Well that wasn't the stress-free walk in the park I had envisioned. I was hoping for a comfortable win full of beautiful, free-flowing football and dozens of Arsenal goals against a very weak Palace side but it wasn't to be as we rather ground out a 2-0 win. The sending off of Arteta in the 65th minute when we were one goal up made for an uncomfortable finish but we did take all three points in a game where we really couldn't afford to drop any.
Palace look a Championship side and unfortunately it felt like I was watching a Championship game. This wasn't helped by the pitch - it's a wonder the players could even see each other over that long, dry grass, let alone play the ball across it with any zip resulting in countless under-hit passes, in the first half especially.
The first half was more or less devoid of incident and entertainment. We dominated proceeding early on without creating clear-cut chances but suffered a blow inside the first ten minutes as Mathieu Flamini was subbed of for Serge Gnabry after injuring his groin. Hopefully it is not too serious as he has been instrumental in our team's success so far this season and was notably not involved in either of our defeats.
Gnabry's performance was a mixed bag - he was sloppy at times but looked very dangerous at others. He looks raw - he is obviously extremely talented and he has a very good chance of making the grade at Arsenal. Hopefully, he will make another positive impact on Tuesday night in the Carling Cup. Serge created the break-through after the interval by winning a penalty after beating his man in the box and being brought down by a rash challenge. Arteta's penalty was excellent, stuck powerfully into the side of the net.
Arsène said after the game that if Arteta's ban wasn't just ruling him out of a Carling Cup game he would have appealed the decision, however I can't say I have any complaints. Once Chamakh had knocked the ball towards goal and there was a coming together I fully expected the captain to see red as he was the last man. Unfortunately I don't think there is a rule that allows refs to take into account whether the player running through on goal is a shambolic footballer whose finishing is almost as bad as his hair so I think Arteta (whose hair looks even better when compared to Chamakh's) had to go.
From then on, it was squeeky-bum time. Giroud looked increasingly isolated and a little fatigued and Palace came very close to scoring. In fact, if it wasn't for two super-saves from our in-form goalie, Wojciech Szczesny, we could have been looking at a very embarrassing and morale-damaging draw or even loss. The first was tipped onto the bar and over and the second was exceptional as he got a very strong hand onto a powerful Jedinak volley from the resulting corner.
As time was running out for Palace, they understandably threw more players forward in search of an equaliser which left them pretty open at the back. We managed to punish the home team in the 87th minute when our counter-attack found Ramsey in the box. He cut back and produced an excellent chipped cross for Giroud to nod home. Olivier looked delighted after what was a tough afternoon for him and I'm sure he enjoyed his goal after missing two headed chances (both from excellent Sagna crosses) earlier in the game. The goal demonstrated how fit Ramsey is - he just keeps going to the final whistle and even then you get the impression there is more in the tank. It also demonstrated how clinical he has become and how much his decision making has improved.
All in all, it was the result we wanted but maybe not the performance we had expected. We were indebted to our goalie and should be hopeful going into some very tricky and important games over the next two weeks.
Man of the Match: Wojciech Szczesny
Nice Piece Tom. That photo is amazing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan! Glad you liked the picture!
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