Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal: Giroud and Ramsey fire Arsenal to the top

Quite unexpectedly (for me, first of all) I made the game. That’s due to my missing out on Cumberbetch’s “Hamlet”. For those of you interested, someone here came up with a brilliant idea to broadcast the play on a big screen, in cinemas. And sell tickets, naturally.

So my friend proposed we go and see the play, but then a last-minute hindrance prevented him from joining me. That’s my personal life in a nutshell. Even when I do have the energy and desire to go out on a weekend, something stops me at the last possible minute.

Away from my non-existent personal life, and, more importantly, moaning of a 22-year-old and back to matters Arsenal, though. The Gunners did the job in a calm and professional manner and, despite this not being one of our better performances, I’ll have a dull 2-0 over a rollercoaster 3-2, say, any day. I just love it when the Gunners go about their business as calmly as they did today. 3 points, top of the league, a clean sheet and an intact nervous system. On to points of interest.

The performance itself

It felt like we were playing in second gear the entire game, but this I can’t blame the boys for. The performance in midweek was as draining as it was exciting. Both on physical and mental fronts. The same 11 guys who started in Greece also started in Birmingham. That’s as much down to the quality of their game as to our inability to rotate them. Sanchez’s return can’t come soon enough, but I fear this won’t ease the burden on our midfield. Hope Arteta’s working on his calves.

The quality that set us apart on the day, the same which helped us overpower Olympiacos, was efficiency in front of goal. Up until 80th minute we took only 5 shots with 2 on target, both were goals. In the final 14 minutes we took another 3 shots, 2 of which were on target, but our overall 8 shots looked meagre compared to Villa’s 18. The Villains’ downfall was what? You are right, efficiency.

Villa took 18 shots, but only two were on target and both were from outside the box. Cech can catch these potshots all day long (congratulations to him for equalling James’ record, by the way). But a more revealing stat shows us both Arsene’s troops and Garde’s men took 7 shots from inside the box, the difference being efficiency. 4 of our 7 shots were on target, 2 of them goals, while the Villains saw one shot blocked and the other 6 put wide.

In other words, while being far from exciting, the Gunners were clinical and that was enough.

Hector Bellerin

Our Spaniard seems to be suffering from a dip in form. Ever since he came back from his injury. Hector didn’t quite looked himself. This run stretches to 8 games, including today’s.

Bayern performance exempting (I simply don’t want to recall that atrocity), we have conceded 5 goals in 7 games. It’s not much per se, but most of these goals came from the right side of the pitch or can be in some way traced back to Bellerin.

Spurs? Kane outrun Mert who tried to cover for Hector, who was out of position badly. West Brom? Bellerin failed to man-mark Morrison for the first and allowed a low cross to come in for the 2nd. Norwich? The pass for the goal came from the right side. Sunderland? Who the hell was Koscielny covering for on the right when he conceded that free-kick? And against Villa Bellerin was suspect defensively again.

Maybe I’m being picky. After all, Bellerin is only 20, it’s his first season as a regular. It’s not like he is Monreal, a full-back with years of experience (kudos to Monreal, by the way, another solid performance). Form fluctuates at such a young age, this is nothing new.

Moreover, we have to understand Bellerin’s, erm, surroundings, changed quite a lot in these past weeks. By that I mean we longer have Coquelin and Cazorla, who were better suited to cover for the Spaniard. Both patrolled the space in front of our back 4 more efficiently than Ramsey and Flamini currently do. Also, instead of having Ramsey on the flank, Hector now has Campbell. Our right-back is as affected by the current changes as the rest of the team, maybe more.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of room for manoeuvre, at least till Cazorla and Coquelin return. Or until Arsene buys a new holding midfielder in January. So Hector has to adapt to the new situation somehow.

