Any memory of last week's terrible trip to Dortmund should be well and truly forgotten after Arsenal thrashed Aston Villa at Villa Park 3-nil on Saturday. The Gunners scored 3 first half goals in 3 minutes to end the contest before half-time.
It was a very encouraging performance from Arsenal, who were without a doubt aided by a horrible illness that had struck many of the Villa players before (and during) the match. Still, Villa threatened early and might have taken the lead if not for a great save from Szczesny on a Villa set piece.
Arsenal had conceded a goal from their first shot on target allowed in all four of their opening Premier League fixtures, and with Ciaran Clark unmarked on the far post, it looked like it was going to be five out of five. But Szczesny did really well to save and keep the clean sheet.
Ozil finally played further forward in a central role, and he responded with his best match of the season so far. Playing just off of new striker Danny Welbeck, the two combined excellently for the first two goals. Welbeck played in Ozil with a great through-ball assist on the first, and Ozil responded with a perfectly-placed cross to Welbeck for the second. When Kieran Gibbs put his cross in a dangerous area in the next attack, Aly Cissokho put it in his own net.
It was a great response by Arsenal after being, frankly, played off the pitch at Dortmund in midweek. And afterwards, Arsenal supporters watched with glee as each of their rivals dropped points in the ensuing matches.
First was Liverpool, who fell 2-nil down in the first 10 minutes at West Ham. a Raheem Sterling rocket made it 2-1, but a late finish by Morgan Amalfitano clinched 3 points for the hosts.
The Liverpool defense is in shambles at the moment. They conceded on an early set piece for the second straight match just as they did a week ago at home against Villa.
Then new "left back" Alberto Moreno allowed Diafra Sakho far too much time and space in the box and he responded with a fantastic chip into the far corner. Moreno had a great goal against Spurs, but he has looked downright clueless defensively.
Right back Javier Manquillo hasn't been much better. And Dejan Lovren, who cost about as much as Mertesacker and Koscielny combined, has also struggled. And of course Steven Gerrard is struggling yet again to be the "shield" in front of these new players. Liverpool had just the eighth-best defensive record in the league last year, they spent over 35m on new defenders to fix it, and they somehow got worse.
Brendan Rogers was forced to add a third center back after just 20 minutes, but it wasn't enough to get the two goals he needed. Liverpool is now in 11th, losing 3 of their opening 5 matches.
Then on Sunday Manchester United looked like they had taken confidence from their thrashing of QPR last week into Leicester. Their shiny new expensive toys were looking great, Falcao made a great assist and Di Maria scored an incredible chipped goal to go 2 nil up. Leicester when right down and scored from the resulting kickoff.
When Ander Herrera made it 3-1, it looked like game over. But the Foxes responded with 4 goals to win 5-3. The best part? All the United players in utter shock when a foul wasn't given their way in the build-up to Leicester's second goal.
Manchester United had just found out what it was like, for so many years, to play against... Manchester United.
Like Liverpool, United have some serious problems in defense. Like Liverpool, part of the problem is a lack of protection from midfield. Their simply isn't enough balance in the United team. They don't look good at all right now. Ed Woodward's thoughts on the matter? "Maybe we need another striker."
And then Chelsea faced Man City at Eastlands. The Blues scored from a good counter attack after Zabaleta had been sent off, and it looked like Chelsea's perfect start to the season would continue.
But Diego Costa hit the post when he might have scored, and Chelsea were eventually undone by none other than Frank Lampard, whose late volley was enough to secure a draw for City and keep Chelsea from opening up a sizeable gap on the competition.
I've never been so happy to see Frank Lampard score a goal in my life.
Arsenal will take a huge amount of momentum after seeing everything go their way this weekend into the North London derby* Saturday. Next up, however, is a Capital One Cup match for the reserves against Southampton tomorrow night.
* to top off the hilarity, the Spuds lost 1-nil at home to West Brom on Sunday, who were bottom of the league heading into White Hart Lane. Not exactly a title rival slipping up, but icing on a very delicious cake
Monday, September 22, 2014
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Leicester Reveals Weaknesses, Will Welbeck Fix Them?
2 days ago, Arsenal was lucky to take a point from a trip to Leicester.
The finger was pointed at Yaya Sanogo in his first game since Giroud's injury. Sanogo's touch and decision making was poor, as attack after attack ended with him.
