Tag: Gervinho

Arsenal 2 – 0 West Brom: eight positives to take from today’s game

TotalArsenal

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Today’s performance against West Brom was a significant improvement from what we have seen in recent Arsenal games. Lady Luck helped Arsenal on the way with a harsh first penalty being awarded in our favour, but there can be little doubt that the good guys deserved their win today.

It looked like our core players had benefited from not having played mid-week, as they all appeared to be both fitter and more focussed during our game against the Baggies.

The big negative for me today was our inability to take some of the excellent chances which came our way – other than the two well-taken penalties by the impressive Arteta, of course. We also were not able to get the best use out of Giroud, although the Frenchman himself was partly to blame for this.

But, other than those two ‘areas for improvement’, I thought our encounter with the Baggies offered strong signs of Arsenal making progress, and I would like to highlight eight positives from our game today:

  1. MA8: I thought Arteta had one of his best games this season; at least for the first seventy minutes or so. He tired towards the end and made a few mistakes that could have cost us on another day, but before that he was the solid anchor in our team. His positioning was spot on and he also won many one to one battles; he had great drive and timing, and really imposed himself on the game. Mikel also managed to be more direct against West Brom and his passing was often full of attacking intent.
  2. Jack Wilshere took the game by the scruff of the neck today. Not Cazorla or Rosicky turned out to be the conductor of our team today, but Jack, the beanstalk climbing, giant-killer was the one who led the team on the pitch against West Brom. There is still room for improvement for Jack – his final ball needs to improve a bit further and he missed a very good chance today – but his ability to give our team shape and purpose is incredibly important for us at the moment. Jack was simply fantastic today.
  3. Our wingers were disciplined in keeping their shape and stick to their tasks. Ox played a lot better than he did on Tuesday, and hopefully he can build on his performance against the Baggies to regain his best form. Gervinho might have missed a few chances, but his overall play – especially his running with and without the ball – is so important for our team. His ability to take on defenders and get the ball into the box, simply means Arsenal have an added dimension; we are less predictable. If Gervais could just add a bit of sharpness to his game and gain more upper-body strength, he would be far better able to pick the fruits of all his hard work.
  4. Our full backs were great today. Both Sagna and Gibbs really found the perfect balance between solid defending and supporting our attack against WBA, and I really hope the former signs a new contract and the latter can stay fit for a while. In our 4-3-3 system they are immensely important, and we are lucky to have two very good full backs at Arsenal.
  5. Our centre backs, as well as our back-four as a whole, looked more in control and coordinated than I have seen them in a while. How many times did they manage to get the Baggies in an offsite position today? It all resulted in a well-deserved clean sheet.
  6. As a team we pressed so much better than in recent games, and we were also able to win a lot of the one to one battles today, which is an improvement from recent games. WBA were never allowed to get into the game and this was mainly the result of our improved pressing and ability to dominate midfield.
  7. The whole team did not only have a better shape and gelled a lot better; it also showed real passion and fight. Players stood up for themselves and each other today, and it was a joy to behold.
  8. Despite our injuries, we were able to bring on three strong substitutes who were all able to contribute in us seeing the game through till the end. It is good to know that we will have an almost full squad available for the tough – and oh so crucial for gaining momentum – December and January fixtures.

Next up in the PL are away games against Reading and Wigan. There are no easy games in the PL for Arsenal this season, but with a strong squad, and a good possibility that the above mentioned eight positives can be repeated again in fixtures this month, Arsenal should be able to make further progress in the table. However, it will be key to further integrate Giroud into the team and provide him with quality service; and as team we need to score more in the PL by taking our chances better than we do currently.

Still a work in progress and another set-back cannot be ruled out, but we can take plenty of encouragement from today’s strong team performance.

Total Arsenal.

Tricky Gervais: why we need Gervinho to fire Arsenal up

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Gervais Lombe Yao Kouassi, better known as Gervinho is a player who divides opinion amongst the Arsenal faithful. In a way, he has taken over from Theo; who until recently also divided opinion between the fans. I have no doubt that if a poll was held now; the vast majority would want Theo to stay. But the same poll would have had a very different outcome twelve months ago.

Gervinho is a very important player for us.

He possesses a set of skills that are unique at Arsenal – at least at senior level. He can play as a classical winger, an inside-out winger (which makes him suitable to play on either the left or right wing), and also in the central striker position.

