We’ve never seen him like that.
In the last five years we’ve never seen Tomas Rosicky perform as he did last night
With the aggregate score posed at 1-1at half-time, and with Arsenal having ridden their luck in the first 45, Wenger turned to experience last night.
He took off Frimpong, 20, and bought on Rosicky, 30, and the energetic Czech proceeded to play as if his life depended on it.
He was chasing and hustling and covering and in the melee after Vermaelen handled a flick-on for a corner, it was Rosicky who blasted the ball up the field. He also popped up at the other end and even made a late-but-fast near-post run on the RVP goal, arriving ahead of Gervinho\’s cut-back, which went straight onto van Persie\’s left foot.
Incidentally, on that penalty incident, Arsenal should have handled the corner better by winning the first ball and they should have intercepted the flick-on. Having said that, I’m sure Vermaelen was pushed in the back by Asamoah and that’s why the ball hit his body and his left arm.
Good spot by Portuguese referee Olegario Benquerenca and a historic £25m tipover by the combative Szczesny, who moved forward before Di Natale kicked the ball and palmed his penalty over the bar with a strong left hand.
Arsenal had 60% possession and 13 shots on target against Udinese\’s 7, so they deserved to win.
But the gobby young Pole was the difference. When Walcott broke away to score the winner, Handanovic froze. He held the same position and made it easy for Theo. Szczesny would have advanced aggressively at Walcott and forced the winger to go round him
Rosicky\’s committed performance signalled something we already knew : all the foreign players at the big EPL clubs live for the Champions League and don\’t want to play on Thursday night\’s in the Europa League.
Frimpong said, “Obviously, he\’s keeping faith with us. Today me and Carl started the game.
He could have dropped us and played more experienced players on the bench. He showed that he\’s got great belief in us.â€
Fine.
But you can\’t grow a whole 25-man squad in the post-Bosman era and keep selling 24-year old stars for £30m and £24m every three years and expect to win trophies.
If you do that, and don’t buy experienced pros with the nous to guide the youngsters through the hairy moments of key games, you’ll alway be also-rans, always be nearly-men.
In the Seventies, when I was journalist but not a football reporter, I went to games with friends at clubs all over London and we used to read the manager’s predictable programme notes, which, every season, said, “We’ve got a good blend of experience and youth.”
That’s what great teams still need.