Period Critical for Gunners

A good morning to everyone and welcome to a new week.
It was a bit of a frustrating weekend from a footballing perspective as we drew in the FA cup against Hull city in a game we really should have won. It was frustrating also because we did create chances, but couldn’t convert them. From some stats I’ve been reading I see Arsenal convert just 11% of their chances. That’s average at best and we ought to be doing better. The game was not without its positives though.
I think Danny Welbeck did well. He was sharp, he didn’t look slow, he still worked hard even if his finishing left something to be desired but we always knew Danny wasn’t exactly the greatest finisher in the world. I thought Elneny was positive in the way he played. He played with more confidence and I seriously think he’ll be a good player for us. Iwobi looked good as usual and almost scored with a nice curling effort that went just wide.
But there were negatives, negatives that scare me: Alexis.
Yes, that’s my biggest fear. I’ve never really ever worried about Alexis because he’s just such a classy player. He’d turn the ball over a bunch of times but win it back, he’d create chances for teammates and he’d score goals. He was prone to the odd bad game which is fair enough and I really have no qualms with it, but for a while now Alexis has been a little off. Wayward passing, wayward shooting, all things that aren’t usually Alexis. I understand the passes as Alexis always tries the risky pass in the hopes of making something work, the shooting worries me more and when you consider that we’re entering a very critical stage of the season you really need your best players firing on all cylinders.
We play Barcelona on Tuesday in a match no one fancies us for and with good reason. We are playing the best attack in the world. As Arsene alluded to in his post-match conference; we aren’t going to get as many chances against Barcelona as we did against Hull and in a game like Barcelona, Alexis is one of the players we’ll be looking to to make a difference. We have players like Ӧzil and Ramsey who can also make something happen but in an attacking sense Alexis is the guy you look to.
So you can understand my fear. But then just like in the beginning of the season when he didn’t score for eight games and suddenly burst into life against Leicester before going in god mode for the next couple of games, it could so happen again Barcelona. Alexis can score against the big teams and can play in the big games so fingers crossed he was just saving himself for Tuesday.
Beyond that I don’t think there’s much more to say but to wish the team all the best. I will watch the game because I believe in my team.
Let’s do this!
#COYG!!!