Cruise Control

#Arsenal 3 - 0 #Newcastle
Match Highlights


The Good - #Koscielny.  When Arsenal were going through their most recent stretch of bad form, it was easy to forget, due to all the injuries to attacking players that Koscielny was also injured, and not only did the team struggle to score goals but Arsenal's leaky defense became fully cracked without Koscielny.  Tonight's game showed why he's such a valuable player.  Defensively Arsenal controlled the game brilliantly, the rare times Newcastle did threaten Arsenal those fires were put out quickly by Koscielny.  That's what Koscielny does, he quickly and instinctively reacts to dangerous situation with full guns blazing, and 9 out of 10 times he makes a challenge or tackle that saves the back four's (Mertesacker) ass.  He also chipped in with a goal from a set piece that epitomizes everything about his heart and tenacity. 

#Ramsey had a few loose passes/flicks early in the match, but once he tuned in his timing, he put in another solid performance.  He hustled all over the pitch making tackles and spotting runs, and also made a cute little pass to Ozil for the Giroud goal.

#Ozil looks like he's starting to get his mojo back.  He displayed wonderful control and technical ability in tonight's game.  He wowed me a couple of times in tonight's  game with his escape ability and vision for key passes in the final third.  Ozil's assist to Giroud for the goal was a real indicator for the type of quality he's able to effortlessly display.  He receives the pass from Ramsey, calmly looks up, and kicks the ball right to Giroud's forehead in such an accurate manner, that not even the struggling Frenchman could bottle the shot on goal.

The Bad - Giroud's antics are really starting to get tiresome.  All the histrionics must stop immediately.  I believe the constant complaining and crying to the ref, is effecting his game in front of goal.  And worst than anything all that crying and complaining doesn't work, in fact it probably pisses the the ref's off, like it pisses me off.  Instead of crying, #Giroud should get angry, and harness that anger, and then unleash hell on the opposing team's back four.  Giroud is always one of the biggest men on the pitch, and he really needs to start throwing his body around in an overly aggressive manner to get his due respect, because at  the moment all everyone see's is a whiny bitch, if you rough up a little bit, you can take out of the game.  

The Ugly - Newcastle's overall performance was uninspired and toothless.  Out of the 3 remaining games for Arsenal, this was the game I was most anxious about, and even though Newcastle's recent form has been dreadful, I thought the French B team would try everything in their powers to impress Wenger.  Management showed they didn't care when they sold the teams best player(Cabaye) in January, and the team has taken that same approach for the entire 2nd half of the season.  #COYG

Peace Out,
Blanco