Everton Review,Giroud and our FA Cup draw

Resident Blogger : SimonSEEZ

Great game yesterday against Everton; to be honest I missed the most part of it. Had the in-laws over and with the wife out meant I had to do the hosting. Had two Chelsea fans and one united fan amongst them and in between the beer, ensuring they were comfortable and arguing with the two Chelsea fans (something I have told myself I really should never do again), I couldn’t concentrate on the game. Funny how the United fan was somewhat subdued during the whole conversation, sad times , really sad times up there at Old Trafford. If you find a United fan anywhere kindly give them a shoulder they really do need it.

However, they left just in time for me to watch the last 13 minutes and I wish I could capture the joy I felt when Ozil sent us ahead after some fine work from Rosicky and Walcott. Sadly it didn’t last long as after Barca bullied Cesc to leave us you would think they owed us and not send one of their loanees Gerrad Deulofeu to score against us and ensure we don’t take full points from the game. Could Gibbs have done better with dealing with him, opinions are somewhat divided as like arse2mouse stated in his blog post after the game, he was just as concerned by Coleman who was pulling away and was in a position to receive a pass from Deulofeu. I feel he should have made up his mind sooner and closed him down, worst case Coleman would have received the pass and be forced to cross it into the box and we can trust Per and Kos to comfortably deal with it, also his being static also clouded our goalies direct line of sight of the ball hence he couldn’t deal with it even though it came straight at him. That been said, sometimes we just have to fold our hands and admit that was a super strike and let Gibbs off.

Looking at the big picture, we had a chance to go 7 points clear ahead of the game with City and Chelsea but now have five. Would we have taken this if it were offered to us at the beginning of the season, definitely. You are still considered a contender if you are five points behind the log leader how much so when you are five points ahead, so while we might moan at the result because we are getting used to winning we must also realize we are in a healthy position and I feel we would definitely get points off our next two games. Chelsea have conceded six in their last two games and we should be able to take advantage of their leaky defence. Everton have never really been pushovers even under Moyes and Martinez seems to have made them play with a lot more belief and confidence. While Moyes is a more reactive manager, Martinez seems not afraid to travel and still keep his team attacking in large numbers and it’s evident from the way they play against the big sides getting maximum points from Chelsea and Man United and drawing us and City

Everton team not afraid to attack

Didn’t really watch the whole game and even though I have seen the highlights, I don’t think I have a right to analyze individual performances but just a little word on Giroud. Lovely bloke and we can’t really fault his contribution thus but if he is ever going to be an Arsenal great in the mould of strikers at the club before him like Wright and Henry he really needs to be more clinical in front of goal. There is no better striker in the league when it comes to link up play and bringing others in but he seems to be lacking this mad hunger all great strikers have to go out there and bang in goals. I tweeted earlier from the @canoncrested handle that Giroud got off easy with his miss kick before Ozil’s goal, had Bendtner done the same thing he would have received fire and brimstone from Gooners like he did after the United miss. Full credit for his effort at the end of the game that came off the bar but that’s what we want to remember our top striker for, strikes that win games. He sure needs more match winning goals to get him up there with the very best.

A little on our FA Cup draw, it doesn’t come any easy right? After Napoli, its City then Chelsea and at the end of December we get a resurgent Newcastle side still the luck of the draw picked Spurs to play us. Can we do one over them? Surely we can and if there is any team we would love to send out of the competition it’s Spurs especially considering our huge hunt for a trophy this season. The FA Cup is a great outlet to get one since it’s the last one we won so it would be nice to use it to break our trophy drought. Fans live for games like this and we can be certain the atmosphere for the game would be amazing. It’s more important that we don’t lose any momentum going into the game, beat Chelsea and City or at least four points from both games and the squad will be in a very inspired position to crush Spurs same way bad results in both games can affect confidence and make the Spurs game harder to win.

Share your thoughts on the game, 2 points dropped or 1 gained?? Should we sign a striker in January and our FA Cup draw on our comments sections beneath or on twitter @canoncrested .

It’s Napoli up next and we should have a preview up on the site tomorrow, kindly visit again. Have a great week .