We’re off! Arsenal – WBA live blog.
The Premier League is kicking off in a few minutes, with Arsenal playing West Bromwich Albion. I enjoy watching Arsenal, so I’m excited about this one. I’m going to be making some notes throughout the match.
The Eliminator competition is OFF, unfortunately, as there were only three of us that showed any interest. Lars announced he would’ve taken Hull this round. Without having done extensive research myself, I would go with Arsenal in this one.
Arsenal are starting Denilson(20) in central midfield. He’s a bit on the small side, but has been good when I’ve seen him in cup competitions. Walcott (19), Nasri (21) and Eboue (25) are the other midfielders, a young group. Bendtner (20) is starting up front with Adebayor (24), making this front six one of the youngest ever to start the season for a title contender.
Not 4 minutes have gone by and Arsenal are already ahead, after Denilson set up Nasri to score on his Premier League debut. I think the kids will be ok – in this one, at least.
The veteran William Gallas is shoring up the defense for Arsenal, alongside Swiss youngster Johan Djorou. Gallas shows after 12 minutes that he can be a threat going forward as well, firing a cracking shot from 30 yards out that, in fairness, Scott Carson (formerly of Leeds, Liverpool and Aston Villa) seemed to control fairly well.
West Bromwich are not excactly a thrilling side. Their captain is Jonathan Greening, who played for Manchester United as a youngster, but never managed to do much for their first team. WBA have a young English striker called Ishmael Miller (21) who might be interesting to follow this season. He came to WBA from Manchester City last season and is their lone striker this game. After 20 minutes he’s yet to touch the ball in any sort of a threatening position, but he will have to hope for a breakaway at some point in this match. He is unlikely to have many opportunities. He looks strong, but his goal scoring record in the Championship last season wasn’t overly impressive (9 in 32 games).
After a half hour, Miller wins a header over Gallas and nudges it through to Korean midfielder Kim Do-Heon, who wins a corner kick, WBA’s first threat going forward. Miller is giving the Arsenal defense a little bit of trouble in the air and could develop into a useful target man in the mould of Emile Heskey. He also shows a bit of skill getting past Eboue down the left hand side to win a corner kick.
At half time, Arsenal are winning 1-0, without impressing too much. Miller’s been the main threat against them, but the best WBA have been able to do is win a few corner kicks, which they’ve wasted with poor service. Gael Clichy has been strong coming down the left flank for Arsenal. They look a bit light in midfield, with Eboue looking out of place as a defensive midfielder and Denilson perhaps not quite ready to be a midfield general at this level. Walcott has shown some of his talent as well, but hasn’t quite been able to link up with Sagna on the right hand side to the extent that Nasri and Clichy have on the left.
The second half has started and two of the stars of the first half, Nasri and Miller have already showed their class. Miller slipped through the Arsenal defense, but showed that his finishing still leaves a bit to be desired when Almunia saved quite easily with his legs. Nasri sent Adebayor through on goal – a chance he probably converts mid-season, but today he was just a bit wide. Delightful pass from Nasri and an excellent run from Adebayor.
I wrote earlier this week about the Brazil left back Marcelo. He scored a very good goal for Brazil against Cameroon today and did nothing to put to shame my proclamation that he is the best left back in the world. In this game, Gael Clichy, who was not found worthy of a place in the French squad for Euro 2008 behind Barcelona’s Abigal and Man United’s Evra, has shown that he belongs in any such discussion as well. He is constantly coming forward with timely runs. As his predecessor, Ashley Cole, Clichy is one of Arsenal’s most dangerous offensive weapons. Opposing defenses are outnumbered when defenders push forward as aggressively as Arsenal’s left back.
Bendtner is replaced by Van Persie after 70 minutes. Bendtner hasn’t done much this game, but the big Dane will have better games than this. Another substitution two minutes later was less of a like for like. Walcott was replaced by Kolo Toure. Toure’s been struggling with an injury and they seem to be playing him on the right side of midfield to give him a run out. Ishmael Miller is replaced by former Hearts striker Roman Bednar after an impressive 73 minutes for WBA. He’ll be interesting to follow this season, I won’t be surprised if he’s mentioned in the England team discussion within a season or two if he can keep fit.
Clichy again shows his class defensively, twice breaking up WBA attacks and on one occasion carrying the ball from his own box across midfield setting up Van Persie for a chance he squanders when Paul Robinson dispossesses him with a strong tackle from behind.
Arsenal won fairly comfortably 1-0, a few thoughts after the game:
- Arsenal are young. Very young. Ramsey, Wilshere, Vela and Randall on the bench are 17, 16, 19 and 18.
- Arsenal’s midfield needs help. Eboue isn’t a central midfielder and Denilson lacks pace and strength. Fabregas will play every minute when he’s healthy, but they need better options than Ramsey, Eboue, Denilson and Diaby behind the young Spaniard and Tomas Rosicky, who has spent a lot of time on the excercise bike recently.
- WBA has very few players who would challenge for a place even for the Blackburns or the Middlesboroughs of the EPL. Paul Robinson is a tough defender, Miller showed some promise up front but overall they need to compensate for the lack of class players with disciplined defending and opportunistic attacking.
- Somehow Jamie Redknapp has picked out Denilson as the Man of the Match. Ok. I disagree, but he did set up the first goal. To me Clichy was Arsenal’s best player by quite a long way today.
The season is underway. This game will never be remembered as a classic, but any proper football will do me at the moment. I’m looking forward to a fun season!
Tags: Arsenal, Denilson, Emmanuel Adebayor, Emmanuel Eboue, Gael Clichy, Ishmael Miller, Jonathan Greening, Kim Do-Heon, Kolo Toure, Nicklas Bendtner, Robin Van Persie, Roman Bednar, Samir Nasri, Theo Walcott, West Bromwich Albion, William Gallas
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