Well, heading into the Saturday
game against Liverpool they said ‘Arsenal have had a great start but they
really haven’t beaten anyone of the big guns’. I disagreed, we beat Tottenham when
nobody was giving us a hope in hell of reaching the top four. We dismantled
Napoli at the emirates, but that still wasn’t enough to please some. After we
lost an unlucky tie against Dortmund a fortnight ago the claws where back out,
and it kind of felt like Pundits, the writers,rival fans and even a few of our
own where happy that we had fallen at the so called first hurdle. But the team
dusted themselves off and started a gruelling 8 day triple head against the
scousers.
We took care of Rogers men
with ease, we dominated the game, dictated the pace and it looked like top vs
mid table rather than current positions pre kick off. So that’s another big
win. Hooray. Not a shock in my opinion, While Liverpool have started strongly I
don’t see them keeping pace after the new year and what was evident on Saturday
is that Brendan Rogers really doesn’t have a plan B. Gerrard looks like he has
had his best days as part of an average midfield. Their defence looks not very
mobile at all and as good as Suarez is He won’t be able to carry them all
season, as will David Sturbridge ©John Anik (UFC Commentator)
Still a very satisfactory
win, but what happened last night in Dortmund was something else. Nobody gave
us a hope in hell. While I was optimistic we could get a point I didn’t think
we could turn over Klopps men in their own back yard. But I was perhaps Naïve to
think this, after all this was an Arsenal side who going into the game had won
13 and drawn 1 of their last 14 away games in England and abroad. And we saw
why. Last night Arsenal where organised, hard to break down, the pressing from
midfield was frantic. Mertesacker and Koscielny played out of their skin,
Arteta provided a defensive midfield master class despite being booked early on.
After Klopp bragging about how his team out ran us at the emirates our very own
Welsh Maestro Aaron Ramsey ran further than any man on the field that night and
capped off his 4 consecutive player of the month awards with another goal,
anyone else just getting bored of seeing him hit the back of the net ? I’ve ran
out of things to say about the lad, this season he has simply been football
porn. But what was impressive is that last night we may not have been at out
fluent best, the passing was a little off but every man to a T run themselves ragged,
not least Thomas Rosicky who I think set a new record with 197 sliding tackles
or something. The Czech Midfielder just makes us better wherever he plays in
that midfield. I have to say if this is winning ugly, I don’t mind it at all.
So now the rest of Europe is
taking notice, Gary Neville summed it up nicely in the post-match analysis as
he usually does, Jürgen Klopp thinks we can win something this season, so why
shouldn’t we? Well I think the biggest challenge comes on Sunday when we go
away to old Trafford. This is easily the worst man united team we have seen in
a long time, however they still have a mental edge over us which has been
evident in previous seasons. I have no doubt we have the quality to come home
with the 3 points, which would in turn give us an 11 point lead, but the big
questions is do we believe we can beat united, I for one do but only when we do
will I be bold enough to call us champions elect. Maybe if we do win Arsene
could do his own Kevin Keegan style rant ‘ I would love it if we beat them, absolutely
love it’.
Come on Arsenal, let’s make
this week the perfect hat trick, until next time have yourselves a good
weekend. ML
No comments:
Post a Comment