To be fair to Sanogo, I thought he was scapegoated somewhat. He was getting the ball constantly because he was working hard, making good runs into good positions, but he struggled to deal with the physicality of Liam Moore and Wes Morgan. But young Yaya was far from the only Arsenal player to have a poor match.
Most of the team struggled Sunday. Mesut Ozil put in a completely forgettable shift on the wing, and Aaron Ramsey's passing continued to be over-ambitious and wasteful.
The tactics employed (a 4-1-4-1 which looked more like a 4-1-5 as all 4 attacking midfielders pushed forward without caution) didn't help our cause either. I feel Wenger is perhaps too worried about scoring goals, especially now that Giroud is injured until January, and he instructed the team to push recklessly far forward. Flamini was the lone anchoring midfielder as the rest of the "midfield" didn't seem to have any defensive responsibilities. The gap between was enormous. On top of that, both fullbacks were encouraged to push forward as well, which left the team very vulnerable to the counter-attack.
Indeed, Leicester's goal came on the counter just a few minutes after Alexis Sanchez scored the opening goal. Leicester's Jeffrey Schlupp caught Debuchy out of position and bombed down our right flank, and his cross found Leonardo Ulloa who headed home with ease from a great position over a dazed and confused Laurent Koscielny.
Frankly, Koscielny should not have been on the pitch for the goal. He was finally subbed off shortly after, but he clearly was not at his best and the team paid the price. Had Koscielny been subbed off as soon as the injury occurred, Callum Chambers would have come in and Mertesacker would have slotted into Koscielny's spot in the left-center of the defense. Not only might Chambers have been more quick to defend Schlupp's cross, Mertesacker would surely have been more alert to Ulloa's position to defend the header.
Either way, the Leicester equalizer came from a mistake from the Arsenal sideline. The tactics and the decision to leave Koscielny on when he needed to come off were punished by the home side.
Leicester were dangerous on the counter for the entire match, to be fair, even after Koscielny had subbed off. Ulloa missed a golden chance to take the lead after Chambers slid in naively and missed the ball. And Szczesny made a fantastic late save which saved two points. But fingers were pointed at Sanogo as the focal point of the Arsenal attack.
Arsenal dominated possession but failed to create many good chances. Of Arsenal's 24 shots, over half were blocked by Leicester's defenders. The build-up was too slow, too predictable, and not wide enough to open holes in the Leicester defense.
The away fans sang "Sign a f-ing striker" to Wenger when the match ended, and Wenger obliged yesterday.
We've signed Danny Welbeck.
"Not good enough!"
"20 goals in over 120 appearances!"
"Man United has never sold us a good player, its Silvestre all over again!"
Now, I'll be the first to admit I'm never afraid to criticize Wenger and the club (just look to my analysis of our tactics against Leicester above). But sometimes I think a portion of Arsenal supporters are bound and determined to never be pleased, no matter what.
The fact is, Welbeck had the 4th highest goals/minute ratio in the EPL last year, despite most of those minutes being out on the wing. He's an experienced England international and he's just 23 years old. He is proven in the Premier League and could really grow when given an extended period of time in his favored center forward position. Time he will get at Arsenal thanks to Giroud's injury.
Welbeck is a huge upgrade on Sanogo, and for those complaining about the fee, he cost just 4 million more than Shane Long. He was roughly half the cost of Romelu Lukaku, and brings nearly all the same attributes. He's extremely athletic, strong enough to hold off defenders and fast enough to run by them. He links up well with midfielders. He works very hard for the team. And he scores goals from the center forward position.
18 months ago Daniel Sturridge, aged 23, moved to Liverpool from Chelsea for 20m after a series of underwhelming performances on the wing for the Blues. When given a chance and an extended period of games in his favored position, he became a 20-goal a season striker.
I don't see any reason why Welbeck can't make a similar leap.
Arsenal may have underwhelmed a large portion of its fanbase last night (and some would say the anger was directed more towards the club for neglecting to add defensive cover to the team--but more on that to come later this week). At the end of the day, the most pressing need for Arsenal was at forward, due to Giroud's injury. We desperately needed a striker who could play right away. We got one from a Premier League rival, on a permanent deal, who is still young and should be able to contribute immediately.
Welbeck is a fantastic signing for this club and I'm delighted we've signed him.
The finger was pointed at Yaya Sanogo in his first game since Giroud's injury. Sanogo's touch and decision making was poor, as attack after attack ended with him.