This season he started as our central striker against Southampton, Chelsea, Olympiacos and Schalke (away), and his goal scoring record is very impressive: four goals in four games as a CF. Admittedly, his performance in Gelsenkirchen was disappointing, but the bigger picture this season tells us that Gervinho can be very effective if we play him centrally in attack – in a ‘fluent-three’: Pod-Gerv-Ox/Theo.

But I reckon his best position is on the left wing, although he only started there in our first official game of the season against Sunderland. Wenger keeps persevering with Podolski on the left wing and this only seems to work for us if Gibbs is being played in tandem with him. Podolski is the ideal back-up striker for Giroud in my opinion, but he appears to be deemed too good to be left on the bench by Wenger; as a result, he is mostly played next to Giroud on the left.

Gervinho has started in three different positions this season: LW (1), CF (4) and RW (3). Every time he is played on the right it smells of a Wenger compromise in order to be able to play both Podolski and Giroud. Arsene is working hard to get the best out of his new signings Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla, so it is understandable that he has been experimenting with different attacking formations.

As Gervinho has not been as effective on the right wing – his only decent game on the right was against Montpellier away – it looks like Theo, or even The Ox, will be first choice on the right. Giroud is rightly claiming the central spot, and the left wing is Podolski’s currently. As a result, Gervinho might find himself not getting many starts in the near future, and I think that would be a real shame.

Gervinho is one of our best runners with the ball. He is one of the few who has the tricks and speed to take a man on and get into dangerous positions, from which he can pass the ball to a fellow attacker or shoot on goal himself. He also makes himself constantly available for other players and is able to both hold on to the ball and move forward with attacking intent. Podolski does not offer these very important skills and neither does Theo; unless he gets the ball played to him in space.

I really hope, Wenger will start playing him now more regularly on the left wing, with Giroud or Podolski in the middle and Theo on the right. For me, Gervinho has the all important drive, and he makes things happen: he adds another dimension to our 4-3-3 formation, and is fully capable of firing our team up again.

Total Arsenal.

Arsenal – Montpellier: Ox to start, TV or Gibbs, Pod or Gervinho?

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It seems a long time ago since Arsenal played Montpellier on a humid, late-summer’s evening back in September. However, I still remember well how we somehow held on to take all three points back to London, after the CL-inexperienced French Champions almost totally dominated us for the entire second half, but forgot to finish us off.

Montpellier are a fine team, who play football the Arsenal way: the way it should be played.

They keep the ball low, and pass it round really well. Montpellier play with a high line and like to pressure their opponents in their own half. They work hard as a team and create plenty of chances, but lack a top CF to finish-off all the hard work done by their fantastic midfielders. Now where did their last season’s top scorer disappear to? Lol! Only eight goals in their last six games says it all (compared to 19 by Arsenal).

They have a few excellent, but inexperienced players, and the rest are decent to good players. I like Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, the Montpellier captain, and Belhanda and Cabella are fine talents who are likely to make it big in the next few years. Montpellier like to get the ball into the area in front of the opponent’s ‘D’ – very much like Arsenal in the Fabregas era – in order to find a deadly through-ball or shoot from that area.

They also ‘lop-side’ towards the right, where both Cabella and Belhanda like to go to find some space, or combine with each other in order to get to the opponent’s penalty area.

Vermaelen or Gibbs

This brings me to the first selection conundrum: should Arsene select our proper LB, Gibbs, who has not played for a while and might be rusty, but is best suited to deal with the wing-play of Cabella and others; or should he keep the current back four unchanged, even though TV is not fully comfortable in the LB position?

My guess is, Arsene will start with TV. Cabella is tricky and keeps the ball well, but is not superfast; and is more of an all-round attacking midfielder than a classic winger. Thomas can deal with him, and it would keep the back four together for another game. It also allows Arsene to play again the CB-pairing of BFG-Koz which seems to be the best one at the moment.

However, Arsenal can expect Montpellier to target our LB area and it is important that we have it properly covered tonight.

Podolski or Gervinho?

It is really good news that our early season top-scorer Gervinho is back again. If Gibbs starts tonight, I have little doubt Poldolski will start on the left wing again. These two work together very naturally and get the very best out of each other in those positions. But as I went for Vermaelen instead of Gibbs, I would not be surprised to see Gervinho getting a start in his favourite LW position.

