Arsenal travelled to France for the third Champions League matchday in what turned out to be a difficult and relatively boring encounter. A lack of quality from either side in the final third left most of the possession to the midfielders. And our best player was probably a midfielder – Alex Song – a rock in defence and a powerhouse moving forward. But let’s not also ignore a great game from Laurent Koscielny who is finally showing a consistent side to his game.
This form of Koscielny’s started soon after the Carling Cup final – but who could notice anything good that he did in the aftermath of that match?! He has been growing in confidence and tactical awareness for months, and today he showed just how good he has become. He won aerial battles, put in plenty of tackles and his passing was pretty decent too.
Our wingers – Walcott and Arshavin – were poor. In this formation, when the wingers are off form it throws the whole team. It forces van Persie deep which can really reduce his impact. Further to that, every cross will be met by no one. Arshavin seems to struggle in a full 90 minute game – does he still not have the fitness? And Walcott’s decision making just needs to improve. He made some good runs but just not enough of them. To be fair, Marseille played quite conservatively at times, making it difficult for Theo to find space. But in the first half, there was plenty of space and our Englishman failed to take advantage of it on enough occasions.
The only talking points of the first 45 minutes were two penalty shouts and a clearance off the line from a van Persie header. The first penalty decision was from a handball by Jenko. It was 100% a penalty, the ball came from a far distance and Carl raised his hand to the ball. The second was from one of our many corners (which rarely threatened the opposition, as per usual). A Marseille defender raised his arm quite clearly, lifting the ball higher into the box. Funnily enough, van Persie’s header arrived as a result of that infringement, and the player who handballed it ended up clearing the ball off the line!
The second half was more Arsenal’s – plenty of possession and no end product. Van Persie was having a tough time getting into the game, which left chances scarce. A few long range efforts failed to trouble the keeper, so the first big chance fell to Theo. He took a poor touch from Gervinho’s pass but the defender made an even worse attempt at a tackle. Walcott was through on goal but hit a tame effort straight at the keeper.
Other talking points in the second half included Jenko going off injured, leaving no recognised RB to take his place. The increasingly-dodgy Djourou took his place and had a fair game, although was booked for a great tackle and slipped in a very dangerous position when trying to clear the ball. He did cross for the winning goal, so he redeemed himself slightly. Gervinho came on for the ineffective Walcott and Ramsey took Arshavin’s place.
Van Persie had a great chance in the final minute of normal time as Gervinho ran at the opposition defence before threading a sensational through ball to our captain. RvP smashed the ball at the keeper to cap a frustrating game for the Dutchman. However, the winner came moments later through an arching cross from Djourou. Gervinho tapped the ball onto the oncoming Ramsey who slotted it home with ease.
With 7 points and two Champions League home fixtures to come, qualification looks almost a certainty. A win at home against Marseille will all but secure it.
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I did not think Per and Song had a good game.Neither did Arteta have one.He looks very slow in Possession and seems more than happy doing defensive stuffs which is not what he is expected at the first place.
I thought Rosicky is having a good season and his fitness levels have improved.Hope he remains fit as he and Ramsey seems to be the enforcer in the midfield we have till Jackie Boy comes back in February.RVP needs some rest now.How about givinf him some rest against Stoke and bringing him late on.
Good
Arshavin and Walcott are a disgrace. Both should be nothing more than reserve team at best, and then I would feel sorry for the players dropped because of them.
If Juve are that desperate to sign Walcott then I’ll give him a biggy back all the way to Italy. Jenkinson was outplaying him down the right and was the main supply down that flank, and he was a division 1 player last season! Walcott needs to wake up a remember if he wants to keep his England place he needs to perform for his club. Saying that though I would still like to see him play a central striker role alongside RVP. It’s got to be worth an experiment in the Carling Cup just to see if he is good enough to play the role he obviously is so desperate to play.
As for Arshavin, words fail me. He is a disgrace and should be sold in January! I wonder if Southend United have any players they would like to do a swap deal with. After all the way he is playing Division 2 is the best he could hope for!
Agree with your other ratings comments though, although I think scores for Mertesacker and Jenkinson are a little low.
I agree with most of your comments/scores but how on earth do you make Song MoM? He did win the ball back on occasions but not as often as he gave it away. His positional sense is poor and needs to understand that his job is to win the ball then give it to someone who can do something constructive with it. When Jenkinson (who was outstanding) had to come off you would expect Song to have the sense to drop back into defence until the substitution could be made, where was he? Up the field almost playing centre forward. Coquelin has more promise and a better footballing brain.
Agree with JSP,those two are infuriating to watch,Walcott is the daftest player i have ever seen wearing an Arsenal shirt if we can get two bob for him sell,sell,sell and Arshavin i could write a book about how poor he is and never willing to put his body on the line,extremely slack passing and hopeless in position of the ball,the times he passed the ball straight to opponent was laughable.
@Bridgers, did you write that only for criticism sake or you need to visit specsaver before watching the match again?
Song dropped to cover Jenkinson’s wing before the change was completed and i could remember him making an interception there before Djourou came on.
Its more sensible to say that he sometimes lost possesion and made some poor passes, but to question his defensive and positional abilities yesterday does not make sense to anybody that watched the match without agenda.