“One month ago we played here against Swansea and had absolutely to win, or you would have had a complete disaster,” Arsene Wenger admitted. “One month ago, the questions we had to answer were: ‘Do you face a relegation battle or not?’That makes the game more difficult. It’s more enjoyable now.”Stutteringly at first, and then more assuredly, the lights are coming back on at the Emirates. At the front, Robin van Persie has seemed at times to be winning games for Arsenal on his own, hauling them out of their funk through sheer force of example. At the back, Thomas Vermaelen is finding his way back to fitness, Carl Jenkinson is showing considerable promise and Laurent Koscielny is in the best form of his life.
But it is in the middle where Arsenal are finally beginning to assert themselves in a way they have struggled to do since the departure of Cesc Fabregas and the injury to Jack Wilshere. Saturday’s win over West Brom was Mikel Arteta’s best performance in an Arsenal shirt. Since moving from Everton at the end of August he turned in several decent performances without ever really grabbing a game by the lapels. This was that game.
“He’s really important,” Wenger said. “When we need to keep the ball, he can do that. Jack can do that as well, but with Jack missing he is really a player who allows you to keep the ball when it is needed.”
More than that, Arteta is finally beginning to express himself in the final third. His goal on Saturday was a classic Arsenal goal — Robin van Persie laying the ball off for Arteta to curl home from the edge of the penalty area after a sharp, attractive passing move. Too often this season Arsenal have been a cautious, sideways team, but here they were darting forward, exploring diagonals, weaving their intricate triangles again.
No comments:
Post a Comment