For a team like Arsenal, chasing a top four spot, its games like today against Stoke that make the difference. With a Carling Cup game Tuesday where RVP isn’t likely to play it was certainly a surprise to see our captain benched and Chamakh given a chance to prove his worth. On a day where Manchester City will be stealing all the headlines quite frankly I’m glad Arsenal can sit in the media shadow increasing our run of form to have ‘one’ six games out of seven.
Lost in the Park
All eyes were on Chamakh today after unwanted media attention about his current run of form and whether or not he’ll be an Arsenal player come January. Today certainly wasn’t his day and was really only involved in two key moves, one being his first half header from an Arteta corner which went wide and a stone cold penalty decision not given by todays referee Lee Mason. Chamakh looks too isolated up the top on his own and he’s certainly nowhere near as good as RVP in keeping the ball so I can really only see him come good in a 442 formation with a second striker to aid him, what about Park?
Stoke played well for the majority of the match, they kept the ball well and passed it around almost as good as Arsenal at times and of course worked the set pieces to Arsenals dislike. However it was Arsenal who drew first blood with a wonderful moved which ended with Ramsey, who had a very good game today, chipping the ball over Stokes defence for Gervinho to finish. Ramsey has been growing with each game and is going to make it difficult for Wilshere on his return from injury to walk back into the team.
Under scrutiny was Arsenals defence and of course we continue to allow ourselves completely exposed at set pieces. Mertesacker is still adapting to the English game yes but he still marked players in Germany didn’t he? A harshly given free kick against Kosceilny, who brilliant out jumped Crouch only to be penalized, was played to perfection by Stoke who went on to win 3 headers in our area and then tapped in by Crouch. On watching replays you can see our defence was ball watching and no one was on Crouch as he equalized.
As good as Messi
Arsenal no doubt controlled the game but as we’ve seen throughout the season we’ve lacked that killer pass to unlock defences that Fabregas was so good at doing. As we did against Aston Villa last season we called upon our Captain, this time Robin Van Persie to step up to the plate and make the difference and he did it by marking the Emirates 200th and 201th Arsenal goal to lead Arsenal to victory.
Wenger in April last year claimed that if RVP hadn’t been injured last season we’d all be talking about him in the same sentence as the likes of Messi, Ronaldo and Rooney. While some may have laughed at that 26 goals in 28 games later some will be taking another view.
Plan B
This then begs the question, what do we do when he’s injured? And are Park, Walcott and Chamakh good enough to occupy his position in our current formation? I still feel a change of tactics is needed to back ourselves up and we have a perfect opportunity this Tuesday night to do that against Bolton and go for a 442 formation. Walcott is becoming ineffective on the right because teams know what the game plan is and when up against decent full backs he won’t get a look in.
One signing that still hasn’t been able to make his mark is Park. Yes so we signed him on the cheap but we’re only going to get two years out of him before he becomes a prisoner of his country. He goes away for International duty and scores five goals and yet he’s been restricted to a Carling Cup game against Shrewsbury Town.
One Man Team
Over the years Arsenal have generally been labeled as a one-man team, Wright, Henry, Fabregas and now of course Van Persie. Once RVP hit his brace the banter began on Twitter, surprising not from any Man Utd supporters, but if you ask Gervinho he may have a different view on the matter with two assists and a goal today making him my Man of the Match.
Szczesny 6, Santos 6, Kosceilny 7, Mertesacker 6, Djourou 6, Song 7, Ramsey, 8, Arteta 7, Gervinho 9, Chamakh 5, Walcott 5
The performance was by no means a classic but it’s the result that counts, 3 points, no injuries and Arsenal now lay 7th in the EPL with only -3 goal difference!
Follow me on Twitter @scrotchidson
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