Arsenal 3-0 Pompey Report

Hello all. Nice match yesterday wasn't it? It's great to see some of the younger players get a chance to play in the league games, especially when they take full advantage of their opportunities and we get a win. With everyone focused on Manchester United on Tuesday, this match had been pretty much forgotten about by most of the Arsenal community. It wasn't really a game we had to win, but win we did, and with some style.

The lineup was an interesting one.

Fabianski
Sagna-Song-Djourou-Eboue
Ramsey-Denilson
Walcott-Arshavin-Vela
Bendtner

The bench was all reserves as well, with the likes of Coquelin and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas on the bench and no sign of Adebayor, Fabregas, Toure, or any of the regulars. You could definitely tell that the focus was on Tuesday's all-important match by the lineup.

We pretty much dominated the match throughout, and while Portsmouth had chances to score, Fabianski did well and Pompey's finishing was dreadful. They had several chances but none came that close to going in. Attacking, though, was where we were at our best. I thought Vela and Arshavin were outstanding, their movement and passing was great fun to watch, and Bendtner also had a good game, netting a header and a penalty.

Eboue looked really good attacking down the left and pretty assured in his defense, even though it is not his prefferred side. Having watched him at fullback a few times the past couple of weeks, it makes you realize what a mistake it is playing him in midfield. Eboue is a very good fullback who knows when to get forward. He is, however, a terrible midfielder, with no end product whatsoever and a poor decision maker. I wouldn't mind seeing him play left back against United. That's right, I'm supporting starting Eboue against United. Even though Gibbs has played pretty well, I think it'd be the right choice to go with.

After we were up 3-0 in the second half, we got to see the likes of Randall, Bischoff, and Fran Merida come on. It's a few players we haven't gotten to see a lot of so it's nice for them to get some experience in a real Premier League game.

Fabianski will be thrilled to have kept a clean sheet after the disatrous game against Liverpool, and I was really happy for him. With young keepers, you really need them to get confidence and keep it, because it really can affect them long term. With that said, this clean sheet will go a long way to helping his confidence and I really do think he can be a future Arsenal number 1. The way Almunia has been playing though, it could still be some time to wait, so lets hope he's ok with being the number 2 for a while.

Man of the match for me though was Carlos Vela. What a player that young man can be. I'm really surprised we don't see him come on more often than he does. He brings an added dimension of cleverness that not a lot of our current squad have with the ball. The goals he scores are usually spectacular, and his movement and strength is really good for being so young. Arsene certainly showed good vision signing him a couple of years ago, even though he couldn't get a work permit right away. It's looking like it's going to be well worth it.

We really miss Arshavin in the Champions League games. It's been said before, but his experience and quality is something we've desperately been needing. If he was eligible we could have played Cesc in his prefferred central midfield role and played Arshy in that support striker role, which he loves playing. Getting to see him next year against those European clubs should be a real treat, but we'll have to make do without him on Tuesday.

Ok that's it for today because I've got to go to work. I'll get up a Manc scum preview tomorrow, and some additional stuff the day of the match. Leave your thoughts on Vela, Arshavin, Ramsey, Fabianski, or anything else you want to discuss in the comments section. Cheers all. Have a good one.

Reaction to the Loss Versus Chelsea And More

Morning all. Yesterday was tough wasn't it? I felt like we had been building up to that match for quite awhile, and I was so excited for it just to be let down. A promising start gave way to a pretty miserable ending. There aren't many things worse than watching your team lose in a cup semi-final, but one of the things that is worse is watching the Chelsea cunts celebrate after beating your team.

When I saw the team selection yesterday, I have to say I was a little bit disturbed. Why Arshavin wouldn't play when he hasn't been able to play in the Champions League was really something I questioned. He's brought a lot to the team since his arrival and I think he could have done the same yesterday. Alex Song has been playing the best football of his life in the past few weeks yet he was left on the bench in favor of Diaby, who hasn't been playing much and I don't think many people would argue the point that he is superior to Song anyway. I didn't like the selection, I have to say. I expected to see Song in the lone holding role, with Arshy, Walcott, and Cesc as the attacking mids and RvP and Ade up front together.

I think the formation we decided to use caused us more problems than it was worth. Diaby and Denilson weren't very good with their distribution and while I thought Denilson did ok shadowing Lampard in the first half, I think Arshavin would have proved a better option instead, by creating space and helping out Adebayor up top. I thought Diaby had a pretty terrible game and Song, for me, would have proved a much better option.

The overriding feeling I guess is just disappointment and bewilderment. I just can't understand why he decided to play the players he did, but mostly I feel bad for the team, especially Lukasz Fabianski. He played a dreadful game, and for someone on that huge stage for the first time, it might affect his confidence for a long time. Unfortunately, we don't have any other options at keeper right now so he is going to have to rebound right away. He's definitely had some problems though thinking he needs to come out of his box for balls that he can't win. Sometimes you have to just trust your defenders to do their jobs adequately enough so that you can do yours, and he just doesn't seem to have the right mentality on those balls right now. Adebayor didn't have a great game, but I think a lot of that had to do with the lack of service he receieved. Theo's crosses often found nobody and van Persie didn't have close to his best game either. It must also be said that Sylvestre was just awful on the second goal and when he stopped chasing the ball it showed a real lack of passion for the team and the game.

Arsene Wenger was complaining about the pitch after the game, but I really didn't want to hear about it. Yeah the pitch was pretty bad but everyone plays on the same one so that can't be used as an excuse, and the fact is we were just outplayed on the day. So we're out of the FA Cup and we've only got one chance left at a trophy, and that's the Champions League. We've got a league match against Liverpool this week too, so there's still a lot of crucial games coming up, but in reality the big ones are the ones against United in the Champions League. Villa have been awful in the league lately and 4th spot seems pretty well secure.

I don't really have much else to talk about today because it's just so hard to take, so I'll get something up tomorrow to preview the Liverpool match. Leave your thoughts on the match, the team selection, or whatever else you feel like talking about. I'll talk to you all tomorrow. Cheers.