Morning all,
Arsenal made their way into the 4th round of the Carling Cup last night with a 2-0 win over West Brom. I didn’t see any of it, bar the goals on Sky Sports News, but you can’t argue with the result.
The goals came from Sanchez Watt, who followed up a Carlos Vela shot, and Carlos Vela who followed up a Mark Randall chip. The visitors weren’t helped by the dismissal of former Gunner Jerome Thomas for a pushy-slappy thing on Jack Wilshere and while West Brom are apparently ‘disappointed’ in Wilshere you can’t raise your hands. Or lower your hands to someone sitting on the floor. Or something.
So on we go. Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:
We played with cohesion and intelligence. We didn’t make mistakes and in the end the natural outcome was there.
Bravo. It’s good to see Carlos Vela back in action. He’s been a bit like the Incredible Mexican Invisible Disappearing Man from that TV series which I might just have made up this minute. From what I can gather from various reports, both in press and eye-witness, he livened things up for us but he’s unlikely to be involved this weekend against Fulham. The manager says:
He needs more time, he is not ready. He was not even ready to start tonight but he needs to work. We have Van Persie, Bendtner, Eduardo and Vela as strikers. Of course he is in my plans, he can play as a winger as well. He can play wide left, wide right, he can play central, he can play as a goalkeeper, he can do physio, the stadium announcer’s job, kit man, and he does a mean Pat Rice impression. He gives you plenty of options.
He does like the Carling Cup though, doesn’t he? Most of his Arsenal goals have come in that competition. In fairness most of his Arsenal appearances have come in that position but hopefully he can kick on a bit this season. You have to think the 4-3-3 really suits him so fingers crossed.
The manager was also bigging up young Jack, saying:
He has something which is very difficult to give to players, no matter how big the game is he takes the ball and takes people on. He still sometimes has a little lack of experience in his decision-making but you see there is something special there.
I suppose the best thing about the Carling Cup is the opportunity it gives players to gain experience of big games (big compared to playing Stoke reserves at Underhill, I mean). Last night will be part of the learning curve for most of them so fingers crossed a good run in this competition can help them develop.
If you were at the game or saw it on TV, feel free to pitch in on the arses with your thoughts about the performance and the players.
Not much else happening. Bordeaux have warned us off making a January move for Marouane Chamakh because he’s very good at lifting up other players, apparently. That’s something you generally see in the line-out during rugby union but it would certainly bring something unique to association football. Imagine Chamakh heaving Bendtner skywards to head home from 11 feet in the air against Sp*rs. Revolutionary.
Next on the agenda a return to Craven Cottage where Arsenal’s performance matched perfectly with the name of the venue. We should tell the players we’re going to play Fulham at Awesome Cottage or Solid Effective But Uninspiring Two Nil Win Cottage. We’re so suggestible, you see.
More on that and plenty of other guff in the days to come.
