Thursday, January 17th, 2013 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
By Walter Broeckx
Looking back to the Swansea game
On a cold freezing night Arsenal brought us warmth.
If I would be pretentious I would say that Wenger read our article and the comments last night. I wrote: “Also against MU they played a very decent game. MU played a high pressing game on the day and I thought it brought them in trouble a bit. MU sitting mostly deep 5 players in defence and with 3-4 players chasing the ball and Van Persie lurking around. Swansea had some problems with that but they also had their chances to win the game.”
But well I think Wenger had figured that out before the game himself. I thought one of the reasons we didn’t play well in the league against them was because we didn’t pressurize them enough and let them play their game.
But no such thing yesterday evening. I think because of the cold the players had only one option: run, run, run and run more to keep themselves warm.
I think we saw a different shape of the team, with only 2.5 strikers and 3.5 midfielders. Giroud playing the front man with Theo lurking around him. Cazorla playing a bit more on the left hand side of the field but more in midfield than in the attack. Jack Wilshere playing in a more advanced position. And Diaby and Coquelin playing more as the holding players.
The defence was more what was expected with the Pole in goal.
To start with the defence: they hardly gave anything away. Apart from one header from Bartley that hit the crossbar they could smother out almost all the danger. Szczesny had hardly anything to do all night long. I hope he didn’t catch a cold out there.
Per and TV did their job in defence. Sagna and Gibbs were outstanding both in their defensive work and in their attacking work. It was a joy to watch Gibbs once again delivering a great performance on the left wing.
During the first half I saw a statistic flashing on my laptop saying Swansea had the most possession. I really do think that they also count as possession the time when the ball is out of play. So when Arsenal take a shot on goal that goes wide and the keeper takes a minute to bring the ball back in the game it counts as one minute of possession for Swansea. Because well it didn’t feel that way at all.
The first half was not completely perfect but you could see and feel that the team was willing to die for going to the next round. Luckily they didn’t have to go that far. Arsenal had the most chances but we seemed a bit afraid to shoot at times and tried to play in another player and then the chance was lost most of the time. But Vorm was the busiest of the two keepers that is for sure.
The second half was in fact one long siege of the Swansea goal. I think I remember Swansea saving 3 balls off the line, Arsenal hitting the post and then we have that small matter called Vorm. He really is an excellent goalkeeper. In fact he is rather short for a modern age goalkeeper with his only 1m83 (6ft apparently). The Dutch keeper showed his skills and as said when he was beaten he got some help from his defenders covering on the goal line.
As we are Untold I will know give you a small lesson in Dutch (which other Arsenal website gives you that?). Because the name Vorm has a meaning in Dutch. So after seeing him play like he did yesterday I thought to myself: “Mijne God, Vorm is weer in vorm”. No need to use google translate or whatever translator you use. In English it would have been: ‘My God, Vorm is in great shape again”. So when you see Vorm having a great game it is no real surprise because in Dutch his name is what is used as the word ‘shape” and as in English it is also could be expressed as “he is having a really great game.”
Back to the game. It was strange that each chance that fell for Giroud was a ball that ended up for his weaker right foot. He gave it a try a few times but it just ended up in the arms of Vorm each time. After us missing all those chances you started fearing that this might not be our day. Swansea aiming for the penalties and hoping that their penalty stopper (Vorm) would be in “vorm” again. With us having 26 shots in goal it brought back bad memories of us playing at Bradford and having 28 shots and only one goal and then losing with penalties.
But one man decided that this time it would be different. But we must praise also the team work before that goal. Gibbs seeing that he could intercept a ball in the centre circle (as a left back!) with his vision and speed. Passing it on to Cazorla who turned and saw the defenders backing away. Playing the ball for Giroud who did what a central striker should do: pass it to an onrushing midfielder.
My first reaction when Giroud laid off the ball for Wilshere was: why didn’t he play that on the ground. Well Giroud took the best option as now the ball came in front of Jack’s left foot and he volleyed the ball superbly past the Swansea keeper.
I now could go lyrical about Jack and his performance. I have seen words on the internet saying : Jack is world class, top class, top-top-top class. Well I don’t want to play that song.
I want us to whisper it. I want us not to say it at all in fact. I want Gooners all over the world when they meet or are on the internet and talk about Jack it should be in this way:
Gooner 1: Seen Jack?! (face expression expressing world class)
Gooner 2: nods yes. ((face expression expressing world class)
Please that is all we should do folks. Just imagine that the money teams might find out about him. Just imagine that Real Madrid or Barcelona find out about him. Just keep it quiet. Let’s keep this one for ourselves.
I have been a great Jack Wilshere fan since I saw him playing the reserves on my laptop when Arsenal used to broadcast the reserve games when he was 16 years old. And after the last years I had sworn to myself to never ever again to have a crush on an Arsenal player. My supporter’s heart has been broken a few times. But slowly I feel I am losing the battle. I think by the end of the season I will have given in I fear.
What a player we have in Jack. We’ve got the Jack, Jack, Jack (AC/DC fans will be able to sing this along with me- not that it has any link with the meaning in the song ). Ssssssst Walter, don’t say it loud.
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