Arsenal Mantap

Arsenal got another away win this midweek. That's a relief. However, let's start with others results first. Newcastle United was defeated at their on turf, which made me felt a little disappointed at our home defeat. May be it was really not our day having conceded first and hitting the bar twice. Moving on to our current top four rivals, the Manchesters displayed a quite boring match which ended 0-0. The two teams played carefully and seemed to satisfied with a draw, which is a fantastic result for us. Last but not least, our rival wannabe, Spurs, drew with Sunderland at their own home. There's no Bale to bail them out from the draw. Unfortunately,or rather I could say shamefully, there was Rafael who saved them (again) with his hand. It was such a disappointment seeing player like Rafael handled the ball first before scoring. I expected a media outrage, but hey ! Where are you guys?

Getting back to Arsenal, we have stopped our defeats chain last night at Wolves turf. It was not a win we used to achieved with a stylish possession game. On the contrary, we got dominated and tried to hit back on the break ala Ancelloti's Chelsea. I guess Arsene tried to change his approach in tough fixture. Rather than bombing forward all the time, we tried to maintain our fast lead and hit the counter. It was admitted by the manager on the post-match interview saying that the team played more on defending and keeping the result that night. Having Cesc and Wilshere not playing at their best, I guess it was an understandable choice. Cesc has mistimed a few passes and Wilshere was having an anynomous performance.

Although not able to play usual game. there were a lot of positivities in our game last night. Gael and Rosicky have improved their performance. The former one was getting better as playing more although he hasn't reached his past top level. Our heroes of this match were undeniable Fabianski and Chamakh. Chamakh with his brace has seen us cutting the gap with the second spot. It was a freshing moment seeing him back to scoring form after not being sharp lately. Wenger blamed the striker's condition of being sick lately for his decreasing productivity. Last night, he took us leading the game early on the match when the watch has only been counting for 37 seconds. He headed the ball in after receiving a great ball from Song. However, as much as I want to salute Chamakh, it was Fabianski who has stolen all of our attention that night. The Polish stopper, which was critized harshly after the Newcastle match by some Gooners. has proved his worth with several crucial saves which kept us one goal up. He kept us leading all the game before Chamakh came up to kill the game before the game ended. I guess Fabianski has proved himself that he is capable of giving us points like others wish he is. Everton is awaiting to test him next. Prove what you are capable of, Fabs ! Prove us wrong for doubting you.

There's an event which we rarely encountered by us. Having displayed a rather defensive tactic, Cesc caught doing a reckless challenge on Wolves player, Stephen Wardy. It was a reckless tackle which will be awarded a red card. However, Cesc has admitted he was at fault and said it was accidental. He has also apologized to Wardy in the changing room after the break. Wolves manager, Mick McCarthy, has also stated that he has no problem with Cesc anymore after the apology.

Having seen his team won again on an away game, Arsene has a little concern on his current home form. In the interview, he said that he is willing to change the approach in his tactic when playing at home since the opponent tends to sit deeper. The manager used the Newcastle match at home as the example ,in which he decided to use a more direct approach. It proved to be a fail experiment on that match. Will it works in the future? Well, let's just wait for the revolutionary changes by Arsene Wenger.

Till then, Arsenal Mantap.


PS : If you like to know what Andrey thought on our last match, you can read it here