First of all that was a great, deserved victory today. Especially given that Arsenal have only lost one of their last 10 games. I felt that was a game where we deserved to win and all the players worked hard. Arsenal had slightly more of the possession but we did a lot more with the ball. Arsenal didn't really have any proper chances to score as we managed to restrict their movement in the box. Arsenal are no good out wide, they rarely played there. This is shown by their lack of out and out wide players. Gervinho, Podolski and Walcott can't really be called wingers. Hughton's chose both Bennett and Pilkington who controlled each wing with Hoolahan providing each of them support. Bennett was my man of the match today. He played fairly defensively at times today, almost as a wing back providing good support for R Martin and this also allowed R Martin to play slightly more centrally to support Bassong and Turner. Just a quick word on Pilkington to say that he used his left foot when taking a freekick in the second half, although the ball wasn't great it's good that we have a player who can do that. Both Tettey and Johnson were great in the centre today linking the defence to the attack and they are both beginning to look like key players. Hoolahan was great today and he is beginning to show his importance to the team. I will add some more comments soon but I'm off to the pub to celebrate the win!
I agree with a lot of that (except Arsenal having 'slightly more' possession, but it's true we did more with it.) I questioned Johnson over Fox pre-game, but was made to easy my words there, it worked well. That is pretty much the team I'd like us to play every week, with Fox playing when we're expecting a bit more possession, because whilst Johnson was solid, and made some excellent tackles, his distribution wasn't the best. Every player defended well, Bassong made a superb block at the end, and really seems to compensate for any shortcomings in the other centre back. Keeping him fit all season is going to be crucial.
The online report on Yahoo said it was a "Dire game"! Obviously whoever wrote that wasn't at the game, I was and it wasn't dire!!!
Some additional comments, as promised, to add to what I have said above. I was very disappointed to hear boos when Turners's name was mentioned before the game, but fortunately the cheers outweighed the boos. No matter who they are and what they've done for this team the fans should get behind them, support them and encourage them. But I'm glad to see that Turner proved the boo boys wrong. A lot of us have been calling for Fox to be played alongside Tettey in the defensive midfield position but I feel that with how well Johnson has been playing it would be unfair to drop him. Of course there has to be a quick mention of the boy who makes fart noises behind me. Generally he was fairly quiet until the last 10 minutes but he saved himself from being told to shut up for at least until the next game!
I was not happy when Turners name appeared but heard no boos around me , he cheered me up with a great performance
