Very weird game.

As usual, Wenger fielded Arsenal’s second team for the first leg of the Carling Cup semi (also known as the Kiddy Kup). Van Persie was one surprise inclusion, but in my opinion that only means that Eduardo now is our first choice starter ahead of him, and rightly so.

The game was quite shit to be honest. We played even worse than we did against Burnley earlier this week. Any decent team could and should have ended the first half at least 3-0 up, so good thing we were only playing Spurs. The first half could be summarized as Berbatov vs. Arsenal defenders. Berbatov won that battle easily, all his through passes were perfect, and our defenders looked like Benny Hill video at times.

Berbatov is quality. He also is smart enough to know that he is better than Spurs, which makes me worry about seeing him in a ManU or Chelsea shirt next season.

Jenas scored from an easy counter attack. Not much else to say about the first half. Second half started with Eduardo and Sagna replacing the ineffective Van Persie and the woeful Djourou. Up till the last 15 minutes, we were lucky to be only 1-0 and it seemed like there was no chance for us to score. Then out of nowhere, Eduardo slides the ball between two defenders and Theo, who tried to kicked the ball but the defender got it first and kicked it up to hit Theo’s hand to roll into the goal. A real magic ‘touch’.

After that it looked like the team believed they could get more out of the game and went for it, while the hair stylely challenged Defoe showed why they don’t mind seeing him go with an easy miss.

To summarize the game, the midfield was shit, defence was a bit less shit until Sagna came to the rescue, and our front two carried the team just like they did the past two games.

The one major positive about the game is how Hoyte surprised me with his excellent performance at CB. Last year, I always had him and Flamini as two players who are below Arsenal’s level technically and didn’t expect either to last with for long. Flamini blew us away with his performances this season and proved me wrong, and today Hoyte was exceptional after Sagna came on to cover the RB position and Hoyte went central to replace Djourou.

The most important thing about our result is that Spurs are still almost 9 years without a win against us, and 15 years away from their last win at our home. The streak continues.

Player Ratings -

Fabianski - 5 - A few shaky moments in not going for the ball when defenders expected him to do so, and that one corner he flapped.
Traore - 6 - Did well in controlling the overrated Lennon, and unlike last game, actually held his position well.
Senderos - 7 - Solid defending, did very well.
Djourou - 4 - Nightmarish game for young Johan. He is much better than he showed.
Hoyte - 8 - Average first half at RB, a revelation in the second as CB.
Diaby - 4 - Another bad game. Read rating from last game.
Denilson - 6 - Not bad, not great. Some decent passing, some misplaced passes. Average.
Gilberto - 5  -Started off the game looking like a blind man, improved as the game went by.
Walcott - 6 - Average game, he needs to improve his final touch and decision making. Did well in finding space to score.
Van Persie - 6 - Did well in the first half, nothing spectacular though.
Bendtner - 9 - OK first half, much better second half when Eduardo came on. Those two look great together!
Subs -
Sagna - 8  - How anyone could fit it in so quickly with a team is beyond me! Great buy!
Eduardo - 9 - Great assist again. Great overall play. Great buy again by Wenger.

Man of the match - Bendtner again.

Goals from Eduardo and Bendtner saw us brush aside Burnley in a comfortable(ish) 2-0 win at Turf Moor to qualify to the next round of the FA Cup.

The game started well with both sides creating chances. Burnley made their intentions clear in the first 5 mins when the ball was headed off the bar. They were there to play football instead of have 11 players defending or trying to rough things up. In our first real attack, Toure flicked the ball forward, and Eduardo ran through and finished again very coolly. It went back and forth after that, with Burnley playing some good football.

Burnley ended up with more corners than we did, and they had 6 shots on target to our 8. These stats show that it wasn’t as easy as many expected it to be. This doesn’t mean it was a tough game by any means, it just wasn’t that easy.

In the second half, Burnley had a player sent off for a late tackle on Gilberto. To be fair I think the red was harsh. Yes, it was late, but it wasn’t malicious and was one footed, definitely a yellow card. Anyway, a few mins after that, Bendtner finished off a great passing move with Eduardo giving him the final pass in the perfect spot.

The Eduardo / Bendtner partnership looks very promising. They both run their socks off, always involved, and seem to have a nice understanding creating some nice chances with fancy one two passing. Senderos had a good game back, while the same can’t be said about Traore, Diaby, Eboue, or Gilberto. They all had a below average game, Diaby especially, who was great when the ball was in his feet, but absolute crap whenever he tried to get it to someone else’s feet. You know what else was absolute crap? That pitch. Ridiculous! Almost as bad as Chelsea’s from last year.

The one revelation from the game has to be that Eduardo is in fact human! He missed an easy chance! I think this was his first miss of the season. It was a bit reassuring to see that he is a mere mortal.

