Exclusive : Swansea 0 Arsenal 2 - Match day experience and review of the game.
20th March 2013 By FlittsTheGunner
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After a 3-hour train journey from Paddington (Centre of London) and a 20 min walk from Swansea we arrived at the Liberty Stadium. As my 1st time at the Liberty Stadium I must say I was very impressed with the ground and the modern facilities. The locals were very welcoming and there was a lot of banter between the two and I thoroughly enjoyed my day and will be returning there on our next visit.
Onto the football, as for the 1st half it was extremely dull as a spectator with very limited chances being created from both teams. The highlight of the 1st half was The Ox hitting the bar twice which could give him confidence to regain his form from last season (which he has been along way off this season with very limited opportunities.) Swansea had the biggest threats in the 1st half with an Angel Rangel 1 on 1 being turned for a corner by Koscielny making a miraculous recovery run showing why he was selected ahead of Vermaelen. Swansea’s other big chance was from a mistake from Corporal Jenkinson where he misplaced a pass to Mikel Arteta and Nathan Dyer intercepted. The inform Michu received the ball and luckily for Corporal Jenkinson the ball was skewed inches of the post. Overall the pace of the game was very slow and lacklustre with Arsenal very happy to sit back and let Swansea keep the ball hence the majority of possession in the 1st half.
The game didn’t seem to light up until the 2nd half where the likes of Cazorla caused havoc amongst the Swansea defenders. It seems despite much experimentation he is suited to the ‘Number 10 Role’ in behind the striker making those incisive runs and through balls for attackers to run on to. The 1st goal was created by Cazorla once again as he threatened to take a shot forcing Swansea players to dive in which opened up a lot of room. The ball was finally played into Giroud where he took an abysmal 1sttouch which let the ball out of his control but he put his body on the line to get the final touch where Monreal scuffed the ball into the net. As they say ‘They all count’ and that goal was decisive in how the game panned out. Later on when Swansea were pushing for the equaliser with very few defenders back Gervinho surprisingly finished a 1 on 1 with the assist coming from Aaron Ramsey who were both substitutions in the ‘70th minute’ It was the perfect away performance and the defence was resolute once again.
Some side notes:
Abou Diaby – A lot of supporters got on his back after many attempted runs with no end product. I believe we need to stick with him especially when he is fit as we saw at the beginning of the season against Liverpool he put in a MOTM performance opening up the game with his powerful runs running midfielders ragged. Although on his runs he failed to shoot it was very evident what he was trying to do but he simply does not have enough confidence at this given time and a run of games will put him back to his best barring he stays away from the Medical Room!
Gervinho
Although Gervinho scored a 1 on 1 and had a few piercing runs into the Swansea defence, I still hope he can be flogged in the summer as he is not the answer for our problems at Arsenal FOOTBALL club. His mazey runs are common in his games and I believe even he doesn’t know where he is going sometimes. I am all for getting behind players and would never boo my own player but Gervinho is simply not a football player and I would much prefer to see The Ox out on the pitch than him. As for this business about giving Gervinho a bit of ‘Love’ he is a football player and should learn to take abuse when he is doing bad and take the praise when he is doing well.
I hope you enjoyed my blog! Leave your comments let me know what you think!
Arsenal’s next games- Reading 30th March (H)
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