fastidium

Arsenal.com published an interesting article (by Richard Clarke) this morning on Why Wenger won’t rely on strikers for goals. Due to injuries to Robin Van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner, our goals have had to come from elsewhere. The stats are given that over half are coming from midfield and the centre backs (Cesc Fabregas 10, Abou Diaby 5, Aaron Ramsey 3, Denilson 3, Alex Song 1, Thomas Vermaelen 4, William Gallas 3).

Wenger notes the changing formation of the game in general. Instead of relying on your strikers for goals where “the midfielders are the guys who bring the strikers alive”, the strikers are the ones who are bringing the midfielders into the action.

“[For example] Robin Van Persie, when he played we always scored three or four goals. He didn’t score too many [himself] but he made a lot. Not only with passing, but with movement and the quality of that movement. Strikers open walls for the deeper players. That is a big part in the modern game.”

Many others, of course, have made the same observation about strikers in football today. I think it was Jonathan Wilson, at the Guardian, who first criticized teams like Barcelona and Man United for becoming less active when they added strong, holding forwards (Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Dimitar Berbatov, respectively). When these teams relied on their mids and wings, they were a more mobile, dynamic attack, but with the addition of “targets” up front, their scoring options actually diminished.

The counter-example to this argument is Chelsea with Drogba and Anelka up front. Both are target forwards, and produce more goals and assists themselves than most teams.

The point is that modern forwards, like van Persie, act more like parts of the midfield. Its just a shame that we’re without him for the season. I wonder what it would have been like with him at this point in the campaign? …

Kevin Palmer (ESPN) feels that Arsenal overcame their reliance upon Cesc Febregas and ‘special’ Robin van Persie. He wrongly says that it was “decided in three second half minutes as Giovanni missed a penalty harshly awarded against Mikael Silvestre”. While the foul shouldn’t have been awarded, it and the subsequent penalty miss were hardly the deciding moments.

Mikey Stafford (The Guardian) gives the best all-around synopsis of the match.

Gill Clark (goal.com) gives accolades to Denilson and Abou Diaby for their performances.

David Young (ESPN Correspondent) calls the team’s performance pragmatic and efficient rather than spectacular and breathtaking. Young points us to the next four games, where 3 of them are at home. Then, starting on Jan 31, we face Man United, Chelsea, and Liverpool within a space of 11 days.

In the postgame interview, when asked about the first goal, Arsene admits that Denilson wasn’t going to take the free kick. Sure glad he did!

The absence of Robin van Persie from this Arsenal team is quite evident. RvP brings a forward presence to Arsenal that we’re unable to mimick without him. While Eduardo can play a holding presence up front, he doesn’t quite have the pace to come back into midfield when needed. And, Eduardo’s out too, so Arsene Wenger was forced to field all midfielders in this game against Stoke.

Our defense consisted of Almunia in goal, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, and Traore (Silvestre 88). The rest of the team line-up were Denilson, Nasri, Fabregas, Eboue (Ramsey 54), Rosicky (Vela 45), and Arshavin. The reason I list these out is because none of these players play a traditional (or non-traditional, for that matter) form of striker up front. Many of the them are prone to make runs forward but none of them can be considered targets up front, in the mold of RvP, Bendtner, or Eduardo. Even Vela likes to play off of the left-hand side.

None of this is to say that we shouldn’t be playing this way. I’m just pointing it out.

Arshavin’s goal in the 26th minute brought the end of my frustration over the Russian. His touch up till then had been atrocious. In one instance, he could have easily scored but he pushed the ball too far forward and the goalie was able to get to it first. The goal, however, was a perfect example of Arshavin’s knack for shooting without it looking like he’s shooting. He’s got that little flick from a prone position that ends up being a pretty hard shot. It was the culmination of a nice little exchange between Cesc and Arshavin.

It was utter pain to see Cesc miss a penalty.

As soon as Ramsey came on the pitch, our form changed. I noticed that we were playing a much slower, shorter passing game up until that moment. I’m not sure if the change came because of Ramsey but it seemed to coincide with his arrival. His pace was what won him the opportunity to score and he made good on it in the 80th minute. It was a perfectly placed shot which could have gone anywhere if he had taken it harder.

A new frustration has arisen for me with this team … Carlos Vela. I hope he improves. He really added nothing to the team by floating out on the left like he did.

This is just one of the worst possible news items to read this morning: “… more extensive damage had been suffered than was first diagnosed. In order to repair his ankle, Robin will undergo surgery next week in Amsterdam to reconstruct the ligaments. The Club’s medical team anticipate that a full recovery will take between four and five months.”

This sucks! Arsenal’s Robin van Persie is set for a long spell out after seriously injuring an ankle while on international duty. These things happen to us every season.

Robin was stretchered off during Holland’s international friendly with Italy in Pescara on Saturday, November 14 with ankle ligament damage. Initial reports suggested he would be out for around six weeks.

Goals: Van Persie 16, Gallas 37 Against: Cole 74, Diamanti 80 (pen)

Blackburn gave up 8 goals to Arsenal last season. With Thierry Henry in attendance for Arsene Wenger’s 13th anniversary at Arsenal, we almost matched last year’s performance in a single match.

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Well, it wasn’t exactly the best performance and Wigan has not gotten off to a very good relegation-avoiding season, but Arsenal did what they do and got four goals with a clean sheet. Some will say that 4-0 at home against Wigan is expected but I don’t think any outcome is expected anymore in this league. Expectations are meant to be overturned.

The hero of Saturday’s game was, of course, Thomas Vermaelen. I love the fact folks were saying that he was too short to play central defense, yet he’s scoring headers by jumping higher than anyone else on the field.

Eboue took a attacking role in midfield on the right, Fabregas and Song played in the middle, with Eduardo roaming the left. This was a slightly different midfield from last week, with Denilson sitting on the bench. I’ll assume that it had something to do with Adebayor.

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It was systematic. It was precise. It was a demolition. Arsenal’s opening of the 2009/10 Premiership campaign at Everton, August 15th 2009, ended in a final scoreline of 6 to 1. Goals were scored by Denilson (26th minute), Vermaelen (37), Gallas (41), Fabregas (48,70), and Eduardo (89). As the main catalyst, Fabregas scored two himself, but he wasn’t the only one who’s performance assisted on the six goals. Nicklas Bendtner, playing wide right, has some dazzling runs down the side and into the box. Arshavin and Van Persie stretched the Everton defense wide open, and each should have had some goals themselves, in all fairness. Song and Denilson controlled the midfield through out the game. This was a clinical team performance by a team with everything to prove.

While Arsenal possessed the ball well, this game was settled by set pieces. The first goal was a master strike by Denilson to curl Fabregas’ side pass into the upper left corner. But, it wasn’t the dagger that ended the possibility of an Everton comeback. The 2nd and 3rd goals did that. Both centerbacks, first Vermaelen, then Gallas, headed the ball home on well-orchestrated set pieces by Arsenal, not so well defended by Everton. One team has been practicing these, the other not. After those two goals, any confidence left in Everton was gone. The rest of the goals would come on counter attacks, because Everton was pushing forward. This is what Wenger’s Arsenal does best and its been too long since we’ve seen it happen.

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