Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Edddduardo! Edddduardo! A Magical Arsenal Moment

What up dudes? Yesterday was a pretty awesome match wouldn't you say? I won't bore everyone with a match review that includes a minute by minute rundown of all the action, but I will just go over what I think are some of the most awesome parts of it.

Obviously the important thing of the day was Eduardo's return to first team action. And what a return it was. Eddy scored the first goal as well as the third goal from the penalty spot. The response from the first goal was immense. The roar from the crowd was deafening, and the joy shown by Eduardo and the rest of the team made it even more special. I've got the clip right here.



The most amazing thing happened when the whole stadium started chanting Eduardo, Eduardo. It was the first time in a long time I've heard the Emirates sound like that. What I also noticed about the third goal that Eduardo scored was when he was fouled in the box he picked the ball up with resolve, almost as if he was going to prove a point right then and there with that one kick that he was back. When you saw the look on his face you knew there was no chance he was missing that kick, and once again the crowd broke into chanting of his name. It gave me shivers hearing it like that, and I wish it was like that all the time, but we all know there are some fans there that just aren't going to chant and sing no matter what. It does make me very proud to be a fan though when we see someone so deserving get such a warm response. I was singing along way over here in Florida.

I think Eduardo may be just the inspiration this team needs to get the season back on track, in the same way that his injury sucked the life out of the squad last season. He certainly looks like he's fully recovered and ready to roll, and he's already scored half as many goals as Bendtner has scored the entire season, in only one appearance! Keep it up Eddy, we all wish you the best.

There weren't many downsides to the performance yesterday, as it was pretty much vintage Arsenal, but I thought Song in particular was pretty bad. His passing was miserable, it seemed like every time he tried to pass it went straight to a Cardiff player. The good news of course is that we kept the clean sheet, so it didn't hurt us too much. After having such a good performance against Sp*rs though, I was hoping for much more from Song.

Man of the match, for me, without being too sentimental and giving it to Eduardo, goes to Bakary Sagna, who I thought was immense. His forward runs drove Cardiff mad all game and he was on top of every defensive situation on his side. What I like just as much as his play though is his attitude. I'm pretty sure if you looked at the statistics I bet he's played more matches in the past two years for us besides anyone but maybe Gael Clichy, and that is only because he was injured for the end of last year. He never runs his mouth, rarely even gets carded, and is one of our top players. I love the guy, and he played a great game.

Kieran Gibbs, Eduardo, Nasri, and Fabianski were the other players who I thought did quite well. Nasri is a real creative force and I really liked him up in front of Sagna. It will be nice to maybe see Nasri and Arshavin being able to switch flanks when needed to switch things up. Fabiasnki looked very comfortable and confident in goal all game, and while there weren't a whole lot of saves he had to make, he did what he had to do easily.

So hats off to the team, and specifically Eduardo, and let's hope his return is just the boost we need to really kick this team into high gear. Cheers all. Podcast to come soon hopefully. Maybe Thursday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I frankly teared up at his two goals and the hugging of his trainer after the second. I had a similar injury from being hit by a car and I know how painful and difficult the recovery was. That was simply a triumph of effort, courage, and moral fortitude.

Bless you Eduardo!

JT said...

Beautiful moment!!

Eduardo, you are a legend. How many people are out for a year and score two in their debut? A great day for Eduardo and Arsenal FC.

I don't think if I can describe that, you know!

Andre said...

I squirted out a few tears too. That was really goreat stuff.

I agree about Nasri and Sagna but I also thought Vela playedd well too. Betweeen Eddy, Nasri and Vela, the attack was only stiffled by Bendtner's inability to score chance after chance. His one ass good though.

Nasri is a monster. His signing last summer was fantastic.