Portsmouth at home out of the way, 2 league games, 10 goals for, 2 against, 7 different goal scorers, 4/5 assists for RvP, 6 points and a goal difference of +8 and we still haven’t really reached 4th gear.
Today’s game was especially slow as we never really got out of 2nd. From kick off it was as if we were training for a pre season game against a team of nuns. Before we get to that we have had some new injury news regarding Theo and Vela. Vela is out for a month with an ankle problem and Walcott’s back injury, originally thought to be just a couple of days of trouble, is turning out to be something a bit more bothersome. These injuries still leave us with 4 forwards, 5 if you include Wilshere.
Wenger made 4 changes to the team, which saw our first choice full backs give way to Gibbs and Eboue, Eduardo play for Bendtner and Diaby come in for the very in form Alex Song. The system was the same despite Setanta saying we were lining up with a 4 4 2.
The game looked won from kick off as I mentioned before and we essentially did win it by the 21st minute. We had made a habit of playfully strolling into the Portsmouth box and tripping over ourselves at the crucial time. Taking a bit too much time never seemed a dangerous prospect, however, as we were sure to score eventually, a feeling you never really got last year when we got chances and didn’t take them. The breakthrough came on 18 minutes from a quick attack that saw Eduardo speed past a defender on the left hand side with a basic school boys tap and run, he squared the ball behind van Persie and his tracker to an onrushing Diaby who buried the chance in the top corner. 3 minutes later Diaby scored again, this time from a very fast break from our box to theirs. Diaby initially broke up opposition play in our box and went flying into their half. Eboue was released down the right very nicely by Fabregas. He sped away from his man and into the box, the covering defender had to leave Diaby and as he did, Eboue squared the ball over to him and he tucked the ball into the bottom corner very nicely.
We carried on in the lazy style we chose to play the game and Portsmouth had trouble getting the ball back. They eventually did and forced a couple of corners and free kicks, which gave them opportunities to get the ball in the box. They did just that and they scored. The ball was raised high into the box, inside the 6 yard box in fact, and instead of stepping out to claim the ball, Almunia let Kabul sneak in front of him and head in a goal. It was a poor goal to concede, but even so, we never looked out of control. We did have a couple of bad moments in defense that will need to be sorted out before we play this weeks other games, but we also saw a terrific recovery tackle from Gibbs after he was beat in behind by the hapless Picquionne, who should have made more of his few opportunities.
Half time saw Fabregas off for Ramsey, because of a hamstring issue and the teenager deputized very well. He kept the shape and ball impressively, although he was under zero pressure. We scored 2 more in the second half before we brought on Merida, (who I thought was on loan) and Bendtner, who weren’t very affective, but to be fair they didn’t have to be.
Gallas scored for the 3rd game running, another unbelievable goal that saw RvP head an Arshavin free kick towards the far post for Vermaelen to slide to and square across for Gallas whose attempted shot bounced off his foot and onto his face, off the post and in.
Ramsey scored in the 68th minute to finish off the scoring after being put through very nicely by van Persie. It was nicely finished off by the youngster and saw us win our first home game of the season with an emphatic score that reflected the ease with which we won the game. We scored 4 goals without really getting moving and we could have scored more. James saved well from van Persie several times and some unselfish play from Bendtner late in the game would have seen another goal or 2. We weren’t as solid at the back as I would have liked but we were never under any real threat due to the terrible impotence of Portsmouth. It’s a win we can be happy with as we rotated the squad some.
There is a lot to be happy about at this stage, as we’re winning games, getting good results, putting in good performances and scoring lots of goals and not once have we been pushed to any sort of limitation.
We’ve never really stormed out of 3rd gear, even in the Everton game I feel we weren’t at our most potent. The nature of our goals is another pleasing thing. We’re scoring from set pieces, we’re scoring from out of the box, from in the box, from nice moves and from counter attacks, the only thing that’s missing is scoring from a cross from open play, then we’ll have covered all of the goal bases. And of course if one of our forwards needs to score.
We have to be careful not to get ahead of ourselves though. Everything is swimming so far, a result on Wednesday will mean that a small part of the puzzle, albeit one with massive consequences, will be put in place. We’ll have a big game at Old Trafford on Saturday, by which time we would have played 1 more competitive game than our opponents. It may ultimately work in our favor as we’ll have built some good momentum should we get a win over Celtic in the second leg. However, should Cesc’s knock be a serious one and he’s out for 3 weeks, it may prove costly in our two games in Manchester. For now though, we’ll just focus on the game ahead,
Celtic on Wednesday,
Highbury86
Righto, that was the Portsmouth post game that was meant to be posted Saturday, I'm having internet issues so I am only now able to post it along with some new stuff to make up for lost time.
There isn't much Arsenal news at the minute, only that Cesc may or may not be out for a length of time that may extend to 3 weeks. Hopefully we'll have him for our weekend trip to Manchester, as I'm sure we can deal with Celtic without him.
Jolean Lescott has sealed his Man City ticket, selling for an outrageously inflated 24 million pounds! This should pave the way for Senderos' move to Everton, which should see us buying another center back.
Man City have made another buy this week, signing Silvinho from Barcelona, which for me is the last straw. I love Silvinho, I missed him when he left, he was awesome for us, it's too bad Cuntface Cole usurped him, although he did go on to be the best left back in the world for a time when he was still with us and still a seemingly decent guy. It was sad to see Silvinho go, but he did and we didn't hear from him again until he started winning trophies with Barca. I still care for his carrisma and the fact that he really seems like a great little bloke. I officially hate Man City now and wish them a horrible, firey death, except for the former King Kolo and Silvinho.
Alright then, there is some other stuff I could get very analytical about, but fuck it, not today. I'm looking forward to Celtic on Wednesday, come on come on!
Right then, later on,
Highbury86
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