Boring Boring Arsenal

It’s been a while, has it not? My apologies. I do plan to post more often from now on.

A convincing victory today and one that sees us, with thanks to other results (Man Utd 1 Tottenham 1,) go two points clear at the top of the table. Chelsea also drew 1-1 against Portsmouth, debutant Jermain Defoe the scorer for Pompey and a Gunner of old, Nicholas Anelka, scoring for Avram Grant’s side. Results went well for us today. Liverpool won 3-0 against Roy Keane’s Sunderland but Liverpool no longer appear to be a threat to our title challenging efforts. They will be more concerned with attempting to finish fourth (to do which they will have to edge City, Everton and Villa) and qualify for Champion’s League football next season. I will be surprised if Rafa Benitez is still in the job this time next year.

Togo not qualifying for the African Cup of Nations has been a huge boost to our season. Take away the presence of Adebayor and would we have done so well in January and today? I think not. Right now he is our best player and is on fire. Right now he is one of the best players in the Premier League, without a shadow of a doubt the best striker. I was always a fan. His composure may have been dire to say the least. Wenger actually said ‘I don’t know if some people have seen when he first came to us he was not really composed in front of goal.’ Yes, we all noticed, we all saw. Adebayor gave us a different option which is what I liked about him, he was strong and a phenomenal worker. He just lacked composure. With composure Adebayor would be a different animal. This season he found the composure he was lacking and scores goals he could not score last season. He scores all sorts of goals, is a nightmare for any defence to handle and assists too. Today he scored twice and assisted the other. AC Milan have Kaka. We need not not be worried for we have Emmanuel Adebayor.

This was a comfortable game, even at 1-0. Eduardo made it two with an exquisite finish, controlling the ball with his chest with back to goal before finding the corner of the net. It was a touch offside but nevertheless his finishing ability it is fair to say is on another level and it was a very good goal. You also have to praise Clichy who has discovered just how you cross a ball. He found Adebayor and Ade headed to Eduardo who finished off the move. Almost immediately after though we conceded a soft goal with Clichy this time at fault, a rare error from the Frenchman though he otherwise had a good game. He likes to play his way out of trouble but we all saw it coming, one day he would get caught and it would cost us. It was coming like a defeat to Tottenham was coming. Fortunately we still won the game, managing to not concede a second and find a third, the third coming as a result of Man City opening up that little bit more with the introduction of Geovanni. We took our time but eventually managed to secure victory.

Big Phil did a good job at the back. Then again Man City did not pose much of an attacking threat, which has been their weakness this season. The Benjani deal going through will be crucial to the final part of their campaign. Instead City had the young Daniel Sturridge up top, who has recently been among the goals albeit against lesser quality opposition. Today he came up against a class defence and as a result did very little. Sagna looked good making runs down the right, his crossing sometimes a little off the mark, other times spot on. He did well to create the first goal.

Flamini looked the same as ever - excellent. some do not think so highly of him. While no one doubts his recent rich vein of form, there have been some murmurings among fans that he will be easily replaced should he decide not to put pen to paper on a new contract. I do not think myself that the Flamini we have seen of this season will be so easily replaced and consider him to have emerged as one of our best performers this season.

Fabregas was average. He showed hints of his brilliance but was some way off the standard he set at the season’s start. He has been this way for a while now, much unfortunately. Hleb was good but not exceptional. Lehmann made an appearance in between the sticks owed to Almunia being out with a twisted thumb and while he did not have a lot to do, he did nothing wrong either.

We controlled the game and looked reasonably comfortable against a team unbeaten at their own ground this season. Three good goals, one that was a fraction offside but benefit of the doubt and all that. Mistake by Clichy that fortunately did not cost us. Will be interesting to see whether he attempts to play his way out of trouble in the future. Adebayor is our main man at the moment. I am optimistic we can win the league. Man United are good, Chelsea are good but so are we and let us not forget we have Robin Van Persie to return.