I reckon the midfield is a given again: Cazorla, Arteta, Wilshere. We need to win this game and Arsene is unlikely to risk making changes in this area. They have had a rest since Saturday afternoon, so should have recovered again.

With Giroud finally starting to fire on all cylinders, he is most likely to start the game in the CF position. Podolski can come of the bench to give him a break if needed; or could even start instead of the Frenchman (not likely though).

The Ox to start?

With Theo out due to a shoulder injury tonight, I would love to see the Ox start in the RW position against Montpellier. He is a good crosser of the ball, can get past his man easily, and he combines well with other players to move into the opposition’s box. However, it is most likely that Gervinho will start on the right, with Giroud in the middle and Podolski on the left.

Most likely line-up for tonight’s game:

———————Szczesny———————–

Sagna – Mertesacker – Koscielny – Vermaelen

————Arteta———–Wilshere————–

———————-Cazorla————————

Gervinho———–Giroud—————Podolski

My preferred line-up:

———————Szczesny———————–

Sagna – Mertesacker – Koscielny – Vermaelen

————Arteta———–Wilshere————–

———————-Cazorla————————

The Ox————-Giroud————–Gervinho

As per previous post, I expect Montpellier to come at us with a ‘nothing to lose’ attitude. They will try to pressure us high up the pitch again and not allow us to retain the ball for long. Arsenal need to be fully focussed, play at a high tempo, and put in a performance for ninety minutes.

Any complacency could cost us dearly, but if Arsenal work hard and take their chances when they arise, we should be able to win tonight’s game.

COYG!!!!!!!

Total Arsenal.

Arsenal strikers v Man United strikers: who’ll score more goals this season?

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Much has been made about Arsenal selling their best striker by far – and last year’s PL top scorer – to our bitterest rival in recent years: the non-oil funded Mancs. Even the glass half-full Gooners felt we did not have enough strength in depth up-front, and almost everybody was convinced that MU had a far stronger strike-force than the mighty Arsenal.

As anticipated, the boredom of the interlull has fuelled some gossip going round currently, that Arsene has up to £35m to spend on a new striker, and some fancy names are being bandied about at the moment. I reckon it is highly unlikely Arsene will buy a superstar striker in the next transfer window, if ever. We might see a replacement being bought for Chamakh and/or Theo but don’t expect it to be an experienced, top quality striker.

Of course the season has only just started with just seven games played in the PL until now, but the first signs are showing that Arsenal’s strike-force will match or better that of MU.

Arsenal has been varying their formation this season; either playing with Giroud on top and two wingers on each side, or playing with three fluid strikers who interchange constantly with each other, and anybody can be our ‘mid-striker’ at any given time. Our strikers have done well; in fact they have done better than the MU strike-force until now.

Goals by Arsenal strike-force (all competitions):

Gervinho: 5

Podolski: 4

Theo: 4

Giroud: 2

Total = 15.

Goals by MU strike-force (all competitions):

Brave Sir Robin: 7

Hernandez: 1

Rooney: 0

Welbeck: 0

Total = 8.

So, until now our strike-force has scored nearly double as much as the highly rated, praised-into-heaven strike-force of the Mancs. Once again, it is early days and things can change in either direction, but we are still able to make a few observations:

  1. MU have taken over our previous disease of overreliance on the reliant, but always prone to long-term injury, Dutchman. A few midfielders have scored two goals for MU, and their defenders have been chipping in with the odd goal, but the ‘awesome’ strike-force of MU – not including the traitor – have managed a meagre one goal between the three of them until now. It is fair to say, Rooney has been injured for most of the start of the season, but his PL-experienced replacements have not been able to adequately fill the gap he left behind, and leaned heavily on the shoulders of the Dutch turncoat.
  2. Arsenal, on the other hand, have been able to share the goals between the strikers much better until now, whilst our midfielders and a couple of defenders have also been able to put their names of the score sheets with a goal (Santi two).
  3. Despite MU having an established strike-force with each player having either a lot, or plenty, of PL experience, they are showing a lack of form and sharpness, and the longer it will take for this to disappear the more vulnerable they will become to suspension or injury of brave sir Robin.
  4. Arsenal, however, have had very little adjustment problems by their strikers. Gervinho is now in his second season and has hit the ground running. Impressively, so has Podolski who has shown absolutely no PL-acclimatisation issues until now. And what about Theo: he must have the ‘least minutes between goals’ record in England, if not Europe, at the moment. Being only used as a late sub, he has hardly played but hit the net four times already this season.
  5. The only striker that has not hit top-form yet, in terms of scoring goals, is Giroud. OG has been super keen to make a mark straightaway and his over-eagerness has possibly been more of a hinder than a help. However, his recent goals against WH and Spain will have done him a world of good and will hopefully give him the confidence and inner calmness to further improve his goal scoring.

