Sunday, March 7, 2010

Arsenal 3-1 Burnley... Unconvincing, but Welcome

I thought that if there was a game in which we'd really send the goal difference through the roof, it was Burnley at home. And that should really have been the case, but Bendtner's profligacy made it a nervous afternoon, in which the worst team in the league right now sporadically showed up our continued soft centre (although we were without Gallas, or campbell, and Song).

Walcott hit back at the critics with a generally threatening performance and a lovely goal with his left foot. The cynic in me has to add that Burnley seemed to be giving him a ridiculous amount of time on the ball, and if he didn't play well yesterday he never would. But there were a couple of super crosses in there aswell, from which Bendtner somehow contrived to miss (the simple header he put wide was particularly amusing, since he's scored whoppers of headers in the last week alone for both Arsenal and Denmark. You start to worry when a "confidence player" plays like that after two great goals in a week. But then "confidence player" is sometimes just a way to say "rubbish").

I don't think it's worth dwelling too much on this game, except to say that it provides a note of caution to anyone who seriously thinks we can win the league. This was the "easiest" game of our "easy" run-in, don't forget. Also, Samir Nasri in the middle is, as mentioned before, something we should see more often. His pass for Fabregas' goal was beautiful, and when the captain went off, he shouldered a lot of the creative load, as he did when given the opportunity in the middle last season in Fabregas' absence. He's surely better there than he is on the wing. If Fabregas does miss Porto, Nasri should have another chance to pull the strings.

Something I'd like to talk about is the situation with Gallas' contract. This shows, I feel, Wenger's lack of appreciation for continuity, which when allied to a lack of appreciation for the benefits of transfer business is pretty damning. Why does he only offer one year to a guy like Gallas? I know it's his policy, but surely some flexibility is called for? Who would Gallas be holding back by staying at Arsenal for two more years? We have no young, promising centre backs who are ready for the first team. Djourou, when he returns, is NOT GOING TO BE READY! And when this season's improvement has largely been down to Gallas' partnership with Vermaelen, why break them up?

Gallas has been our best player of the season after Fabregas, and now he's probably going to leave. If it's because he's not been offered more than a year in his new contract, I'm sorry but it's more BOLLOcKs from Arsene Wenger. He can talk all he likes about developing a team but it's bullshit, frankly, if he willingly strips said teams of key components on a regular basis. But wait, look at Man Utd, look at the problems they've had from keeping Scholes, Giggs, and Neville arou... oh.

1 comment:

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