Lone Goal Unsettles Arsenal
By Boris Mellor
August 17 2008
The old adage is that an early goal settles the nerves, but only if it is followed up by a quick second. It was Roy of the Rovers, or rather Sami of the Rovers after only 3 minutes 44 seconds. It was the dream debut, turning up like Pires in the penalty box, and simply tapping the ball in unlike Hleb.
The crowd exploded, some sang "Super Sam" the old Pires song, and sat back for the deluge which never came. I find early goals unsettling, for every early goal that leads to massive score, there are plenty more that are followed by an utterly sterile match.
Super Sam
Unfortunately this turned out to be the latter. WBA had been caught napping early on and were determined not to get caught again. The next 30 minutes saw Arsenal create plenty of chances, but the shooting was off target.
Lone goal unsettles
The longer the team goes without scoring the more anxious the fans get. There was always the chance that WBA would get the equalizer in the last minute, so the crowd tried to encourage the team to get the second. I say tried, because I don't see how booing Adebayor on missing a chance would help encourage the team. True other fans then cheered him on.
How great a risk?
So the threat form Albion was always there, but how great was the risk? Well Albion had three shots, two on target, but the ever improving Almunia dealt with it all very capably. In reply Arsenal had five shots on target, and twelve off target. In other words the shooting was rusty. There was a time when Arsenal were even more languid after a midweek CL game.
All credit to the Baggies, they played some decent football, and Miller was a real handful, but a slightly sharper strike force would have buried them. My neighbor in the North Bank Upper told me that Chelsea, Liverpool and Man U would have beat Albion 5-0. After the post match celebrations, and meeting up with the Bank of Friendship Posse, I went home to watch Liverpool struggle to beat Sunderland 1-0.
Some people claim by looking in one cup of tea's leaves they can predict your whole future life. Some pundits, circling like vultures, claim they can map out Arsenal's whole season on the basis of this game. Arsenal will not finish in top four unlike Spurs gallant 2-1 losers at Boro. Actually neither result, at this stage tells us that much.
I am not going to analyse individual performances, bar one. This was a team that was unbalanced and missing several first team regulars. The dependence on Fabregas affects defence and midfield alike. Hopefully his back up will arrive soon.
The one exception is Nasri, who was a one man dynamo, what an engine, what skill. When Nasri scored a friend immediately text me "Piresesque", and that was the general view down the pub. Yes it's early days, however such a perfect debut can't do him any harm.
That was an improvement, and he can dodge hanging to the ball that boy Eboue.
We can't sprint right out of the the starting block ending up runing on empty for theh last few laps?
....................Almunia
...Sagna.....Djourou......Gallas....Clichy
...........Eboue..........Denilson
...................Nasri
...Walcott......Bendtner.......Adebayor
Missing is Fabregas, Rosicky and a new experienced holding midfielder.
And if Fabregas and Rosicky return, who do we drop?
Eboue and Adebayor?
A Midfield of
Nasri - Denilson - Fabregas - Rosicky
would be very good.
-Wenger Genius-
can you imagine the creativity
Nasri Fabregas Rosicky RVP/Eduardo
======Adebayor Eduardo/RVP========
Thats if we dont by a midfiled in the next week or so.
But Gooner, the selection of Nasri-Fabregas-Rosicky-Eduardo needs Nasri and Eduardo to perform lots of tracking back duties.
And Fabregas as the holding midfielder coming in from deep to join in attack.
Rosicky will then be the playmaker deep in opponent half with Rosicky-Nasri linking up and Fabregas behind them.
us...
Quote:kamilmus
I do have to say this, Eboue has got to be the worst shooter of all. He had like 3 clear pops at goal from just outside the box delivered to him on a platter. Maybe he should aim for the corner flag and then maybe he'll get one in.
Spot on.
Eboue's shooting is without a doubt, absolutely the worst shooting that I have ever seen from a professional football player.
