Prologue
Half a dozen or so mixed Arsenal and Liverpool fans stood beers in hand, food cooking in the kitchen of Doyle’s Public House as publican Russ fiddled with the computer in order to get ESPN 360 to cough up a feed for us to watch. It reminded me of the days when I was a kid and I would watch television on an old black and white set, where you’d dial in the channel, tune it by moving the rabbit ears around a bit (maybe they had tin-foil on them) and then adjust the fine-tuning knob to get the best possible grainy picture and broken, static filled sound.
The picture was in color but the broadcast wasn’t much better than if we had dialed it in with rabbit ears. I’m not complaining, because I remember when I was a kid and living in Germany, we watched Superbowl XII on tape delayed broadcasts on AFN on a black and white television. I’m just saying that there were time jumps, breaks in continuity, and a general, erm, ‘blobbiness’ to the whole endeavor. So much so that while I’d love to write an actual match report I honestly had a hard time telling a lot of players apart. For example, I couldn’t tell if that white-dude-ish looking blob going forward was Aaron Ramsey or Nicklas Bendtner! Meanwhile, the midfield was just a jumble of folks for me as it was hard to pick out when it was Gibbs or Eastmond or Silvestre making a tackle or putting in a pass.
Like I said, I’m not complaining. Despite the picture quality and general choppiness, it was the best match I’ve seen all season. I’m just saying that I can’t give a proper match report because I didn’t really see enough of the game, so I’ll leave that to the pros:
Match Reports
Telegraph: It is part of the lexicon in north London that ‘Arsène knows’ and Wednesday night will have done little to dissuade disciples of Arsenal. With all eyes on the arrival in English football of Alberto Aquilani for Liverpool, it was another, rather cheaper, midfielder – Fran Mérida – whose presence lit up the Emirates and tipped the scales in favour of Arsenal.
Goodplaya (actually at the match): IN A nutshell, this was great fun for a tenner.
Match Video
The Arsenalist found some Chinese stream to tape and it’s pretty funny. I love when both Merida and Insua hits their wonder strikes and the Chinese announcers go, “WHOA.” Good stuff.
Man of the Match
Merida got his first ever goal for Arsenal and capped the performance by setting Bendtner up for the game winning goal, so for that alone I have to give him the MotM. But to hit the goal the way he hit it was even more spectacular and so despite the hard work of Bendtner and the eye-popping performance of Eastmond in the holding role, I really have to give it to the Spaniard.
I realize that a lot of folks will have a different opinion here so feel free to disagree with me in the comments.
The Good
What a night: end-to-end football, played at a torrid pace, by two teams who are playing football “the right way,” replete with incisive passing, wondrous goals, and the Arsenal comes out on top. It doesn’t get much better that.
In goal, I thought Fabby had a good night and showed why he should be considered for number 1 on Saturday. His high claims were spot on all night, his saves were good though he wasn’t really tested, and his mobility off the goal line in order to help out as a sweeperkeeper was excellent. The only blight on his game is that his distribution was a bit spotty and he should have been one or two inches further back when Insua hit that shot.
I’m kidding about the positioning thing, though with David Bentley trying to get a crack in the Tottenham first team for Saturday he will need to pay special attention to positioning.
Bendtner worked hard and the goal he nabbed was very Torres-esque. It took a good deal of strength to get past his marker and keep enough balance to drive the goal into the top of the net. Kudos to Bendtner.
Nasri looked lively to start and showed Thomas Rosicky why he will be pushing him for a spot this season. He flagged a bit at the end, but give the guy a break he’s just now coming back from injury!
Eduardo also played the full 90 and was unlucky not to have a goal or two last night as he prowled around the Liverpool goal. There was one mad scramble in particular where he challenged very hard for the ball and just missed by inches — I think, I couldn’t really tell! — and it was really good to see him diving in for a goal challenge fearlessly. Arsenal will need Eduardo at 100% if they’re going to win something this year.
