asajoseph
Established Member
Re: Arsenal vs Aston Villa Match Ratings ^^ (Y)
I think we did a better job than I expected of shutting them down (though I thought Milner did ok, actually, and was instrumental in starting off the few attacks that Villa actually did create, especially the 10 minutes or so in the 2nd half where they put us under a lot of pressure and we barely got out of our half), and Diaby certainly performed a heck of a lot better than I thought he would (two good games in a row - who knew!). I do think our overall performance was, as I think someone else has said, something more than the sum of it's parts.
That said, it doesn't change the fact that without Cesc, as you say, the cutting edge just wasn't there, and whilst we had the luxury of bringing him off the bench today, we might not have that luxury all season. For me, Cesc, and to a lesser extent Theo, really changed the game today, and gave us a totally new dynamic that we had been otherwise missing. Without those changes, the game could have still gone either way.
Klaus Daimler said:To be fair, asa, you were worried that our midfield was going to be outperformed and outpassed by Villa as I recall it. That didn't really happen. We dominated them and kept the pressure up throughout the game. I didn't even notice that Milner and Petrov were on the field after a while because they never touched the ball. We had tons of corners, freekicks and opportunities to score but we lacked the cutting edge. That's what Cesc provided when he came on, not chances. We had those already.
I think we did a better job than I expected of shutting them down (though I thought Milner did ok, actually, and was instrumental in starting off the few attacks that Villa actually did create, especially the 10 minutes or so in the 2nd half where they put us under a lot of pressure and we barely got out of our half), and Diaby certainly performed a heck of a lot better than I thought he would (two good games in a row - who knew!). I do think our overall performance was, as I think someone else has said, something more than the sum of it's parts.
That said, it doesn't change the fact that without Cesc, as you say, the cutting edge just wasn't there, and whilst we had the luxury of bringing him off the bench today, we might not have that luxury all season. For me, Cesc, and to a lesser extent Theo, really changed the game today, and gave us a totally new dynamic that we had been otherwise missing. Without those changes, the game could have still gone either way.