Again I have to apologise its been a hectic week. So once again I'm doing a report on the game last night. Well it wasn't the best game in fact a 0-0 is normally about as dull as they come. We just didn't look dangerous last night and our key players were poor and were on the bench.
Santos is still yet to convince me that he is a solid left back. He's great going forward and all but I noticed last night that he was caught out of position and his passing last night was shocking. I lost count of how many times he sold our attackers short. To be fair there were very few players that impressed me. Ramsey had a shocker, myself along with the whole of the Clock End saw the opening for him to smash it in, but he delayed and was blocked off. To be fair to the lad hes still young and its a lot of pressure on his shoulders so the odd off game is to be expected.
Song had an average game, losing the ball and retaining it at will. Arteta was appalling, for a player with so much hype and build up apart from a free kick he had a poor game. Jenkinson showed his inexperience as he hesitated from time to time. Overall we just looked lethargic going forward, Walcott had a better game and may have scored if he had been released how he needs to be, quickly with a man to beat. Gervinho also struggled to get going.
There were some positives, Vermaelen had a good game and showed what we've missed so far this season. Park showed his potential but didn't really settle in to the game. When he came on Rosicky put himself about and again played well, showing that maybe hes over his injury issues.
So the big question, why didn't we start RVP? well I can understand the view of we don't want him to get injured but had he won us the game last night then we could have rested him in the next 2 CL games. He came on and had a great chance, but he tried the sublime and failed to chip the huge Mandanda. That was about that.
Apologies for missing another build up. Tonight there will be the WBA at home build up and prediction.
We got there, after a blinding 25 minutes, a wobble and then a dominant second half, we got our 3 points and mainly thanks to that man upfront RVP. Our second goal was tremendous and as much as an equal for Larssons finish that gave Szczesny no chance, I instantly thought back to the goal I saw him score against Wigan in our final season at Highbury. He came to our rescue again and I began to think, where would we be without him? As good as his current form is it's worrying that he appears to be our only source of goals, should he get injured, touch-wood he doesn't, we'd be in trouble. People also seem to think that we're back to old ways, however this is ridiculous we're far from playing classic Arsenal football.
Anyway tomorrow sees us take on Marseillie in France and a game that I'm not sure about at all. They're having a few problems domestically at the moment, much like us and sit 15th in a 20 team league. However they took Dortmund apart at home last week and that proves that they are dangerous. Its gonna be testing tomorrow night and their fans will get behind the team. They have some real threats in Loic Remy who is on form this season, other threats come from Valbuena, Gonzalez and Ayew.
It will be a test for the defence especially Mertesacker who we all know lacks pace. The Marseille attack will be fast and he'll need to be sharp in order to keep up. On the other side of things they haven't conceded a goal yet in the group so our attack may also have a job on their hands. I will imagine after a good performance at the weekend Gervinho will start on the wing with Walcott on the other side and RVP upfront alone. I would expect our team to be the same as that which started on Sunday, bar Gibbs who picked up a stomach injury so we should see Santos start.
Talking about injury Vermaelen is still 2-3 weeks away. As he was all of last season. But on the plus he has just signed a new deal which is a positive. We still have a few big contracts to sort including Walcott and of course Van Persie who will continue to spur stories of big money moves until he signs, despite what he said in the Arsenal Programme on Sunday.
There are no doubts tomorrow will be a real tough game and if we win then we're laughing but i somehow just can't see it. We can all hope anyway, COYG.