I have no doubt that the MU strike-force will start performing a lot better sooner or later, but they have some catching up to do, and I am quietly confident that our strike-force will have outperformed theirs by the end of the season.

Now, wouldn’t that just be great and another proof of Arsene’s great ability to evolve his teams phenomenally well, given the means at his disposal?!

Total Arsenal.

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Silly Harry should look closer to home: two Gunners outperform his ‘world-class’ Bale

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Harry Redknapp is clearly feeling a bit lonely at the moment. Nobody, as yet, is waving a big bag at him with loads of money to come and ruin their club, so he decided to come out with a few ludicrous statements to replenish his attention-deficit.

Even the BBC picked up on it with the headline: “Gareth Bale is in Ronaldo and Messi’s class, says Redknapp”. To be fair on Redknapp he did not actually say that Bale is in the same class as Ronaldo and Messi already, but that he is getting there quickly: “He’s an amazing talent and he’s after the Ronaldos and Messis of this world and he’s getting better and better”.

Where he does make a real fool of himself is in subsequent statements: “He’s almost unplayable when he’s on his game. He is a genuine world-class player.”

 And:“There’s nobody he couldn’t play for. He’d improve any team.”

 And finally, and this beats it all: “He is already at the top but any team in the world would love to have Gareth Bale playing for them.”

What a silly sausage!

In all honesty, I think Gareth Bale is a decent footballer and has potential to become a very good footballer; maybe even a great one. But that’s it: it’s just potential – nothing more and nothing less. Bale has to do an awful lot in order to become the best winger in the PL, let alone in Europe or the world, and to mention him in the same breath as Messi and Ronaldo is plain stupid.

Just a quick look at the key statistics (from wiki) and you’ll see how silly it was of Redknapp to compare Bale with Messi and Ronaldo (if you did not know this already):

Bale: Age 23, games 214, goals 36, goals per game 0.17.

Messi: Age 25, games 340, goals 265, goals per game 0.78.

Ronaldo: Age 27, games 478, goals 283, goals per game 0.59.

It is a typical British thing to overhype somebody or a team early in their development, and usually nobody is served by it. Unless, of course, Redknapp supports the motto that bad attention/publicity is better than no attention, even if it means he makes a fool of himself.

Rather than compare Bale with the current football giants who operate from the wing – although not in the traditional sort of way – he should have had a closer look at home. There are a number of wingers in the PL who are simply outperforming Bale at the moment, and two of them are Gunners. Here are some examples:

Gervinho: Age 25, games 265, goals 73, goals per game 0.28.

Walcott: Age 23, games 252, goals 51, goals per game 0.2.

Nani (MU): Age 25, games 277, goals 49, goals per game 0.18.

Valencia (MU): Age 27, games 301, goals 34, goals per game 0.11.

Victor Moses: Age 21, games 152, goals 21, goals per game 0.14.

Bale’s stats again: Age 23, games 214, goals 36, goals per game 0.17. He is just an average PL winger with potential to improve.

I did not gather details on assists, but I am pretty sure it would not alter the picture dramatically.

Gareth Bale is an overhyped player, who has a hell of a lot to do to eventually live up to the outside world’s expectations. Redknapp should be ashamed to put such unnecessary pressure on the Welshman’s shoulders, and for using him to get back in the limelight.

And for what it is worth, I predict that Theo will outperform Bale throughout their football careers.

Total Arsenal.

Arsenal – Olympiakos: All’s Well that Ends Well! Ten Quick Observations.

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One: Arteta and Cazorla are no mercenaries (in case there was any doubt left). They both gave everything tonight, all over pitch, and carried the team forward for large parts of the game. What a couple of awesome players!

