Suddenly, Arsenal play with wingers.
Clichy is their left winger and Sagna is their right winger.
At Fulham, Clichy crossed for the first goal and Hleb crossed for the second .And Adebayor headed in from 7 yards and 8 yards.
Clichy and Sagna have fantastic agility and phenomenal pace.They give Arsenal an extra man in all sorts of situations. At last, they can score from crosses. Gallas and Bendtner can get on the end of a cross and head it in. And Rosicky volleyed in the third goal at Craven Cottage from Eduardo’s cross.
Intricate passing gets samey and can be nullified, so you need to cross effectively
Of course, if Arsenal use attacking fullbacks, and the team loses the ball, Sagna or Clichy will have to run back 80 yards very quickly. They’re very good at that.
In modern football, your fullbacks are your least-marked players, so they’re important They have to be productive : to defend, link with midfield, and provide assists. At this level, every cross should have a name on it.
Last Wednesday night I said that Arsenal needed to score goals, keep a clean sheet and get back on track. There were no excuses for not doing that. And that was all I had to say. That was one reason why I didn’t write anything on Friday or Saturday.
They won 3-0 and they should win that game 3-0. But none of Arsenal’s players would ever say that they should beat Fulham 3-0 because can’t take anything for granted in this game. You just have to sustain your desire to be a champion. If Sir Alex’s boys sustain their desire, and Arsene’s boys don’t, there is no title race.
Saturday’s games went to form and that’s why I won all five bets on Man United, Celtic and a treble of Arsenal-Chelsea-Portsmouth. I thought Chelsea would win at Birmingham eventually and Pizarro scored after 79. Derby scored an early goal at Fratton Park but Benjani hit back with a hit-trick. I wish I had more Saturdays when five teams win for me. I never mind winning small at ungenerous odds.
When Man United hadn’t scored after 70 minutes at Reading, I still figured somebody would get one, and Rooney did. Then Ronaldo made it 2-0 in stoppage time. But Reading gave them a good game and Sir Alex and Carlos Queiroz looked pretty agitated. Reading’s style is more vivid than Bolton’s was, and less brutal. It’s a kind of tactical hustle which was forcing United tot make passes they didn’t want to make and that gave Reading a chance of getting the ball back.
It worked for 77 minutes and then Tevez hit a very good pass for Rooney, who flicked the ball across Hahnemann and ran away and did a cartwheel. A classy goal and an important one. The champions had work very hard for the points, much harder than Arsenal, who coasted at Fulham.
The title race is still neck-and-neck. So this no time to moan about what this Arsenal team can do or can’t do.
The bookies have Arsenal at 3-1 to win the league and Manchester United are odds-on at 8/13. If you consider last season, and the history of previous seasons, those odds may be logical.
But one of my most cherished Golden Rules of Football is : This season is not last season. If I ever have a tattoo on my arm, that will be it.