Our match against Blackburn was exciting and we played some good attacking football that day, but we lost and I never want to see that game again. As much as I want to always see Arsenal playing exhilarating football, at the moment I’m more than happy for us to revert to a more restrained style if it means getting results. Sometimes, as we proved last night, you can get as much satisfaction out of a good old ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ as you do out of games that in theory are more exciting.
What made the win on Wednesday even better, was that I was struggling to see how either team was going to score the longer the game went on. You only needed to look at the reaction of the travelling fans, and undoubtedly the reaction of fans in living rooms and pubs, when Aaron Ramsey scored, to know that winning away in the Champions League really matters, however it’s done. The players looked chuffed as well. Surely it’ll give them extra motivation in the league to make sure they can experience such wins in Europe next season.
In truth, there really weren’t many other key moments to note in the game except for Ramsey’s winner. Johan Djourou, who did well after coming on at right back, clipped the ball towards the box, Gervinho miscontrolled it, but Ramsey arrived and finished brilliantly. Was it lucky that Gervinho accidently flicked the ball on? Probably, but it helped produce a moment reminded us why we follow football, and particularly the Arsenal. We never take the easy route, but sometimes they come up with moments that make you feel awesome. A late winner always does that, regardless of how good the game was beforehand.
One of the reasons the match was fairly dull before second half injury time was that we looked organised at the back and limited Marseille’s chances to attack. There were still some scary moments, we’ve come to expect that of the Arsenal defence, but generally they looked more disciplined and like they knew what they were doing. After Jenkinson went off, it was the same back four that finished the embarrassment at Ewood Park in September. The improvement defensively since then has been massive, although work still has to be done.
Laurent Kosicelny had an excellent game, and when Thomas Vermaelen returns, Arsene Wenger has a tough choice to make about his centre backs. With the injuries at right back, I think Koscielny will play there, with Mertesacker and Vermaelen in the centre. Mertesacker is becoming increasingly composed with each game. He can still look sluggish, but particularly in European matches, his positional sense and reading of the game is very good. As he’s becoming more confident, he’s becoming more dominant in the air when defending, and that is something we’ve missed in a centre back for a long time.
Admittedly, Marseille weren’t over ambitious going forward, as they’ve had an even worse start to their league season than we’ve had in the Premier League, but a clean sheet away from home in the Champions League should be seen as a massive positive. Plus it’s been a long time in coming. It was our first away shut out in Europe since AC Milan in 2008.
There was still a lack of creativity in midfield, however Arteta, Song and Rosicky couldn’t be criticised for not covering the ground in France. Obviously the departures of Fabregas and Nasri were going to have an effect, but we do appear to have sacrificed our more open attacking style to have a more organised midfield. Whilst we’re still a team trying to gel and trying to fight for points, being more organised is the best policy. Let’s make sure we can’t get beaten, as we still have good enough players going forward to score the necessary goals. All three midfielders did some great work defensively in not allowing Marseille to settle on their home ground and should take some of the credit for the improved defensive performance.
We’re now top of the group, with seven points from three games, and can qualify with a win against Marseille in two weeks at the Emirates. Ahead of the Udinese qualifier, with the state of our team, if someone offered me the chance to be unbeaten in Europe after three games of the groups and be one win away from qualifying, I’d have bitten their hand off and devoured it.
Arsene Wenger has been rightly criticised at different points during this season, but just quietly there are signs he’s turning things round again. We’ve got five wins in six games in all competitions, and there is a definite team spirit developing within the squad, and a willingness to run their feet into the ground for each other, that is really encouraging for the rest of the season. Keep it up Arsene.
Our next game sees Stoke come to the Emirates on Sunday. We all know what to expect from them, but hopefully our big German turns out to be good at repelling long throw-ins. We’re slowly building momentum, and with a lot of ill-feeling still existing between some supporters, a win would improve the spirit in the dressing room even further.
Just a reminder for those going to game on Sunday, don’t leave early as after the match, there is the chance to see the Arsenal under-18’s play the Chelsea under-18’s in a friendly. I’d definitely recommend staying.
Finally, it was great to hear that Thomas Vermaelen has signed a new contract. With other players supposedly being unsure about committing to the club, it’s reassuring that the vice-captain has set the example to the others by signing. Hopefully we’ll see a domino effect with others following his lead. Even at this early stage of this Arsenal’s team existence together, it’s important everyone stays as they’re capable of a result that was staple score-line for some Gunners sides; ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’. Another one on Sunday would be greatly appreciated.
Source: Sam Limbert, ESPN Soccernet on 21 Oct 11
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