Easy peasy against Reading last night. We never had to get out of second gear and we go top of the table again after a 3-1 win.
Reading’s gameplan was obvious. Get as many men behind the ball as possible, let Arsenal have it outside the area and just create a wall of players between the man in possession and the goal. And it worked until close to half-time, apart from an Adebayor effort in the third minute which hit the post. They defended well, they were organised and difficult to break down. We didn’t make it too difficult for them, you have to say, but they stuck at it.
In the 44th minute though Adebayor put Hleb through and as I was screaming at him to shoot he squared it for Mathieu Flamini (new deal please) to score his first goal of the season. A goal he deserves about ten times over. After that Reading had to come out and play a bit and we made it 2-0 in the 52nd minute when some nice interplay between Cesc and Adebayor saw the Togonator sidefoot home for his first goal in a hundred years. No more than we deserved. And he should have had a second when a fantastic counter from the back saw Hleb play in Fabregas again and his pass found Adebayor who rounded the keeper to slot it home but the linesman, wrongly, flagged for offside.
After that Reading decided it was damage limitation and they shut up shop again. Every man behind the ball, no ambition to go forward and they were just interested in keeping the score down. The third came from Hleb and I’m glad he got a goal. His work and effort certainly deserved one although he did do his best to make the opportunity as difficult as possible for himself. Reading got one back after the ball cannoned around our area for a couple of minutes but it was mere consolation. Cesc picked up his 5th yellow card of the season so he’ll miss the Wigan game due to suspension. If you were to try to convince me now that it was just a run of the mill booking and not one deliberately sought so he’ll miss a relatively easy fixture you’d want to be the most persuasive person in the land. Funny stuff really, especially when you read the manager saying it was ‘needless‘. Far better to miss Wigan than Chelsea and I’m sure Arsene struggled to keep a straight face.
So, overall a well merited victory, a goal to get Adebayor back on track (he did look dangerous throughout) and we sit top of the table as we now head into another international break. It turns out Adebayor’s goal was out 1,000th in the Premier League which is a lot of goals.
Afterwards Arsene said:
That was the best test – whether we would have the nerve to deal with a little bit more pressure. People were expecting us to drop points so it is good we just played our game. We are a bit frustrated – we feel we should have taken more points against Liverpool and Man United. We wanted to get back in charge of this league. We have a game in hand, leading the league and at the moment everything is going well.
And nobody can argue with that. Mathieu Flamini spoke to Setanta before the game and talked about why he stayed this summer when everyone expected him to leave. It’s not new stuff really, we’ve heard it before, but it gives us a chance again to acknowledge what a good player he has become. He’s still only 24 and his best years are ahead of him. I would really like to see him sign a new deal at the club and I hope there are things going on behind the scenes to ensure that happens.
Jens Lehmann has spoken about his situation and even though he has hopes of playing for us again he says he’s prepared to drop down to the German 2nd division in order to get regular football. He knows with Euro2008 drawing nearer he’s got to be playing to hang on to the number 1 shirt for his country. Almunia made a good save last night and looked solid again, and as each game goes by Jens’s chances of playing again get, like Karen Carpenter, slimmer and slimmer.
The boss hinted at some movement in the January transfer window, indicating he’s looking at one position in particular. I wonder if it’s up front. There was no sign of Eduardo yesterday, not even on the bench, and you’d like to think that he’s been at the club long enough now to warrant a start against the likes of Reading. Instead it was Hleb behind Adebayor and when you consider that means playing Eboue on the right (who offers little to this team in my opinion) then the Crozilian must be struggling. Hopefully he just needs more time.
And on that note I shall away for some breakfast and will blog to you tomorrow.
