I watched all of yesterday’s match and the football that Arsenal displayed was awesome and was brilliant to watch. The performance had everything, good passing, ruthless finishing, team spirit as well as a great crowd from both sides.
In the first two minutes Reyes was very unlucky when his long screamer came out off the bar. After a bit of Portsmouth pressure we eventually took the lead after a good finish from Henry but Reyes deserves a lot of credit for that goal, as it was his run, which caused the main havoc in the build up to that particular goal. Then our second goal, which was an excellent team goal, came at a crucial point of the game. Edu played a one – two with Vieira and played a super Bergkamp type through ball to Ljungberg who finished brilliantly. Toure scored our third goal just before half time and by then the game was basically over. I thought Arsenal would just relax for the second half but Henry scored a fantastic goal that he has not got enough credit for. Which other player in the premiership would attempt to score a goal like that? Exactly. Reyes played it to Ljungberg and he laid it off for Henry to perfectly slot it into the bottom left hand corner of Shaka Hislop’s goal with great precision and power. It reminded me of Henry’s first goal against Inter Milan at the San Siro when we hammered them 5 – 1 also. Ljungberg got our fifth after good work from Toure via a deflection. Sheringham got his normal goal against Arsenal as always, and I guess Portsmouth deserved that for that great fans who were awesome and supported their team brilliantly.
Below are my personal player ratings for how everyone played yesterday:
Lehmann: 7/10 – Didn’t have much to do but I love the way he calms things down when we are under pressure.
Lauren: 7/10 – Played very well and was coming up a lot.
Campbell: 8/10 – Played brilliant and kept Yakubu very quiet.
Toure: 9/10 – Brilliant performance once again. He scored our third and also got an assist on Ljunberg’s second goal, which is not bad for a central defender.
Cole: 7/10 – Played solid as usual although I think he needs to calm down a bit sometimes as his mouth might get him into trouble.
Gilberto: 7/10 – Played well and worked very hard. Someone was getting on my nerves on TV by screaming “oi, Gilberto”.
Vieira: 8/10 – The captain was brilliant, and worked very hard and showed great hunger.
Edu: 9/10 – This guy is just getting better and better. Played a beautiful pass through for Ljungberg’s first goal and his passing was brilliant throughout. He was unlucky not to score. When our triple substitution was made in the second half it was like a one-man show in the centre of the pitch with Edu taking over from where Vieira left.
Ljungberg: 9/10 – That looked like the old Ljungberg who looked very dangerous and was working very hard. His first goal was brilliant and his second came via a deflection.
Reyes – 9/10 – Played very good and many good runs and really deserved a goal. He caused many problems to their defence. He is quite fast and one other thing I like about him is that he is always smiling no matter what.
Henry – 9.5/10 – Genius, just a pure genius. Scored a good first goal and scored a fantastic second goal. Even though he has been playing well recently he looked sharper yesterday and looked very dangerous and I would have given him 10 out of 10 if he got his hat – trick.
I don’t think it is fair to give the subs a rating as they didn’t have much time to do a lot and the game was practically over.
Man utd also scraped through their match against Fulham yesterday and I would rather meet them in the next round then in the finals. The main reason for that is it would hurt a lot to lose to Man utd but if we lost to them in the semis it wouldn’t hurt as much as the finals. I am not saying we will lose but if we were to wouldn’t you rather lose in a semi final than a final.
Today we have been linked with Trabelsi again, and a back four of Trabelsi, Campbell, Toure and Cole would look very solid. Trabelsi would be a good signing as him and Cole are very similar as they are good at attacking as well as defending and maybe he would bring a bit more of an attacking dimension down the right side for Arsenal. Lauren could be used as cover or even in midfield.
Anyway, we are back to the champion’s league this Wednesday against Celta Vigo side who are in a real relegation battle in their La Liga and have just been hammered 5 – 1 at home by Espanyol who are also in the relegation battle. No doubt I would rather go into the game in the mental condition of winning 5 – 1 away rather than losing 5 – 1 at home. I think this will be a fairly tough match and as we saw from the first leg they are not actually that bad. Their Edu was very dangerous when he played against us and caused Lauren many problems and Milosevic has very fancy footwork and works very hard and Mostovoi had to be watched carefully. Celta Vigo look particularly dangerous from set pieces as we saw in the first leg. I don’t think their defence is all that and if our attack plays the way we played yesterday I can see us winning comfortably. We are at home and we have the away goals advantage and I hope Arsenal remain focused as Celta Vigo beat AC Milan at the San siro earlier on this season although AC Milan were already through. One other good advantage for Arsenal that I forgot to mention is that we will have a fresh Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp back for this crucial match where they will be needed a lot.
Below is a list of who I think are Celta Vigo’s main men:
Edu – Key Man 1
Mostovoi – Key Man 1
Milosovic – Key Man 3
Lopez + Jesuli – Key Men 4
Silviniho – Key Man 5
We haven’t been in the quarter finals of the champion’s league for a very long time and if we beat Celta Vigo we will be in the quarter finals. I know it is very early to say, but if we get through Celta on Wednesday and that is a big “If” I reckon we will get either Chelsea, Manchester Utd or Real Madrid in that particular order.
