A Rather Strange Affair.

Arsenal 0 Liverpool 0

Well that was a strange game which should never have finished goal less. It got off to an odd start when the teams were announced. I doubt anyone was expecting Gabriel and Chambers to be starting a couple of hours before the match. But with Kos out with a bad back and Mertesacker ill both our back up centre backs were pushed into starting positions.  Not an ideal situation.

The match started brightly though for arsenal who controlled the possession and looked threatening creating a couple of half chances. Then Aaron Ramsey was played through and into the box where he neatly slotted past Mignolet. But the joy was very short lived as the lineman had his flag up for offside. Ramsey couldn’t believe it, and rightly so as replays showed him to be onside. (Even his shirt Brendon).

After this it all started to go a bit downhill for the gunners. Suddenly our make shift defence bagan to look incredibly make shift. Particularly Chambers who missed placed several passes straight to opposition players. Luckily he was bailed out several times by his team mates particularly the impressive Coquelin, who made several excellent tackles and interceptions during the game. But it wasn’t just Chambers looking shaky it was the whole team even Santi and Ozil were misplacing passes. We conceded several corners and failed to clear many of them. Petr Cech also pulled off 2 wonderful saves. First denying Benteke from close range then tipping a drive from Coutinho onto the post at full stretch. Amazingly Arsenal got to half time unscathed.
The 2nd half was much better we quickly refound our rhythm and dominated possession. Ozil was at the heart of most of our moves and played some delightful passes. Unfortunately no one could score. Both Giroud and Sanchez missed glaring chances to score from no more than 5 yards.

Overall this made for a fustrating and odd watch. Where both teams seemed utterly dominant and completely awful at various stages. The late changes at CB didn’t help, the nervousness of all was clear, particularly for Chambers. The mistakes they made in the first half spread through the team and allowed Liverpool to dominate. Chambers looks like he needs a bit more work, he needed a Kos or Mertesacker beside him to guide him. Gabriel though looked like he could be very good. He made a number of excellent tackles and seems to be quite pacey, though doesn’t seem as comfortable on the ball as our Per or Kos. Other positives were the performances of Coquelin, Cech and Ozil. The others just need to follow their example.

Arsenal failed to score at the Emirates again, making it 5 Premiership games in a row that Arsenal have failed to score at home. It certainly seems as of we could do with adding some more firepower upfront. Giroud looks out of form and Walcott, despite his insistence, is not a central striker. Welbeck is still injured and will take a while to reach full fitness. A DM to cover Coquelin is needed too. Seven days left of the window, over to you Arsene….

A Bit More Like It..

Well first sorry for not reviewing the first match of the season but tbh I highly doubt anyone cared.

Crystal Palace 1 Arsenal 2

Ward 28′             Giroud 16′, Delaney OG 55′

This game was perhaps far more like what gunners fans were expecting at the start of this season. We played some nice stuff and there were a couple of particularly impressive performances from both Ozil and Cazorla.

Arsenal started brightly and created a coupe of opportunities to score before the breakthrough came. most notably a quick break away involving Ozil and Sanchez. A nice through ball from Ozil set Sanchez clean through into the box but he cut back instead of shooting and his shot was blocked and his rebound attempt was blocked off the line. The much maligned Olivier Giroud did though get the breakthrough. A cross from the left by Ozil was good but just behind Giroud, the big Frenchman did excellently to reach back and scissor kick into the bottom left corner of the goal. A brilliant finish to open the scoring. Arsenal then dominated the game for 10 minutes after the goal and Sanchez again missed another good chance close in on goal.

But then the sucker punch came. Crystal Palace scored with their first shot on target. It was though an excellent strike. Hit firm and accurately by Joel Ward right into the bottom right corner of Cech’s goal. No real mistake made other then not clearing the ball earlier in the move. Arsenal we’re level when really the game should have been out of sight. There was brief period were Palace came forward but the Gunners soon took control again. Coquelin was booked a few minutes from half time and was lucky not to sent off when he committed another foul a few minutes later and appeared to be walking a tight rope at half time.

Wenger made no changes at the break though and left Coquelin on. Palace almost went ahead just after the break when Wickham hit the post from a cross from the right whilst left free in the box. It was Arsenal who grabbed the next goal though. Bellerin stood a nice cross up to the back post which Sanchez produced a massive leap to get on the end of. His powerful downward header hit Delaney and the ball went into the roof of the net.

The joy though was very nearly short lived as Coquelin makes a bit of a clumsy challenge on McCarthy and a foul is given. Even Coquelin thinks he off but luckily the ref decides a final warning is in order and Wenger finally takes him off.

Arsenal dominated for most of the rest of the game and apart from a nervy last few moments didn’t really look too much like conceding a 2nd. The Ox could have made it 3 with the last touch of the game but hit hos shot straight at the keeper.

Overall a much better performance from the Gunners if still a bit rusty. Definately some work needed on the finishing and perhaps our lack of DM cover exposed. Ozil was the undoubted highlight. With 98% pass accuracy, 5 chances created, 1 assist and couple of sublime bits of skill he was very impressive. Cech again looked a bit shaky on a few crosses but generally was solid. Nothing he could do to stop the goal.

A good warm up for next weeks game against Liverpool a definate improvement from last week. Still plenty to work on though, and perhaps a nudge to Wenger to push to get a couple more players in before the end of the transfer window.