Marseille (1) – (2) Arsenal
Walcott 65′, Ramsey 84′
Stade Velodrome, Marseille
Champions League Group Stage

Arsenal did well to win the game and get through what was a tough night in Marseille.

I haven’t seen much of Marseille but from what they showed last night, they’re a very physical side. They go into challenges 110% and I did think some of the “tackles” they made were well over the top, especially for Europe. The incident when Mathieu Flamini was literally thrown to the ground was unbelievable and how the referee didn’t blow for that was amazing. The referee on the whole was okay, but in trying to “let the game flow” failed to pick up on some blatant fouls.

For large portions of the game, Marseille were the better team, without really threatening until the second half. We huffed and we puffed but couldn’t get our rhythm going and it was one of those nights where we had to dig in deep to get a result, and that’s exactly what we did.

The home side did well to keep us at bay and they were compact, quick and strong into the challenges. We struggled to impose ourselves on the game in an attacking sense and on 65 minutes Theo Walcott scored what was a really fantastic goal. Gibbs linked well with Wilshere on the left hand side, sent in a decent cross which Morel failed to clear. The ball seemed to take an eternity to come down but Theo blasted the ball first time into the top corner of the net.

What a volley!

After that, the game opened up and we managed to force a couple of good saves from Mandanda, in particular a shot from Gibbs after a delightful back-heel assist from Mesut Ozil.

On 84 minutes Aaron Ramsey, the man of the moment, surged through the middle of the Marseille midfield and rifled a hard shot low into the net to double our lead and kill off the tie.

But a minute into injury time, Ramsey clipped Andre Ayew in the penalty area and his brother Jordan stepped up and scored a late consolation goal. Replays showed they Ramsey actually nicked the ball first and that Andre Ayew threw himself to the ground without any contact. But Marseille were good at “buying freekicks” all the way through the match so it was hardly a surprise the referee “fell” for it (excuse the pun).

OVerall, it was a very professional performance and a massive 3 points. In a group with Marseille, Napoli and Dortmund, it is vital to get 3 points in the bag if we want to progress to the knockout stages, and in terms of that it is job done.

Bring on Higuain and Napoli in 2 weeks time.

Player Ratings:

Wojciech Szczesny: 7/10
Wasn’t called upon much during the first half but had to make a few important saves in the second and did very well. Looked really solid and very assured at the back. Also came out and collected some crosses with ease. Had no chance with the penalty.

Bacary Sagna: 7/10
Very solid and supported Theo well on the right hand side. Delivered some good crosses and gave as good as he got to a big, physical Marseille side.

Laurent Koscielny: 7/10
Did well against Gignac and restricted the big forwards influence. Made a rash challange early on in the game but was solid for the rest of the game.

Per Mertesacker: 8/10
Had to withstand a lot of pressure from Marseille throughout the game but coped well. Organised the defence well and made some very important tackles and interceptions. Almost scored one of the worst own goals of all time.

Kieran Gibbs: 9/10
Outstanding. Up and down the left hand side all night and created the chance for Theo to score the opener. Almost got on the scoresheet himself and was unlucky not to score after being crowded out by 3 Marseille players. Positionally excellent all night, typified by the awesome goal-line clearance after the Mertesacker and Szczesny mix up.

Mathieu Flamini: 6/10
Seemed a little off the pace but moved the ball around well and organised the team when required. Will be a very important player for us if we continue to struggle with injuries.

Jack Wilshere: 7/10
Full of running, and linked up the midfield and attack well. Popped up everywhere on the pitch and did well against a strong Marseille midfield.

Aaron Ramsey: 8/10
Another assured and excellent performance from the man of the moment. Scored a massively important goal with 5 minutes to go to seal the 3 points. Linked up well with Ozil, Wilshere and Theo and made some excellent tackles. Deserved his goal and he is in the form of his life.

Mesut Ozil: 5/10
Struggled to get into the game as Marseille were quick, powerful and controlled the tempo. Laid off a exquisite back-heel for Gibbs but could impose himself on the game. Struggled with the physical approach from Marseille.

Theo Walcott: 6/10
The enigma that is Theo Walcott. He had the beating of Morel in the first 15 minutes but then was ineffective for the next 50 minutes. He misplaced passes and wasn’t making any kind of positive impact. Then on 65 minutes he smashes in a volley of the highest quality. Excellent goal and one of such importance.

Olivier Giroud: 7/10
Did well to even compete with the power of Marseille’s midfield and defence. Only had on real chance to score which was a header from a corner which he really should have got on target. Linked up play well considering and caused a nuisance up front.

