To change the tune from the articles concerning Draxler's imminent arrival, I thought I'd have my take on last night's game. Went to the game and it was a funny old one, flood lights going out, the crowd lighting the pitch with their phones, the whole stadium joining in with Coventry's protests. Really was a performance in first gear which although was efficient and clinical, I just wanted to see us decimate a team into the ground. We didn't get this. What we got was a game where no one really stood out and at times made Coventry look like a Premier League team.
Gibbs, Koscielny and Mertesacker looked their usual selves. Jenkinson although had some good forward runs just makes everyone feel nervous when he gets the ball. Strange having no DM and playing the Ox the deepest midfielder. Good for him to get his touch in but overall he was a bit of a passenger. Fabianski loves a dodgy touch in goal but he was pretty good, I like having him as back-up. Wilshere was our best attacking minded player, the busiest and most likely to force Coventry players to commit themselves before breezing past them. Big disappointment from both our wingers. Although Podolski had a good game in front of goal with two delicious finishes, he was up against a League 1 full back and didn't try to get at him once.
Gnabry was the same except he had no goals to justify his performance. Last night he looked about 32 not 18. The lad's a bloody winger, RUN AT YOUR MAN. Every time something happened down his side he just went off into the middle or let Jenkinson run while he covered right back. Really disappointing from him, there can be absolutely no way that he is going to replace Theo for the rest of the season. There was times when he was playing CF, other's when he was playing in Ozil's space, honestly Coventry's wingers looked more of an attacking threat. One of their players ran from inside their own half to the edge of our box and forced a great save from Fabianski. Gnabry couldn't be bothered to run five yards at his man deep inside their half, he would just turn inside or pass it backwards. I understand it was supposed to be a controlled performance, but come on man show us something special.
Giroud and Cazorla were welcome introductions and to be honest I didn't really notice Zelalem when he came on, but good for him and he got a great reception. Nicky B was woeful, let's blame it on the ankle eh? Ozil ran once in the entire game. Anyway fifth round here we come.
Few thoughts on last night's game
posted on 25/1/14
Problem with Gnabry is he does exactly that, jump back into the middle rather than actually playing as a winger.
posted on 25/1/14
No one got injured as far as I can tell. Bloody fantastic. Onwards and upwards.
posted on 25/1/14
i was happy that Podolski got a brace but i really expected Coventry to get battered seven or eight nil, they should have been punished a lot more than 4-0 considering our 11 we had out. It was a game that City probably would ran up a cricket score, i think we arent ruthless enough we get a couple of goals and ease instead of going for the jugular.
posted on 25/1/14
Agree with this. All this playing within ourselves stuff IS nonsense. I am fed up with us "taking our foot off the gas" every time we go two goals up. Let's finish poor teams off FFS. It has become a real disease and sooner or later we will come unstuck.Until the last 10 mins we were awful in the second half.
Gnabry was very poor yesterday and I am still not convinced by him . Hope to be proved wrong. Ozil was not exactly trying very hard especially when he pulled out of a tackle late on which nearly cost us a goal. He also missed a sitter. Surely for 40M this guy can shoot straight. Still glad that we have got him but he does need to produce more.
Gibbs was good going forward but he left huge gaps on the left side which a better team would have exploited and punished us. Have to give NB and OX the benefit of the doubt as they were returning from injury but both were poor. Pod showed how vital a good finisher is and glad to see that Santi has found his shooting boots again.
posted on 25/1/14
I don't really care about how many goals we score as long as we don't concede any we will win matches.
posted on 25/1/14
comment by Real_Aus_Gooner (U9471)
posted 1 minute ago
i was happy that Podolski got a brace but i really expected Coventry to get battered seven or eight nil, they should have been punished a lot more than 4-0 considering our 11 we had out. It was a game that City probably would ran up a cricket score, i think we arent ruthless enough we get a couple of goals and ease instead of going for the jugular
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I got a lot of stick at my local when I called for Walcott to be subbed off after Rosicky's goal against Spurs. You just knew he would get injured, what with his lack of match fitness.
posted on 25/1/14
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 25/1/14
Agree with this. All this playing within ourselves stuff IS nonsense. I am fed up with us "taking our foot off the gas" every time we go two goals up. Let's finish poor teams off FFS. It has become a real disease and sooner or later we will come unstuck.Until the last 10 mins we were awful in the second half.
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so true, it seems 2-0 to Arsenal is the new 1-0 to Arsenal.
posted on 25/1/14
We don't have attacking players to blitz a team
Come one we had the likes of Bendtner up front
posted on 25/1/14
I think we took our foot off the gas in the 2nd half and Coventry played better in 2nd half. We should have been 4-0 up at half time because first half we were so dominate and missed a few other good chances.