By: Sairax | March 2nd, 2011
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Seeing the Emirates littered with empty seats, I was hoping it wasn’t some bad omen. Orient fans were in full voice in their section of the ground. Tickets were sold out, but obviously not everyone showed up, probably because it’s a midweek FA Cup replay against Orient and also because people are still pissed about losing the cup final on Sunday. The starting lineup was made up of our second string and reserves players so as to protect the likes of Nasri and Arshavin for the weekend. We needed this game to bounce back quickly from a disappointing loss and to give us a boost for the tough games we have coming ahead. Luckily, our Gunners didn’t disappoint.
Wenger seemed to have the players lined up in a more 4-4-2 formation with Bendtner and Chamakh up top, usually having one drop a bit deeper at times to link up the midfield and attack. Arsenal started out on the front foot. We were pushing forward and putting Orient under pressure. The O’s tried to break away, but we hit them with a goal in the 7th minute before they even knew it. Rosicky was on the ball, worked his way forward and delivered a great ball that Chamakhattakh slotted just inside the post for his first goal in ages. I think even he was surprised because he barely celebrated. One-nil to the Arsenal and I thought, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
We didn’t look particularly quick and lively. It was all very middle gear and we were just content in passing it around and then foraying forward intermittently. Arsenal got another chance when Gibbs went barreling down the left and pulled one back for Chamakh, but Orient defended well and got it away in time. Orient found themselves with a great chance when one of their players got into our area and shot at Almunia’s near post, but he flashed it just wide. To be honest, he probably should have scored because there was just enough space for him to slot it in, but Arsenal were let off the hook. Rosicky had an inkling that he might find himself on the scoresheet again and had a shot from nearly 30 yards out. It went high and wide. Diaby and Denilson both got chances of their own, but it was Bendtner who scored in the 30th minute. Gibbs whipped in a cross and Bendtner rose above the Orient defender and scored similar to the goal he scored against Wolves at the Emirates last season.
Orient were trying hard to pass the ball and build up play from the back, but one stray pass and they found it difficult to get it back. They stuck with their plan though and didn’t try to rough us up and play long ball. In fact, the O’s managed 499 passes in the whole game; that’s higher than 13 of the 14 away teams to play at the Emirates this season. They were just lacking a bit of link up play in the middle and that edge in the final third, but they scared us a few times. Luckily, we got back into our tippy-tappy mood and found ourselves up 3-0 when Bendtner drove the ball into the net from a wide left position. In the closing minutes, Almunia decided to go off on one of his strolls and we almost conceded. Squillaci got back in time to bail him out and I returned to breathing normally. Half time and things were looking comfy for the Gunners.
You could almost predict that we would come out in the second half thinking we’d just need to walk around for the next 45 minutes. Things didn’t start out too brightly. Orient weren’t going to lie down for us and they wanted at least a goal to show for their efforts. Arsenal had the first effort with Denilson trying one from far out (isn’t it nice? He’s one of the only ones who isn’t scared to give it a go from time to time, 25 yards out). Diaby tried one of his penetrating runs, but we were soon caught on the counter and that trademark Arsenal defending seemed to be rearing its ugly head. Orient’s Daniels got in a great ball that McGleish luckily looped over the bar. It was all a bit dodgy from the Gunners. Shortly after, Rosicky caught a ball smack in the face and had to be subbed off for Nasri. It seems he has “just a concussion”. Yeah no biggie. Just a potential brain injury, nothing to be worried about. Seriously, I hope he’s ok and that they are careful with this injury. Martin has mentioned this before on the blog and I agree with him that concussions shouldn’t be shrugged off as minor injuries and should be looked into thoroughly to make sure there is no lasting damage done before the player sees the pitch again. He definitely looked dazed, so perhaps he’ll be sitting out the Sunderland match this weekend.
In the 60th minute, Gibbs was fouled in Orient’s penalty area and Arsenal were awarded a penalty. It was definitely a penalty because Gibbs was worming his way into the box and Chorley went to ground and got a lot of Gibbs and none of the ball. Bendtner stepped up and confidently pounded it home for his third of the night. Bendtner’s hattrick, incidentally, is the first Arsenal have had in the FA Cup since Ian Wright v Yeovil in 1993; the same year we won the Cup. I’m not saying anything. I’m just saying. It’s interesting, that’s all. Back to the game. It was 4-0 Arsenal and there didn’t seem to be any hint of an imminent Newcastle-style meltdown.
Clichy (who, funnily enough, came on at the same time Tehoue was being subbed on. Coincidence?) and Jack soon came on for Diaby and Bendtner (who almost gave away a goal with a backpass a minute before) to go have a rest with the rest of the bundled up Gunners on the bench. Jack immediately was trying to attack, exchanging passes with Gibbs before sending in a cross a bit too high. Chamakh and Henderson also did similar with Henderson’s cross not being met by anyone in the box. Then, in the 74th minute, Eboue made one of his runs and hit the ball across for someone to slide in. It missed Chamakh and Jack and landed in front of Clichy who was out wide on the left and let loose a great shot to make it 5-0. No seriously. Clichy scored a goal. The second goal he’s ever scored for us. Really, it’s true! There’s even video evidence!
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See, I told you. I’m not hopped up on goofballs after all now am I? I think you all owe me an apology. Moving on, Clichy followed up his goal by getting booked just a minute later. By this point I think it was safe for us to assume that we were going to win the match and see out the last 10 minutes without conceding. There was some of our passy-passing and those bloody ole’s from the crowd, which usually totally jinxed us and we concede, but thankfully we didn’t today. I mean, do we really need to “ole” Leyton Orient? That’s just mean. Anyway, some craziness and crap defending happened in our penalty area, just to freak everyone out in the 89th minute, as is customary at an Arsenal game. Finally the game ended and it ended 5-0. Yay Arsenal.
