I have to admit I wasn’t particularly confident going into this game last night.
I know we’ve been up and down this season in terms of the way we play but I wasn’t expecting us to be so effervescent, so dynamic and so full of energy. From the start we took the game to Roma. This wasn’t a case of us coming to life when the game was heading towards the final stages or stepping it up when we went a goal behind.
We troubled them almost immediately and it was great to see. The formation was interesting, with Nasri playing in behind the lone striker van Persie with Bendtner moved out to the left hand side of midfield. It’s clearly not his position but in the overall scheme of things it worked well.
We looked far more dangerous than we did against Sunderland and created much more. As GilbertoSilver from Gunnerblog said last night during some match day Twittering, imagine this formation with Arshavin and Walcott in place of Eboue and Bendtner and with Cesc in the centre of midfield.
But that’s not to take away from anyone, simply to look at how it can be improved and I’m sure that’s something the manager will be thinking of too. Add Rosicky, Eduardo and Adebayor to the mix and he might have found himself a new formula which suits this Arsenal team better than the standard 4-4-2. Still, perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves here a bit.
The goal came when Philippe Mexes, who was already on a yellow card, brought down Robin van Persie in the box. I think the Frenchman was lucky not to pick up a second yellow, and midfielder di Rossi should have seen red a few minutes earlier with a flying, two-footed on lunge on Nasri.
In the days of Henry, Pires & Co, the player felled for the penalty rarely took it. I have no idea why, superstition of some kind I suppose. No such thing exists for van Persie though and he stepped up and made it 1-0 to the Arsenal. Certainly no less than we deserved.
At the other end Roma barely troubled us really although Almunia was called into action to make a brilliant fingertip save from Motta.
In the second half we really should have put the game to bed. Bendtner and Eboue were guilty of terrible misses. Bendtner spooning a shot over the bar with his left foot with just the keeper to beat, and Eboue putting it wide from about 8 yards with the keeper flat on his arse.
Those misses might have been particularly costly had Riise’s low shot curled in instead of just wide of the post. Again it harks back to the point made earlier, that with players like Arshavin/Walcott/Rosicky in the roles occupied by those two perhaps we’d be looking at a much more comfortable second leg.
But there was much to take heart from. Abou Diaby had an excellent game in central midfield and is not so much a step-up from Song as a whole flight of stairs, we were solid at the back again with Gallas particularly impressive, Denilson had his best game in a quite a while, Nasri was busy and effective, and even despite the misses both Eboue and Bendtner contributed well to the overall performance.
Afterwards Arsene pointed out the lack of goals, saying:
That is the regret we have. I am happy with our performance, but of course there was room to score more goals.
One of the positives is we didn’t concede a goal. It’s put us in a position where we know we need to attack over there. If we score once that should be enough.
And while it certainly would have been nice to score more goals I think it’s far more important that we didn’t concede. We go to Rome for the second leg knowing a goal for us means they have to score three to win the game.
Our downfall last season against Liverpool was the away goal we let them have so I have to say I’m happier going to Italy at 1-0 than 2-1, where one goal would knock us out of the competition. Given how well our defence is playing at the moment, just 3 goals conceded in our last 8 games, and with a system that seems to suit our players and trouble opponents, I think we can go to Rome feeling relatively confident.
Now though, we have to concentrate on doing the same thing to Fulham this Saturday as we did to Roma last night. Progression in the Champions League is important but the league is the bread and butter. We have to start winning games so hopefully we can use last night as a way of kicking on and making things happen domestically.
Till tomorrow.
