A 2-1 win at home to Crystal Palace means that we are now 3 points better off than we were at the same stage last season. We had plenty of possession throughout, but made really hard work of forcing a win. Going forward we really struggled to create any clear chances, partly due to Crystal Palace's organisation, but also because we lack match sharpness.
Team line-up: Szczesny; Debuchy, Chambers, Koscielny, Gibbs; Arteta; Sanchez, Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla; Sanogo
Some observations and reflections from today's game:
- We had 78% possession, yet were unable to create many chances from open play. While we had lots of the ball, we tended to give the ball away as we approached the opposition goal, either by players taking too many touches or our final ball not being precise enough.
- Sanogo, having started ahead of Giroud, struggled to provide a goal threat, while also struggling to provide options for our midfielders going forward. When Giroud came on he at least engaged the Palace defenders more.
- Having been great at dominating midfield against Man City in the Community Shield, Ramsey and Wilshere struggled to create much going forward in today's game. This seemed to be a problem with finding space between the Palace defence and midfield - Ozil is better suited to this.
- Arteta looked to lead by example by refusing to take too many touches, speeding up our play with one-touch passing where possible.
- All three goals came from set-pieces.
- Our defending was poor for the Palace goal. It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that had Mertesacker been playing we wouldn't have conceded this goal, but it was Koscielny, not Chambers, that was at fault for the goal.
- Szczesny looked unconvincing when defending set-pieces though, admittedly, he seemed to be a target for the Palace players.
- While we were really struggling to create chances from open play, it was encouraging that we were able to score two goals from set pieces. Over the course of the season, the ability to score these kind of goals will gain us many valuable points.
- Chambers was outstanding at centre back, with good positioning and concentration throughout. If he is just as strong at right back and as a defensive midfielder then he will find himself a regular starter sooner rather than later.
- Our other new signings, Debuchy and Alexis, both showed commitment and desire, despite looking like there is work to be done in developing understanding with team-mates.
- Debuchy enjoys a battle when defending while also providing options going forward.
- Alexis was constantly looking to get involved, finding space and getting stuck in to the physical battle. While he is not the biggest of players, he is hard to knock off the ball, gets straight back up when knocked down, and actually gave away several fouls when hounding the opposition players, trying to win the ball back.
- While he got caught in possession several times, there were also several glimpses of Alexis' class. In particular, there was a moment of chest control from a long ball, and a quick one-two and swerve past a defender which provided a directness that was often lacking last season.
- While it seems that we most need to sign a central defender and a defensive midfielder, it was in attack that we were most lacking in today's game. Sanogo is at least a few games away from providing a genuine threat to Giroud's starting place and Giroud is lacking match fitness. It would be interesting to see how Alexis would fare as a centre forward but, while Walcott is injured, Wenger seems to have settled on him playing wide right.
- Cazorla struggled to keep the ball, let alone provide a threat going forward.
- Gibbs' injury is a cause for concern, but Monreal looked strong when he came on.
While we didn't play our best, the bottom line is that we won 3 important points on a day when two rivals (Man Utd and Everton) both dropped points. However, if we have serious ambitions of winning the League, we need to play much better.
Photo: Stuart MacFarlane. Taken from www.mirror.co.uk
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