davepain says:

walcott is not a winger.. plus his pass to rvp for the goal… not many arsenal players would have played that ball so well. lets not forget how young he is. peopple expect so much from him. klose has no skill & is just tall. hes got 50+ international goals…
stop bashing theo
anyway… after seeing both manchester clubs draw against way more inferior teams to dortmund, i reckon last nights result was a good one. although i still feel robbed. its either ridiculously lucky or wonder goals that go in against us: last night, essiens goal when we were 1-0 up in the final (fa or carling cup). anybody remember that mellor guy scoring for liverpool from 40 yards out? im guna slap lady luck & ban her from the casino.

Northbanksy says:

After 6 years at Arsenal you’d have thought that Theo would have already become the player that everyone hoped for, rather than still hoping he’ll eventually realise his full potential. One thing to remember though is that because of his pace opponents have to commit 2 players to mark him which takes a defender away from somewhere else.
One of the best developments this season is that with the arrival of Frimpong in the squad we actually have proper cover for Song & the possibility of playing 2 X holding midfielders if necessary. Not a bad option.

Gtop says:

Hey, let’s remember Theo’s two goals against Udinese and the assist for Van Persie before we start criticising our players. Theo can score and provide goals. Support him.

ubatgoonergooner says:

Koscielny is emphasizing on how having a very good defensive midfielder in front of the defence makes the difference. Clearly when Song is not playing we are a bit vulnerable at the back

AmericanGunnerFan says:

I’m glad that someone else thought that Koscielny and Gibbs had excellent games. Koscielny is right about how good Song was and I’ve seen Song credited with being the man of the match for Arsenal in places, but Koscielny deserves a lot of credit too: he was a lion out there on defense and showed what he is capable of (now if he can only figure out how to play that way consistently!). He was every bit as good a Song. And, Gibbs wasn’t far behind.

While some may disagree with me, I thought Sagna also played well defensively (different story on the other end of the pitch, though). Bouba’s comment about Walcott’s defense is spot on–even when he hustles on the defensive end, Walcott’s size makes him a liability and he simply doesn’t always put the effort in or hustle in his own end.

One thing that I noticed in this regard was that Pat Rice made a switch during the match to compensate for Walcott’s defensive issues: with Dortmund consistently attacking down the right side of the Arsenal defense, Walcott and Gervinho switched sides. Gervinho, being bigger and stronger than Walcott, did an excellent job of helping to relieve the pressure that was being put on Sagna. Whatever his deficiencies in front of goal, Gervinho gave the kind of effort on defense that we haven’t seen from an Arsenal winger in a long time.

I’ll disagree with Bouba on Benayoun, though. He looked lost a lot of the time out there. He didn’t seem to know what to do or where to go with the ball when it came to him. And, while he did give a great effort, he seemed to be a step late most of the time defensively. I think he needs more time to work with his new teammates and learn where to go and where to pass the ball in the Arsenal system before he can be truly effective. Arsenal was put under a lot of pressure by Dortmund not only because Goetze and Co. are pretty good, but because Arsenal totally lost control of the midfield and IMHO Benayoun was one of the primary reasons for that happening. You can’t ask for much more from a CDM than Song gave in that match, Benayoun and Arteta have to be better…and it’s essential that both Gervinho and Walcott go all out to help them out. And, in my book, Benayoun, Walcott and Santos (after he came on) were lacking against Dortmund.

But, there’s room for the new guys to improve considerably as they settle in and become more accustomed to playing with their new teammates.