Matchday One: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly…

Well the Premiership weekend is finally over and Arsenal have a maximum of 3 points.

All of the so called ‘Top 4’ looked less than convincing; Manchester United were held to a nil-nil draw to a resilient Reading, Liverpool left is as late as Arsenal to nick the win and Chelsea won against Birmingham who still managed to score twice at Stamford Bridge.

I suppose for Arsenal fans we saw it all.

The good was the determination to fight until the end and get win our possession deserved, the bad was our general finishing and the ugly… well let’s just say Lehmann never surprises me anymore!

On the balance of play Arsenal should have won comfortably.

While Tony Warner made some good saves for Fulham some of the chances Arsenal created really should have been converted and we made life more difficult than it should have been – and on another day – Fulham could have been 2 goals to the good and we wouldn’t be sitting here with 3 points.

Watching the game, it was the same old story.

Creating many chances but not hitting the back of the net. Hopefully Eduardo will prove to be the man ruthless enough to score the goals Arsenal need at the vital times of matches.

Arsenal at times looked to lightweight in the middle with Flamini and Fabregas in midfield – Gilberto’s return cannot come soon enough with tougher games coming up. On the plus side though Sagna looked solid at right back, although we were still prone to defensive lapses.

Can Toure and Gallas play together?

With Gilberto out it would be an idea to play Toure alongside Fabregas in the middle and Senderos next to Gallas. That would certainly add more weight to the team and give Senderos some needed playing time before Kolo leaves in January but obviously I can’t see that happening.

As I’ve said a few times the first ten games are vital to Arsenal’s season.

I see the first ten Premier League games as cup ties. We basically have to fight to win every one because the standard of the league is so high now that any sort of blip would virtually rule us out for challenging for the Premiership. A great start would also give us that ruthless winning mentality we seem to have lost over the last few seasons.

The big positive from the weekend was the ability to dig in and come from behind, yet again. This Arsenal team may be many things but they’re stubborn as anything and never know when they’re beaten.

At least it’s never boring with Arsenal.

 

4 thoughts on “Matchday One: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly…

  1. Arsenal looked good at the weekend but missed someone to actually take the chances. Did we need Henry? You couldn’t help thinking he would have made things easier!

     
  2. im sick of playing catch up in every home game! were gonna draw too many matches if we keep on conceding first with stupid goals!

     
  3. I think what everyone is forgetting here is that the result is the only thing that counts. The PL is a marathon and not a sprint. The PL is not won nor lost in August. The important thing from here on is that the team continues to believe in themselves and us fans, especially Season ticket holders remain behind the team 100 percent. I’d be happy if we won every game like that because it means we won!

     

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