Aaron Ramsey

Rambo had another good performance in the middle. He scored that second goal (and started the move which led to it himself), he completed 71 out of his 78 attempted passes (made the most passes of any on-field player), while also chipping in in defense, winning 5 tackles, 3 of these centrally, 2 near our box. Finally, the Welshman ran a whopping 12 km, setting a new Premier League record. The man’s an engine.

Arsene was also full of praise for Aaron:

“He had an outstanding performance today. I think of course he is naturally more of a central midfielder and I pushed him out wide for a while because I believe we have seen many times that when players are pushed against the line they need to shorten their technique. When they come back into the middle again, they are better players.”

Make it 2 goals and 2 assists for Ramsey in his last 3 games. Also notice how Arsene talks about purposefully playing Aaron wide. It clearly never was his intention to keep the Welshman there till the end of days.

However, I still think a Flamini-Ramsey partnership is too gung-ho. Neither can set a tempo to our game (other than chaotic) and I sincerely hope Arsene addresses this problem by either making Arteta/Wilshere a part of the equation or delving into the depths of the transfer market in January.

The aftermath

That was a very important win with some nice little bonuses on top: Giroud scored his 50th league goal by coolly converting another penalty, Cech kept his first clean sheet since October, thus equalling James’ record, Ozil got his 13th assist in just 15 games...

But it was also important from a strategic point of view. Arsenal has moved into the 1st place as a result, a point above City (who got a lucky bounce vs Swansea) and Leicester. Granted, Leicester can still leapfrog us, but they’ll have to beat Chelsea to do that. Doesn’t seem particularly likely, but with Chelsea you just never know…

However we also put some distance between us and the rest. United are now 4 points behind, Spurs (hahaha) and Palace 7 and everyone else even more. Nice weekend for the Gunners. Now we get 8 days till the City game to recover and prepare both physically and mentally.

Let’s hope we do just that.

Until later

Olympiacos 0-3 Arsenal: the French kiss

I have a strange emotional state before games: I rarely hope for the best or dread the worst. On Twitter, maybe. Sometimes (even quite often) you can see me putting on a brave face, while expressing full confidence the Gunners can do the job, whatever the difficulty of it. Occasionally you can see me moaning we will fall (though this is a much less frequent occurrence).

However in real life, I mostly take games in their stride. You won’t see me predicting a heavy loss or a resounding win, whatever the opposition. I rarely write us off, disregarding our form and/or players available (we are Arsenal, after all), but I also rarely say things like “It’s only QPR for Christ’s sake, what can go wrong?”

It’s when the game kicks off that my nerves kick in proper and my mood starts swinging from one end of spectrum to the other, which may not necessarily be related to what’s happening on the pitch. It’s when the whistle for the kick-off blows that I start hoping for the best/dreading the worst.

Is it to do with my rationality? I like to think of myself as a rational man, prematurely celebrating success or predicting gloom is not the sign of being rational. SImply because until the game starts you rarely have reasons to think your team will run out winners or will be consigned to the history books.

Or maybe such a state of mine is dependent on a kind of nervous stupor I enter once the line-ups are revealed? I just don’t have the time or energy to make predictions of any sort, because I’m too busy worrying myself into this senseless condition.

Whatever reason it is, the fact remains: I am never full of confidence one way or the other prior to kick-off. And I don’t spend days on end worrying about the upcoming game. Maybe, just maybe, that means I still can enjoy football where Arsenal is involved and the unpredictability of the game precludes me on some deep psychological level from making predictions of any kind.

Why am I saying all this? Simple: it was exactly how I felt on Wednesday. And on Saturday, before Sunderland. This is how I will feel when I sit down to watch us take on City in 10-days time (unfortunately, I’ll miss our trip to Birmingham this weekend). Sure, every week I speculate on our form, players’ availability and possible scenarios of how the game will unfold (and I’m usually decent at guessing), however you are unlikely to see me saying things like the end result with certainty.

So when I sat down on Wednesday to watch the game I kind of...succumbed to the inevitability of what was about to unfold.

