A victory over l'fool is always good. A victory against l'fool in anfield is better...and that's what Andrei Arshavin conspired to do last nite with a stunning 2nd half strike to bag all 3 point for the gunners.
All the reports will tell you that l'fool had a better 1st half and got a deserved lead. But after a roasting from AW in the dressing room at half time, the boys came out with more determination and started winning more of those 50-50 balls that they weren't getting stuck in for in the 1st 45.
Quite notably from this game, almunia had a bit of a stinker....his "punch" merely set up the ball for kuyt to control n slot home. There were some moans about some l'fool player being in an offside position but that immaterial....not just because Arsenal won in the end, but it's because a lame punch from the keeper like that deserves no less than a goal against. Learning the hard way. almunia was less than impressive, I have to say. He flapped a bit and his distribution was bordering awful.
I think the team did pretty well in defense. Vermaelen was named man of the match and I'm not going to argue about that. He is the kind of player Arsenal should have been signing at least one of every season. He's a man, not a boy, he's brave, determined and committed to the cause. Try telling that to denilson and diaby - the double Ds of damage.
denilson was too light weight last night and kept losing the ball at the slightest touch. He kept going down hoping to win a free kick but they hardly came our way. In the 1st half, the ref seemed to be favouring us (especially for that steven retard penalty claim off a gallas mis-timed tackle) but in the 2nd half, it seemed the ref was looking to make amends and each time denilson went down at the slightest touch, the ref would wave play on and put us under quite a bit of pressure. Plus Arsenal never seem to concentrate for a full 90 minutes when defending.
diaby returned too last nite. Bummer! He came on as a sub and still plays his usual stinking game. He's lame, he should never put on an Arsenal shirt ever again. Always getting caught in possession and I feel he's more a liability to the team. Off with his head!
walcott didn't quite turn up either. I don't recall a single important contribution from him apart from make a run into the box for the 1st goal which came off glen johnson....I suppose the pressure he put on johnson won us that equaliser. Apart from that, i don't recall him having a go at the l'fool defense. You gotta wonder what eboue would be thinking about all this.
The rest of the team played like they should every week. Arshavin only had his goal to account himself for. He hardly had a chance to put the l'fool back line to the test. This was probably because Arsenal were getting crowded out in the middle 3rd that they couldn't deliver good balls to the little russian.
All in all, it was a decent performance. And it helped that l'fool shut off in the 2nd half. I just hope to see less and less of denilson and diaby.
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