Two good wins in a week sort of puts us back on track. But let’s not get carried away.
Galatasaray showed why they finished bottom of the group and Newcastle lacked any sort of threat in the final third.
Unlike previous games this season, a bright start was rewarded with an early goal. If there’s a criticism, we didn’t finish the game off and could have been made to pay if it weren’t for Szczesny’s double save.
That said, there was good tempo going forward – Alexis, Giroud and Welbeck look really good together and the increasingly influential Ox means Walcott may struggle to nail down a regular starting berth when he returns (just ask crowd favourite Podolski).
Flamini for once played a really mature game. You hardly noticed him in the match and that’s how it should be – mop up, quickly distribute and look as if you’re anonymous in the game.
Defensively, the same old headless chicken routines (it wouldn’t be Arsenal otherwise would it?) meant a few uncomfortable moment, but in truth they were few and far between. On a worrying note I am worried Wenger will now see Debuchy as a reliable emergency centre back in the absence of Chambers and not splash the cash in the January sales. Gulp.
Have we turned the corner? Unfortunately too many false dawns over the years dictate it is guilty until proven innocent and not the other way around. We need to knuckle down and produce consistent attacking football coupled with consistent authoritative defending (no laughing please) for the rest of the season.
Can we win the league? Nope. Can we finish third and avoid another CL qualifier? Absolutely yes.
As ever with the Emirates faithful, Wenger Out one week, There’s Only One Arsene Wenger the following – not fickle at all then!
I am still pro Wenger out – but let’s cut out the abuse. It’s not what we as a fan base should be doing and to be honest we should feel embarrassed that some of our so called fellow supporters felt that a) they should hurl abuse at the train station and b) record and upload to social media.
I will happily see him go at the end of the season (and in the New Year if we have a disastrous end to the year) and bring in a younger manager with fresh ideas and not afraid to employ tacticians to advise him.
On a real positive note, the boy Bellerin is going to be special – let’s hope the Emirates Stadium IT department has blocked all in-coming calls from Abu Dhabi. Yes, there were a couple of passes that went astray and a few ill-advised runs that resulted in the ball being lost in dangerous positions. Far better it was done today and have the rest of the week to learn from it than do it next week at Anfield (assuming he plays).
Talking of which – is there a better time to play Liverpool? Seriously lacking in any form, cohesion, balance, you name it. We should be going there expecting to win and put greater distance between us in the league. Defeat for Liverpool next week could all but finish any hopes of a top four finish (at least they’ve got the Europa Cup to concentrate on!).