Sunderland (1) – (3) Arsenal
Giroud 11′, Ramsey 67′, 76′
The Stadium of Light, Sunderland
Barclays Premier League

An away game against struggling Sunderland was the scene for Mesut Özil’s Arsenal debut, after signing from Real Madrid for a club record fee of £42.3 million.

And it didn’t take him long to make an impression. On 11 minutes, he cooly controlled a ball over the top with his first touch and laid on a great chance for Giroud with his second, and the Frenchman duly obliged by slotting in at the near post.

Özil was particularly unplayable in the first 45 minutes, creating 4/5 excellent chances for his new club – some of which Theo Walcott really should have scored. We were dominant in the first half and Walcott’s wastefulness in front of goal looked to have dearly cost Arsenal just after the break.

On 48 minutes, Koscielny – not for the first time this season – panicked in the box and brought down Adam Johnson for a stonewall penalty. Craig Gardiner dispatched the penalty and the sides were all square.

The Mertesacker/Koscielny partnership was excellent in the final 10 games of last season but at times this season the Frenchman has been erratic at the back. He’s already conceded two penalties this season, and had a red card to boot. Whether he’s lost some confidence or he’s just out of form, it is worrying as better teams than Sunderland won’t let us get away with these fundamental mistakes. Vermaelen is close to full fitness and Arsene has to make a decision whether he should drop Koscielny until he gets his form back.

If the first half was all about Özil, then the second was all about Ramsey. After Sunderland equalised they had a dominant spell in the game where they looked much more likely to score. Fortunately for us, with a bit of luck (which we don’t usually get) and some last ditch defending, we managed to keep the home side at bay and then Ramsey popped up with a massive goal.

A cross from Jenkinson (who I’ve said for a long time is better than Sagna at crossing) found Ramsey on the edge of the box who smashed a low volley into net – a goal of superb technique and great significance at that point in the match. After that, Sunderland’s heads dropped and after some smart interplay with Giroud gave Ramsey his second goal which was well deserved.

Ramsey has really come on leaps and bounds over the last 18 months and is a massive player for us now. Giroud is in a strong vain of form at the moment and Özil adds that touch of class to the team. Would Arsenal have taken all 3 points without Özil in the team yesterday? It’s hard to say but we’ve seen Arsenal of old struggle with games of this type – and at times we did struggle. It would be nice to believe that having a world class player like Özil gave us that extra confidence and determination to get us over the line against Sunderland. Typically when we’ve seen Arsenal struggle in games it has ended in a draw or even worse, a defeat.

But yesterday, we fought hard and managed to take home all 3 points.

Arsenal (1) – (0) Tottenham Hotspur
Giroud 23′
The Emirates Stadium, London
Barclays Premier League

Although there weren’t a lot of goals, it was certainly a tense game.

The previous two seasons have seen a 5-2 scoreline but this game was just as engrossing. Tottenham Hotspur, who have spent around £110 million and were full of new, exciting signings were up against Arsenal, who had only signed Sanogo and Flamini on free transfers.

But as we’ve seen in recent games, Arsenal are still a force to be reckoned with. As the scoreline suggests, this was a much closer contest than in recent seasons, and for the first 15 minutes Tottenham were the better side. They controlled the ball well, popped it around nicely and had most of the attacking possession – although in fairness it didn’t trouble us greatly.

Over the 90 minutes, we had the better of the chances and if it wasn’t for Lloris who was in fantastic form, we would have should have scored more goals. Szczesny wasn’t called upon that many times but needed to make two extremely important saves and he did so.

Defensively we were sound and it was only in the final 10 minutes when it got a bit tense. They had a lot of the ball (57% of possession in the end) but didn’t do a huge amount with it. For all their new signings and money spent, Tottenham have yet to score from open play in 3 Premier League games. In the words of AVB, maybe Tottenham are in a “negative spiral” in terms of goals.

The goal when it came was in a vital time in the match. Tottenham were bossing possession but we carved out a great chance on 23 minutes. Rosicky, the king of the pre-assist, fed in Theo who picked out Giroud at the near post. The big striker did extremely well to get ahead of the defender and coolly slotted in at the near post – it was a well taken goal and in the end proved decisive.

The game was a end to end for the most part and Arsenal were unlucky not to add to Giroud’s goal. Theo could have done better when played in by Cazorla but was denied by an onrushing Lloris, and Theo had a chance well-saved with 15 minutes to go.

The other main talking point was the introduction of Mathieu Flamini on 42 minutes when Jack Wilshere came off with stomach cramps. He did well in fairness, organising the team and defending well – and was extremely unlucky when he got booked for winning the ball.

