FABREGAS & Hleb are the hub of an evolving new attack.
Both were superb as Arsenal outclassed Charlton and won 3-0.
Hleb has had good games and bad games but I never joined the chorus of voices who claimed he was a waste of £7million.To me, Hleb always looked tasty, two-footed, constructive, tenacious, very resourceful.
It was just a shame that Hleb happened to join a team that was taking six months to recover from losing one midfielder, who had been a spinal player for nine years.
On Saturday the redcurrants clicked into top gear and their passing was marvellous, but – it has to be said – they were given an amazing amount of space to play in. Have we ever seen so much space between players in a Premiership game at Highbury? Charlton were unable or unwilling to make a game of it.
ADEBAYOR has pace and puts himself about. He missed a chance on the deck and one in the air before taking Hleb’s pass and playing Henry into the box. Henry’s sweet cut-back was guided in for 1-0 by Pires, who had made the perfect support run to the near post.
Adebayor is the only player at the club who could have got the goal he scored to make it 2-0, placing his body across the last defender before stabbing it in with his right foot. As I said on day one, he wants to play in the box.He is adjusting to the players around him and they are adjusting to him.
Toure was solid, Eboue very good again, and Gilberto had an easy time in centrefield. Senderos needs to improve his long passing.He should be working on that every day.
CRUCIALLY, Arsenal are now a two-sided team who can attack on the right flank as well as the left. Eboue and Hleb have given them a balance that they’ve never had under Arsene, until now.
The manager always hopes his team will improve from game to game and Arsenal have mostly done that in the last six games.
Fabregas is getting forward more often, and further into the box. It’s a shame he’s not a natural finisher, but that might come.
HENRY was very sharp but does he have to punch the ground when Adebayor misses that early chance to give him a tap-in?
As captain, Henry should not kneel down and punch the grass in “frustration.” We have never seen a captain do that. He was signalling to the crowd : “It was him, not me. He made the mistake, not me! We could have scored, but Adebayor cocked it up.”
It was verbal abuse in sign language. Captains should never do that. Adebayor knows he made a ricket. Don’t rub it in.
Hleb made it 3-0 in 49, finishing off a move he started after Adebayor had two stabs which rebounded off defenders.
That kind of goal has been rare for Arsenal. Very rare.It’s more the kind of untidy goal that Man United score. But with Adebayor in the box, Arsenal will score plenty more goals like that.
It’s deeply reassuring for fans to know that while Arsenal can still score the Pires goal, one that Arsenal have perfected and trademarked, they can also scrappy goals which owe more to presence, physical pressure and perseverance than to surgically-accurate quick passing.
THE GAME CHANGED completely when Fabregas and Hleb went off. The team lost shape.
But it was good to welcome back van Persie, who will be important in coming weeks. Just a pity Dennis is so inept now. Two years ago most other clubs would have said, “Thanks, Dennis.”
Dennis Bergkamp,37, has been a magical player for Arsenal and he might be valuable in a coaching role for a year or two.It could be too much of a shock for DB10 to leave football completely and immediately when he stops playing.
CURBS FOR ENGLAND? Not on Saturday’s evidence.
It looks as if FA chief Brian Barwick is loving the role of kingmaker, chief of the committee who are interviewing candidates to replace Sven.The trio shoud be Brooking, David Dein and A.N.Other, not Barwick-Noel White-Dave Richards.
The next manager of England should be somebody who has already managed a national team. One man has managed Holland, South Korea and Australia and he will be available and he speaks good English and he would have been perfect.
But instead of hiring Guus Hiddick they turned it into a circus. I heard that Brooking admitted, “We’ve interviewed seven candidates and the only one that’s got out is Curbishley.”
The day after Brooking said that the papers said Martin O’Neill would be interviewed that day.And on Sunday we heard that Big Phil Scolari was interviewed last week. I love Big Phil but don’t know if he would be right, at the moment, for England.
LUIS BOA MORTE scored the only goal of Sunday’s Sky game against Chelsea with a tackle, which is typical Boa Morte.
As right back Paulo Ferreira tried to clear in the 17th minute, Boa Morte ran in behind him and stuck out his left leg to block the ball, which hit his shin and ricocheted past Petr Cech.
The game ended in a squalid scuffle by the touchline as Gallas was sent off for an ugly stamp on sub striker Helguson.
Ever since the linesman disallowed that Paul Scholes goal at Old Trafford, and Costinha scored the 90th minute goal that sent Jose Mourinho dancing down the touchline, Mourinho has been hit by big success, big money, big publicity.
The date of that Champions League Last 16 match ? Tuesday, March 9, 2004.
In two years Mourinho has suddenly become a world famous multi-millionaire.It’s gone to his head, as such sudden success often does. It’s very, very hard to handle.
Mourinho is a great coach and a great manager and in three years time he might settle down, learn how to behave, and enjoy his career, like many good managers have done in the past.