Same scoreline as Saturday, same 3 points as well. Arsenal swat aside Olympique Marseille without necessarily needing to break much sweat. The pre-match objective for us couldn't have been clearer, secure 12points and acquire elbow room from those other 2 contenders in this dance of ''death' in Group F. No other result other than a win would have been acceptable given that our opponents on the night, Marseille had nothing to play for and have bagged a grand total of zero points thus far. In my match preview i had sounded a note of caution to the effect that any complacency could be disastrous to our ambitions, in the end it proved a relatively comfortable night as we were never required to move up a gear to secure the 3 points. Call it hindsight or revisionist, but i perhaps may have overestimated our visitors. They didn't look at all like they were ready to cause any sort of upset and even though there was still a chance for Europa League qualification within their reach, they didn't seem up for it. Even the boss tried to hide his disappointment in their performance in his post game interview. In any case, be it far from me to complain. As they say in football, you can only beat what's in front of you.
It was a night of ''Firsts'' both on and off the pitch in the sense that Jack Wilshere grabbed his first brace in an Arsenal shirt since he broke into the first team. It was also the first time according to the boss that we would amass a points haul of 12 in 5 games in the champions league and still be mathematically unsure of qualification (even though you and i know we definitely will go through). So here are the permutations as they stand now, its safe to say after Dortmund beat Napoli tonight, if they win in France or draw and we beat Napoli away they qualify with us. They win the group if we lose and they pummel the hapless Marseille with a scoreline upwards of 2-3 goals. If we draw and they win (even if by 10-0) we top the group. So we find ourselves in a strong position, but there's still some work to be done on match day 6.
To touch on a bit about the individual performances, is it just me.or is all not 100% well with Ozil. I look at him on the pitch and whilst he does a lot of good things, i see a fair few issues of concern also. He never really seems eager to bust a gut to win back possession or track any runner ghosting past him. He tries a little, half- halfheartedly to stop some,but gives up far too easily. I'm thinking, is it a case of ''Couldn't be bothered''? or Fitness issues? and don't get me started on the Penalty...'cos he never looked like scoring with that rather ambiguous run-up. Make no mistake, i do like him because he is a great player and he still delivered an assist on the night. Yes, its his first season, but the basics of his game in the last few fixtures have been iffy. His stats are still impressive mind you. But its just that he's a big, big player and perhaps needs to do more. Is it maybe the pressure of the price-tag getting to him? who knows?...Ramsey was again, impressive. How many times will i have to say this in a season where thus far he has looked invincible, i don't know. But get this, in the entire game, Ramsey touched the ball 140 times while the only other Marseille midfielder to play 90mins touched the ball only 55 times!!!! Mental! The guy is a machine. Wilshere was great and his two goals will definitely do him good in terms of building goal scoring confidence. Though i don't think the boss was correct to play the ''anything Ramsey can do, i can do'' card in terms of what Jack must have been thinking when he took those opportunities. I know i personally don't like being compared to my peers, so if Jack is like me, that comment would have hurt. But the Boss said it was a joke,so hopefully they both laugh over it.
Saturday will meet us with no significant injury situation to deal with (touch wood on Gibbs reported illness though) that game with Cardiff is one i know will be a real fight for us. Monreal was again solid as a stand-in but Gibbs is Gibbs. Rosicky still impresses with his running and application and how i wish i could genetically preserve him and maybe duplicate his DNA. That way we could have a Tomas-like player forever at AFC...So we march on in the UCL ,and with this victory, we have bitch-slapped the prospects of being eliminated and playing Thursday night football (yuck!!) like our mighty 6-0 stuffed lilly white neighbors. Great stuff from the lads. Back on Friday with a match preview of Cardiff vs AFC.
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