To be fair to Sanogo, I thought he was scapegoated somewhat. He was getting the ball constantly because he was working hard, making good runs into good positions, but he struggled to deal with the physicality of Liam Moore and Wes Morgan. But young Yaya was far from the only Arsenal player to have a poor match.
Most of the team struggled Sunday. Mesut Ozil put in a completely forgettable shift on the wing, and Aaron Ramsey's passing continued to be over-ambitious and wasteful.
The tactics employed (a 4-1-4-1 which looked more like a 4-1-5 as all 4 attacking midfielders pushed forward without caution) didn't help our cause either. I feel Wenger is perhaps too worried about scoring goals, especially now that Giroud is injured until January, and he instructed the team to push recklessly far forward. Flamini was the lone anchoring midfielder as the rest of the "midfield" didn't seem to have any defensive responsibilities. The gap between was enormous. On top of that, both fullbacks were encouraged to push forward as well, which left the team very vulnerable to the counter-attack.
Indeed, Leicester's goal came on the counter just a few minutes after Alexis Sanchez scored the opening goal. Leicester's Jeffrey Schlupp caught Debuchy out of position and bombed down our right flank, and his cross found Leonardo Ulloa who headed home with ease from a great position over a dazed and confused Laurent Koscielny.
Frankly, Koscielny should not have been on the pitch for the goal. He was finally subbed off shortly after, but he clearly was not at his best and the team paid the price. Had Koscielny been subbed off as soon as the injury occurred, Callum Chambers would have come in and Mertesacker would have slotted into Koscielny's spot in the left-center of the defense. Not only might Chambers have been more quick to defend Schlupp's cross, Mertesacker would surely have been more alert to Ulloa's position to defend the header.
Either way, the Leicester equalizer came from a mistake from the Arsenal sideline. The tactics and the decision to leave Koscielny on when he needed to come off were punished by the home side.
Leicester were dangerous on the counter for the entire match, to be fair, even after Koscielny had subbed off. Ulloa missed a golden chance to take the lead after Chambers slid in naively and missed the ball. And Szczesny made a fantastic late save which saved two points. But fingers were pointed at Sanogo as the focal point of the Arsenal attack.
Arsenal dominated possession but failed to create many good chances. Of Arsenal's 24 shots, over half were blocked by Leicester's defenders. The build-up was too slow, too predictable, and not wide enough to open holes in the Leicester defense.
The away fans sang "Sign a f-ing striker" to Wenger when the match ended, and Wenger obliged yesterday.
We've signed Danny Welbeck.
"Not good enough!"
"20 goals in over 120 appearances!"
"Man United has never sold us a good player, its Silvestre all over again!"
Now, I'll be the first to admit I'm never afraid to criticize Wenger and the club (just look to my analysis of our tactics against Leicester above). But sometimes I think a portion of Arsenal supporters are bound and determined to never be pleased, no matter what.
The fact is, Welbeck had the 4th highest goals/minute ratio in the EPL last year, despite most of those minutes being out on the wing. He's an experienced England international and he's just 23 years old. He is proven in the Premier League and could really grow when given an extended period of time in his favored center forward position. Time he will get at Arsenal thanks to Giroud's injury.
Welbeck is a huge upgrade on Sanogo, and for those complaining about the fee, he cost just 4 million more than Shane Long. He was roughly half the cost of Romelu Lukaku, and brings nearly all the same attributes. He's extremely athletic, strong enough to hold off defenders and fast enough to run by them. He links up well with midfielders. He works very hard for the team. And he scores goals from the center forward position.
18 months ago Daniel Sturridge, aged 23, moved to Liverpool from Chelsea for 20m after a series of underwhelming performances on the wing for the Blues. When given a chance and an extended period of games in his favored position, he became a 20-goal a season striker.
I don't see any reason why Welbeck can't make a similar leap.
Arsenal may have underwhelmed a large portion of its fanbase last night (and some would say the anger was directed more towards the club for neglecting to add defensive cover to the team--but more on that to come later this week). At the end of the day, the most pressing need for Arsenal was at forward, due to Giroud's injury. We desperately needed a striker who could play right away. We got one from a Premier League rival, on a permanent deal, who is still young and should be able to contribute immediately.
Welbeck is a fantastic signing for this club and I'm delighted we've signed him.
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