By 1970’s Gooner
Arsenal’s thumping of Spurs was down to a fantastic
team performance characterised by team spirit, work ethos and amazing accuracy
in front of goal.
Two aspects stuck out with me most.
The first has to do with the tactics that Harry
adopted. He chose to play with two front men in Saha and Adebayor.
This meant
that the midfield was manned by Modric who was more attack minded and Parker who
was the defensive minded player. The result was that Spurs were outnumbered in
this crucial area of the pitch as Arsenal played their normal 4 3 3 with
Benayoun, Rosicky and Song the three
midfield players.
Spurs would have been OK if their two wide men, Kranjkar and
Bale tacked in to give a helping hand in midfield.
But this was where Spurs and Harry failed. For, on the
occasions where their wide men failed to tack in, they were outplayed in
midfield.
And when they did tack in they left acres of space on
the flanks. Bale in particular was more exposed as when he vacated his line on
the flank it was Walcott who benefited. And we all saw what he did to Spurs!
And Arsenal’s trio in the middle were brilliant. They chased and tackled
all over the pitch especially in the opponents defensive line thus forcing
their defenders into mistakes. When they won the ball they passed it to the
forward players with precision.
A special mention has to go to Rosicky. He reminded us
all of his best performances, now two years ago! What a player he was on
Saturday. He did everything. He tackled, passed, hurried, and tackled again. He
run and run and run. And he scored too!
The perfect performance.
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7 comments:
Arteta?
We probably had a midfield 4 rather than 3, which is why Harry felt he was getting flooded in midfield. This forced our wingplay to go down the right instead, which incidentally was Spurs' weaker side defensively, and our stronger side, with Theo and Sagna combining well.
The key for me was the reckless abandon we played with, rather than the safety-first passing. Rosicky and Benayoun inject a bit more speed into the side, and what I like about Rosicky is that when he gets the ball he's always thinking about going forward.
Rosicky's problem is the same as Ramsey's and Gervinho's - not enough goals. As soon as he scored, people are raving about him, and rightly so. If our midfield and wingers contributed more, we would have had a title challenge on our hands.
I've always loved watching Rosicky. He's just so good on the ball. He's easily the most technically gifted, best passing midfielder in the squad with attacking vision. He was great v Spurs because he had loads of room, Harry having got his formations and defensive line all wrong for once. Harry sat there embarrassed because he realised he f*cked everything up badly today. And for once Wenger's tactics were all correct. Like to see Rosicky go from strength to strength here and more Benayoun please, but against stronger crowded midfields they will struggle again.
@9:40. . .once you've learned to spell 'Ramsey' someone might afford you the privilege of cleaning his boots.
That comment about Rambo is disgusting. The boy is still very young and not a while a go he had his career nearly finished due to that broken leg. Give him time. He will come good for sure. Now bringing up Gary speed in your comment, just shows how ignorant you are. We don't need people like you in the arsenal. Go and support the spurs instead.
The desire to win was evident right fromthe start. The past few years, we could see balls played across gaol with no Arsenal player in sight. There was just a lack of desire to go fo a tap in. Everyone was just waiting for ball to their feet. This became endemic.
Whereas, on Sunday,the team worked hard, defending, bossing the midfield and attacking as a team. One couldhave mistaken us for MU. They worked hard as a team; hopefully we learned fromthis experience and look at MU video rather than Barca. We play the Barca way, but do not have the players with skills of Mesci, Inesta, Pedro Sanchez etc. Hence, watching Arsenal these days was akin to watching the past years German league. Very methodical with little penetration and speed.
Now, we must change. The crucialmatch will be against Liverpool; whether this team spirit has become incalcuated into the players head OR just one off.
Hopefully, the players follow Henri advise to build on this performance.
Onward to 4th place....
Well, I should say I told you so. Rosicky showed his magnificent skills and why he should be starting every game for Arsenal. In my book the only other player who could compete in his current attacking mid-field position is Diaby. I cant wait to see Rosicky, Diaby and Song playing together in the center of the pitch. That will be a game to watch.
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