Player Ratings -

Lehmann - 6 - Not much to do to be honest
Sagna - 7 - Solid as usual
Toure - 7 - Nice assist for the first goal and did well overall
Senderos - 7 - OK first half, very good second half. Good game to come back, not too much pressure, good for confidence.
Traore - 4 - Very poor game. Was out of position most of the time he was on the pitch. The main reason Senderos had an ‘OK’ first half was that he was going back and forth covering the left side that Traore left exposed. Again, if you had a choice about which game you’re going to have a 1 off shit game, this would be the perfect one.
Eboue - 5 - I’m a big fan of Eboue. I think he gets more criticism from fans than he deserves. That said, he had a poor game. Did well until he got near the box, then just kept the ball waiting for 2 defenders to surround him.
Denilson - 6 - Had a quiet game. Tried to make something from his time on the pitch with 3 shots that were off target, but never too threatening.
Gilberto - 5 - His first half was ridiculously poor. Looked like he was just kicking the ball randomly at times, improved in the second.
Diaby - 4 - It would’ve been a 3 if his pass for Eduardo in the second half didn’t go through. Nothing went right for him today. He always strikes me as a player who tries to impress rather than win the game. He is much better than he showed today.
Eduardo - 9 - A very cool finish and a great assist for Bendtner’s goal. He also had 2 or 3 other chances and was always threatening.
Bendtner - 9 - The boy was immense today. Took his goal very well, and was involved constantly in creating chances and defending when needed. I think he had the ball more than any other player on the pitch. I just hope he still has enough in the tank for the Carling Cup game after this performance.

Man of the match - Bendtner.

A very efficient performance saw us brush aside an average West Ham team 2-0. The Hammers came to the Emirates on a high from their previous win against the then leaders, Manchester United, but they also came with a very depleted and injury-ridden team. No Dyer, Bowyer, Zamora, Parker, Solano, Etherington, Bellamy, Boa Morta, Gabbidon, Faubert, Davenport, and Collins. Ljungberg limped off after 37 mins too, so thats a full team that can probably easily beat the team that started today.

Like I said in my game preview, the only threat I expected was from set pieces. At full strength, West Ham would give anyone a good game. So lucky for us, we got a break.

We had 4 changes from our last game, with Eboue, Hoyte, Adebayor, and Rosicky replacing Diaby, Sagna, Bendtner, and Hleb. The 4-4-2 formation was expected to be used at home against a mid-table team.

The game started with a bang. A superb cross from Fabregas who was given more space than he should ever be given was chested down and volleyed into the bottom corner with one touch by our Crozilian Eduardo, again proving how clinical and lethal he is in the box … almost clinithal!! This goal was the fastest goal to be scored in the Emirates, only 72 seconds into the game.

West Ham actually tried to make a game out of it in the first half, and had a couple of half decent chances from corners and free kicks, the most significant being Ferdinand’s shot from the corner which was cleared off the line by the magnificent Clichy. Not much later, Clichy again was involved and made a great pass down field with Adebayor running between Upson and Ferdinand and using his pace to get to the box before them and nudged the ball with his head past Green’s outstretched arm and just when everyone thought the chance was lost reaching the corner line, Adebayor used some sort of Togolese voodoo magic to hit the ball from an impossible angle where it twisted and turned and spun outside then inside the goal even with two defenders almost getting to the line!

2-0 with only 19 minutes gone. After the second goal, the game was relatively over. Arsenal went from 2nd gear to 1st gear, never needed to anything more. The only other significant events of the half were a penalty for us from Spector’s handball blocking an Eboue cross, and Ljunberg being subbed after injuring his hamstring. An amusing argument between Freddie and McCartney was caught on camera a few mins before the substitution.

The second half Arsenal just went through the motions. Relatively stress free half with nice touches throughout from our team. Walcott came in for Eduardo in the 63rd min. We changed our 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 at that point with Theo slotting as a left winger. It was weird strategic change, I would’ve thought it was a perfect chance to have Theo play upfront as an out and out striker. A few mins later Hleb came on for Eboue, which meant Theo moved to the right with Rosicky going left, while Hleb went in just in front of Fabregas and Flamini almost as a 2nd striker. Nothing that significant happened, except maybe Theo seeming to have re-injured his shoulder, but that didn’t look too bad.

A comfortable win overall. One thing I really enjoyed about this game was the fact that we always had people in the box for crosses. Eduardo was there, Adebayor was almost there, and even Rosicky was in the box! When we switched to 4-5-1, Adebayor was as good as we know he can be, dominating their defenders, controlling the ball, and so on. Fabregas was excellent, everyone else had a good game or better, except Hoyte. He’s not Sagna for sure, but he also lacks match fitness, so giving him the chance today was a good move.

Player ratings -

Almunia - 7 - Not much to do.
Clichy - 9 - An excellent assist, a game changing goal line clearance, and an overall Clichyesque performance.
Toure - 7 - Solid, will be missed
Gallas - 7 - Solid
Hoyte - 5 - Shaky first half, much better 2nd half.
Rosicky - 8 - I personally thought he had a very good game.
Flamini - 7 - Typical midfield engine performance.
Fabregas - 9 - Controlled the midfield and a great assist. One more assist or goal away from our man of the match.
Eboue - 6 - One of the most skilled players we have. Needs to help out more defensively. Needs to quit his silly “I’ve been fouled” jump everytime he’s hit, makes it look like a dive even when its not.
Adebayor - 8 - Used his pace and power for the goal, and had a very good 2nd half.
Eduardo - 8 - Great control, great finishing. Will rip defences apart the rest of the season. Coolest finisher I’ve ever seen.

Man of the Match - Clichy.