WHAT I SAW AGAINST UNITED

Mesut Ozil against United. 

This year, at least every team in the league has gotten a pound of flesh from Manchester united one way or the other. But this is not so for the gunners. Yesterday Arsenal proved unable to break the United's defence for some reasons which I would highlight below. 

    THE FIRST REASON is what all Arsenal had been singing during the last transfer window that we lacked the strike force to win the premier league. Yes indeed, we need a very strong 'goal greedy' striker. Such a striker would have made all the difference yesterday. The little chances we created Olivier failed to convert. Although he worked hard enough, his best wasn't good enough for us. His inability to strike the ball into the oppositions net with the slightest chance must have made those Sagna's crosses useless and also makes him a not very good striker for a top side like Arsenal. Yet I won't deny that he is a good centre forward. But someone has to remind him of his goal scoring exploits at Montpelier and how he has to replicate that form if we are to win the league.

     THE SECOND REASON is that few chances was created by our midfield and this was not until the dying moments. In my last post, I mentioned how we stocked the midfield with too much natural, creative-thinking, ball-holding mid-fielders. Mid-fielders prefer to caress and pass the ball much more than making runs and creating space for themselves. We lacked players like Ramsey and Walcott who like moving behind the opponents defence and creating space for themselves where they can strike the ball at goal. Rosicky sat deep and refused to push forward with runs. Ozil ran to space but wouldn't move into the box. Giroud as usually always came too deep. It was such that Sagna had to be denied a cross because there was no one there. Wenger should be brave enough to start either Poldi or Oxlade in subsequent games because these players have a different playing mentality to the rest.

      THE THIRD REASON is again Ozil. Sure, I am not picking at this guy. but I think he is the reason we are competing at the top of the table at this time compared to the past five years. For Ozil to truly inspire us to win then he should add goals to his game more especially as he has no one to pass the ball to. Bergkamp, one player i love to compare to Ozil, was outstanding because he was not only technically gifted in creating goals but he scored fantastic goals as well. Fabregas became amongst the best when he started scoring too. So also has Ramsey been so important to the team because of his goals. Thus Ozil has to step up in that front.

    Our defence looked itself today. Its well timed tackles and its ability to win all the air balls that came its way was good to watch. It was like they had not been bashed at all three days ago. Let me say it first, Koscielny is the best defender I have watched in the past two years. For all those critics of Gibbs, I hope they got served. Gibbs is the best English left back today. He is well balanced, physical, fast, can read the ball and a good tackler. Monreal is no competition for him. Szczesny has come a long way. After yesterdays game my confidence in him has grown to ninety per-cent. He denied Robin twice from two clear chances.

      Finally, the match was a good response compared to our previous. However for us to dream of winning the league, we have to take four points from the remaining top four teams we are yet to play

and keep on doing what we have been doing with the smaller teams. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY.

  NEXT: LIVERPOOL (F.A Cup)