Montpellier v Arsenal review and ratings
Good morning all, a pleasant morning no doubt sitting atop
of 3 very sweet European points ; this morning I feel like a bee swimming through a river
of honey, that’s the level of sweetness I'm talking about. Obviously there's no
drowning in viscous sugars in my analogy!
The Champions League rarely throws up easy ties, chiefly due
to the tough qualification procedures required for a spot in the competition.
In England
we have a team like Tottenham (who I know I should be calling shit and
worthless) who don't get a spot for finishing 4th in the premier
league. They are deemed to have not enough quality, something I’d agree with,
but there's no denying that good teams miss out because the standard of
competition is so high. Whilst I realise that not every domestic league has the
same level of competition as the Premier League does, obvs, it is certainly the
case year on year that are “upsets” when a world renowned team underestimates a
team from a lesser league.
I was confident that we could go there and take all 3
points; I even thought we may select a team that rested a few key players, just
to ease some legs ahead of Sunday. As is often the case with Wenger though, he
kept that rotation policy well and truly in the closet.
In my opinion, it definitely showed towards the end of the
game that we were running on legs that had nothing in them anymore. I was
getting somewhat irate at the lack of action from the bench in fact, and I
genuinely thought it was going to cost us the game towards the end. Fair play
to Mont-smelly-ier (childish joke apology), they came out in the second half
and took home advantage all the way to the final minute, but we helped them
along not freshening things up towards the end of the game. Perhaps it was a
side effect of Steve Bould being in charge for the evening, perhaps he had
instructions from Wenger to resist change if we were winning the game, who
knows? We took off Giroud, who hadn’t covered nearly as much ground as our
three midfielders in recent weeks, and left on the likes of Diaby, Cazorla and
Podolski on the field. Diaby couldn’t run after 70 minutes, Cazorla was showing
the effects of quite a few minutes played for club and country and Podolski was
flagging as well. They were able to pick passes through our defensive lines
because our players were too knackered to track back effectively. I was
surprised that Oxlaide didn’t come on in central midfield, and bringing on
Walcott and Coq with 2 minutes left seemed only to serve as clock draining.
Still, a win is a win and we got away with it. We rode our
luck for sure, they squandered a couple of guilt edged chances, but onwards and
upwards, roll on Man City (I think they learnt what it feels like to get
plugged in the last minute yesterday, cheers Ronald).
Mannone: Had another good game, solid hands when coming for
crosses, tipped a fierce shot round the post and only conceded from a penalty.
Stood up and made a brilliant save late on too. Clear no.2 now? 7/10.
Jenkinson: I thought he was far too raw and inexperienced to
play for us this season and had hoped that we would buy a right back, but he
coming along very nicely. Think he’s the best crosser on the team and his
assist for Gervinho was class. 7/10.
Merts: He generally had a solid game and there's no doubt
that he helps Jenkinson out positionally. Over-committed late on which left
them with an unchallenged shot on goal from a few yards out, but apart from
that did well. 6/10.
Vermaelen: Gave away an early penalty which was unnecessary
to say the least. He dominated after that though, conceding that he’d made a
mistake in his post-match interview. 6/10.
Gibbs: The boy is doing well, an England
place must be beckoning. Even though he’s not perfect positionally, Vermaelen’s
influence and his natural pace helps him from being caught out too often. I
thought he was our best player over 90 minutes last night. 8/10.
Arteta: Standard Arteta, pretty brilliant in every way.
7/10.
Diaby: Had a good first half and made one superb run in the
second half, demolishing the turf in front of him. However he tired massively
in the second period and started giving away possession, almost gifting them a
goal. He should have been subbed on 70 minutes in my opinion. 6/10.
Cazorla: Played well in the first half but also tired
towards the end of the second. No one has the ball retention skills that he
does, skipping in and out of opposing midfielders and recycling possession all
game. He eventually got the breather he deserved as he was subbed for Coq, and
hopefully he’ll be well rested for Sunday. 7/10.
Gervinho: Another game, another goal. It bodes fantastically
well for us if he can keep his composure in front of goal all season. To be
fair he couldn’t really miss yesterday, but his runs, pace and interplay were
very good yet again. 7/10.
Podolski: Third game, third goal. We lost a world class
lefty, we brought in a world class lefty, simple as that. We’ve often struggled
with being clinical, wasting chance after chance while our opponents score the
one effort that they have on target. With this boy, we have someone who doesn’t
tend to miss an opportunity. 8/10.
Giroud: Unfortunately he didn’t score, but even worse was
that he didn’t play that well in general. Aside from the nice lay off of Pod’s
goal, he struggled all game. While he did well in flicking on goal kicks and
the like, I think he found playing on old stomping ground a little too much.
The longer he doesn’t score, the shorter his confidence will get. 5/10.
Ramsey: Came on for Giroud and did well, I thought he might
start yesterday’s game but it seems he’s destined for a role on the bench
unless players pick up injuries. When Wilshere is back I think he’ll be our 5th
option, maybe even 6th behind Rosicky! 7/10.
Thanks for reading, check back later in the week for more
ramblings.
Adieu
@halls_dja
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