Sunday, April 5, 2009

Arsenal Are Getting Me Hot And Bothered

That's right, they get me all hot and bothered. Why you ask? Well if you saw how we played against Manchester City yesterday then they would be making you wet as well. Remember when I was talking about that 4-2-3-1 formation? Well we went with it and it worked incredibly well. The lineup looked like this:

Almunia
Sagna-Gallas-Toure-Clichy
Song-Denilson
Walcott-Cesc-Arshavin
Adebayor

Adebayor and Cesc were both making their returns from long term injury absences and neither one of them was the least bit disappointing. Two assists for Fabregas, two goals for Adebayor. The first was from a free kick that Adebayor headed in, and the second was a nice ball from Cesc over the top that Ade controlled, dribbled around the keeper and finished easily. It was great work from them both and it showed just how much potential our team has on their day. With Cesc, Nasri, and Arshy working those attacking midfield roles it presents a scary proposition for opposing defenses. Adebayor was back to the Ade of old, running hard, scoring goals, and putting in maximum effort the whole time he was out there. One instance particularly stands out to me, when he gave the ball away in their half just a little outside of the box, and ran the full length of the field to track down the ball and help in defense. It made me really happy to see that kind of effort and if we could get all of our players to show that kind of effort then I think we could honestly win every match we played.


Song and Denilson were pretty good in the holding roles, and they really allowed Cesc to have a much more attacking role, which was great. In the second half we completely dominated the game, with City barely seeing the ball and having approximately zero scoring chances. So while we were great, it must be said as well that City were horrendous. They couldn't hold on to the ball, they wasted the few chances they had, and didn't look at all like contenders for anything except relegation. Money doesn't solve everything City.

So up next we have the Champions League vs Villareal in Spain. They had an awful result this weekend, losing 3-0 and Robert Pires got sent off. Not the best match leading up to the Champions League, but all the better for us. I tell you, if we don't get any weird injuries and play like we played yesterday, we'll win in Spain. Not just score an away goal, but win outright. I fancy us to go through to the next round, and I think you'll see a good performance from us on Tuesday.

So we're seventeen league matches unbeaten which is quite an impressive streak. We still have to face Liverpool, United, and Chelsea this season though, and we also play Chelsea in the FA Cup and United if they beat Porto and we beat Villareal, so it is a tough road ahead. On current form though, would you argue that those teams would beat us? Liverpool are playing really well, but we've shown ability to break them down and score some goals against them. Chelsea and United both seem to be in a bit of a slump, so I certainly am not counting out three points against either of those teams.

The season seems so much brighter now than it did just a few short months ago. We're headed to Wembley for the FA Cup Semi-Finals, we're in the quarter finals of the Champions League, and we're playing loads better in the league and almost have our Champions League spot cemented for next year. It's much more fun to watch football when your team is winning, and that time is now.

Come on you Arsenal!

PS: Yesterday I bought the website www.ArsenalYouth.com. If you have any ideas for what you think should go on there relating to Arsenal's youth and reserve teams, feel free to let me know!


3 comments:

Vertino Aleci said...

I don't know how much of that city game you saw, I only saw about 10 minutes of the highlights. Another of our Arsenal comrades viewed it as a 4-1-1-3-1 formation http://arsenalcolumn.wordpress.com/ is the link.

17 games unbeaten is great for this arsenal team. Utd winning now, some how I think their slump is over..

Unknown said...

I think we should use the same formation for Villareal, with Nasri coming in for Arshavin assuming he is fit. Hopefully Theo will be able to play as well, but he looked really fragile at times Saturday.

soccer balls said...

Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.
~Bill Shankly