Now that’s the Arsenal I used to know….
Now that’s the Arsenal I used to know…
You have been a shadow of yourself …
I felt we lost you long ago….
Like a book that’s left the shelf….
I see your trophies from afar
And I know that somebody you be back winning them for good…….
That’s culled from “Not the Girl” by awesome Nigeria Hip Hop/Soul Singer Dare Art Alade who also happens to be an Arsenal fan which makes him all the more awesome, but really just watching the game yesterday and the words captured above best expressed it for me.
The stop and start nature of our season and the manner in which we had to struggle to grind results made the win yesterday so lovely to watch. I’m not sure we have totally dominated a game like we did against Stoke, maybe the Champions League game against Galatasary but that day we still managed to concede. Yesterday however, it was a complete performance from all segments of the pitch. Strikers were great, midfield was spectacular and the defence held its own despite the departure of Debuchy. You wouldn’t find an easier way to earn a living than being David Ospina yesterday; dude was basically on a vacation.
Before the game Micheal Owen tried his best to make Stoke look like a changed team, a more ball passing, less aggressive, simply disgusting group on the back of their signing Bojan from Barcelona. We all know what we all think of Owen as a pundit and his comments will only engrave our opinion of him but from the game itself you would see how evident it was that they hadn’t changed a thing. A leopard can’t lose its spot they say.
The kicking, elbow throwing, pushing and shoving that ended up leaving Debuchy out with a dislocated shoulder and Nacho Monreal having to finish the game with a plaster just below his eye just goes to show how terrible they are. John Dykes captured it well at half time,
If Stoke can’t beat you, they BEAT you… (the first beat implying the football)
So we don’t dwell too much on evil, let’s move to how good we were. Games like this make you wonder what would have become of us if we were not so injury prone. The amount of quality we had on the bench with Ozil, Theo, Ramsey and players like Welbeck and Wilshere still not fit makes you really ponder what if.
…….Rosicky and Cazorla…(conducting the Orchestra)
Sometimes when you listen to music, most of the credits go to the lead singer who hits all the high notes and is all up in your face but the real guys who hold down the harmony especially in Acapella are the ones who just stay behind and make the humming sounds and sing the Chorus.
That’s what Rosicky and Cazorla were yesterday, a key feature of the Arsenal we all grew up loving is the pace at which we move, the intelligent one touch passing and the movement when you don’t have the ball. All that and more was displayed yesterday by both players. Rosicky is just a joy to watch sometimes, the way he bursts, always forward looking and willing to pass the ball with pace or shoot is just a joy to behold and when you take into cognizance his age, it even makes it more beautiful. He keeps this up and he just might be playing his way to another contract.
……….Coquelin … (The Marshall)
Not many people expected The Coq to be this controlled, back to back outstanding performances thus far have seen him keep the defensive midfield role to himself even after the return of Flamini from injury. For all the abuse the manager gets when he makes his wrong decision, I don’t think he has received enough praise for deploying his Coq in the DM role.
While it might be too early to say The Coq should keep the role permanently, he didn’t do anything to harm that thought yesterday. His passing has improved and I like the fact he doesn’t attempt to do anything spectacular, and he seems to be get tackled a lot, winning us easy free kicks that break up play. The game against Man City would make for a perfect test of his abilities even though I feel Wenger would play him and Flamini in the holding role.
………..Alexis Sanchez …..(no words)
Really we all should have run out of adjectives to describe him now, I tweeted yesterday during the game that whatever you call him belittles him. He is just like unadulterated honey, sweet to look at and even sweeter to own.
He managed to assist the first and score the other two himself. Another man of the match performance from him and Oxlade captured it perfectly when he was asked to hand him the MOTM award stating “he has had too many of these already” …..and what more can we ask for than for him to keep putting up performances that make him deserving of more.
Have to run now…Have a great week at work or school or basically any legit thing you do. Interact with us on the comments section below or on Twitter on @canoncrested. Cheers
