This past Saturday, Arsenal battled back to rescue a 2-2 draw at Everton, a fantastic outcome considering we played like shit for most of the game. The bottom line remains the same though; until we find our form and fitness again, all that really matters is that we get as much as we can from every match. It's definitely a cliche to say it felt more like a win the way we stole a draw at the end, but I'm going to go ahead and say it anyway.
It also needs to be mentioned that Everton's second goal was offside. There has been a lot of debate over whether the move that lead to the goal was started by a foul on Per Mertesacker by Romelu Lukaku, but there is no question that Steven Naismith was clearly offside before he scored. That's not to take anything away from Everton's opener though, which was really the result of Mesut Özil's failure to track back. As a whole, Everton took the game to us and were the much better side. But even though we didn't play very well, it was extremely encouraging that we kept pushing for a goal and didn't just feel sorry for ourselves and let the game slip away.
Down 2-0 with less than seven minutes remaining, there didn't look like there was any chance we would score one goal, let alone two. But that's exactly what happened. What more can you say about Welsh Jesus? He just keeps scoring goals for us when it really matters the most. It's really something that we can't take for granted and hopefully other key players will be able to follow his example and step up for us so he won't have to do it every time. Ramsey finished Cazorla's low cross to make it 2-1 and then even when he badly overhit a cross into the box, Nacho Monreal picked it up on the end line and crossed it back in to Olivier Giroud who powerfully headed it past Tim Howard to secure the draw for us.
Up next is the second leg of our Champions League qualifier against Besiktas, which is made all the more nerve-wracking now that Giroud joins Kieran Gibbs and Mikel Arteta on our injury list. Giroud hurt his ankle just minutes after scoring the tying goal and his absence will make it even harder for us to find our form as a team. Besiktas proved last Tuesday that they are no pushovers, plus they can eliminate us from the Champions League with a score draw. Once again, as long as we can find a goal and keep them from scoring on us, we'll be through to the group stages.
It's good to have Mertesacker's experience back in the defense and Özil's creativity, but the third of our German contingent, Lukas Poldolski, is rumored to be on his way (with Juventus and Wolfsburg being the leading destinations). For all of the frustrations with his all-around game, we need his goals now more than ever. Arseblog pointed out on his podcast today that Podolski has always been a weird fit the whole time he has been at Arsenal. He would be subbed off regularly, if he got into the starting lineup, seemingly because he didn't regularly fulfill his defensive responsibilities. Other times, he struggled for fitness after long injury spells. Somehow, he still managed to score 16 goals last year and even if he isn't the most technically skilled, he can kick the fuck out of the ball in a way not many others can. I know how different hindsight makes things too, but £16 million for Mario Balotelli is looking like the bargain of the year right now.
Today marks seven days until the end of the transfer window, so we'll see how things go and hopefully be qualified for the CL group stage as the deadline approaches.
No comments:
Post a Comment