After watching the opening 20 minutes or so I started to get desperate. Not much was happening on the pitch, we didn't try to take Olympiacos by storm and the commentator kept nagging on how this “was all part of Marco Silva’s grand plan” and “how such a game suited him down to the ground”.

But then, on the 25th minute we sparked into life. Joel Campbell, who minutes before switched flanks with Theo Walcott, stormed down the right flank, put in a low cross and Flamini’s deflected shot rattled the bar. Giroud headed the ball into the keeper's arms from the resulting corner and this was when I understood: the game was on. We were in it.

4 minutes later we went ahead. Ozil, after seemingly being pushed away from the box, turned on the spot and sliced Olympiacos’ defense open with one deft stroke of his left foot. Ramsey ran onto the German's through pass and weighed in a cross for Olivier Giroud. The Frenchman met it with a thumping header, which Roberto couldn't save despite his best efforts.

But it was only the beginning of the Frenchman's heroics. Four minutes after the restart Campbell twinkle-toed his way past 3 Olympiacos defenders after latching onto Ozil’s pass and laid the ball on a platter for Giroud. Ollie timed his run between 3 (!) defenders in such a way that he found himself one-on-one with Roberto, with loads of defenders in the box rendered absolutely useless and our reinforcements out of the equation. The Frenchman, who moments before barely got up after seemingly doing his ankle in, didn't miss.

However Ollie didn’t stop there. On the 66th minute he burst into the box, his cutback found Nacho Monreal in a good shooting position, the Spaniard took a shot, Elabdellaoui blocked the shot with his arm and Rizzoli pointed to the spot. Even before the cameraman showed who the penalty taker would be, I’ve heard “Na na Giroud” emanating from the away sector and knew the Frenchman was onto his hat-trick. Ollie stepped up, ignored Roberto’s antics and calmly sent the keeper the other way for his first hat-trick in an Arsenal shirt. 3-0 and game over. Olympiacos didn’t even look bothered going forward and we could have extended our lead further, only for Giroud to be flagged offside and Ozil forcing a fine save from Roberto.

Now, even after such a performance I’ve seen people say it wasn’t Giroud’s best game in our shirt or that, indeed, the Frenchman hasn’t done anything special. I strongly with both points. I’m not at all inclined to find fault with Ollie’s hat-trick, especially at a time when even the English media acknowledged his achievement. For several reasons:

1. A hat-trick is a hat-trick. You don’t score these all that often and if people find it okay to wank over Benzema’s hat-trick against Malme in a game which means nothing for both sides, I reserve my right to be over the moon with Giroud after he delivered at such a crucial time
2. Giroud showed different aspects to his game. A good sense of positioning for the first and a powerful header, strong hold-up play and a perfectly-timed run for the second and nerves of steel for the penalty. Yes, he wouldn’t have scored his goals without Ramsey, Ozil, Campbell, Monreal etc., but that’s a team game. The same can be said about almost every goal
3. Finally, I simply love Ollie Giroud. For his resolve, for his spirit, for his love for the shirt. I have defended Olivier Giroud long enough and fiercely enough to allow myself not to do this when such a performance comes along

One last thing I’ll do before wrapping up: honorable mentions. First up is Joel Campbell, who once again worked tirelessly for the team, created moments of danger and his assist was nothing short of sublime.

Second up is Ozil, who left the field without an assist or a goal to his name (I believe it’s the first time he’s done that in ten games), but set-up both Ramsey and then Campbell so that they could, in their turn, set up Giroud. The German was a little less noticeable, but that doesn’t diminish his contribution in the slightest.

Finally, Petr Cech. He made at least one crucial save from Fortunis at 2-0. Also, he stood firm in a couple of other potentially dangerous situations, so big thumbs up to our keeper. Finally, his response to a stupid question post-game was nothing short of classy.

I’ll leave it at this. Back with the usual preview for the Aston Villa game.

Up the Arsenal