21 April 2015

Reading 1-2 Arsenal (AET): Through to face Villa in the final

#RFCvAFC


We made hard work of it but eventually saw off a brave and battling Reading, thanks to two goals from Alexis. They weren't great goals, but Alexis has the determination that we so desperately need in these kind of tight games, and the directness that we so often lacked last season. While Alexis' opportunism got the goals and drew the attention of the pundits, I was impressed by the performance of Özil. While Reading were determined to give us as little time on the ball as possible, Özil was great at finding space and seemed to have the awareness and speed of thought to make the right decisions under pressure. Both Alexis and Özil are really beginning to look at home in this team, whether against the top teams or when battling against teams lower down the league(s).

Line up: Szczesny; Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs; Coquelin, Cazorla; Ramsey, Özil, Alexis, Welbeck

While this is a strong team, Wenger took the opportunity to re-introduce Debuchy, Gibbs and Welbeck into the starting eleven, as well as continuing with Szczesny in goal for the FA Cup matches. Unfortunately it showed that Debuchy and Gibbs lacked match practice, and all three of Szczesny, Debuchy and Gibbs were at fault for the Reading goal. While Szczesny played well for most of the game, and his mistake wasn't the worst, his performance was in stark contrast to the consistency demonstrated by Ospina who, without being outstanding, has barely made any mistakes in his last ten games.

Bellerin and Monreal were missed for different reasons; Bellerin's pace offers an outlet which can ease pressure on the defence while also offering a threat going forward - particularly useful with Ramsey positioned on the right. Monreal, meanwhile, offers a bit more defensive stability and positional awareness than Gibbs. As well as missing these two, Mertesacker also went off with an ankle injury, to be replaced with Gabriel. One of Gabriel's first actions was to draw a great save from Federici from a corner, but he soon went on to put another good chance wide. Defensively, Gabriel looks a decent tackler, but was often a bit rash, diving in and leaving us exposed - reminiscent of Vermaelen. Hopefully this was just nerves in a tense game, and he will be more assured and confident when he gets a run of games in the team.

Aside from the defence, we really missed Giroud up front; Welbeck struggled to find space up front and lacks the physical presence to hold the ball up and lay it off to runners. When Giroud came on we improved a lot, as he provides an outlet for the other forward players, and they know that they'll get it back. I can't help but think that Ramsey is a little wasted on the right, but it's easy to understand why Wenger wants to keep him in the team, with his work rate and goal threat. Against Reading, however, I didn't feel that Cazorla was particularly effective in the centre, as they didn't allow him the space that he drives into in midfield. Ramsey, on the other hand, looks to release others, while also offering a combative edge to his game.

With Alexis and Özil now finding their ways to contribute effectively, our aims now are to ensure that the whole squad can be used effectively. Many players were rotated against Reading and every player brought in looked poor in comparison to who they replaced. While injuries have finally started to improve, being able to rotate our squad seamlessly is a real target to improve on for next season.

One thing that really does demonstrate our improvement is the comparison of our fortunes to those of Liverpool, who went out to Villa. Over the past year, many people have suggested that Rodgers might be a more up-to-date and forward thinking manager that could take the club further than Wenger can, with better tactical awareness. Similar arguments have also been made for Klopp, and yet both of these managers have fallen upon much tougher times this season, while Wenger looks likely to improve on last season. We need to be wary of Villa in the final - Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City have all shown that in FA Cup games you need to do more than just turn up, despite being favourites to win.

In the Premier League, Chelsea beating Man Utd makes our next game against Chelsea slightly less critical. It's an important test for us, and another chance to demonstrate that we've improved from last season but, even if we win, we still can't catch Chelsea with their seven point lead. And should we lose, we remain in second place ahead of the two Manchesters. It would be amazing to stick it to Fabregas, and a win would continue our great run while making second place seem within our grasp.

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