Fluidity / Balance / Hleb / Fabregas / Combinations
Arsenal deservedly beat Liverpool 2-1 thanks to a Thierry Henry brace.
Arsenal were impressive for the most part and we could and should have translated our dominance into a more convincing scoreline.
Arsenal were fluid. Having so many versatile players makes that possible. It was our best performance against a big team this season I feel. Something we have been lacking this season.
Wins against big teams are the key to Champions League qualification.
Fabregas really is coming into his own and threaded a great ball for Henry to score on 21. He got the better of Xabi Alonso, Hamman and Gerrard on this occasion and that is not bad company to be holding your own in. We knew he was special. How special? That depends on him, his luck and injuries. But right now he is along with Messi, one of the world's most exciting teenage midfield prospects.
Henry is working hard and he has been somewhat near his best in the last few games. He believes again. The youngsters have stepped up a level and the team has found balance again. Hleb / Eboue is a great combination down the right, full of energy and pace, dribbling ability and work rate. Hleb has impressed me in the last few games and is deserving of this right midfield place. He is an Arsenal type player and I wouldn't be surprised if he did a Pires next season, although without the goals as he doesn't appear to want to shoot!
When we have Cole and Reyes / Ljungberg back down the left we will possibly improve further.
Gilberto seems to be more concentrated and is happier with a more limited role protecting the defence. Hleb and Ljungberg allow him to do this with their work rate and direct style of play. Fabregas and Henry dropping deeper and Adebayor able to hold the ball up, mean we have become more fluid in a 4-4-2 anyway.
Hleb adds balance to the midfield. Now everyone seems to be clear of their roles. Wenger is getting closer to knowing his starting XI. The team looks stronger, Eboue is a big plus, he has become an important player in defence and attack. He and Toure are a great combination, Senderos / Toure is working well as is Lehman / Toure. Flamini knows his limitations and has been a model professional at left back. The defence have been pretty consistent all season.
Fabregas / Henry is another important partnership. A concentrated Gilberto makes that viable. Ljungberg in a more central role and Hleb wide right / inside forward allow Gilberto to be effective. So there are a lot of combinations which are working well.
The team in developing and we are not world beaters.. Yet! But optimism is well founded.
Confidence has improved. Our form is gathering momentum. No coincidence there.
The reserves beat Brighton reserves 1-0 in an friendly, Theo Walcott setting up Bergkamp. Campbell and Robin Van Persie played. I wouldn't be surprised to see more of Walcott after he signs a pro contract on Thursday.
posted by JoeBoni @ 4:00 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Very good Boni. You're beginning to sound like Myles Palmer!
Haha cheers old boy, maybe i'll get to be a proper journalist and get paid for watching / writing about football one day too!
There is so much cross-fertilization between the arsenal blogs these days that I am not sure who sounds like whom. Even Amy Lawrence seems to be reading the arsenal blogs for some of her ideas - the problem is that she writes once a week, so by then almost everything has already been said, especially on the midweek champion's league games. Overall, it is harder and harder to come up with a novel idea. One of the good things about Myles Palmer is that he has some tried and true ideas (theories?) about football and about players and he works from those 'first principles'. I would imagine that other blogs will begin to also develop in that direction, and arsenal fan-dom will be the richer for it. The English press rarely discuss tactics beyond the generalities of formation. Instead it's all stories (the drama, the narrative of who scores when) and abstract qualities - courage, determination, mental weakness, etc. So hopefully the blogs will continue to develop tactical positions which will add interest and keep us reading the match previews and match reports. Keep up the good work, and enjoy honing your own style.
Great, this is getting or is better than ANR. I loved this little article, keep them coming, ur blog is bookmarked mate!
I love articles like theese ?=
Nothing wrong with ANR, Myles Palmer rocks! Good article here though, great to see some thought provoking ideas whether here, or on ANR.
Cheers for the comments, you just can't please everybody! I'm just trying to come up with some thought provoking ideas and looking to share them with some fellow gooners. I do read Myles Palmer and like his style but am certainly not trying to copy him, just to make some points other than a match review. There are over 50 articles on here so to say I copy him is a bit harsh. But as long as some of you enjoy it then i'll keep it going!
What I have seen from Diaby has been nothing but exceptional since he's turned-up.
But the way the team has performed over the last couple of weeks without, worries me as to how AW is going to fit him into the side.
The success over the last two weeks has come from hitting teams with pace on the counter, & as I said I’m not sure Diaby will give us that option.
He will probably now have to wait for Gilberto's next injury to get another game.
Still I think a certain Mr Walcott sign's pro papers this Friday so he will in the team for the next ten years!!!
P.S. just noticed Ryan Smith played yesterday, I thought he was with Leicester for the rest of the season, anyone know what happened there???
Lee.
They sent Smith back to Arsenal a couple of weeks ago. apparantly there has been a change of management up there and the new bloke thinks its not good for Smith to be involved in a relegation fight. However, all the LCFC fans say that the new bloke just took an instant dislike to him (or the idea of a loan player at the club), but they also say he was one of their best players, certainly in terms of flair, but lacked the spirit for a fight against big players. It seems we have a lot of those type players at Arsenal. I hope he comes through though.
Thanks I thought it would be something like that.
You can't really ague with the logic I suppose, because whenever I have seen him play it's always been on the front-foot & he's looked great to me doing that.
I'm personally glad he's back if just to pep-up the reserves for the rest of the season, & wait his time for a first team slot again.
Lee.
Nice piece and comments as well. My only addition would be adding back the factor VP might be important (as previously mentioned) but also that Gilbert and Hoyte shouldn't be forgotton defensively. Sol might also make a comeback...so we should have more options.
Would love to see Walcott in action!
I think this all goes to show that most of our season has been blighted by injury for one reason or another, but we were also light in depth too up until Jan.
It's also nice to see a couple of big players coming into form, but you never know what injures some of these players go out on the pitch with & I would guess this to be case the way our years gone?
Lee.
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