Three points at the Rovers! Nice start!

It was a massive win on Saturday by the Arsenal at Ewood Park. We overturned our woeful result of April in the very same ground and won away to a Fat Sam managed team, which we haven’t done since 2002, and that includes the Invincibles.

It’s nice to see us sitting with 7 points after two tough away trips, and to say, we haven’t even hit top form is something nice to know. Last season, we were on top of our game but we had one win and two losses at this very juncture after two away games.

The pluses from the game and the week:

ü  Theo Walcott has got his shooting boots and man is he on fire or what? Another confidence lifting performance from the lad, he needs to be consistent, confident and injury free. I expect a lot from Theo this season and I have a gut feeling he will deliver. There’s a reason he is wearing the No. 14 shirt.

ü  Chamakh has added a little something to our game upfront, he is a real work horse and I like the way he doesn’t allow the opposition’s defenders to take their time on the ball and his set piece defending (esp. marking of Chris Samba) was excellent, it was a real lift for us. With all our injury prone forwards, Chamakh is very important for us this season.

ü  We’ve got strength in depth in the midfield and with Rosicky, Nasri (in a month- of course) and Fabregas, it seems we have got a chance to turn our fortunes with injuries, by proper squad rotation policies.

ü  Diaby was one of the best performers in the tie, his physical presence stood out and with Song alongside him, he looked solid, and he even tracked back to cover Koscielny at one point. He’s answering his critics slowly but surely, he needs to stay consistent and slam his critics (I’m looking at you Jaguar and all others who call him Shite from Anti-Arsenal Arsenal) down the throat.

ü  Our New Look Defense is shaping up perfectly and its only a matter of time before we perfect our pressing. This new defense is much quicker and the defenders read the game much better to last year, it needs a little time to adapt to new partners and we need a little more physical presence. Koscielny looked good both before and after the one bad error in the match. We need to give him some time to adapt to the league. Squillaci has added the experience to our back four and we really can use it now to excel. Sagna was very good and seems to have worked on his crossing, definitely looked better to me.

ü  Almunia looked pretty solid, he may have committed some errors in the past but he is not a bad keeper. It seems Wenger is going to put Big Al’ between the posts, we really have to get behind him and give him the confidence he is of dire need. I really hope, the Emirates faithful stand behind him and with a better defensive Backline, Almunia can be very good for us. Here’s one for his career changing season.

ü  We defended on the set pieces a lot better and we seem to have learnt from mistakes. And more importantly, we picked up 3 points at a physical and tough away fixture. We can expect Blackburn to give a hard time to our contenders. Spurs loss at the Lane to Wigan was just an icing on the cake. Haha!

There are always two sides of a coin. So I list out some negatives that I took from this game:

×        Cesc was not in his element, he did show his worth when on the ball in the second half, but he was found guilty of giving the ball away far too many times for a player of his caliber. He looked a little disinterested or maybe he is just suffering from lack of match fitness, I wish to think it is just the latter. He needs to come good and come better than last season.

×        Van Persie is looking brittle by the day and we can only see how important he is to us, by the sublime assist he made. But this could have been a plus as he misses the dreaded Internationals for Holland.

×        Arshavin should take some for the team and do his defensive responsibilities. Because, Clichy really could do with some helping out. But fair play to the Little Russian, the goal was an exquisite finish, as it sailed through a sea of bodies.

×        Our defense has to concentrate a little better and stop conceding to mistakes. We have to make our opponents work for the goal. If there is one thing that makes me mad, it is conceding cheap goals.

×        We need to maintain possession better than at the moment and have to complete our passes better. But I personally think, we will improve as players get back to speed of the league. Most of them missed pre season, it’s only a matter of time.

That’s a nice week for us and I just pray the Friendlies don’t injure any of our players. We have drawn the Spurs for the Carling Cup third round, the young guns have to really step up to say this little cup is for them.

Cheers,

Sriram

Go Gunners!!

P.S. Don’t listen to the naysayers about the goalkeeping situation. Some players will step it up. I would have liked a goalkeeper myself, as a confidence booster, but it’s done! So, we better get behind our keepers. If Wenger believes in them, why can’t we? 


You can also find my article on:


http://11gunners.com/matchday-review/3-at-ewood-worth-6-at-emirates/3927/