photo credit: http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/football/30387990
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This was one of the easiest games to see this season. We were all pretty riled up after the shit show at the Brittania and this game without most of our regulars with nothing much at stake was just one of those games you saw without much of a problem.
And it must be that the liberation of having not much to play for buoyed the team on. We did to them what Stoke did to us, within 30 minutes we were 3 goals to the good and even the celebrations for the goals were somewhat muted as it seemed the players were just feeling a bit…meh
So….now let’s talk about Ramsey.
My God wasn’t he terrific?
I know a lot of people have been on his back for some of his poorer displays, but i always felt that if he could pull it off last season, then there was certainly a pre world class player in there somewhere.
He gave a 45 minute performance of pure class that culminated in that cracking third goal. It really was something to see. For me it wasn’t just the goals and the assist (which was awesome) but it was the energy, the good passing, the tackling, everything!
He made a particularly good one in the box on a Galatasaray player which i enjoyed just as much as the goals. He created chances for Podolski and Campbell, which was also nice to see. This is all we’ve been asking for, energy, crisp passing and tackling, it was a joy to behold. The hope is that he continues in this vein of form cos we need him so much right now, we need him to be the Welsh Jesus, not that weird version of Hancock that Will Smith portrayed before Jason Bateman tried to reform him.
A quick word on some of the others…
Poldi is just a weirdo.
He guarantees goals but between his first and his second i hardly saw him do anything else (apart from getting the ball to start the break that led to the second goal) it was just funny to watch and you wonder if he wouldn’t have been a liability if we were facing much better opposition. He should get more minutes maybe just because he’s so effective, but he really should do more or he’ll never really be a consistent performer.
Joel Campbell: I wasn’t impressed i must say. Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t play badly, but he wasn’t superb either, now someone mentioned that what did we expect when he’d been used so little in the team and that therefore his performance was satisfactory.
I disagree.
He plays for a top club like Arsenal. The truth is uncomfortable but true, and that is at the highest level, players have to grab their chances, the smallest sliver of said chances. If Joel has a future at Arsenal (i highly doubt this) then he has to do better in these games.
Sanogo: Don’t have much to say, but he wasn’t as good as he was against Dortmund.
Anyhoo, we won, that’s all that matters, next up is Newcastle and i’m going to a friend’s barbecue on the day, it’ll certainly help distract me to watch the game with some good ol steak or chicken and some booze just in case Arsenal do an Arsenal. Fingers crossed we win.
Till later
