New week, new possibilities and one that even this early in the season is viewed as a make or break for us.
The Mancs are being touted to by Di Maria. Those noisy guys have gotten Balotelli and everyone is afraid of the Chavs; so you can understand that the game on Saturday was viewed with all of this in mind and when we didn’t play sparkling football there was a mini meltdown till we equalized.
I won’t go into the details of the game as I know by now most of you would have read like 501 different match reports and you probably know what happened on the pitch down to milliseconds.
All I’m here to do is give my observations and opinions as to what I’ve seen and am seeing.
So much was going through my mind as I watched the game and there’s so much I want to say, but I’d hate to bore you with all the madness that has gone through my head in the last couple of days and I’ll try and be as cohesive as possible so that I don’t sound like a raving lunatic
MY MATCH REACTIONS
We were rubbish for about 80 minutes and then we produced a gritty performance that was great to see and showed that we are a resilient team. Ramsey (who wasn’t having a very great game) and then the much maligned Olivier Giroud scored to take us back to level terms against an Everton side that is strong and would cause a lot of problems for teams everywhere.
I heard a lot of people complaining about the DM situation and screaming that we should have a proper DM and blah, blah, blah. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we should be in the market for another DM, but I just want to point out that the crap we played for the first half was not due to a lack of a defensive midfielder, we were just bad, that was all.
I was encouraged by the crisp passing and the positivity of our movement, it was all for naught though, but it was a hint that with a little tinkering, we’ll be a dangerous force going forward.
At the end of the day the draw was probably deserved and we could even have won it, I decide to take positives from that. It’s the second week of the new season, it’s better to work out these kinks now than for us to work on it later. For pete’s sake Spurs are on top of the table, that says all we need to know about the state of affairs for now.
WILSHERE
I know a lot of people don’t seem to like Wilshere anymore. He’s going through a difficult time and it’s sad that people don’t get behind him more.
We played our 4-1-4-1 formation with Ozil on the left wing. I would have preferred Ozil in the middle and Jack out wide. Being shunted out wide is an inconcenience to any of them but I would rather inconvenience Jack than Ozil, but with all of that being said, I still believe that there’s a great player still in Jack Wilshere.
I find it sad that some sections of the fan base are making the same mistake over and over.
This was exactly what happened with Ramsey, he was used time after time until he played himself to his monster form (not the last two games though). I believe Arsene will do the same with Wilshere and when he comes good, we’ll all be better off for it. We really need to learn patience as a fan base. Personally I feel he was better than Ramsey in that particular match and tried to make things work.
I understand that Ramsey can’t be taken off because even when he’s having a bad game he can come up with the goods, but I feel we’ll see some good stuff from Wilshere this season. We all just need to give him some backing.
GIROUD
Nobody quite divides opinion like this man right here. A larger portion of the fan base seem to not like him much and feel we should get another striker. Some feel he should be sold altogether.
I’m of the section that thinks he’s good but would prefer if he was secondary rather than primary and in the game on Saturday we saw just how good he could be as an option from the bench. I believe this will be his role this season as I still believe that Alexis or Walcott will get that starting berth as no 1 striker.
It is almost certain that Arsene won’t buy another forward this window and he’s happy with what he has. This will displease a lot of people but it cannot be said to not have been expected. Our pursuit of Suarez at the expense of Higuian last season should have told us that Arsene isn’t looking for another big man but rather someone who could play with or without Giroud.
Giroud is a hard worker and gives his all to the team, I feel part of the problem is that Arsenal has been blessed with very, very talented strikers and don’t seem to know what to do when we have a striker that is passionate, hard-working but limited. He might not be prolific, but he works hard. Below are the stats for Didier Drogba: Chav legend, Arsenal tormentor and amazing ballet dancer
In the 8 seasons he played for Chelsea, he only hit the 20 goal mark twice. Giroud has scored 11 and 16 respectively. Drogba first two seasons he scored 10 and 12…less than Giroud’s record. Stats don’t tell the whole story but this speaks volumes. His link up play is good and he’s passionate about the club, that much is evident. I feel he should be given where credit is due.
I believe that a little more tinkering is needed in our forward play. I feel the Alexis experiment could still work, after all the game on Saturday was just one game and we can’t draw a conclusion based on that, but we’ll have to work on the team chemistry to reap rewards from that style of play
With all of that being said, we can look to this week and hope that we can become even better. There’s still work to be done. I still believe that we need a defensive midfielder and if reports are to be believed we just might be getting one.
We’ll also need some depth in the defensive department but like I’ve always said, I’m confident that we’ll do what needs to be done. We go into the game on Wednesday without the injured Gibbs, Aterta and Walcott.
Ramsey has been red carded, but I feel we still have more than enough to see of Besiktas. Hopefully Ozil is moved back to the middle where he belongs and Wilshere can have a great game. Personally I’d hope Alexis starts upfront again, I’d really like to see him get used to the system and maybe even score. That’ll definitely be something to see.
Finally, I saw some tweets from some Spuds fans stating that their 4 million Dier was better than our 16 million Chambers…I really have nothing to say to them, all I can say is whenever Dier decides to become ambitious he’ll move to a big club—an actual big club. Maybe he’ll even leave for 16 million
See you all on Thursday.