The positive thing was how we played as a team. We attacked well, although lacked a bit of cutting edge, and defended as a team as well. Giroud made a fantastic block on the line from Soldado to deny Tottenham an equaliser. Giroud was deservedly Man of the Match, holding the ball up well and bringing others into play.

The back five were excellent, with Per Mertesacker outstanding at the back. Koscielny was always first to the ball and made some important interceptions, Gibbs and Jenkinson were solid and the midfield again, moved the ball around well and made some goalscoring opportunities.

Cazorla wasn’t as influential as he can be but did well, Rosicky was energetic and made things happen. Ramsey wasn’t as influential as he has been in recent games but never gave up. Theo again showed how much of an impact player he is as he popped up in decent positions to hurt Tottenham and delivered a brilliant cross for Giroud’s goal.

In the end, Arsenal deservedly won in the North London Derby playing the Arsenal way. Tottenham, for all the money spent and new signings weren’t convincing. However, it would be naive to think that they won’t be right up there by the end of the season and once their new players do have time to settle in they will be a force in the league.

Our first eleven is very good but with 24 hours of the transfer window to go, it would be suicidal if Arsene Wenger didn’t strengthen and add numbers to the squad. Giroud is bang in form at the money but an injury to him would be catastrophic. Wilshere has shown he will struggle to play an entire season and while Rosicky is playing well, he is prone to picking up a knock. Defensively we are still “a little bit short” and we need at least one defender as cover.

Overall, a good performance and excellent result, but it still covers over the cracks somewhat. But let’s enjoy the result this week and we can evaluate the state of the squad at 11pm tomorrow evening.

Fulham (1) – (3) Arsenal
Giroud 14′, Podolski 41′, 68′
Craven Cottage, London
Barclays Premier League

After the convincing win over Fulham, Arsene Wenger admitted that there were no “imminent signings” and that no-one will come in before the game against Fenerbahce on Tuesday. He also said he would rather focus on the upcoming matches and then see what will happen from there.

What is clear after we comfortably beat Fulham with some excellent counter attacking football, is that with 2 wins under our belts in the last 4 days, that Arsene won’t be forced into making any signings.

Giroud and Podolski are now scoring, Bacary Sagna and Jenkinson are comfortable playing in the middle and on the right of our defence and Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky and Santi Cazorla are all playing very well. Theo is coming into form and even Szczesny had a good game yesterday.

So it’s hardly surprising that Arsene is using these performances as an excuse not to strengthen the team or spend any money. After the frustrating summer and the debacle against Aston Villa, it seemed that Arsene was ready to finally splash the cash. We heard stories about Benzema and Di Maria possibly coming to Arsenal, as well as Yohan Kebab. But now it seems, they were just using those names to appease the fans.

Anyway, back to yesterdays game against Fulham. There were only 2 changes from the midweek game against Fenerbahce – Koscielny was out injured so Sagna filled in next to Mertesacker and Jenkinson came in at right back. Wilshere was rested and Podolski started on the left and it was clear before the game (if you follow his Twitter feed) that he was raring to go against Fulham.

And so it proved. He scored two really excellent goals and looked happy on the pitch. He’d been “linked” to moves back to Germany in the week but he looked fantastic yesterday. The lads followed their dominating performance in Turkey with an almost complete performance against Fulham, with the midfield of Ramsey, Cazorla and Rosicky looking particularly formidable.

The players are doing really well at the moment, but as usual the only worry is if we pick up any injuries to our midfield (well, to anyone really) and the question is do we have enough strength in our squad to cope for the whole season. I don’t subscribe to the notion that our first eleven can “beat anyone” but I do think it is a very good starting eleven. But after that, even Arsene Wenger has to admit we’d struggle.

Fenerbahce (0) – (3) Arsenal
Gibbs 51′, Ramsey 64′, Giroud 77′ (Pen)
Sukru Saracoglu Stadium, Istanbul
Champions League Qualifier

Last night was an excellent performance from every player, and one that was a million miles away from the shambles on Saturday. Our inter-play was excellent and it was a joy to watch Cazorla, Rosicky, Wilshere and Ramsey passing the ball like they did. Sure, people will say that Fenerbahce didn’t offer much (which they didn’t) but that was partly because of how well Arsenal played.

We pressed high up the pitch, were well organised and didn’t give any of their players much time on the ball. And when it mattered, we put the ball into the net.

It was 0-0 at half time but we had been the better team. Once the second half kicked off we increased the tempo and Fenerbahce couldn’t handle us. The first goal was really well executed, with a beautiful through ball by Ramsey to Theo, who had the presence to pick out Kieran Gibbs at the far post.

1-0 and that was the vital away goal we needed.

