Sunday, August 17, 2014

Post Match Analysis

So the curtain for the Premier League has raised for the new season, and Arsenal started the campaign by defeating Crystal Palace 2-1 in the Emirates Stadium. It was much harder than people would expected, especially after Palace's manager, Tony Pulis resigned just two days before the campaign. Palace even got a lead on their first corner of the game when Brede Hangeland headed the ball to the far corner, 0-1. Laurent Koscielny levelled the scoreline just before the break when he made a great header from Alexis Sanchez' freekick, 1-1. When everyone thinks the game would end in a draw, Aaron Ramsey made an important goal, as he slotted the ball from the close range after Julian Speroni parried Mathieu Debuchy's shot. The final scoreline is 2-1 for Arsenal's victory

There are few points I'd like to highlight from this game.
1. Santi Cazorla didn't have the best game today, though he is much better in the central position after the introduction fo Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Crystal Palace marked Cazorla really tight, not giving him the space he wants, and he struggled throughout the game. He is forced to play deep or wide when he played on the wing. However, he might not playing centrally very often as Ozil is coming back next week.

2. Mathieu Debuchy and Nacho Monreal is quite impressive in this game. Both acts as auxiliary wingers on the match as Arsenal pushed for the goal. Debuchy looks an upgrade for Sagna in terms of attacking and his off-the ball movement is impressive. Nacho Monreal was solid after Kieran Gibbs limped off injury, and combined very well with Alexis and Cazorla, bombing on the left wing and sending few dangerous crosses.

3. It was a bad set piece defending on the conceded goal. No one is lurking on the far post, plus they lost Hangeland on the process. We've been doing zonal marking, but we suffered this when Per Mertesacker and Olivier Giroud not on the pitch.

4. Olivier Giroud was much improved from the pre-season defeat against Monaco. He looked sharper upfront, and held the ball well. Especially against smaller teams who sat deep to defend, I think it's better to play Giroud on the solo striker as we won't be able to see much spaces behind the defender, something that Sanogo is better than Giroud. As the opposition sat deep, Arsenal would need someone who can flick the ball and attack the cross, and in the squad, there's no one better doing that than Giroud now.

5. In the past few years, we've been seeing Arsenal conceded in the final minutes, but from the last year it's more often that we found equalizer or winner on the final minutes, showing that we have that right mentality to challenge for the title. Late at the game is one of the most crucial moment that would differentiate between title challenge and title winner. Credit to Crystal Palace who was very well organized and strong in defence, only to beat by a decisive tap-in by Aaron Ramsey on the second half injury time.

In short, it was not the best performance by Arsenal, but what matters most is the three points. With the trio Germans is yet to come, expect an improvement in coming weeks, especially when Mesut Ozil comes to the team. However, I'd still hope that Wenger brings a world-class, tenacious defensive midfielder, a different type of midfielder from Mikel Arteta, to add steel to the midfield, especially against big team.

No comments:

Post a Comment