EPL - Norwich City v Arsenal 19/11/11 12.45PM SS2

[ibby]

Btw, in all of his excellence not many mentioned Vermaelen's pre-assist on the first goal, Xavi would be proud.

Against Norwich? He was only involved in the second goal? Where he tripped over, which I guess makes a bit of sense?

That was Ramsey, no?

 

[Anzac]

Pleased with the 3 points but we made heavy work of it.
Having said that we usually 'struggle' after the international breaks.

 

[patrick42uk]

I dont recall Wojiech been called upon in this game. Think that says a lot about the team these days. Not only did we create enough to win 3 games, we restricted them to 1, very silly, chance.

I think as well Santos is a better defender than people give him credit for. Yes positionally he can be suspect, and his stamina could be better but you also have to acknowledge that he is a very good 1 on 1 defender, and is (rather surprisingly) good in the air.

 

[ricky1985]

Santos takes too many chances, though. He dives in to win the ball early 15 times a game and he frequently gets it right - when he doesn't he leaves so much space to be exploited. Like the chance Norwich had in the second half when the cross came in from the right hand side and Morison put it wide from six yards - all because Santos was easily played around and even Vermaelen couldn't manage to cover him that time.

There were at least 5 times in the match when Santos made a bad decision. Either to push up when he shouldn't have, or to commit himself when it was the wrong thing to do. Luckily Norwich didn't make us pay for it, but a better team will.

He's exceptional on the ball, though. His touch and passing is invaluable to us.

 

[ebouenolike]

With Santos we nearly play 3-4-3, it's exciting to say the least. Our last two away games have been ridiculous, in a good way.

 

[patrick42uk]

That was a 1-2 though i.e. a 2 on 1 situation against him. I like the fact he aggressively seeks the ball and as you say more often than not comes away with it. We ask our defenders to play that way- I remember it was something Clichy mentioned Arsène encourage him to do.

 

[ricky1985]

He hasn't got the balance right at the moment, though.

In that situation, the "2 on 1", Vermaelen was right there with him and had he read the situation correctly there would have been no danger.