Arsene came out with a plan for once, and it worked! by KM
So Arsenal gave me the best birthday gift you can have as an Arsenal fan with that marvelous 2-0 win away to Man City. Straight off to the positives with the number one being Arsene Wenger going out with an idea of how to beat city.
A performance Jose Mourinho would’ve been proud is something none of us expected really. Far too often have people (including myself) criticized Wenger for coming out trying to outplay good teams and getting ripped on the counter.
Well this time we were well organized and produced an example of a team performance. Did Mourinho call Wenger, and tell him how to beat City so that Chelsea have a 5 point lead? I don’t know, but whatever struck Wenger, it worked.
Can you really point out to one player as the star man? Yes, Cazorla was magnificent, his ball control was sublime, his penalty sharp and he also made an assist and a great dance afterwards. But really this one has to go to the team performance.
Coquelin, who played for Charlton a month back, was a real rock in our midfield. He really identified the need to protect the back 4 and get in the face of David Silva. When we scored, his reaction was to stay calm and continue to think about our defensive duties.
Giroud made a good game. He was winning first balls in the enemy box and scored when the opportunity came after a sleeping City defense. A big contrast to what we saw against Stoke the previous weekend.
Monreal was sublime. For me it was a clear penalty. Kompany got in the way and Nacho used it as a trigger. The Spaniard really is giving Gibbs no chance to come off the bench. Monreal is much more organized in defense and his heading is better.
On the other side we had a 19 year old boy who didn’t get a lot of mention but did a sublime job. Bellerin was fantastic. Just look at the City offensive line and their full backs. Zabaleta is probably the best right back in the league. Clichy and Navas are very fast, and Milner is usually a constant threat, but our full backs got good help from Sanchez and the Ox and it payed off.
This really was the best team performance of Arsenal I’ve seen for a very long time. Now the question is, was this a one timer? Why don’t we prepare like this for every game? Can we maintain this kind of performances?
Another big question mark is Ozil. He now has problem, with Cazorla being Mr. Fantastic for Arsenal. His game will have to rise. Exciting times. Competition in the Arsenal squad is getting hot. We have players coming back who will want a first team place and unless they produce the kind of stuff we saw at the Etihad, it’ll be hard to get.
Have a sublime week being a proud Arsenal fan!
Konstantin