Last night saw Arsenal take on Bundesliga champions Borrusia Dortmund at the Signal Iduna Park, which produced a hard to watch match for many Arsenal fans but a wonderful showcase for neutrals. The game finished 1-1 and many of the travelling fans will be happy about the result.
As in every game there are always outcomes and things that become noticeable. With that said, here are 5 things that I learnt from last night’s game:
1. Commitment
The commitment from the Arsenal players have been questioned by pundits for a while now, but last night I saw a change in what they said we lacked. It was good to see Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker and Yossi Benayoun get into the thick of things, but it wasn’t only the new boys who showed commitment, Alex Song and Laurent Koscielny in particular showed their desire and commitment to the team.
2. Defensive improvement
Our defence has improved drastically from what it was before! While Dortmund attacked and attacked the Arsenal defence, despite it looking shaky at times, managed to fend off all of the Germans set-pieces, which in recent seasons has been Arsenal’s Achilles heel. It was good to see the Gunners contain Kagawa in the midfield, as he seemed to be the biggest threat to Arsenal’s defence, where the pairing of Koscielny and Mertesacker had worked wonderfully on the night. The old 1-0 to the Arsenal came up during the game; unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be a victory for the Gunners, but the defence looked better.
3. New formation
Our formation, which is still in its early stages of ridding itself from the days it was wrapped around Cesc and Nasri, proved to be very ineffective against the Germans as they deployed a similar style of play to ours. They squeezed us out of space and gave us nowhere to run, and with no threat coming from the centre of the park due to the absences of Ramsey and Wilshere, we struggled to control the game. This also made us too dependent on the lone target Robin van Persie, and wide men Gervinho and Theo Walcott, who didn’t seem to be in the game at times, but kept BVB on their toes with some very good runs.
4. Competition for places
There is finally competition for places at Arsenal, as Wenger has finally realized that Andrey Arshavin isn’t what he used to be and didn’t even get his usual 10-15 minute cameo, or was that because Pat Rice made the decisions during substitutions? Gervinho was given a starting role and, in my opinion, the forward performed well. However, it was unfortunate that he wasn’t able to contribute to Arsenal’s attacking play, which has been lacking creativity recently – something the 5’7’’ Russian had bags of upon his arrival at the Emirates. Hopefully this will get better over time, but you can see that the squad is bigger in numbers and players will have to earn their positions in the line-up.
5. Szczesny = number 1
The issue of goalkeepers has finally been settled as polish goalie Wojech Szczesny proved last night. The young pole controlled his box like a veteran keeper, made excellent decisions when claiming the ball from crosses and made some very vital saves. Although he was rarely tested last night, Szcz did well to stay awake and keep Arsenal in the game, other than Alex Song who was voted man of the match; our young keeper came in a close second.
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when will be ours learning ends? It is the continuous process since i have been hearing from a long time.When will be the time of gaining the result from the lesson we learn before.
Hopes the schooling ends .
if you are so fed up why dont you go and support some other team then which has already learnt and are winning cups rather than criticising arsenal
The same old rubbish from Walcott who hides on the
wing ,drifting ,now and then,into the game.So why does the coaching staff insist on playing him game after game,when the newly acquired Korean
national team captain is available to play as he cannot possibly be worse than woeful Theo?
because walcott created the goal with a sweeet ball to rvp….
it looks to me like gervinho is too weak for prem league atm, he looks like bambi with those skinny legs. hes always falling over under pressure of a tackle. get him on the pies and into the gym!
dont forget his goals against barca & udinese. he is a class young player who needs time and opportunity to gain confidence and with that his consistency will improve. C. Ronaldo, torres, drogba, pato & aguero dont tear teams up week in week out.
have patience you glory whore
Thanks for your thoughts mate. I love it when there is constructive critism.
Someone on Goonersaur tried this topic and failed so well done.
Here is what I wrote on his site.
Scrap the Blog above and read this one
5 Things we learn’t about Arsenal Last Night.
1. The defence is getting better, even without Verm we did well against an attacking side.
2. Wenger is trying to learn how to hold on to a 1-0 lead by bringing on Frimpong so he is changing.
3. We don’t need the 2 departed ones we are a different team but we showed battling qualities which I enjoyed watching.
4. Practice makes perfect, so in time, we will be able to attack once we start playing with confidence.
5. We are back, slowly but surely we are going to do our thing and become organised and dangerous on the break.
Cheers my man
Hi, there.I agree with all your comments and also believe that the team is still growing and needs a little time to blend up properly. We brought in 6 experienced players into the team, so time is need here. I believe the team will bounce back, yesterdays match was great for the team spirit ahead of our next EPL match. So lets hope we succeed this time at least with a trophy.
GUNNERS FOR LIFE!!!!!
Wenger should give a chance 2 Park. coz he can improve the attacking of the team. Hope 2 c him against Blackburn. Well done so far, Gunners 4 life.
i dint see any criticism in nisham’s coment. arsenal fans are always on the defensive once another fan says something that is not so pleasant. wel, i’m hoping we can maintain a stable squad and not keep selling our best players if not,the learning/ blending process wil always continue.
Dude, you’re so ripping off the Guardian’s 5 things we learned schtick. I’d be looking out for a call from their counselors if I were you.
Dude, every blog does this – this is in no way copying the Guardian’s topic(s).
Szczesny struggles keeping a shot from 20+ yard that is hir wide to the corners. I have seen him concede few of these vs Man U and yet again vs BD.
He seems when the ball is behind some ground to be on his heals and does not read or react well enough. I thought Szczesny could have stopped that goal. The ball was hit with not much power more with some lift in it, that usually gives keeper the time to react. Szczesny looked at the ball coming in. Not his fault but that what makes a GREAT keeper vs just a good keeper.
@keeper gooner,or what the hail u call your self,just shut up if u don’t have anything to say.It clearly show your little knowledge about goal keeping.
keeper Gooner remember hi’s 21 years old,it’s true hi is not perfect yet but he really is amazing and perfect for our team and Kachala,or what the hell you call yourself, Keeper Gooner really had something to say.it was he’s opinion.
we are really improving, but thats not the EPL. I feel wenger need to bring in park against blackburn.