The Bad
I did notice that Insua was Bendtner’s marker and that after Babel nodded the ball down, Bendy basically gave up on the play. Teams will be looking to exploit that exact type of thing in Arsenal’s new look 4-3-3. Everyone, to a man, must track back and defend. Now, obviously, you can’t expect that every player will hit an Insua-like goal but I still don’t like the sight of an open opponent getting any shot. In fact, Arsenal seem to have a lot of these types of wonder goals from midfield scored on them. I can think of 4 off the top of my head: Essien, Bentley, Giovanni, and Insua.
Clearly, closing down on players in the attacking 3rd is vital.
Similarly, just before Insua got the ball I was going to say to Russ that it looked like Liverpool’s tactic was counter attack and long ball, mostly played through Babel up front. Which, I was going to say, means that Arsenal need to put pressure on the defenders who were delivering those long passes and make Liverpool play through the middle. Just as my mouth was opening to spit out this gem of wisdom, a long ball was played to Babel, who nodded to Insua, who left Bendtner standing in his Wellingtons, and dipped a ball past the outstretched arm of Fabby. Damnit boys, pressure!
The Ugly
Robbie Keane is a huge cunt, but here, let me remind him of the last time he played for a team in the top four:
End of.
Epilogue
Arsenal are now through to the quarter finals and it’s a quarter finals which will feature all Premier League teams and 6 of the 8 are all fighting for the League title. The final 8 teams look like this:
1. Arsenal
2. Aston Villa
3. Blackburn Cloggers
4. Chelsea
5. Man City
6. ManUre
7.Pompey
8.Spuds
The best possible draw is Pompey but even if you get Pompey (which will no doubt go to Chelsea) if you’re going to win the League Cup this year, you’re going to have to play against more than one of the top sides. Frankly, I don’t care which side we draw because I have a bone to pick with them all, I’m just hoping for home field advantage. Oh and for the record, I didn’t put them in that order, the Football League did, and it looks to be alphabetical — though I do like the fact that Arsenal are #1!
This competition has been seen as a bit of a dog these last few years and yet these same top sides have met in the Champions League semi-finals and even finals over that same period. So, in a sense, what we’re seeing is a sort of Champions League lite which is producing terrific football for bargain basement prices. As the boss said about last night’s match:
I felt it was more of a European cup quality tonight, than ‘Carling Cup.’ With what we have seen, combinations on both sides, the speed of the game, was outstanding, it was an outstanding game tonight!
All that and tickets were available for £10! Amazing.
The draw is on Saturday, right as we kickoff against Tottenham and I’d put money on us drawing Spuds again this year. It seems like we always get Spuds. Which could set up a delicious early Christmas present as Arsenal face a Carling Cup quarter final on December 2nd and Stoke on the 5th. I might just look into getting a plane ticket over for that. I mean, if we get home field advantage on Saturday that is.
Anyway, that’s it for today, I’m thinking of doing a player by player analysis of Tottenham v. Arsenal tomorrow, in order to give you all some ammunition to use against any Spuds who want to talk shit about their supposed 4th place aspirations. If I were to do such a thing, I might look at something like this Actim index and maybe a couple other factors. We’ll see tomorrow!
I watched the replay on ESPN360 and the choppiness was gone. The picture quality I thought was excellent – I watched it full screen on the iMac with headphones and loved every second of it.
Anyway, everyone keeps extolling the virtues of Bendtner, but his touch the entire match was HORRIBLE. Everyone says “but, but, but…but he was working so hard!!”. So what, his laziness is what cost us the equalizer. And, shoot, I work super-fucking hard when I play football in my co-ed league – does that make me deserving of a place on Arsenal reserves? Yes? Sweet.
I’ve always thought that about Bendtner. I accept that he has his good points – his long passes, for instance – and I keep hoping that someone will suddenly kiss him and the frog turn into a prince, but like how long must we wait? Seriously, I think we should try turning him into a central defender. Or possibly into keeper.
