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song is a beast ..wenger will turn him into a sneijder/de rossi type player 
Reviews
Written by Mean Lean on Thursday, 29 September 2011 11:22
Arsenal ended the evening as the only English team to have come away with all three points on match day two. A draw against the German champions in Dortmund followed up with a victory at home to the Greek champions sets us up nicely in group F, but it was not all plane sailing as Olympiacos showed some good quality going forward. There link play and pass and move football caused us one or two problems on the night. The headed goal for the away side was well deserved and very well worked even though Arsenal gave them more than a helping hand in not being alert to the short corner which left two players against Chamberlain.
Before that Arsenal were the dominant side with a team that resembled a Carling cup team with the amount of injuries we have collected, not only that but Arsene also rested Robin van Persie, Aaron Ramsey and Kieran Gibbs.
In other words, the team below would have arguably given the Greek champions a better game last night even with attacking midfielder Yossi Benayoun wearing the gloves.
This Arsenal squad has depth that is very underrated and that may become a little clearer after the International break when a number of Arsenal players are due back to the first team squad.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was one of the stand in players on the right side of the front three. He was making his first Champions League start and just as he managed in the Carling cup, he stood out and looked like a seasoned professional. His goal was exceptional and reminded me of the type of goal that Thierry Henry would score.
Drifting into a central position, he took Alex Song's glorious pass on his chest, tip toed his way into the penalty box and struck a low shot into the opposite corner with his weaker left foot. The technique in the finish reminded me of Henry's second goal against Roma in Italy and many more of his left footed strikes from a similar position.
It is quite apparent that Chamberlain's 18 years means very little, just as it meant very little to Jack Wilshere. He already has the technique, he already has the intelligence. His mixture of pace and technical qualities means that he can impact pretty much any level right now.
All he needs now is the belief that he is the best on the pitch and experience, once he adds that then there is no limit to his future.
It wasn't long before we doubled our advantage. Tomas Rosicky slipped a pass through to Andre Santos down the left, the Brazilian's intended cross for Chamakh was cut out but the loose ball fell to Santos who jinked his way inside and struck low inside the goalkeepers near post.
Andre Santos was making his Arsenal Champions league debut and has already scored more goals in this competition than Gael Clichy.
I thought Santos looked in better shape than on his debut at Blackburn. His individual defensive contribution was pretty good also. In fact all of the defenders played well individually winning most of their one on one battles, the problem was they did not have much of an understanding together and it showed. Which is understandable given the fact that there were so many changes and only Bacary Sagna is a certain starter from that team.
After Olympiacos pulled one back they started to grow in confidence and started to stamp their authority on the game. They did not let us build up our game in our half because they pressed our back four and midfielders and that resulted in Arsenal conceding possession far too easily on too many occasions.
Frimpong, Sagna, Chamakh and Arshavin were all guilty of misplacing balls under pressure and it was this part of the game where I think Francis Coquelin would have been the better suited choice rather than Frimpong who for his credit was one of our better players defensively in closing down the opposition. The rest cannot be said for many of our starters who only seem to shadow the opposition when they have the ball instead of trying to force that player into errors and it was all too easy for Olympiacos to receive, turn and pass the ball through our team.
This had improved after the break so I can only assume that they had to be told by Pat Rice to pressure them, also our full backs sat back a little more after the break to protect the team from the counter attack which they had exploited very well in the first half.
Szczesny was beaten by one long range strike that smacked against the crossbar. Our defenders were equal to pretty much everything else that was thrown at them, in particularly Alex Song. He had dropped back into his old position after the long list of center backs on the treatment table. If anyone thought he would be the weak link after needing time to readjust to that role, they would be very wrong.
Alex Song won everything on the floor, distributed the ball in the cultured way that he has already demonstrated so far this season. His pass for Alex Chamberlain's goal was the perfect example of that. He added a calm to defence, especially in the second half when the pressure started to increase, he would turn away from his man or make the right pass without ever putting the defence in danger. Alex Song was the best player on the pitch and in my opinion, when he has been available this season, he has been our best performer so far. He is slowly transforming into one of the most complete midfielders in the Premier League today. A far cry from the 17 year old who looked out of his depth at Craven Cottage.
Three wins in a row, no injuries, injured players to return for the weekend. Bring on the Tottenham.
Man of the match: Alex Song
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29-Sep-2011 12:19 | | RedDevil - Get ready for a spankingYou played a sub standard team last night and got exposed so many times, get ready to get spanked by your arch rivals on the weekend.
Not so long ago this would be a big game for Spurs, now it seems that this game is enormous for the goons; Another spanking and especially from Spurs would surely send some of you bum boys over the edge
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29-Sep-2011 12:39 | | Vuja DeGood result for the mighty Arsenal last night.