Two: Steve Bould, judging by the evidence of tonight, can do a good halftime team talk. We were more organised, worked harder and never let the Greeks back in. His substitutions did also really work out for Arsenal tonight. All three of them made a difference: they were focussed and eager. I was very impressed with the Boulddozer tonight.

Three: Our young FB’s are showing great signs of maturity – just as they did against Chelsea and Man City – and what a difference this is making with last year’s FB situation at the start of the season.

Four: TV’s performance in the first half was poor, but he improved in the second half quite a bit. But why does he keep bombing forward continuously, even when we are in front and don’t need to chase a goal? It must be by instruction of Wenger and Bould, but I don’t like it at all.

Five: As much as I could judge from a dodgy stream, Coquelin did reasonably ok. The Ox had an unfortunate game and I am starting to wonder where he could play best: at the moment, in our 4-2-1-3 system, I can only see him up-front as one of our ‘fluent-three-attackers’, but as a pure winger he seems to be struggling at the moment (offensive as well as defensive). The difference in experience between, on one side Cazorla and Arteta, and on the other side The Ox and Le Coq, was very obvious tonight. Let’s hope the boys can learn quickly.

Six: With five goals in five, Gervinho is firing from all cylinders. He is so important for us at the moment: not just in terms of his goals but his general play as well. He makes himself available constantly and holds on to the ball well most of the time, and creates chances for others on a regular basis. Together with Arteta and Cazorla and the FB’s, he has been carrying the team tonight. I also thought Mannone did the simple things well tonight and I liked his calmness.

Seven: There is no need to despair about our strength in depth, yet. With Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, JW10, Diaby, and Rosicky not involved at all, and Giroud, Theo and Ramsey starting on the bench, we were still able to field a strong team.

Eight: Despite Podolski’s goal, which he took well, he seems to be struggling at the moment to get hold of the game on the left hand side. His cooperation with Cazorla, and especially Gibbs, is good, but there are too many, and long, periods in which he is simply not involved enough in the game.

Nine: I was happy with Theo’s zest and focus when he came on as a substitute. That was much better than the insipid show he presented us with on Saturday. Let’s hope we get complete contract clarity soon.

Ten: The first half was pretty bad, and lessons have to be learnt again. But the second was much, much better – although by no means faultless – and will give us plenty of confidence and gusto to face the Hammers on Saturday.

All in all, not a bad night and a great result – especially when taking into account the result between Schalke and Montpellier tonight.

Keep the faith fellow Gooners!

Total Arsenal.

Arsenal – Chelsea: player ratings – Gibbs by miles my Man of the Match!

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A very disappointing result that will need further analysing in the next few days, but here are my player ratings for now:

Mannone: not much to do during the game and not at fault for the first Chelsea goal. The second goal was conceded mostly as a result of Koscielny’s bad timing, but the goalkeeper should still have dived towards the corner with more conviction. 6.5

Jenkinson: super, positive performance today with a number of good crosses in and defensively very sound throughout the game. He was always willing to go forward and seldom or never gave the ball away. 8

Thomas Vermaelen: he did not do much wrong today and made a few good interventions, as we have come to aspect from the Belgian warrior. However, as a captain I found him a little bit too quiet again. 6.5

Koscielny: he will want to forget this game as quickly as possible. He should have been stronger against Torres for the first goal and the timing for his intervention from the Mata free-kick that led to the second goal, was not good enough. He lost the ball a few times when under pressure during the game as well. 4

Gibbs: superb performance. Confident, applying good pressure, winning the ball back all the time, and pushing on constantly. Great link-up play with Podolski until the latter was substituted. My Man of the Match by a mile. 8.5

Ramsey: good start on right side with winning balls well and keeping possession. He did ok when taking over from Diaby but was unable to help the midfield gain control over that all important area. At the start of the second half he seemed to tire again (as he did against MC) and a couple of passes went missing. His substitution made sense. 6.5

Arteta: decent first half in which he fought hard to get control over the midfield (together with other midfielders). In the second half he seemed to tire initially, only to come back strong towards the end. He lost the ball under medium pressure at one point in the second half, which led to TV having to intervene by conceding a free-kick – from which the second goal was scored. Not his best performance but still ok. 7

Cazorla: was not given much space in midfield by the hard working and disciplined Ramires and Mikel, and did often not get enough support from our other midfielders. As a result he was isolated, especially in the first half. In the second half he became more involved, but unfortunately he did not have his shooting boots on, and he should have done better in the last few minutes of the second half. Good lay-off though to Giroud, who should have done better. 6

Diaby: started off ok but not long enough on the pitch to rate him. Such a shame he went off injured, as we really missed him.

