Wenger deserves great credit for Arsenal win by Sam P
When Arsene Wenger turned to the Arsenal bench early in the second half of a tough game against a Norwich City side fighting for their Premier League survival, the Arsenal fans were delighted to see Danny Welbeck getting ready to come on and with plenty of time to influence the game.
But when we saw that it was Alex Iwobi and not Olivier Giroud that was to be replaced, the delight turned to confusion and the boss got more boos for that sun than he did from the planned protests in the 12th and 78th minutes. I was a bit baffled myself, as the big Frenchman had really struggled to have any impact on the game.
Even though I thought that the way Norwich had set up and the lack of width from our so-called wide players was not helping him, I thought it was sure to be Giroud to get the hook, especially with his confidence at rock bottom after his longest goal drought since joining the Gunners.
So I think we should hold our hands up and give Wenger the credit he deserves for getting this right. Welbeck had more space to operate in out wide and he gave the team more width and that changed the shape of the game. Also, Giroud’s excellent work as a target man set up the goal, so you have to say the sub worked out perfectly.
The boss explained his thinking to Arsenal Player like so, “I saw the opportunity there, because Alex Iwobi comes more towards the ball but, with a runner in behind on our left side, there was some room to exploit, and Danny did that very well.
“That is good for his confidence as well. Overall I’m very happy.
“We were a bit subdued at the start – serious, but not fluent enough and not quick enough or sharp enough. During that period in the first half, we needed not to concede a goal.
“After that, we slowly took over and in the end we won 1-0. That’s what we needed above all. It was a bit of a strange atmosphere and the most important thing for us was to win the game.
“In these kind of games, you know that you will have a fight until the last second. We’ve just played two teams who fight not to go down.
“When people look at the table, they think [you will get] six points, but we have seen that you have to work very hard to get the points.”
I know we are all armchair manager’s at times and some of the decisions from Wenger leave us scratching our heads but we should also remember that he is a football manager with tons of experience and a proud record. Let’s give the man some credit shall we?