Top of the morning to y’all
After the heart breaking and
frustrating way we dropped points against Norwich, we were handed a lifeline
yesterday by Sp*ds and Newcastle as they both dropped points in their
games. Aston Villa and Man City have
both done us the favour that we hoped for and it is up to us to take the
initiative going into the last game of the season to clinch the final automatic
UCL spot.
As have been previously written,
the Norwich game epitomizes Arsenal’s season and truly it was. We started well
with Benayoun celebrating his 32nd birthday with a beauty of a goal,
and then the team thinking the game was over after just one minute of play went
to sleep and Norwich seizing the opportunity on our very poor defending, lack
of communication between overlapping centre backs and holding midfielders and
an unconfident display from the goalkeeper scored two deserved goals. It might
have been worse as they had two legitimate penalty shouts turned down in the
first half.
The second half was much better Gervinho
was moved to the left and made some good runs at the Norwich defence, Song
chipped what is becoming a trademark ball over the defence for Van Persie for
the equalizer and Van Persie wan on hand again to blast the ball home again
after the ball fell to him in the box. At that point it was just 10minutes to
go and all they had to do was keep the ball and see the game out but didn’t. Alex
Song’s misplaced pass in the middle of the park put the team under pressure and
Gibbs was caught out of position and Szczesny really should have rushed out
before Morison blasted home their equalizer.
Song has been guilty on numerous occasions
of trying the spectacular when the simple pass was the best option. Yes he has
a good eye for a pass, yes some people have likened his passing ability to that
of Fabregas and with some of his assists this season, it’s not hard to imagine
why but even the best passers of the ball in world football know the importance
of the simple pass to the left and right as it opens up the opposition up for
the key pass and not the key pass starting the move. It’s like serving an ice
cream cone and placing the cherry at the bottom of the cup first. Song is an
excellent passer of the ball and am sure Arsene must have encouraged him to try
the killer pass whenever he can but its time he realized the time for a simple
pass and time for a through pass as making the through pass when not necessary has cost us avoidable goals. Another area of
concern is the going forward of Vermaelen and no one covering for him, just a
few weeks ago, Vermaelen talked about how his partnership with Song has made it
comfortable for him to go forward but that wasn’t on show on Saturday as both Vermaelen
and Song were high up the pitch when we conceded the second goal. I think
because it has come off on numerous occasions has made them forget their
primary objective on the pitch which is to defend and not score goals. To think
that we have not won a league game this season without Arteta is another strong
cause for concern that Arsene has to analyse and evaluate.
The pendulum has swung back in our
favour and the players owe it not only to themselves to win their last match at
the Hawthorns against west Brom but to the fans who have stayed behind them
through the rough times while everyone else gave them no chance. A lot is at
stake in that game not only champions league qualification, but revenue from
television coverage as well as the Robin Van Persie contract situation as well.
The team has the ability to do what is expected of them, they just need to keep
their heads and do the right thing at the right time and am sure third spot
will be ours.
Lukas Podolski bade farewell to
Cologne fans amid smoke bombs and riot. I feel sorry for the fans of FC
Cologne, getting relegated can be heart wrenching and losing your best player
on top of that is adding insult on injury but that doesn't excuse their
behaviour though it’s just unacceptable.
On a lighter note, the club has
revealed the home kit for next season and you can pre order yours here. I can’t
wait to get my hands on one of those kits for next season.
A quick correction on my last blog
where I mentioned Elliot Bennett is a former gunner. Bradley Johnson is
actually the Norwich player who is the former gunner. Sorry for the mix up
folks, I am just a young man who loves the arsenal and loves writing.
That's all for now folks, be back
on Wednesday with another edition. Please drop your comments on my twitter page
on http://www.twitter.com/nigeriangunners
and I would be glad to reply.
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