Gervinho: energetic, could be found all over the pitch helping his team, and full of confidence. He showed great movement for his first goal, with a good first touch and clinical finish as well. He produced a good ball for Cazorla late in the game from which the latter should have at least hit the target, but he did manage to be off-site a few times too many. Very close to my Man of the Match. 8

Podolski: he had some good moments but was absent a lot during the game. His link-up play with Gibbs is getting better and better and he almost scored with a header from a difficult angle (from a Gibbs cross). 6

The Ox: he had periods of good wing-play with a nice variety to his crossing/putting the ball in the box. One of them led to Gervinho’s goal, which was very well spotted by him. 7.5

Giroud and Theo did not play long enough to give them a fair rating, although Giroud should have done better with the chance he was given by Cazorla in extra time. Theo had no impact.

Total Arsenal.

Gervinho and Podolski clinical finishing saves our day: match report

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Montpellier 1 – 2 Arsenal

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Firstly I should say I got it totally wrong with regards to the team selection tonight. I was convinced that Arsene would prioritise our game against ManCity and would give the likes of Podolski, Cazorla, Gibbs and Gervinho a rest, or start them on the bench. He did the opposite by playing his strongest team from the start and with hindsight, despite the fact that most of the aforementioned players appeared to be very tired in the second half – something I was anticipating – Wenger definitely made the right call tonight.

These are the sort of games that can go either way, but I am convinced had we not played our strongest available team tonight we could have easily lost two or even three points, and even then we had to rely on a large dollop of luck to come away from la douce France with maximum points against a very spirited team. Maybe Arsene learned from Man United’s mistakes last year, when they thought they could cruise through their CL group with weakened teams, and ooh how they paid for it! Lol.

In order to qualify in the Champions League, we normally need to win our three home games and get something out of one or more of our away games. It also really helps to start well in order to gain momentum. We managed just about to do that and we should be happy, but our display in the beautifully named Stade de la Masson was far from convincing, and I think we will need to analyse it further properly over the next few days (I have no time tonight to watch the game a second time, so I am afraid you will have to settle for my initial findings and gut-feelings about the game).

I believe that key to it all was our midfield not functioning properly on the night, and especially Diaby, despite no lack of trying, failed to repeat his phenomenal performance against Liverpool two weeks ago. I guess it did not help that he collected a yellow card in just twenty seconds after kick-off, but Abou looked rusty throughout the game: he struggled at times with keeping possession as well as safeguarding the shape of our midfield. Arteta was our rock once again and as usual he put his body and soul on the line. Cazorla had some strong moments, but especially as the game went on, he seemed to disappear for large periods.

As a trio, though, they lacked shape, calmness and composure: we were unable to dominate play in midfield for large parts of the game, and it almost cost us dearly.

 First Half

Not totally unexpected, Montpellier started the game without any fear and with a clear game plan. From the first minute, they did not allow us to control the game by passing the ball around as we have become so used to again this season. They started with a high line and were keen not to allow us to build up attacks from the back, or even just to pass the ball around towards the midfield. Very often Montpellier committed two players to attack any of our players who were in possession of the ball, and our usually so effective triangles were constantly broken up.

It also did not help at all that our captain, who has been so good at leading by example this season, made an error of judgement after eight minutes, both in terms of taking an unnecessary risk – there was no need to take on Belhanda there and then – and in the execution of his tackle. Diaby’s yellow card and TV’s foul that led to the penalty, which was put away with ooh-la-la cheekiness of the highest order by Belhanda, somehow set the tone for what turned out to be an uncomfortable evening.

Luckily, we were able to convert our first proper chance to level the match, and it only took us eight minutes since we conceded to do so. A beautiful, smooth move through the centre of midfield which had started with Diaby who passed the ball to Cazorla; the Spaniard then found Giroud at the edge of the box, and the ex-Montpellier player managed to put a very good through-ball in to the unmarked and on-site Podolski. The latter had time to pick his spot and fool the keeper in the process, and he showed his experience when he slotted the ball with apparent ease past Jourdren: 1-1, game on!