I want to wish the gunners the best of luck for Wednesday. Come on you gunners!!!
In the first two minutes Reyes was very unlucky when his long screamer came out off the bar. After a bit of Portsmouth pressure we eventually took the lead after a good finish from Henry but Reyes deserves a lot of credit for that goal, as it was his run, which caused the main havoc in the build up to that particular goal. Then our second goal, which was an excellent team goal, came at a crucial point of the game. Edu played a one – two with Vieira and played a super Bergkamp type through ball to Ljungberg who finished brilliantly. Toure scored our third goal just before half time and by then the game was basically over. I thought Arsenal would just relax for the second half but Henry scored a fantastic goal that he has not got enough credit for. Which other player in the premiership would attempt to score a goal like that? Exactly. Reyes played it to Ljungberg and he laid it off for Henry to perfectly slot it into the bottom left hand corner of Shaka Hislop’s goal with great precision and power. It reminded me of Henry’s first goal against Inter Milan at the San Siro when we hammered them 5 – 1 also. Ljungberg got our fifth after good work from Toure via a deflection. Sheringham got his normal goal against Arsenal as always, and I guess Portsmouth deserved that for that great fans who were awesome and supported their team brilliantly.
Below are my personal player ratings for how everyone played yesterday:
Lehmann: 7/10 – Didn’t have much to do but I love the way he calms things down when we are under pressure.
Lauren: 7/10 – Played very well and was coming up a lot.
Campbell: 8/10 – Played brilliant and kept Yakubu very quiet.
Toure: 9/10 – Brilliant performance once again. He scored our third and also got an assist on Ljunberg’s second goal, which is not bad for a central defender.
Cole: 7/10 – Played solid as usual although I think he needs to calm down a bit sometimes as his mouth might get him into trouble.
Gilberto: 7/10 – Played well and worked very hard. Someone was getting on my nerves on TV by screaming “oi, Gilberto”.
Vieira: 8/10 – The captain was brilliant, and worked very hard and showed great hunger.
Edu: 9/10 – This guy is just getting better and better. Played a beautiful pass through for Ljungberg’s first goal and his passing was brilliant throughout. He was unlucky not to score. When our triple substitution was made in the second half it was like a one-man show in the centre of the pitch with Edu taking over from where Vieira left.
Ljungberg: 9/10 – That looked like the old Ljungberg who looked very dangerous and was working very hard. His first goal was brilliant and his second came via a deflection.
Reyes – 9/10 – Played very good and many good runs and really deserved a goal. He caused many problems to their defence. He is quite fast and one other thing I like about him is that he is always smiling no matter what.
Henry – 9.5/10 – Genius, just a pure genius. Scored a good first goal and scored a fantastic second goal. Even though he has been playing well recently he looked sharper yesterday and looked very dangerous and I would have given him 10 out of 10 if he got his hat – trick.
I don’t think it is fair to give the subs a rating as they didn’t have much time to do a lot and the game was practically over.
Man utd also scraped through their match against Fulham yesterday and I would rather meet them in the next round then in the finals. The main reason for that is it would hurt a lot to lose to Man utd but if we lost to them in the semis it wouldn’t hurt as much as the finals. I am not saying we will lose but if we were to wouldn’t you rather lose in a semi final than a final.
Today we have been linked with Trabelsi again, and a back four of Trabelsi, Campbell, Toure and Cole would look very solid. Trabelsi would be a good signing as him and Cole are very similar as they are good at attacking as well as defending and maybe he would bring a bit more of an attacking dimension down the right side for Arsenal. Lauren could be used as cover or even in midfield.
Anyway, we are back to the champion’s league this Wednesday against Celta Vigo side who are in a real relegation battle in their La Liga and have just been hammered 5 – 1 at home by Espanyol who are also in the relegation battle. No doubt I would rather go into the game in the mental condition of winning 5 – 1 away rather than losing 5 – 1 at home. I think this will be a fairly tough match and as we saw from the first leg they are not actually that bad. Their Edu was very dangerous when he played against us and caused Lauren many problems and Milosevic has very fancy footwork and works very hard and Mostovoi had to be watched carefully. Celta Vigo look particularly dangerous from set pieces as we saw in the first leg. I don’t think their defence is all that and if our attack plays the way we played yesterday I can see us winning comfortably. We are at home and we have the away goals advantage and I hope Arsenal remain focused as Celta Vigo beat AC Milan at the San siro earlier on this season although AC Milan were already through. One other good advantage for Arsenal that I forgot to mention is that we will have a fresh Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp back for this crucial match where they will be needed a lot.
Below is a list of who I think are Celta Vigo’s main men:
Edu – Key Man 1
Mostovoi – Key Man 1
Milosovic – Key Man 3
Lopez + Jesuli – Key Men 4
Silviniho – Key Man 5
We haven’t been in the quarter finals of the champion’s league for a very long time and if we beat Celta Vigo we will be in the quarter finals. I know it is very early to say, but if we get through Celta on Wednesday and that is a big “If” I reckon we will get either Chelsea, Manchester Utd or Real Madrid in that particular order.
I want to wish the gunners the best of luck for Wednesday. Come on you gunners!!!