Wellity, wellity, wellity. First off my 100% record continues for games I've watched at the Emirates continues. You're welcome. Secondly the performance... Jaysus. I was seriously hoping we'd approach this game with confidence as it would be a young (untarnished) squad hoping to make their mark. Unfortunately they seemed to pick up where the first team left off and were very tentative. The atmosphere in the ground couldn't have helped and neither did out tactics. Our team were all over the place positionally and I could decide if we were playing 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or 2-2-6! We doubled up on people which is something I've been screaming out for us to do at times but we only ever did it to our own players. I lost count of the amount of times we passed to a player 1 metre away or had players run into each other/get in the way. It was embarrassing and in stark contrast to Shrewsbury's solid 4-4-2 which didn't alter all game. Contrary to what the doom merchants said we were by far the better team for the first 10 minutes and squandered two golden chances. Both Chamakh efforts and both required two good stops from the keeper. Shrewsbury then got into the game a little and you could feel the nerves kicking in. Seriously though, without wishing to disparage them, Shrewsbury's best efforts were aided by our ineptitude. Djourou was indeed at fault for their goal but the 'post' hitter was down to initially Djourou missing a challenge and then Fabianski thinking the shot was going wide so leaving it. The ball was going so slow that I could have picked it up in one hand - shocking judgement by Fab. After that we were jittery but you could see us getting back into it. My main gripe was the speed we played. Some of it was down to people not having played together I'm sure but we were so sloooow. I was amazed when the equaliser went in but it deflated Shrewsbury no end and picked the team/fans up. In the second half we played better as Shrewsbury tired and had a few good chances to put the game to bed. 3-1 is a result I'd have taken at the start and, whilst not convincing, I'm hoping it lifts some of the gloom and builds some confidence. Anyway, here's my brief analysis on how I judged the team. Fabianski: Poor game. Had little to do and looked back to his nervous best. No understanding with the defence but certainly not helped out by his captain. Jenkinson: Slow and jittery. Gained in confidence but only after our equaliser (which he set up) and Shrewsbury tired. Not convinced by him yet but he's a young lad so fingers crossed. Djourou: Very poor. Caused problems for the defence from nothing and was a poor captain. He needs his confidence back and soon. Miquel: A real plus on the night I thought. Did most things with minimal fuss. Looked the more experienced of the two CBs. Very encouraging. Gibbs: One of our better players but constantly out of position. Scored a goal and should have had an assist but I want to see a defensive coach backhand him for the amount of times he's caught out. Jenkinson too for that matter. Pingpong: Dire. My worst player of the night. Was he a defensive midfielder, was he a left winger, was he a forward. Nobody knows, least of all Pingpong. Very frustrating as he clearly has ability. He was all over the place last evening and not in a good way. My main problem with him though was the lazy way he jogged back when out of position. I want to see a player busting his nuts to get back when like that. Looked markedly better when he went off. Coquelin: Alright. Put himself about and did one superb crossfield pass which was jawdropping (we f*cked it up though...). Nothing special in the grand scheme of things. Park: Dissapointing. It's his first game in English football so I won't read too much into it but he looked off the pace. He kept looking for runs which weren't there and made runs which weren't picked up on. That can be worked on obviously but his first touch was poor. He did have one lovely effort mind. Oxocube: Best player on the pitch. Tried a little too much by himself (caught out once which nearly led to a goal) but undeniably talented. To be fair, the way the rest were playing I'd not want to pass to them either. Benny: Meh. Should have been our inspiration but was average at best. Looked to be getting frustrated by the rests efforts/ movement which I could sympathise with. Still a very useful squad player though. Chamakh: My god he's frustrating. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes dire, always lazy looking! I honestly don't know what to make of him. Not a good game but showed flashes of what he could do. Honary mention to Ryo who looked quite sharp. One lovely quick run where sadly nobody gave him options. Got in two great positions too when both Benny and Oxocube failed to pass to him both by being greedy. In fairness Benny apologised to him. Think he'll be a real gem So there we go. Sorry it's so rambling. There are some positives from the game there really are. We just need to work on those and move forward.
I'd call him anything he fookin' liked if he could bring some discipline into his game! Think he'd benefit hugely from an experienced head alongside him. Benayoun was too far forward last night to do that but he should have been advising him.
Good analysis of the match. The report does not lift my mood though, apart from Miquel and Oxo-cube, what other positives could one draw from this game..... These afterall are the understudy for the first team, who incidentally have not covered themselves with glory..... Sad to see Flappy has gone back to his usual self, injury to Chesney, rest, out of form, then we are goosed!
Nah. A little bit of well-timed and good-meaning humour is not the mark of a wum, my friend. Nasty, hateful, bitter snubs are the tool of the wum. I have too much respect for your manager and your team's history to turn into a wum That's not to say that I won't crack open a bottle of sparkly if we beat you in the derby. I do know where to draw the line
Thanks y'all but I wasn't fishing for compliments (though they're always appreciated). I was more interested to see if my opinion differed from anyone else there last night. It's easy to see the 3-1 and think "ooh, an easy home victory". It's also too easy to believe the media hype and say "oh typical Arsenal, we struggled against league two opposition". For me it was a case of "job done" and it was nice to see us come from behind for once to win.
Well I didn't see the match and this is the most detailed report I have seen which is why I praised it.
