These are the types of games that have proven to be problematic for Arsenal, and that’s why these are three great points to pick up. Arsenal weren’t at their best in terms of stringing those passes together, but the defensive steel they displayed is reassuring, and something different from years past. I’d like to think we beat Blackburn at their own game: for every strong Blackburn tackle, there was one from Arsenal and then some. Theo Walcott had another good game at the right wing, he always looked to be a threat and got rewarded with a goal via a precise far-post finish. Bacary Sagna deserves huge credit for the second goal as he was the one that kept the ball in and made the play possible.
Robin Van Persie was taken off after picking up an ankle injury (out for ten days which coincides with the interlull, so that’s good), so Chamakh was introduced. As I said on Twitter, he is simply magnificent at helping out in his own half and tracking back. His goals will come, but it’s good to see a striker who’s not scoring use his height and physical presence to be a factor elsewhere. Final comment is on Arshavin, he gets slagged a lot because of his effort levels, but I think the criticism is too harsh. He is a wonderful player who is always thinking a step ahead, I think it’s just a matter of time before he finds his mid-season form and becomes effective for the full 90 minutes.
What a great win? Big credit to our defense for standing tall in the final 15 when Liverpool threw whatever they had at them. Great job by Ashavin for persisting even though he didn’t have much success in the first half, but don’t forget Song, Vermaelen and Gallas who headed out pretty much every threatening Liverpool cross. Traore also deserves credit and I have to say, when we brought in Silvestre on I got a little nervous. The midfield wasn’t great for either team but ours was better, we won the ball back many times in one-on-one situations and intercepted Liverpool passes consistently. Great effort! We do need a big striker up-front because right now we don’t have a target man, Arhsavin is awesome but he’s too small to be playing with his back to the goal. I think Wenger will purchase in January and as long as our defense can keep it together, we should be fine.
Walk in the park this afternoon for us. Vito Corleone gets a clean sheet, Eboue gets a cheer and Vermaelen a brace. Other than a couple Wigan shots directly at Vito there was no threat. The six Wigan fans that traveled had nothing to be happy about. The only “negative” from our side, if I had to pick one, was RVP missing and whiffing on some chances he should at least hit the target with.
