Well, it may not have been convincing but it was a win.
Bright sparks: Nasri, Clichy, Sagna, Djourou, Denilson
Damp squibs: Eboue, Adebayor, Walcott
Wenger put Eboue and Denilson in centre midfield, a combination that always looked short on creativity. With injuries, Arsenal’s only available playmaker was Nasri, placed somewhat stubbornly out on the left. Djourou and Gallas got to know each other better in defence, Bendtner started up front with Ade.
First half saw Arsenal start brightly, keeping possession with some crisp passing and opening up the Baggies on 4 minutes with a nice flowing move. Clichy put a short ball through onto the byeline for Denilson, who then cut it back for the arriving Nasri to clip it beyond the keeper from six yards. The defence was scrambling, so it was a neat finish. A typical Arsenal goal, with short, swift passes into space and lots of movement.
And that was basically it for the next 86 minutes. Arsenal were epitomised by Denilson’s performance – tidy, good work rate but largely uninspired in the final third. Eboue had chances to shoot but repeatedly missed the target. Adebayor was indecisive, and was caught offside too many times when there was no need to be. When he had the ball, Walcott refused to stay wide and use his pace, instead running straight at the defence and swallowing up all the space his strikers wanted to use. Arsenal looked more dangerous after van Persie came on for Bendtner, prompting Adebayor to drop out more to the left, and allowing Nasri to push inside and link up play.
Apart from one moment when they were split too easily, and had a little tiff as a result, Djourou and Gallas were fine. Clichy and Sagna were their usual excellent selves, Clichy providing one of the few thrilling moments when he went on one of those barnstorming ball-carrying runs from his own goal line. Almunia had one save to make, and made it well.
West Brom were very solid. Tony Mowbray basically got it right. He played the hardworking Miller up front on his own all game, and then put on a couple of chunky, athletic and skillful young players at the end in MacDonald and Bednar who linked up well to try to pinch an equaliser. If his midfield hadn’t switched off for Nasri’s run in the fourth minute, they could have got a result. They should stay up.
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Other…
I said that of all the other sides I fear the Chavs, and they certainly looked the part on Sunday.
Kudos to sub-editor at the Grauniad for use of phrase “derring-do” in headline of the Man U – Newcastle match report. Was Errol Flynn on the scoresheet?
I was waiting to post this after I’d seen the Mancs’ game but I seem to have missed it on ESPN. Latest rumour is we might be signing Silvestre from the Mancs for a cut-price £750,000. This sounds like good business to me. The article suggests that Silvestre would be first-choice partner for Gallas, replacing Senderos – which says to me that Toure is moving up into midfield. If this is true, I’m not so sure how I feel about it. Toure has not looked comfortable playing there the couple of times I’ve seen it, and with Eboue in there as well we basically have two defenders where two attackers should be. We’ll see.
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