’s working hard and moving all over the pitch. At least with Ob-One there is genuine potential; he’s a youngster. Whereas the Welsh Jesus is an established international already. I don’t get him. Though that must be obvious by now. Maybe it’s just his reoccurring injuries that have hindered him from finding his form. He went off early and I suspect there’s another injury looming for him.
I was surprised that AW started both Alexis and Ozil. I would have rested them. But that’s why he’s the manager. He obviously wanted us to get control of the game and the result. And also retain our shape and interplay. And, naturally, he was right (again).
And what about all those commentators (and fans) who were bleating (again) when we drew at home to PSG. Who complained about AW and the UCL? Well, fuckers, we won our division. So fuck you. Of course, we’ll still end up playing either Bayern or Real Madrid in the next round.
It’s been a good few days of footy – watching Bournemouth come back against Liverpool, seeing DarthVader drop 2 more points in the last 3 minutes, having Aguero and Fernandinho suspended for our games. And, of course, our last two victories. It seems like we rediscovered our scoring touch 🙂
We now have a tough game against the less physical Stoke at the weekend. Let’s hope we can retain our momentum.
– LB7