We kept pressing and Aaron Ramsey, who was my Man of the Match, had all the time in the world and fired in a low rasping shot into the bottom corner which Volkan found too hot to handle.

Then, Theo was beautifully picked out by Santi Cazorla and was brought down in the area. When I saw it I had my hands in the air as it was a penalty but it is one of those you might not get in an away game, but fortunately the referee gave the right decision. I wasn’t 100% confident when I saw Olivier Giroud step up but he finished with aplomb.

So 3-0 away from home at Fenerbahce and for me that was an outstanding result. Not only because it was unexpected after the debacle against Aston Villa but because that effectively (barring any freak 90 minutes at The Emirates) means we should be safely through and in the Champions League proper. Of course, we can’t count our chickens just yet but the hardest part of the task is done and we couldn’t of asked for any more.

Fenerbahce did have a couple of chances to score, the first from left back Kadlec which Szczesny saved well, and the second from Emenike from a narrow angle. Gibbs, Mertesacker and Sagna (when he had to move into central defence) were all solid, and Carl Jenkinson was excellent. I don’t understand the people who say he needs more time because I think he’s ready and don’t forget he was fantastic at the start of last season when Sagna was out injured. He’s intelligent, gets well up the pitch and his crossing is top drawer. I don’t have a problem using Sagna in the middle if that means Jenkinson gets to play.

So in the end, a fantastic result which should mean we’ll be playing in Europe’s elite club competition this season.

Player Ratings:

1. Wojciech Szczesny – 7/10
Wasn’t called upon a huge amount of times but when needed pulled off some very good saves. Was brave in the challenge against Sow and unlike Saturday, was solid.

3. Bacary Sagna – 7/10
Was up and down the right hand side as usual and coped well considering Theo isn’t the greatest at tracking back. Once he moved into central defence after Koscielny went off injured, he was solid and did well alongside Mertesacker.

4. Per Mertesacker – 7/10
The captain had a better day at the office and kept Webo and Sow quiet for the majority of the game. Made some good interceptions and won most of the headers inside and outside the box. Wasn’t troubled at all.

6. Laurent Koscielny – 6/10
Went off after 33 minutes after a nasty looking injury to his face. He darted in front of Webo to win the ball and got one hell of a kick to the head. Looked painful at the time and he is not having the best of luck at the moment.

28. Kieran Gibbs – 8/10
Up and down the flank all night and linked up well with Jack, Ramsey, Cazorla and Rosicky. Made some good runs and got himself into some decent positions on the left wing, and deserved his goal.

16. Aaron Ramsey – 9/10
For me, the Man of the Match. He was so confident on the ball, waltzed past players with ease and his passing was first class. Beautiful ball to Theo to assist the Kieran Gibbs goal and deserved his bit of luck for Arsenal’s second. If he keeps this up he could be a massive player for Arsenal this season and looks to have really kicked on from last season.

10. Jack Wilshere – 7/10
Got himself about and made some important interceptions and linked up well with the other 3 midfielders. Made some good runs and passing was excellent. Had a nice dribble around Bruno Alves but the angle for the shot was against him and was saved.

7. Tomas Rosicky – 7/10
Set the tone for the team with his endless running and pressing. Looked lively from the first whistle and was comfortable on the ball, making some incisive passes.

19. Santi Cazorla – 8/10
Looked like his old self, and along with Ramsey, Wilshere and Rosicky controlled the midfield. Some of the passes he made were really exceptional and he showed how good he is on his day. Beautiful control and touches on the ball, often using his skill to get out of sticky situations.

14. Theo Walcott – 7/10
His overall performance was hit and miss but Theo is an impact player and he did exactly that. Good run and cut back for Gibbs for the first goal and did really well to win the penalty for the third. His touches could have been better but basically making two of the goals is a decent nights work.

12. Olivier Giroud – 6/10
Did okay but didn’t have much luck against Yobo and Alves. Took his penalty very well but his passing was suspect and did have a great chance just before half time when he was put through by Wilshere. We all know he’s not the most clinical finisher but thats 2 goals in 2 games now.

Substitutes:

25. Carl Jenkinson – 8/10 (replaced Koscielny 33′)
Once again a very assured performance from Jenkinson. I rate him very highly indeed and again he didn’t disappoint. Has a great turn of pace to beat a fullback and did that on several occasions. He put in some excellent crosses which really should have been taken advantage of if some of the Arsenal players gambled in the middle.

9. Lukas Podolski – NLE (replaced Giroud 82′)
Not long enough to make an impact.

17. Nacho Monreal – NLE (replaced Walcott 87′)
Not long enough to make an impact.