I'm pleased for Chamberlain and Santos too.
I was under the impression that Chamberlain is genuinely two-footed, so I don't know to what degree his left foot can be described as weaker, but I guess we'll have to wait and see much more of his game on that one.
I wonder if part of the reason for Song's very good run of form is a determination to make up for the games he missed during his unnecessary suspension, when we missed his presence in midfield bigtime.
Perhaps Song will let us know what was going through his head when he stamped on Barton later on in the season...I am surprised that Arsenal Player hasn't raised the matter with him. Yet.
As usual, the media & online coverage of our win has been typically negative and downbeat, especially considering the results of Utd, City and Chelsea this week.
They really do bring Journalism into disrepute, consistently.
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29-Sep-2011 13:15 | | Prince - Up Gunners3 wins in a row
.that is pretty good considering that no English team won.with Scezesny,Sagna,Per,Konsielny,Gibbs,Song,Arteta,Ramsey,Walcot,Gervinho,
Persie.bring on Totenham
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29-Sep-2011 14:38 | | goji - up arsenalsong. heave got all the quality he is a Mayor.
happy time to all arsenal fan
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29-Sep-2011 16:42 | | redboyGreat win last nite but is there a worst defence in the prem league than ours.Im worried as f**k about the game sunday.COME ON ARSENAL
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29-Sep-2011 16:47 | | redboyMUK I think you will find that the players that did not start or play last nite
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29-Sep-2011 19:12 | | Hisab - I see great things to come.Yes, the season did not start as we expected. To be candid wit u all, these few days hav been most trying 4 me and lots of fans of the beautiful game that is only played as it should, by Arsenal and Barcelona. From where i stand i only see us moving in one direction, and that is UP.
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29-Sep-2011 19:15 | | Hisab - I see great things to come.Yes, the season did not start as we expected. To be candid wit u all, these few days hav been most trying 4 me and lots of fans of the beautiful game that is only played as it should, by Arsenal and Barcelona. From where i stand i only see us moving in one direction, and that is UP.
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29-Sep-2011 19:15 | | Hisab - I see great things to come.Yes, the season did not start as we expected. To be candid wit u all, these few days hav been most trying 4 me and lots of fans of the beautiful game that is only played as it should, by Arsenal and Barcelona. From where i stand i only see us moving in one direction, and that is UP.
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29-Sep-2011 19:18 | | IndiGooner - Good WinIt was a very good win for the confidence of the team. Good to see AoC reminding Theo that he is not untouchable because of his speed. But i am worried about Sagna, He plays back to back for us, works really hard and his backup is far off. He looked tired to me. he will have a major job of holding Bale besides doing his regular job. I hope the whoso ever plays on right gives Sagna enuf support like AoC did in the second half.
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29-Sep-2011 19:18 | | Man United KillerWell, I dont understand your comment but I meant to say "good article but could you please exclude Djourou and Diaby please.Thank you"
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30-Sep-2011 07:13 | | pikathe problem is not the defence but the midfield. without cesc and/or jack the 433 is not effective. the midifield does nto move ball quick enough neither do they unmark themselves quick enough to receive from defenders. individually they all won their duels except sagna who lost miralas a couple of times. one thing is for sure though. at last weve got a fkn good keeper and he is only what ? 20? 21? frimpong was very bad at passing andf rosicky is hopeless, they left it all to arteta and he aint the type of player to run a whole midfield on his own.
revert ot 4411 with park/arshavin behind van persie song arteta the midfielders walcott gervinho the wingers.
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01-Oct-2011 18:11 | | CHGoonerBloody Hell! Reading this stuff and the comments I'm transported to la-la land. We beat SHREWSBURY, BOLTON (the worst team in the league on current form) and OLYMPIACOS!!! By the way the latter teams record against English clubs prior to the Emirates visit was P9 W0 D0 L0 F1 A29 FFS!!! We almost contrived to not beat them as well. How low do we need to sink Gooners? Celebrating wins like that as if they represent anything other than what they are. Home wins against crap. Kroenke's comments this week that our disastrous manager who couldn't coach a defence even if his life depended on it, has a job until he decides he wants to leave is an absolute disgrace. Wake up, this is getting way beyond a joke. Arsenal Football Club is being run by people who are living in a fantasy world. If you want our great club to compete with the best only we can make it happen. Please stop this sycophantic, deferential nonsense and start asking the serious questions. What is AFC for? Do we genuinely want to be the best or at least challenge the best and if so, can we afford to allow the key decision makers to continue to oversee what is an all too obvious decline in standards, whilst drawing ever increasing salaries. Yes that means you as well Mr 'unsackable'.
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