@Matt, For this match, your right about Bendtner’s touch, very erratic. However, he’s been unavailable for 2 weeks (other than 10 minutes of sub work v. WH). Eduardo did not look really sharp either. Judge the player on his usual form, and this kid is a good passer and has proven it for two seasons of regular play.
As far as the goal from Insua, there is a reason for having a holding midfielder. He sweeps in front of the defense. So even though the camera angle showed Bendtner trailing the play, my first instincts
were where was Eastmond?
@arsesession, He was MIA (sorry, Mia, couldn’t resist). Senderos didn’t step up on that shot. Bendtner stopped dead in his tracks.
@Matt, It was painfully frustrating watching Bendtner give his best impression of Eboue circa 2006-2008
@ctpa, and the lesson we can all take from this is: Don’t use players who aren’t right wingers on the right wing.
@b, Aye. He’s still learning. Evryone undervalued Song last season and look at him this season. Judge good old Bendy at the end of the season, not now.
A word on Merida, I watched him with Spain during the U20 World Cup and his shooting from range is ridiculously accurate and he’s got a hello of a shot on him. As such his goal wasn’t much of a surprise, I reckon it was even closer than where I’m used to seeing him shoot from.
Hope he signs a new contract and gets more time in the first team, I’d love to see him, Ramsey and Vela get more game time.
The semis are home and away so they might save Spurs for us then, like a couple of seasons ago when Fabi and Bendtner cost us dear, sounds like it could be shades of deja vu all over again – or perhaps sweet revenge. Or we might get City, of course – how could Sky not fancy that tie? Tim’s right about Chelsea: they’ll get Pompey or possibly Blackburn at home. But if there’s any justice in the world we’ll get another home tie. £10 tickets, which means £5 for concessions, that’s so good for football and would make a good atmosphere for tv.
Tim, you must be a masochist, you want to watch Stoke? Why not save your money for the CL? We’d play better against Real than the cloggers.
@Mia, Good points, Mia, about the travel, but I really want to see a Carling Cup match! The one thing I forgot to include in my “match report” is that the atmosphere was really good last night, they were encouraging the boys all the way to the end and seemed like a really fun time.
Yes, it’s always a good atmosphere at the Carling. Different crowd from the season-ticket holders, less spoilt and demanding. It’s normally a mix of the extremely seriously dedicated, the type who go to reserve games, and local people (pensioners, kids) who can’t afford the first-team games, for whom it’s a night out and really exciting.
http://www.aliverpoolthing.com/2009/10/good-game-bad-game-vs-arsenal.html
I put this link in just to show how Tim is being RIPPED OFF by some of the amoeba brains that populate the internet.
Babel did not have a bad game. Babel’s game was shut down (except for the assist on Liverpool’s goal) by our “shut down corner back” Gilbert
Capello running the rule over Gibbs. Gibbs did take the wrong angle on one play which allowed his attacker to beat him. Can’t argue that he is a step up from Wayne Bridge. Clichy needs to watch out.
Everyone is singing the praises of Eastmond in the DM role. I thought he had a good game. One blogger who has written a book about Wenger reckoned that the kid was the “second coming”. Relax. It’s one game. Most telling for me though is the fact that Wenger started Eastmond over the ‘heir apparent’ Coquelin. Wenger knows.
I hope this match did sharpen up Nasri, Eduardo and Bendtner for Sp**s.
i watched it live on 360 and audio and video were excellent, hmm. i’m also watching the replay and the commentary is gone, again, hmm.
gotta love our supporters, aquilani came on and what do we sing:
WE’VE GOT CESC FAGBREGAS!! WE’VE GOT CESC FABREGAS!!
Great atmosphere and experience for the youngsters: Arsenal v. Liverpool / 60,000 fans
Respectable play from our back four & Fabianski.
