Arshavin scores the solitary goal of the game. Photo - Teamtalk.com
Afternoon good people!
In yesterday’s match, a goal from Arshavin ensured that we secured our first win of the league for this season. I will briefly touch on the main aspects of the games, so if you want a run down of what happened read it here.
The first half wasn’t exactly vintage Arsenal stuff, but it was still good. Arteta showed his ability by threading through passes to first Ramsey, then Walcott, and either of them could have opened the scoring but failed to do so or were thwarted by a clearance on the line.
Just as it seems that the team would be going into the the tunnel nil-nil at the break, Vorm, Swansea keeper contrived to throw his ball at his defender back, and the ball ricocheted back into Arshavin’s path. The forward made no mistake, and grabbed the chance to score gleefully. The goal can be viewed below.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl0j5a_swan103577_tech#from=embed
The angle was acute, and it definitely required some skill from the Russian, so kudos to Arshavin for scoring the goal.
However, I really am inclined to think the lazy bugger benefited from his own laziness. Maybe it’s just me, but I really do think that if the opponent has the ball, you don’t stand and stop for awhile, but slowly move back into your own half to help with some defending. Luckily for us though, Arshavin’s slackness meant that he was on hand to receive the rebound and score the solitary goal of the game. 1-0 to the Arsenal.
The second half started, and somehow Arsenal looked shaky. Swansea, apparently sensing Arsenal’s weakness, tried to bring themselves back into the game. There were some close calls, however, when Szczesny failed, the bar came to our rescue once. We had a good chance to kill the game in the 76th minute when Gibbs cross into the box was met by a decent header by Chamakh, however Vorm made a good save.
There was one last scare in the final minutes of injury time. Szczesny committed a rare error, and flapped at thin air when coming for a corner. Swansea’s Danny Graham was the first to react to the ball, but from six yards out he could only managed to scoop it over the bar. Phew~ The ref blew for the final whistle, and a 1-0 victory it was for Arsenal.
There can be no denying that a huge slice of luck came in our win. Arshavin’s goal, Dyer’s freekick hitting the bar and Danny Graham missing from 6 yards out. However, with the amount of injuries that we have, maybe a little luck is due. With the amount of shots that Swansea had, I will be the first to admit, we did ride our luck for the Swansea game.
The game was painful in the second half. But if painful is what is needed to win games and trophies, then painful is what I am willing to bear for this season. A team that has lost its creativity fulcrum cannot be expected to be clicking suddenly and whacking in 5,6 goals a game. I say, give the players some time to gel before you moaners whine about how shitty we are. We might be shitty, but we won.
This win goes a long way in helping everyone associated with Arsenal. We got a donkey off our back by winning a game. Morale would be boosted, confidence would be restored partially.
Next weekend comes Blackburn, and there is every possibility that Blackburn will be physical, and park the bus in front of goal. The Swansea match has showed us what to expect, and what we can plan to do to counter Blackburn’s tactics.
The result aside, let’s applaud some of our debutants. Mertesacker looked imposing at the back with his positioning. Arteta caught the eye with a few key passes. Benayoun looks like a drug addict, but was lively and worked tirelessly when he came on. I would love to start the Israeli more often if he plays like he had yesterday.
Benayoun showed willingness to track back, get stuck in, and run to and fro to try and open up spaces. Something I reckon Walcott should learn. The Englishman was virtually non-existent in the second half, and he has a tendency to do that when not given the service. Run and run, draw the defenders from you even if you are not going to receive the ball. This will open up spaces for Van persie and Ramsey to run into. But oh well, I am not the Coach after all.
Capt’n Persie has spoken of his delight for the clubs new signings, and believes they would be a great addition to the squad. or what was previously left of it.
“We have some new additions that we are very happy about, I followed the transfer deadline day quite closely from Holland, and was in touch with people over here. It was quite crazy really, I followed it like I’m sure all the fans did.”
Le Boss has spoken after the match,and admitted we did look nervy in the second half.
“ I think we started quite well but slowly the nerves took over. You could see in the second half that we just wanted to get over the line and we didn’t make a mistake.”
In today’s top news, someone who has broken his vow of silence is Staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! No not the song Stan by Eminem, but Stan Kroenke, Arsenal’s owner.The American explained why we did not splash the cash.
“There’s a risk of going backwards if you overreact and start throwing money around in an attempt to solve your problems.”
We will see Mr Stan.
After the excitement of finally seeing some new players strut our stuff, we may now all rest in peace and relax after a win. For those who are wants to be in the know of how our youngsters are doing while on loan, check back tomorrow while I try to scour for some news! Also for tomorrow I will be resuming the profiles of our new players, and next in line is PARK CHU YOUNG! Or Ju Young as he prefers to be called.
That should be all for today! If you want to be kept in the loop of new posts, or want some videos, leave a comment, or subscribe by leaving a comment and click on the notify of the new post button, or simply go to my home page and be the 103rd subscriber so far!
Till tomorrow chums!
Being Arsenal FC Bystander 