RVP knee slides in celebration of opener at Borussia Dortmund

Well here we are, at the first match report on my shiny new site. I’m very pleased to be here. All of this reading of blogs and listening to podcasts on football, coupled with my undying support (via TV) of Arsenal FC compels me to publish a blog of my own, so here goes.

I write this first match report in the wake of our first group stage UEFA Champions League match, which took place away to Borussia Dortmund (the German Champions last year) at their fine stadium, Signal Iduna Park. It’s worth noting that for normal league matches their stadium still has standing terraces available for the fans, so they cram more than 80,000 frenzied Bundesliga fans into that building for big league matches. They obviously do not carry this through to european matches for obvious reasons, but my point is that many Bundesliga teams are not afraid of hearing a few fans roar, especially not at home. And true to form, Dortmund were impressive from first to last whistle.

I hadn’t spent too much time watching the Bundesliga last year, but by all accounts Dortmund were every bit the swashbuckling, enterprising attack based team that we are on our day, even though sometimes it seems those days are few and far between now. Quite how they were drawn in pot 4 along with us is a mystery to me, being that they are German champions. It certainly meant that coming into this game we would have done well to get something out of the game, considering that our other opponents, Olympiakos and Marseilles, are certainly no pushovers themselves. Along with that it’s no secret we tried to sign their star 19 year old playmaker; Mario Gotze, who had a great game, but more on that later.

In any case, we saw Dortmund start at a very high pace. In fact, watching them press us all over the pitch reminded me of the Barcelona game at the Emirates last season. Perhaps their coach Jurgen Klopp noticed that employing Pep Guardiola’s tactics forces us to rush our game, making our passing sloppy and allows our less experienced players, which we have a lot of, to get dispossessed in bad areas. Whatever the opposition instructions were, we did not look excellent. A team still nursing the wounds of the assault we sustained at Old Trafford a few weeks ago was the team I saw start the game, but very importantly, not the one that finished it.

Pat Rice was in charge of our team for the match, being that the ridiculous ban imposed by UEFA was upheld, meaning he not only missed the Dortmund match, but misses the Marseilles one at the Emirates too. Not only this, but Arsene Wenger was forced to suffer the ignominy of being escorted to his seat by some burly looking dickheads and apparently made to stay in his seat till almost 15 minutes after the final whistle. Why? What possible effect could Arsene have on the team after the final whistle? Are UEFA worried Arsene will quickly run into the Dortmund catering area and put salmonella into their gatorade? Ridiculous…

In any case it appeared Pat Rice had enough about himself tactically to play the game right, even though we did very much sit 10 men behind the ball in the 2nd half to try and scrape a win. A tactic which I’m surprised to say was a decent one, as Dortmund were playing very well, the pace being dictated by one Mario Gotze, the young wunderkind I mentioned earlier. In fact the way he orchestrated his team, despite his very tender age, bore more than a passing resemblance to our dearly departed Cesc. A great shame we were not able to wrap up a deal for him over the summer transfer window. Although the reported 35m+ they wanted for him would have still been obscene for a 19 year old, and I could not see Wenger doing this realistically.

We also got some more minutes to assess our newer arrivals to the club. Starts were handed out to Gervinho, Mertesacker, Arteta and Benayoun, as well as a late cameo for Santos. I very much like Gervinho’s directness in dribbling at defenders, something we truly lack when Arshavin is not in form, which, lets face it, is bloody often. Mertesacker I am the other end of the spectrum. I expected him to slot in easiest, however I think he is having the hardest time of our new recruits, albeit with a lot of expectation on his shoulders trying to shore up our much maligned defence. Arteta has played fairly well, but definitely nowhere near like his best form for Everton, just respectably. But he did make an excellent 50/50 challenge for a header to protect our goals and earned himself a bleeding scalp from a head clash for his troubles. It’s that grit and resilience that I found most shocking as I have not seen it from players in an Arsenal shirt for a while, not across the park when we’re hanging on to a lead anyways. Lastly Benayoun, I thought started fairly average, but grew into the game, and even when several Dortmund players attempted to crowd him out forcing him to run back, he still always then attempted to cut back into midfield and get the ball going forward again. What he lacks in quality he still appears to make up for in energy and desire. Alan Davies on the Tuesday Club hilariously said “he’s like a mouse in the kitchen bouncing off the skirtings”, and to be fair I can see his point, Yossi still didn’t appear to have our roadmap of play and didn’t link up with the rest of our midfield and forwards particularly well.

The goal was created and finished by our main man, Robin van Persie. He picked up on a lazy pass by an opposition player, and poked it towards Walcott. Theo stepped one player, and kept his composure to slide a pass back to RVP who was running away from him to goals, and Robin’s finish on his chocolate foot was clinical as we know he can be. While I’m on that note though, why the hell is Theo now more interested in bitching to referees and calling for cards than just playing football? And for the life of me I cannot figure out why his crossing still hasn’t improved, and his “chip and chase with pace” tactic is as one dimensional as it gets. If Gervinho beds in his position and Arshavin’s form improves, which the law of averages says is some point this year, Theo may be bench warming.

Otherwise generally speaking I thought our new blood acquitted themselves well for us on a big stage, and showed when we were hanging on with our fingernails what experienced, calm heads can help the squad weather. Had there not been a simply stunning open-mouthed finish from Perisic on the 87th minute from outside the area, on the full, I’m sure we would have doggedly defended our way to three points for at least half the game.

"For the love of god, don't let it hit me!"

Still I must say it seems myself and most others would take the 1 point from that tough away game. A shame as we could’ve had all 3, but conversely we could’ve had none as Dortmund definitely were able to fashion chances, with only the outstanding Szczesny preventing further leakages, and also a Sagna clearance off the line I seem to remember from the 1st half.

The good news is that both Manchester United and Manchester City could only muster draws against Benfica and Napoli respectively. And I feel that the German champions were at least as stern a test if not tougher at home than either of those two matches. It turns out, surprise surprise, that the Manchester clubs bleed after all. Now we’ve got hopefully no further injury news (none I’m aware of) and a good upswing match (hopefully!) against Blackburn at the weekend. And I will be more than happy to settle for one nil to the Arsenal, like the boring times of old while we regain our confidence and killer instincts.

Anyway, I hope you like my blog, and many thanks if you’ve taken the time to read it.

Till next time.