Montpellier – Arsenal, the only thing missing for the moment « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
By Walter Broeckx
So here we are. The Champions League is back and as usual we are in it. And we take it for granted that we are in it once again. Being in it for 15 years…an amazing achievement that is sometimes looked upon as natural. In my eyes the most amazing thing for a team that once had one of the smaller stadiums compared to their competitors in Europe and even in England.
And I know that since building the Emirates we have a ground that is what one could call amongst the top class stadiums in Europe. But the big difference with most of the other clubs who have a similar stadium is that we build and paid for it ourselves.
Don’t forget in many countries (Portugal, France, Germany just to name a few) the government has paid for a lot of those stadiums or has subsidised the teams for building it. No such a thing at Arsenal. Brick by brick we paid for it (or still are paying for it in fact). And even then we managed to be in the top class of European football year after year.
If people cannot recognise this achievement they are living in a narrow minded world. What we have done over the last (trophy less) years is as short as you can get to a miracle in my opinion. And remember that in a league that is let us say not really ref-decision-friendly to Arsenal.
But this week we were at the start of a new campaign in the CL. Away in the south of France against the champions of France, Montpellier. And it was a very educational game for Arsenal. I think we could learn a few things and take a few things home from yesterdays game.
First of all. We can take a set back. To be honest my reporter didn’t know what the ref was doing when he gave the penalty for Montpellier. And I think not many of us could understand it because at first it looked a perfect block from Vermaelen on the ball. On angle made it look that way, but other angles suggested he did clip his foot and then the ball changed direction.
As a ref reviewer I would say: as we have not 100% evidence that the ref was wrong, we give the ref his decision. As a Gooner I can only wonder: when are we going to get such a penalty decision in our favour…..
You can’t blame Manone for the goal. You look a bit daft when the penalty taker does go for the panenka-penalty but as a keeper you only get such a penalty once every 10 years against you so you don’t stand waiting for it.
But the most important thing then was: how will they react to going behind? Because this was the first time this season when it mattered that we went behind. And within some 10 minutes we knew the answer. This team is not going to sit back, cry a little bit, feel sorry for themselves and let things go. No this team has character and you can see that some players really have a big mental strength.
Was it a coincidence that Podolski scored the equalizer? Well not really I think. Because when we bought him I said that he would be the type of player to stand up in the big games when needed. And at the first occasion (Liverpool) he did it. And on the second occasion (Montpellier CL) he did it again.
3 goals in 3 consecutive games. Long may it continue. I somewhat have the feeling that he will not need 7 years to reach 30 goals in a season for Arsenal. And on top of that he is a really hard working player who is not shy from working for the team, defending for the team and he does that all over his flank. Making the odd foul when needed to stop the other team.
Last season Gervinho got some stick for not producing the form that lead to Lille winning the league the season before. His finishing was below par. In the summer he spoke about wanting to become a new Pires. And by the way he is playing for the moment he surely looks capable of stepping in his footsteps.
He can now play everywhere up front and he starts scoring goals and you can see he is far more confident than he was last season. And he also is working hard for the team. Tracking back when it is needed, defending his flank. And all that with his great ability of running past defenders when he attacks the other goal.
The way we controlled the game after we went 1-2 up was impressive to see. Apart from one shot from distance Montpellier didn’t get near to Manone at all. But this was about to change in the second half.
Montpellier threw all they got at us from the start of the second half. They pressed us all over the field and I had the feeling that some of the players didn’t see that coming. I can imagine the words being said at half time in the style of: continue as you are. But before we woke up they had us pushed back because we tried too much to play the control game but weren’t allowed by the opponents.
But in a way this was a great defensive exercise. In a way this was again a big test for the team. How would they cope under pressure? And well after 45 minutes we knew: we can defend a lead and we can hang on to a lead.
Of course Montpellier could have scored an equaliser. They came close twice in fact. One ball that bounced of the top of the cross bar and one in the last 10 minutes when a Montpellier player suddenly was alone in front of goal but shot at Manone. That was two times that we were lucky. But after all this is the champions league and we play against other top teams from Europe and there are no easy games in the CL.
The team survived the pressure and I felt confident that we would not concede a goal and I even felt that if we would concede a goal we just would change our game and go out to score a third goal. Something that we maybe should have done earlier to kill off the game but it’s always easy when sitting in the chair at home.
We never seem to lose a game when playing in France and this has been going on for a long time, but I always seem to remember that we have tough games over there. It never really is a walk in the park. But with this team I feel we can go for a tough game.
In the last 5 competitive games we conceded 2 goals. One from a bad mistake from an injured keeper, and a penalty.
So our defence looks rather solid and that even without our best defender from last season in the team and with a young and still rather inexperienced (certainly at CL level) right back.
No running forwards from Vermaelen when we are only one goal in front. Per our giant defender who just seems to be there where he needs to be all the time. Gibbs… who cant defend remember… What a player he is becoming… once again. And even with a keeper in goal who was looked upon as 3rd choice at the start of the season.
Our midfield working hard and attacking when they want and can and defending when it is needed. As it should be.
The only thing I miss for the moment is a goal from our centre forward. But as I predicted that Podolski would be a massive player for us, I also predicted that Giroud would score 15 goals this season. He will. But he needs a bit more time. But once he starts scoring he will score his 15 goals in his first season at Arsenal. I think he is saving them up for later in the season. When the goals really matter.
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