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Reading 2 – 5 Arsenal: We’re back…

Posted by :devday On : December 18, 2012
8

Category: Arsenal, Match Reports, Premier League

From a very low low to a very high high in the space of a week… today we were awesome. It was great to see – the old Arsenal were back in full force, and we looked the part. Our play was quick, dynamic and creative and the line up was spot on. It was great to see players playing with confidence and playing well together…

It was Theo Walcott’s first game up front, and it seemed to work well, with the England International very lively – pulling the ready defence apart at every opportunity… the line up was:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Mertersacker – Vemaelen (c) – Gibbs

Arteta – Wilshere

Oxlade – Cazorla – Podolski

Walcott

Walcott’s movement was a problem for the Reading defence and there was a good level of interaction between the front four. It was eventually Podolski who opened the scoring with a good finish from close range when he controlled a cross and tucked it in with a great left footed finish…

It was then Cazorla’s time to steal the limelight – with Walcott as a foil, Cazorla was afforded more space and the Spaniard took full advantage, making it 2-0 from a header, 3-0 from a swivel and shot and his third and Arsenal’s fourth from a great overload on the hour mark. Reading got one back and then two, but Theo scored our fifth with an acute left footed strike after some good build up from that man, Cazorla.

It was a great game and a great team performance, and the manager was delighted.

The target was to win and we won in a convincing way. You can only give one answer – on the pitch. Success came with the quality of our game. We played and didn’t bother about the rest. We focused on the quality of our game and played. I think it was in continuity of the game we played gainst West Brom. That’s what we did again tonight.

We’re up to fifth now and it’s important we concentrate on getting better and better and better each game. We can’t rest on our laurels and think we’ve done anything good yet – this was just one game – we need to ensure we can push on and beat Wigan on Saturday. The club is on a knife edge, the fans are on a knife edge too and right now, we have no room to go wrong.

Short blog today, more analysis tomorrow…

devday

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  • kiki

    Great game from Arsenal, but I can’t help but feel skeptical about their form right now. No disrespect to Reading, but they are on the bottom of the league. These are games that Arsenal, a top team, should win. We should have won the Bradford’s game. I’m sorry, but I am still sour about that one.

    Good game, now let’s keep this consistent.

  • German

    Consistency is key – our consistent form has been poor but this game was excellent (in the attacking third)… we need to push on from this and get back to good performances every week, then the results will come

  • Martin

    What a great game against Reading! http://www.giga-sport.co.uk/premier-league-reading-25-arsenal-18122012/ Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Podolski and Cazorla really impressed!!!

  • dean

    It’s pretty certain now that the regime will go the extra distance to tie Theo
    to a 5 year contract. They ought to have done that last summer, of course.
    Though welcome, we should not kid ourselves that this deluge of long-term
    contracts means that Arsene has fallen in love with all-things English (and
    Welsh) in players; if a young Fab, or Robin or Patrick (rather than Jack, Ox,
    Theo) were in the squad, then he would be tying THEM down with 5-year contracts.
    It’s expedient – good PR – to make a big noise about local lads being more
    ‘loyal’. The fact is, that without fat wage offers, he’d be facing wantaways
    again, English or not. (Ashley, anyone?) WE (the fans) love local lads, the more
    local the better. But most of all we want the Club to start competing again, to
    win things – that’s what Big Clubs do, isn’t it? And tying up Jack & co on
    its own will NOT be enough. We need some quality signings – so let’s watch out
    to see whether these new contracts are used as a handy excuse not to do that.

  • sean

    Walcott scored from the centre last night. His confidence will be up.
    Wenger will drop him to the bench or put him back out wide.

    Arsene Wenger; tactical visionary, man managing genius. We don’t want Feo Feo getting too cocky now do we…?

  • limet

    He has certainly added exceptional players lately……….Klingon,
    Squillaci, Giroud, Santos, Park, Chamakh, Koscielny and Mertesacker have
    all proved to be world beaters.

  • limet

    His latest quotes…..

    “Let’s see how far this team takes us’

    “I saw some interesting aspects against Reading”

    “Spending in January isn’t necessarily the answer”

    ” If we can add one or two exceptional players, we will do it”

    SAME OLD ARSENE…..TAKING THE PISS!!!!!!

  • mike

    I’m actually chuffed that Huntelaar is off the table now, because I’ve been dreading us going for him just because he would have been a cheap option! I just don’t think we need a striker like that now. Had we not taken the punt on Giroud, then perhaps I would have wanted him. Granted, he’s more clinical than Giroud in front of goal, but he offers us a lot less than Giroud does in general play. And, considering how few chancesour midfield is creating at the moment, a striker like that would be useless for us because he’s in a team to finish off chances rather than to create his own. Kind of like Inzaghi, Schevchenko and such strikers in their prime. We need a striker that will add something to our attack, preferably unpredictability, trickery and a little bit of star quality. The only issue is whether such a person would be available in January. Probably more of a chance finding a DM (which we need!) than a quality striker worth paying good money for!