I wonder what he made of our no-show though. At his rate he'll just stay at Madrid, and play for the reserves.
I was thinking what would Sahin think. I doubt a single game will sway his decision and it would be unfair to. Although, I'd still be surprised if he goes to Liverpool. Arsenal still have Sagna to come back... he was sorely missed down the right flank, hence why Walcott seemed clueless. When Jack comes back, hopefully we'll look more stable in midfield. Diaby was good the first half but he was careless with his tackles in the second, and he held up play way too much. Overall, I'm optimistic. Remember, this was the PL debut of three players and only one shined bright. Give it a few more games and we'll see a more fluent Arsenal.
Surprised I haven't seen any criticism for Gibbs. He was caught out 3 times during the first 15 minutes of the game due to his pathetic positioning. About 6 times in the first half all together. Mertesacker was good, read the play well all game and made some great interceptions. Jenkinson started off a bit slow, but settled into the game nicely, worked his ass off to get back (take note Gibbs) and was very good one on one. Vermaelen had a decent game, nothing of note to say. Szczesny was hardly tested, can't say much. Arteta was magnificent as usual, looked even better than last season with the added support of Diaby and Cazorla. Diaby did well, gave away a few passes and lost possesion a few times, other than that he worked hard all game. Cazorla, dynamo. Gervinho impressed me, looked the most threatening of our front 3. Podolski seemed to do well, held up the ball magnificently and he seemed to draw a lot of defenders to him allowing Walcott and Gervinho to come inside. Walcott was lively in the first half, died down a bit in the second, nothing of note though. Also, Martin O'Neil is a cockroach.
On the whole I was reasonably pleased. We didn't miss Song at all -perhaps the reverse in fact. Giroud and Podolski did well, for a first game, they will get better. Just didn't get the slice of luck we needed. The defence was magnificent after a nervous first 10. Always difficult to break down a professional team playing a 10-man defence.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger on Alex Song's proposed move to Barcelona: "We have Wilshere coming back now, we have Diaby back, we have Rosicky not far away and we might bring someone in."
Good Game, juts weren't clinical and a bit unlucky. Sunderland set out to park the bus and fair play to their defence. Plenty of positives. Plenty of people seem to be exaggerating this though.
Sunderland fan here. First off I just wanna take my hat off to those who aren't moaning about our tactics Had we played an open style of football we would have been spanked. From an Arsenal perspective I wouldn't worry, Cazorla looked great when he had the ball, and what surprised me was how well Gervinho (sp?) played, heart in mouth when ever he made a run. You won't come across other teams that can shut you out for nearly (I say nearly, as you cut us open once, when Giroud missed) the whole game. Good luck for the season
Thanks. I wont complain of your tactics. Each team must chose its tactics according to its strengths. If we want to be successful we need to learn to jailbreak some locked defences. Its a work in progress.
Wenger summed it up in his post match summary, we were too slow, we needed to play with more pace and there were many points in the game were there seemed to be a lack of urgency. disappointing start to the campaign, you always look to start off as strong as possible, especially when you're playing home. loss of points today can be compounded into more disappointed with the next 2 away games we have with Stoke and Liverpool if we don't raise our game, we could find ourselves in the same bad start we had last campaign.
