Written by Mean Lean
on
Sunday, 17 October 2010 09:53
Birmingham City home or away is always going to be a tough match to play in these days and I was absolutely delighted at the final whistle that Arsenal had picked up the three points. We are used to putting the blue half of the midlands to the sword but I guess the frustration of our last two league games as well as the draining of the International matches just came out.
There was not a great deal of surprises in the starting line up. I thought perhaps a few of the players who had been involved in midweek football for their countries could have been rested to the bench but instead Wenger went for pretty much his strongest available line up. The bench was certainly boosted by the returning Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner which will improve the squad massively when it comes to playing every three days.
Often you can tell how an Arsenal game will pan out within the first ten minutes of the game and I had felt that we started pretty well. Our passing was pretty sharp and we should have scored in the first five minutes of the game. Great one touch combination play between Wilshere and Chamakh before the Moroccan saw his shot blocked and deflected away to safety from Stephen Carr.
Having just watched the replay, Chamakh chose to strike the ball into the corner where the goalkeeper and two Birmingham City defenders were situated. If he struck the ball to his left then he would have had pretty much an empty net to aim for.
I couldn't help but think of Stamford Bridge not so long ago and our inability to take the first chance that comes our way. It is one area of our game that needs improving and improving fast because we will not always have a catalogue of chances to choose from. Having said that when you have the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie in your team then your chance conversion rate surely has a decent chance of improving. We are not too far away from having at least two of those players available.
The midfield had started very brightly, Alex Song held back in the early stages while Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere played further forward trying to make things happen around the opposition penalty box. Diaby had continued where he left off against Chelsea. I thought he was immense yet again, dropping the shoulder and driving into the space ahead of him. He turns defence into attack in the blink of an eye. Sometimes the Birmingham City players just looked as if they had no idea of how to deal with him as the ball was often found stuck to Diaby's right boot and no matter how much they tried, they couldn't get it back before he released to a team mate.
Arsenal had the ball in the back of the Birmingham net after a Samir Nasri curling free kick was headed powerfully past the goalkeeper by Sebastien Squillaci but the referee and his assistant wrongly disallowed it for an apparent offside when replays showed that the Squiller was level when Nasri struck the ball.
Andrey Arshavin was having a truly shocking afternoon. He was struggling was his passing from the very first minute. Whether it was short passes or longer range passes, he consistently gave the ball away and could not positively get involved in the game. Arshavin's games for Russia looked to have caught up with him but he was not the only player to have played for his country over the last week.
Gael Clichy was the latest player to go close but not find the net when he was accidentally set up by former Gunner Sebastian Larsson. Clichy ran onto the mistake and lashed a right footed shot narrowly past the far post. Clichy does not often manage to get into many goal scoring positions so he will be disappointed that he did not hit the target as he won't get many more opportunities better than that one that was kindly gift wrapped by Larsson.
While Bruce Forsyth will tell you that points make prizes, I could easily tell you that missed chances makes the opposition score. This was no different.
Birmingham hadn't really troubled Lukasz Fabianski's goal very much until Keith Fahey sent over a delicious cross for the rather tall Nikola Zigic to leap above the Arsenal defence and glance in a superb header past our in form stopper.
While the header was quality, I don't think enough has been made of the rather excellent delivery from Fahey, inch perfect, struck with power and bend which allowed the forward to score his first Premier League goal.
Up went those red and white gears and Wilshere in particular drove Arsenal forward. It was his skip into the box that committed a challenge from Scott Dann, Chamakh who had played the return back to Wilshere was on hand to pick up the loose ball, Dann stuck out his foot to which Chamakh went over.
The replay clearly showed that Dann had made contact with Chamakh's right ankle, even if he went down a little easily.
The stream that I had found was visually fantastic. Sharp picture, very smooth but the audio that I was experiencing was just horrendous. I had Trevor Francis and his commentator buddy using every opportunity to have a go at Arsene Wenger and Arsenal about tackling. It was straight from the ESPN book of anti-Arsenal diatribe.
Tasks of the day appeared to be, a) show that Arsenal are hypocrites who foul more than the opposition and b) make Chamakh appear to be the most vile human being known to man.
Even when the replay appeared on the screen, showing a close up of the incident this was ignored and they continued to stick to the diving foreigner wasn't touched theme.
