Mr Arsenal Blog's Tactics Weekly. 

19/12/12 - reviewing the Reading game.

Well, after what can only be described as an absolutely disastrous week for Arsenal, with the loss to Bradford, media speculation about tensions/moods within "The Camp" e.t.c. It was absolutely imperative that the boys put out a statement against Reading at the Madjeski Stadium on the Monday Night Football. The team had to show that they are still capable of playing fast, exhilarating, attacking, fluid football, like as Jack said "The Old Arsenal" did, the Arsenal that we have been so used to watching during the "Wenger Years".

What was pleasing is that we did indeed see this once again in patches. In the context it was against a very poor team in Reading, however the movement the speed of passing, and the freedom of expression that we have been so lacking recently seemed to return. It is a bit of a cliche but "you can only beat what's in front of you", and that we did in style because we put five past them. This was great to see. Only real negative from this outing was that we were un-able to keep a clean sheet, which is frustrating to be honest because Reading hardly really threatened and the two goals they did score were massively sloppy on our part, to say the least. The top teams are clinical at one end, which on this occasion we are, but are also clinical at the other end in the sense that they will never let the opposition back into, no matter how many goals they themselves have scored. This is slightly irritating. However take nothing away from the boys as this was a magnificent performance all in all, and what is important is that it was a massive response and a huge improvement on the last game. That is what we ask of the players, and that is what they gave us.

The main difference between this performance and the: slow, bogged down, limp, un-imaginative, rubbish that we had to sit through last week Vs Bradford was speed. This is something that I have talked about so many times this seasons. When Arsenal play with speed, with intelligent freedom of movement in the final third, it is very hard to stop us. Against West Brom last time out in the league, this was evident as we played better, but against Reading this went up another couple of levels more, which was great. It is all very well having great passers of the ball in the midfield, in Arteta, Wilshere and Cazorla, which of course they are, but if you do not have intelligent and effective movement and freedom further up the field, it is near on possible to break any team down. As was evident against Bradford. Against Reading we moved the ball effectively, manoeuvred the ball into good areas, got players running of the ball into space, and at last we looked much more effective and much more threatening. The fact we had 17 shots on target and 28 shots overall outlines the increased attacking threat that we showed.

I actually believe that Theo made a big difference playing through the middle because of his pace. Why? Well because of his pace playing off the shoulder of the defender, and his potential to run in behind, meant that the defenders had to play against him deeper to decrease the space that he could run into. Not only does this mean that he was a threat to their defence, it also meant that there was a heck of a lot more space in front of the Reading defence for the likes of Santi, Jack, The OX, Podolski e.t.c. to exploit, and exploit it they did. The way in which these players linked up was fantastic, and this was in my opinion down to the space available which in turn was caused by Theo pushing the defence back, with his pace and threat.

I also thought that our wing play was much much improved against Reading, which was also a key reason as to why we looked a lot more threatening in the final third than we did against Bradford (although to be fair, you couldn't be much less threatening than that). The likes of Podolski, The OX and Gibbo and Sagna breaking from defence, were very effective in beating their men and getting good balls into the box, which was great to see.

In terms of the Mr Arsenal Blog's man of the match there is only really one candidate, Santi Cazorla. He was absolutely immense in the game, he created chances, took shots on and of course scored a very well-deserved hat-trick to return to the capital with the match ball firmly placed under his arm!! However having said that, I thought the whole team played well. Apart from the mistakes that led to Reading's two goals, which of course on any other day could have cost us, they all played well. I thought that it was great to see Podolski have more of an impact after what can only really be described as a quiet few weeks, I thought he had a great game. Same really with The OX, who also looked much sharper than he has in recent matches. Also, special mention to Mikel who I think is starting to really look comfortable in his "anchor man", defensive midfield "role" in the team. During this match he made many key interceptions and tackles, and also was his usual influential self in terms of passing. Hope this continues.

Overall I was extremely happy with the way that Arsenal played on Monday night Vs Reading, and to score 5 goals, away from home in the Premier League is absolutely no mean feat, so the lads can be very pleased with that. Moving forward we have the game against Wigan away on Saturday which has been a bit of a tricky hunting ground for us over the years to be honest, so hopefully we can put in an equally good performance, hopefully minus the mistakes at the back, and get another good win. With the West Ham game on the 26th cancelled this is a very important game because our XMas period is now not as congested, so the lads have much more time to recuperate and recover from this game, so let's hope that they make it a good one!!!

In other news, today the club announced that it had secured the future of five key young players: Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlin, Carl Jenkinson (all English) and Aaron Ramsey (Welsh), all of which Arsene hopes will develop into a "British Core" of the team who we hope will all grow into top players. Clearly Jack Wilshere is the stand-out name there, and in my opinion certainly has the MOST ability however Gibbs for example is also getting a lot of experience now, and should grow into a fantastic LB! Many people have raised their eye-brows at Ramsey being given another deal because of his lack of form, which I can see is fair enough, however this is not a contract for NOW, this is a contract for 5 years, and this boy I don't care what some say, he has a great deal of potential and a great deal to give over the next 5+ years, I have no doubt about that, he will be a key player. Granted he is going through an extremely difficult patch at the moment, and seems to have lost confidence. But I believe he has shown that he has ability (before his injury and early last season), and will be a great player for this club, so him signing new deal is also great news! Of course The OX and Carl also have big futures ahead of them too, and have also equally shown lots of promise in their Arsenal careers to date, and of course are both England internationals! That's great!

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/five-young-internationals-sign-new-contracts

UP THE ARSENAL!!

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