Arsenal obviously needed to pick up some Premier League points, even if you are like me and feel that our top four hopes are already over, but with all the negativity around the club and the team being on the worst away run and the worst league position since Arsene Wenger took over, we also needed Arsenal to get back to something like the way we can play.
Well the Gunners got one of those away to Middlesborough tonight, with a 2-1 victory over the relegation bound Boro, but our performance at the Riverside could hardly be called convincing or confidence building by any means, and I doubt very much whether any of the recent complaints from the fans or the questions from the football media will have gone away.
THere were two moments of real quality from Arsenal tonight, with Alexis Sanchez stepping up with a fantastic free kick to open the scoring shortly before the break. The Chilean also produced a great ball which Ramsey chested down perfectly for Ozil to finish with a lovely crisp right foot drive.
Apart from that, however, there was a lot of dross from the Gunners all over the pitch. We looked vulnerable at the back, nervous and uncertain in possession and pretty aimless in attack. The boss had made six changes to the starting XI and also the system, using a back thre of Gabriel, Koscielny and Holding, but it made little difference to our overall performance. THe way we failed to push on after the restart and let them score an easy leveller was criminal.
Arsenal did win though and we can only hope that the team pushes on and does the same again at the weekend against Man City in the FA cup. Judging on this performance I will not be putting any money on it. Would you?
Bob.