Anyway, the penalty was given and it was left to Samir Nasri to step up and take responsibility. He scored emphatically with a drive to his left past the despairing Ben Foster. Minutes later Roger Johnson crashed an arm into the head of Chamakh before the commentary team informed everyone that Chamakh must have a low pain threshold.
I have been complaining about the Gunners not taking their first chance of the game, well taking the first chance of the second half is a good start. Jack Wilshere was once again heavily involved. He chested the ball down to the advanced Song who pulled off a wonderful volleyed back heal to Jack who had continued his run, Wilshere pulled the ball down on his chest again and poked it through to Chamakh who had made a run into the penalty box, Carr's attempted tackle was feeble and Chamakh did the rest, rounding the keeper and putting the ball into the empty net for 2-1.
That was Chamakh's first goal in three games, he needed that and let us hope that he remains on the goal trail.
Emmanuel Eboue had a very good game at right back, he attacked well when needed yet stuck to his defensive duties admirably.
As soon as we scored the second goal, we pretty much controlled the rest of the game. Birmingham tried to hit us on the break but with the away side pushing for a goal, we were also a threat on the break.
Arshavin was finally replaced by the ever green Tomas Rosicky twenty minutes from time and the difference was visibly noticeable. I thought Rosicky's introduction improved Clichy's game for the short amount of time that he was on the field of play.
Rosicky's energy is infectious and we need players who will improve others as well as roll their sleeves up when it is needed. Ten minutes later, Nicklas Bendtner came on for his first appearance of the new season replacing Chamakh who had got through plenty of work during the course of the 80 minutes.
The one major talking point of the match came pretty much at the end of the game. Wilshere's bad first touch allowed the ball to run away from himself and towards Zigic who had previously left an arm in his face. Wilshere flew in with his studs up on the big striker and it could have resulted in a serious injury. It is nothing new from Wilshere, he had been threatening to do that on a few occasions already this season. It has only been in recent weeks that Wilshere has reigned in his wild lunges. He deserved his red card and hopefully he will learn when to commit and when to hold his ground.
Cue the media getting on their high horses about Arsenal dishing out bad fouls and complaining themselves. It is very simple. Bad tackling should be stopped, no matter who it is by. Our player got rightly punished for it, the same should have happened to Paul Robinson, who did not even recieve a yellow. It is that simple.
Conclusion
Jack Wilshere will miss three league games but will be available for the Champions League. We have plenty of players like Walcott, Denilson and Rosicky who can all do with game time so hopefully Wilshere's suspension will not be too much of a problem, even if he was fantastic yesterday.
Three points to Arsenal, a very welcomed three points at that. We were not at our offensive best but I am sure our cutting edge will come. Fabianski had yet another good performance. Plucking out crosses from the air and his punches more often than not got enough distance on them. Johan Djourou looked composed at the back and Emmanuel Eboue was positive in his play.
Abou Diaby looks to have found some good form after his injury although Arsene had spoke about Diaby not being totally fit from his ankle problem. He has been criticised for not being decisive enough in the final third but I thought he came up against a wall of Birmingham City players time and time again so a shot wasn't always on, hence the moving of the ball time and time again from all the Arsenal players whilst outside the penalty area.
The only player that was well short of their level was Arshavin and perhaps he is just tired but I would really like to see him rested or perhaps dropped for Rosicky who continues to impress when he comes onto the pitch. It is crazy to suggest that when Arshavin has scored freely this season.
Jack may have to sit out some key games coming up, how handy is it that we have a certain Mr Fabregas ready to come back into the team?
It was important to get our recent defeats out of our system and we managed to do that. With Manchester United dropping yet another collection of points from a winning position along with Chelsea looking rather pedestrian without Drogba at Villa Park it has turned into a good weekend for Arsenal.
How football can move fast? Fabianski having yet another commanding display in goal while Van der Sar drops an absolute clanger for the Mancs. Contrary to popular belief, every goalkeeper at every level makes mistakes so let us hope that Fabianski is now starting to find some consistency.
All we need now is for Blackpool to do their bit against Manchester City and relegation strugglers Liverpool to grab a draw against Everton. Sorry that was below the belt.
Fabianski (7)
Eboue (7.5)
Sqillaci (7)
Djourou (7)
Clichy (7)
Song (7)
Wilshere (8)
Diaby (7.5)
Nasri (7)
Chamakh (7)
Arshavin (4.5)
Please note that ratings are only my interpretations of the game and that others will have differing opinions
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