Player Ratings:
Almunia 5.5 There’s a reason he isn’t our number one keeper anymore. He’s just a bit jittery and hesitant. He doesn’t inspire confidence in our backline. If he’s our keeper at Old Trafford, I’ll be very worried.
Eboue 6.5 Sometimes I’m not sure where he’s going when he makes his forward runs. Needs to watch that he doesn’t leave too much space behind him and leave us exposed, but in general he’s pretty solid against teams like this.
Miquel 6.5 Had another good game today after making his debut in the original tie against Orient. He’s good with his feet and a bit taller than Kos, so that helps us in the box. Saw him being very vocal and pointing a lot, which is always good to see in our backline because one of our biggest issues back there is communication. Still a bit rough around the edges though.
Squillaci 6 He still has those “moments” where he looks a bit shaky. Lets crosses in too easily.
Gibbs 7.5 Nabbed an assist on Bendtner’s header and won the penalty for our fourth goal. Didn’t look particularly harried defensively and does really well pushing forward to join the attack.
Henderson 6.5 A good debut for the young man. Did well on the ball and put in some nice deliveries into the box from dead ball situations. If we’re short on fit players I don’t think Wenger would hesitate to bring him in again.
Denilson 7 Did his passy-pass Denilson thing. Good for games like these when you want to exhaust the opponent and just pass them to death.
Diaby 7 It’s the kind of game he tends to do well in, these ones against the ’smaller’ teams. I still wonder if he can bring the goods in the big games. He came of kind of early so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start on Saturday. If he stays fit I think we’ll see him against Manchester United as well. Still hesitates for a split second with that final killer ball, but was quite close to scoring a couple of times. Solid outing.
Rosicky 7 He came out like a man with a purpose. Was a bit woeful on Sunday, but looked more composed and assured today. Doesn’t look like ever scoring again, even after the goal he got in the first Orient match.
Chamakh 7 Boy did he need a goal and he got it today thankfully. His first since the Aston Villa game back at the end of November. Hopefully that’s the first step in restoring his confidence in front of goal. Looked drained by the end of the game, but if he can keep his energy levels up, he’ll be very important in keeping defenders busy and harrying backlines for us.
Bendtner 8.5 MOTM The second hattrick of his Arsenal career. I shall now dub 2 goals and a penalty the “Bendtner Hattrick”. If we’re going to have any success this season, Bendtner will have to come up with the goods. I believe he can do it. He scored many important goals last season when he came back from injury, so I don’t see why he can’t do it again. Some people still think he’s useless, but looking at his stats that I stole from twitter, Bendtner has 45 goals in 148 appearances, with 78 of those being starts. That ain’t too shabby if I don’t say so myself. I was discussing this on twitter and it looks like our season is ending up with us having a striker relay: first Chamakh had the baton, then RvP, and now it goes to Bendtner. Take us over that finish line you Great Dane!
Subs:
Nasri 7.5 The fact that he even played tonight almost gave me angina. I suppose it was necessary since Rosicky was seeing stars. When he and Jack came on everything had a bit more verve to it, a bit more je ne sais quoi (oh yeah, bringing the French up in here, Canadian styles!). Wasn’t vintage Nasri, but then again, he didn’t really have to be, and he still looked good.
Wilshere 7.5 He’s played so many minutes already this season I was worried about seeing him on the pitch. Dammit, I’m worried about everything aren’t I? He came out like a little puppy dog ready to play on a Sunday afternoon in the park, which is exactly what he did. He just looked to be enjoying himself and using his jaunty little runs to get forward whenever he could.
Clichy 7.5 Gael Clichy scored a goal. That is all.
Here’s a crazy stat: there were more passes in today’s match (1254) than in the Arsenal v Barcelona match 2 weeks ago (1114). We’ve also passed the 100 goal mark in all competitions after just 42 games. Today we got a morale boosting win. Our backup players got game time. Two of our youngsters got a runout and handled themselves well. We didn’t look at our best, but we did enough to get the job done. All in all, a good game and one that sees us head over to Old Trafford for the quarterfinals. Before we get all anxious about that, we’ve got a few games to deal with first, so all eyes on Sunderland and let’s keep this ball rolling!
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Some Related Stories:Leyton Orient 1 – Arsenal 1: Arsenal Provide Comforting Reminder That We Are Still Arsenal (UPDATED with Player Ratings)Arsenal – Leyton Orient Match ThreadLeyton Orient – Arsenal Match ThreadArsenal – Leyton Orient PreviewLeyton Orient – Arsenal Preview
Category: FA Cup, Match Review
Tags: FA Cup, leyton orient, Match Review
Tweet « Arsenal – Leyton Orient Match Thread | Home | BERTRANDI love how some Arsenal fans call for Wenger's head after every defeat..when there are clubs willing to do almost anything to have Wenger as their coach.Gigi_manI am leveled. Was down on Sunsay, got up again today.
Next!!
Hope fully then Sunday wasnt our blow off the seaoson.
Nice stats, just saying.
I just hope I can catch a re run of this game, checked around and they are bcasting and repeating ManC v Villa...
Thx for the ratings, as always when not watching, always looking fwd to them.Darren_VOne (minor) quibble. It still looked like the same formation as usual to me, just that Bendtner never stayed very wide on the right to really notice it, as Theo and Nasri do.MartinJust what the doctor ordered.
I am glad I was watching the match with my own eyes and not just listening to the commentary, though -- I've never heard announcers go on and on and on and on about a team's weaknesses when that team is romping 5-0, it was unbelievable.
On to Sunderland.MarloneiousI have to thank Barca for teaching us how to pressure as a unit.blog comments powered by Disqus
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