The big surprise out of this match (for me) was Eastmond’s solid play and
fluid linking with Ramsey, Nasri, and Merida. (even one play down the right touch
line that included Bendtner).
Good blog, Tim. The game was brilliant to watch yersterday. Eastmond was clearly a pleasant surprise in that position. The brighter days are nigh.
unfortunately for me, i was stuck at work and couldn’t get out to catch the game. however from what i saw in the highlights, it was a cracker of a match. this eastmond kid is big mystery. where did he come from?
love that keane banner!
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=691119&sec=england&cc=5901
Can’t we play this game without getting an injured player per game. For crying out loud. Key decision for Wenger and the team. Mannone on Sat. will mean Almunia has really fallen so low on the totem pole.
@ctpa,
yeah when i read that, i though i was reading an old story. so frustrating sometimes. i was looking forward to an end to the gk selection uncertainty but now it’s back on again
Poor Fab. What interested me about Wenger’s list of our injured players at the end of that report is that Vela isn’t mentioned. Has he recovered so fast or another case of a chest infection?
@Mia, Nah, Vela’s was a slight knock in training. Should be available for selection.
@ctpa, Dont panic people. Bendtner realized just yesterday that he was a leftie all along, and now he will start scoring thunderstrucks just for fun.
So, who is everyone picking for keeper on Saturday?
I’m going with Vito…
@Tim, Agree
Veeetooo.
I think I’d go with Almunia tomorrow. Even in the game against Fulham, where everybody kept singing his praises, Vito kept punching a lot of balls back into the danger area rather than pushing them out for corners. It’s hard to blame him as he is young and will learn these things, but we can’t afford to have him learn at this level and at the expense of the first team. That being said, I don’t think Almunia is the answer either. I’m afraid we may have to invest in the market.
Vito.
so tim am i correct in assuming that you are planning on travelling to england to catch a carling cup game?
@RichieGooner, I go every year and this year I’m looking for an opportunity to see more than one match.
Tim- I’m gonna pull a shocker and pick Almunia for the match. Mannone is losing the confidence he had been building. Almunia is fit again, and in such a big game I have more confidence that he would be able to maintain poise if spuds were to get an early goal or something. He sat on the bench behind Lehman for a while and once he got in, well you know the rest of the story. Mannone had his chance, but we are in a title chase and Almunia gives us a better chance to lift the trophy.
I didn’t read your post and replied to an earlier post which pretty much reflected your views. Totally agree. Cheers
I was checking out TV listings for the derby and I found TV Guides listing really funny. English league soccer tottenham at Arsenal. Very strange way to put it.
I can’t make up my mind about the keeper situation. Are we assuming Fabi would be first choice if he weren’t injured? Are we therefore looking at a stop-gap keeper for Spurs, AZ, Wolves, Sunderland and Liege, with Fabi returning for his first game against . . . er . . . Chelsea?
Though I don’t see Almunia as a long-term solution, I can’t help hoping he plays against Spurs and does well enough to hold on to his place till after Liverpool and the CL qualifying rounds in early December. After that we’ve got a relatively easy run of games for Fabi to come in show what he can do. It’s tough on Vito, I know, and he would obviously benefit from the experience. Besides, what if Almunia does very badly against Spurs? Then we really are up shit creek with all this chopping and changing which must be very unsettling for the back four. Jesus, I dunno. Not surprised Wenger says he doesn’t know either!
Thank you for the blog.
As for GK option, I have to say that I like Vito. He was playing with nothing to lose at first. But now Almunia and Fabi are back, he feel like the starting position is his to lose. This is showing from his reducing amount of saves, and nerves on set pieces.
That being said, Vito has great stretch and reflex. But his timing and calmness are not there at the moment. We need someone to protect us form high crosses, long ball, free kick, and corners. We have disadvantages in height and physiques against certain teams, so our keeper pretty much have to make up in that area.
Wojciech Szczesny .