Niklas keeps us Top: Arsenal vs Cardiff Review

This is the kind of game you like to open a drink, cross your feet and enjoy at the start of the New Year and hopefully the players won’t give us any reason to panic.

With those words above I ended my preview of the game, oh how I was proved every bit wrong. Off to the in-laws yet again to hang out on New Year’s day (seems like a tradition now) and all our regular readers would know they are all Chelsea fans so there was no way I was going to watch the Arsenal game there so I grabbed a few cans of beer and headed off to watch with my mate @theOHbee. I was going to open the first can when we got the goal and your guess is as good as mine, the cans were never opened and with all the emotions shed during the game we just ended up giving the drinks away.

Before we discuss the game, if you read the preview I didn’t hide my dislike for Vincent Tan one bit but I actually do love Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but my word!!! ,was I sick in the stomach of seeing him or what? I know it’s not his fault but whoever was directing the cameras at the game should be sent to live in Vincent Tans closest and be forced to spend the rest of his year cleaning his ugly glasses. Did you notice how many times the cameras went to both of them? Before every corner, every throwing, every missed opportunity all in a bid to catch some reaction, really really poor from whoever was in charge, thankfully we have played them twice and I really can’t be bothered by Vincent Tan again.

Against Newcastle we had a midfield setup that I believe haven’t played together before and against Cardiff it was the attack. With Giroud out of the side it was going to be between Podolski and Bendtner and the manager went with the former with Wilshere and Walcott on either side.  It’s fair to say it didn’t work out as Poldoski struggled to get into the game and Walcott seemed to be our main outlet in the final third all through the half. What I don’t understand is the how impatient some fans are, if it’s your opinion that a certain player should not play a certain position and you stick to that I can relate but when you are screaming Giroud is the worst player in the world and you can’t wait for Podolski to come back and play CF and then you are shouting AHA AHA  when he scored against West Ham to buttress your point and then you he plays 45’ in the CF position and you start abusing him because he hasn’t torn holes in the opposition net I’m sorry but  you really need to check yourself.

We want the manager to make maximum use of his squad to ensure no one is burnt out due to fatigue and with that you would have to expect some changes like we saw against Cardiff whether it’s purely his decision or it’s enforced on him due to injuries.

All through the game we pressed Cardiff; it’s always hard to play a team that is set up to sit and defend their goal and defend they did. Wilshere had an excellent game and hopefully he can carry on with such performances though out the year.  He kept the ball well, was not afraid to take on players and had a opportunity when he went past two players and fired a rocket that should have seen us take the lead but for the pole. Pressure was on and at some point in the game we had almost 5 back to back corners and The BFG should have taken better advantage of.

The introduction of Rosicky and Niklas brought some much needed urgency to a game that seemed to be drifting away from us. Nacho did excellently and he capped a fine performance with a beautiful cross for Sagna to nod home but Marshall was there to save but not the follow up from Niklas which saw him go off injured afterwards. The relief that goal brought considering we already knew Chelsea were winning at that point and City had already done their job earlier meant no one was really bothered about the cans we were meant to open when Arsenal scored. Walcott followed up with the second after beautiful work from Wilshere to set him up and we knew it was all wrapped up at that point. Szczesny was forced to make himself big to keep a clean sheet late on but the sound of the final whistle was very welcoming after what seemed like a simple game became one we had to chase for long spells.

In all it was 3 points we desperately needed and got, sad point from the game was yet another player going off injured especially since its Niklas. He seems to be working hard to get into the side and must have been gutted to miss out on an opportunity to start, took his opportunity when he was called up and now is due to miss a few weeks out injured. Wenger failed to give any indications at his post match press conference if he would be shopping for a striker in this window and that decision would be one that Niklas would be very interested in. Our inability to take advantage of the numerous corners we had also is something the manager might want to also address in training. You don’t get double figures in corner kicks and fail to make force the keeper to make a notable save.

It’s Spurs in the FA Cup this weekend and we pray Giroud would be available before then as it’s a competition I would really love us to win. They would be in the heavens after the victory at Old Trafford even though they were helped hugely by awful referring from Howard Webb when he failed to give United a clear cut penalty. Anyways, if there is any team we would like to bring back to earth it’s Spurs and we will on Sunday.

Have a great day friends, lets interact in the comments section beneath or on twitter on @canoncrested. Follow us,we always follow back! 

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