EPL - Portsmouth v Arsenal - Wed 30/12/09 - 19:45 | SS1

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

I also thought Nasri was nailed on for a central position, especially after his comments in the summer about adapting to a DM role. But Wenger clearly has other ideas for Nasri and Rosicky, and once he has made his mind up, he won't change now.

Nasri and Rosicky are in direct competition right now. You won't see both of them in the line-up against West Ham or Bolton. If we were going 4-4-2 we can fit them both in, but in a 4-3-3, with Arshavin considered irreplaceable, having Nasri---Arshavin---Rosicky as a front 3 is just too tippy-tappy to work.

Having a 4-3-3 with our two guys upfront being midfielders gives room to the 2 other midfielders to move around becaues these guys always slot into their spots. I think it works very well..you can see countless times where Nasri gets in the middle and rosciky does that well also. It allows the Ramsey/Diaby and even more specifically Cesc to have more freedom in their movement.

Its not a matter of this way or the other way because when you have a Theo type on the 4-3-3 you get a lot of width but should that channel be covered by the opposition, Theo doesnt offer anything else..he cant gel inside and interchange and hold possession.

What Nasri does very well is allow us to keep possession. I think he can do more but you should not underestimated the importance of us keeping that ball and he does a brilliant job at that even if the passess are back or lateral. But he has the technique and vision (so does rosickly) to also give through passes which is a good thing even though they dont seem to do that as much.

With regards to moving into space..that requires precision timing on the passess..just as someone alluded to early on, Eduardo does make those runs but timing is so crucial that if the ball is not released that second..its back to pass and pass. Now this requires special skills and it is why Fabregas makes so much difference cos he can read those "potential moves" and thus releases the ball precisecly then.

All in all we do need two have both alternatives..because i can almost assure you some games require the Nasri type especially those that we have to be very patient with the ball.

 

[kamikaze80]

just watched the first half and our midfield trio was superb. eduardo was just ok, but he is probably the weakest arsenal player i've ever seen. so lightweight.

boateng, btw, is an unbelievably bad player. i've liked belhadj in the past and he looked good, too. good physique, good technique, very good striker of the ball and always looking to pass and move.

 

[Rohit]

I loved Song's performance yesterday and more so because i think he gave it his all and more with this being his last Premiership match for a while.

 

[kel varnsen]

terrific performance yesterday. one of the best this season. kept possession very nicely and created a number of good chances. thought ramsey was brilliant. he's becoming very, very good on the ball and off the ball there is no one better. whenever we go forward, ramsey makes a good run. he never stops, he always wants the ball. great attitidue.

 

[kel varnsen]

sagna deserves a bit of credit as well. he is a very dynamic and adventurous full back, pushing 10-20 yards up whenever he can when we are defending. this helps protect our midfield, which can become very narrow at times. sagna knows when he can push up and when he has to stay back. so in spite the fact that we now play with almost three forwards, our defensive stability is still fairly good and sagna deserves quite a bit of credit for this.

 

[fabo]

Sagna is a great player in my view. His only flaw is his crossing and passing/decision-making in the final third - but I think we could cover that with a more dynamic attack. His general play in turning defence to attack is superb and he makes little or no errors defensively.

Worth noting how good Traore's crossing was at times y'day - great pace and whip. Few shaky moments defensively though.

 

[Accomplished]

A few points from this game:

Every time I see Ramsey he has improved from his last game. This is a great sign, and as long as he continues to improve, doesn't get injured (like Diaby) and keeps getting the odd game, we'll have an excellent player by next season.

Song is probably my favourite player bar Cesc now. I'm so glad his song was the loudest over a long period of time, and I hope he realises just how appreciative we are for the effort he puts in these days. From being booed at Fulham, you'd think that he didn't stand a chance, but he's put in a crap load of effort and that's really coming through. Look at his stamina now compared to what it used to be too. I love how happy he was to finally score, he'd been trying for a while, in general he just looks to be a great guy. Keep him for as long as you want Arsène, he could be an arsenal legend.

Really happy with the way we defended (apart from the goal) we managed to get two banks of four infront of them very quickly, which we never used to do. We seem to hopefully have realised how important defending as a team is, and you see that with the way everyone is tracking back much more.

Diaby is looking like the real deal. I'm hoping this is his "song moment", where everything just starts to click and there is very little inconsistency. It's amazing how quickly that's happened if true.

 

[RockyRocastle]

Re: Lack of English players

Fantastic game last night, although I think we need to bear in mind Pompey are a virtual pub team.

Decent atmosphere in our end for once in that ****hole, I think the performance contributed a lot to it.

Was delighted at how well Ramsey played - he is coming on fantastically. Added to the monster Song has become, Diaby finally turning into the player he had to potential to become and obviously Cesc to come back we now have a great midfield. Hopefully it will signal the end of Denilson getting anywhere near the team.

It was great to see Nasri looking dangerous after too long of offering very little. A striker in Jan and we could very well surprise a few people next year.

 

[kamikaze80]

sagna deserves a bit of credit as well.

yep, i thought he was excellent and his work rate was superb.

just finished the 2nd half and it was a very disciplined performance. our CMs didnt go crazy in attack and kept things tight. we lost concentration a few times but pompey were so bad, it was understandable. their goal was too easy, though, one of our CBs shouldve been on that.

our front three was not good at all, i felt like we were creating chances in spite of them.

 

[ricky1985]

terrific performance yesterday. one of the best this season. kept possession very nicely and created a number of good chances. thought ramsey was brilliant. he's becoming very, very good on the ball and off the ball there is no one better. whenever we go forward, ramsey makes a good run. he never stops, he always wants the ball. great attitidue.

sagna deserves a bit of credit as well. he is a very dynamic and adventurous full back, pushing 10-20 yards up whenever he can when we are defending. this helps protect our midfield, which can become very narrow at times. sagna knows when he can push up and when he has to stay back. so in spite the fact that we now play with almost three forwards, our defensive stability is still fairly good and sagna deserves quite a bit of credit for this.

Who are you and what have you done with Kel?

Glad you, and a few others are mentioning Sagna. Surely one of the smartest defenders out there, just never, ever makes a poor decision. Amazing brain he has on him. He could definitely improve from an attacking perspective, but I don't feel it's his crossing that is his problem (although it's not great, it's more than decent most of the time), if he had the ability to occasionally beat a man he would probably be ahead of even Maicon as a complete fullback. Great player though, and we're very lucky to have him.

The midfield were the shining lights once again, their tactical discipline and composure on the ball meant we completely controlled the game. I agree with Kami though, we're winning in spite of our attack rather than because of it.

 

[Lord Dula]

can i just say i bloody heart song. was chin wagging with ricky whilst beating him at feefs the other day n he said he wouldnt swap him for anyone in the world right now, and you know what? i bloody well concur with the virginator