I don’t know if it is a bit too early to talk about a resurgence but it is really good to have two wins on the trot in the Premiership. Back to back wins have been hard to come by this season so we should savior it as much as we can. With the next few games against mid table teams, there is a good possibility that this streak can continue into the new year.
Yesterday, the manner of the victory was also very heartening. It was reminiscence of the Arsenal of old when the Gunners were rampaging past teams like Reading or Wigan (our next opponent) with ease. There was much more fluidity in the team in this match and the dominant scoreline clearly illustrates this reality. In their post match interviews, both Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere spoke about this being the real Arsenal. I am going to disagree with them because while this showing was great, there is much more potential in this team than just being able to beat Readingconvincingly.
For me, the biggest factor in this victory was playing both Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain together. The two speedsters clearly had a big say in the movement and pace of the game. This was lacking when Arsene played people like Ramsey and Gervinho because they do not have the same explosive pace like the former. Walcott got his wish of playing true the middle and personally, I think he played pretty convincingly to warrant a shout at a permanent spot. There will be times when the height and strength of Giroud is more suited against stronger defenders so there will be a place to accommodate both players in this role. The good thing is Arsene Wenger has stopped being the stubborn old fool that he was and has been more open to new strategies like playing Theo down the middle.
Of course, the talk of the papers will be the display of Santi Cazorla and his hat-trick The little Spaniard clearly had the best game in an Arsenal shirt and deserves all the praises. What’s more delightful is the partnership he is forming with Wilshere in the middle. Both of them had great games and we can only expect great things to come when Wilshere gets back to 100%.
Ok a win is great but we did concede two sloppy goals against bottom of the league who were were poor – we did well by defensively exploiting the width using the Ox and Podolski which gave some room in the middle – Walcott worries defenders and Cazorla was able to exploit that – Walcott should have had another but using the width with Walcott in the centre is, I think, our best formation. The only downside is when he made some changes we bring on Ramsey (poor) and Coquelin (poor) because we have such a weak squad which will ultimately cost us – Mertesacker is just not convincing. Wigan is difficult to predict but hopefully Wenger goes with the same formation – if he does we have a chance.