This appeared to have bamboozled the CL-inexperienced French team, and Arsenal went for the kill once more only two minutes later. And it was another beautifully worked goal. When the opposition is hunting us down and triangles are being suffocated, the only thing that seems to work sometimes, is taking on a player of the opposition and move into the space behind him. Jack Wilshere did this so well against Barcelona in that famous home CL win two years ago, and in Gervinho we have another player who excels in it (and the Ox is not far behind too).

Gervinho made a quick and smooth move to go past a player of the opposition near the right sideline, after which he passed the ball to Giroud. The latter did not manage to reach the ball but it bounced perfectly of the leg of a Montpellier player into the path of Jenkinson. Incredibly, from the moment Gervinho passed the ball to Giroud he sprinted into the box, as you would expect from a typical fox-in-the-box kind of striker. I think it is fair to say that most of us had not pictured him like that! Jenkinson delivered a razor-sharp cross into the box towards Gervinho who, with only a metre between him and the goalkeeper, stayed calm and finished with deadly accuracy: 1-2 to the Mighty Arsenal and it all looks very promising for us again.

However, after going in front we fail to continue controlling the game, even though we don’t give away much either. They simply keep a lot of their players in our half and make it really difficult for us to find our passing game.

The throughout the game very impressive, Cabella, probably had the best chance in the first half for Montpellier with a well-placed, low shot, after a fine run across our box, that just whizzed past Mannone’s left post.

Second Half

I expected Arsenal to start the game a lot more organised and more capable of holding on to the ball, and to be able to dominate the game again. But we were never able to sustain possession and take control again of the game during the second half, which is a bit worrying.

Just after the restart, Diaby had an unfortunate slip in the box, leaving Cabella with a golden opportunity to equalise, but the 22 year old lacked the composure/experience which is so important at this level, and was demonstrated so incredibly well to him by Gervinho, and especially, Podolski earlier in the game. Although, it is fair to say he was simply unlucky when his lovely, bergkampesque attempt to chip Manone hit the bar rather than the back of the net in the 54th minute. I think we might see more of Cabella in the future.

The same lack of composure was shown by the equally promising talent of Belhanda (also 22 years old) late on in the game: after a rare mistake by Mertesacker in the box – at the end of a fine move by Montpellier – Belhanda was left with space and time to take a first touch and pick his spot – he does not keep his shot low to the ground but shoots right at the arms of Mannone, who does well not to panic and keep hold of it. That could easily have been the deserved equaliser for Montpellier, but luckily we escaped once more.

Other than Diaby’s fantastic, surging run from our own half all the way to the penalty box; where he fed the ball to Cazorla who could have done better with his shot on goal, we had very little to offer in terms of our attacking efforts.

In the end we held out and can now move on to the next game. Suffice to say, Wenger and Bould have some work to do with the team, as we are unlikely to get away with a repeat of tonight’s performance against Man City on Sunday.

Player ratings:

Mannone: I really liked him tonight, even though he did not have to make many big saves. He was calm and oozed confidence: 7.5.

Jenkinson: Tenacious, solid performance and a great cross for the winner: 7.5.

Mertesacker: Really read the game well and was desperate to keep discipline and order in an increasingly becoming disorganised team: 8.

TV: Silly mistake to give the somewhat harsh penalty away, but recovered well after that and worked well with Mertesacker to just about stay in control in defence: 7.

Gibbs: Less dominant and present this game than in previous games. I felt he left TV too often exposed this game: 6.5.

Arteta: Reads the game as well in midfield as Mertesacker does in defence. Another solid, totally committed performance: 8.

Diaby: As per the Match Report comments; below par / too rusty on the night: 6.

Cazorla: Not his best performance this season, but his class still shone through at times. He seemed to disappear a lot in second half: 6.5.

Podolski: He also seemed to disappear a lot in the second half, but took his goal very well when it really mattered: 7.5

Giroud: Great assist for the all important early equaliser and worked very hard all over the pitch. He did not get great service on the night and will feel frustrated not have come close to scoring a goal against his former team: 7.

Gervinho: Instigated and finished fantastically the second goal. Worked hard to help out midfield and defence and was a joy to watch: 8 and my Man of the Match.

Total Arsenal.

Please note, my post was also published on http://www.arsenalarsenal.wordpress.com today.