Samir Nasri is a fighter, a good skirmisher, as well as a useful creator and goalscorer.
The Everton game showed us that
In the 3-1 victory over Everton, Arsenal’s best player was Clichy, who had one silly moment which he should try not to repeat.
Arsene Wenger really, really, really doesn’t want to play Eboue at right back.
Instead of doing the obvious, he rested Walcott and played Song behind Eboue. That was very counter-productive. But typical of the kamikaze changes he sometimes makes to his back four.
Since this was Silvestre’s debut, Eboue and Toure should have been together on Silvestre’s left. But he decided to put Song at right back, where he was a fish up a tree.
So that gave us the worst of Song and the worst of Eboue in a first half that ended with Everton leading 1-0. That’s why AW needs a strong No.2 who will sometimes say, “Arsene, don’t do that.” But, as we all know by now, he will never employ a strong No.2. Arsene FC will always be the vision of one man and one man only. All players, all fans and the board have to subscribe to his vision.
On Arsenal’s right, Osman and Pienaar did well at the start. And when Toure was stranded after Pienaar’s pass found Osman’s run to the near post, the lively midfielder slotted after nine minutes. Silvestre, covering Toure, had run back too far because he is rusty. He has not played for a very long time and needs games to sharpen him up. He may be a vital capture. Let’s hope so.
At half-time, Walcott replaced the injured Toure with Song moving over to Toure’s position. It’s a game of angles and habits and – let’s face it- most footballers can only play one position competently. So it was hardly surprising that when Belgian giant Fellaini won a header, and his knockdown bounced on the edge of the box, Song found himself on the wrong side of Yakubu, and could only wave his leg amateurishly at a ball that was out of playing distance.
If you’re playing against a bulldozing bullock like Yakubu, you have to be on your toes, anticipating danger, and re-adjusting your position from moment to moment. You want to be there first. Because if it’s a 50-50, Yakubu will probably muscle you out of it.Luckily for Song, Almunia came out very quickly and punched the ball away from Yakubu’s feet, and Eboue, now at right back, cleared.
A left wing corner by Fabregas was cleared to Yakubu, who miscontrolled the ball and Denilson touched the ball to Silvestre, who left it for Nasri to shoot low through Fellaini’s legs and make it 1-1 in 48 minutes.
The next goal came in 70 when Tim Howard parried a shot by Fabregas and Van Persie nodded home. Then Diaby came on for the injured Nasri and his pass gave Walcott a chance to fire home from his Zagreb position for 3-1 in stoppage time.
Earlier there was a mini-brawl after a tackle which caused Clichy to over-react.
After a skirmish on the left flank, Denilson beat Fellaini very well, and as Denilson got up with the ball, he saw Hibbert coming, so he lunged towards Hibbert to prevent him reaching the ball, and Hibbert came though Denilson, as the Brazilian expected him to do. It wasn’t a violent tackle but Clichy picked up the ball and got in Hibbert’s face and there was a melee with some shoving and shouting. Any ref would have booked Hibbert and Clichy and that was exactly what Peter Walton did. Clichy should learn from that. It’s fine to be feisty and stick up for your mates but not every game is at home and not every ref is as sensible as Mr Walton. We see players get sent off or less that every weekend. The best pros don’t do what Clichy did on Saturday.
So Arsenal’s eighth Premier League game was a good comeback and three vital points. It came after they had been losing the game for 39 minutes. And it took them 48 minutes to score their first goal. During 39 of those minutes, Everton had very few chances to make it 2-0.
Better teams than Everton might create more chances and build on that early goal. On the other hand, the full Arsenal team will be able to beat better sides than Everton, sometimes comfortably.
Hull are still third, Arsenal fourth.
P.S. Please note the first two pars of this from May 4