Arsenal were easily the better side at home against AC Milan in the first leg of their Round-of-16 Champions League Tie, but missed several clear scoring opportunities.
Hleb - Outshone Kaka by several lumens. Created space and opportunities for Arsenal to score with his trickey and pace (8).
Cesc - Had some shots on target, but the keeper dealt with them fairly easily. Is slowly coming back to his best form (7).
Adebayor - In the running for Arsenal's best player until he put a would-be late winner off the bar when it looked easier to score. Created a lot of space, and held up the ball, to give Arsenal opportunities to score. He is relied upon heavily by his teammates: used as the outlet for the ball during most possessions (7).
Flamini - Also had a chance to score, but hit it tamely to the keeper. His one-touch control has really come along, and he has the energy, pace, and timing to break up opposition play. AC Milan created next to nothing with Flamini as the windshield wiper in front of the back four (8).
Eduardo - Didn't have the flair to create something from midfield, and didn't take the half-chances to score that came his way (6).
Eboue - Missed a good chance to score, but created a few, for others to miss. His dive that earned a yellow card was a case of exaggerating contact, which is preferred to inventing contact. He was only down injured once, and it only lasted a short while. Some of his runs after he missed his scoring chance were great (7).
Sagna - Played well, and did his part to keep AC Milan quiet. He's great at one-on-one defending. He also got forward (7).
Gallas - Good defending (7).
Senderos - Had to come on early when Kolo Toure limped off. Had some shaky moments (losing out after pushing up in to midfield) and some very good moments (sheparding the ball into touch to deny Pato) (7).
Clichy - Had a good game. Always had space down the left and saw a lot of the ball. Defended well too (7).
Lehmann - Didn't have a lot to do (7).
Bendtner - Came on for Eduardo in the 74th minute, and almost looked like he could help create something (7).
Walcott - Came on for Eboue in the 89th minute.
The game should be sparking a classic debate of whether the glass is half full or half empty. I'm optimistic, so I take it as a positive that Arsenal were easily the better side and were able to create a lot of chances, even though they didn't score. Any number of Arsenal Supporters, and maybe the bookies as well, will consider the tie all but lost.
2 days ago
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7 comments:
Thanks again for the nice write-up. How did Toure look before he went off injured? I have not seen the game but I thought before the game that Senderos should have been selected ahead of Toure because he had a nice run of games in which he was very solid.
Kolo Toure looked ok before he went off. His injury was strange. He got bumped, and it didn't look like a big deal, but he could barely walk.
Perhaps this is related to the injury he sustained during ACN. Reports say that his leg was injured when hit by Pato's shot (!) They are saying he would be out for "only" 2 weeks.
Yeah, he got hit on the knee by the ball, and he was out for the count. Big Phil did ok, though.
These past two days have been very hard for me. I couldn't read much football news and I was in serious withdrawal. I finally managed to watch the first half last night and I thought we did ok. There were a lot of pretty passes but Milan played excellent defense and we lacked the cutting edge in the lat third of the pitch.
A few observations:
1) Eduardo is not a midfielder. His forward play really suffers when he he has to go back to our own box to defend. He is much better loitering around the opponents' box.
2) Eboue is not a midfielder. He plays right midfield like he is still a right back. He is much better when he overlaps down the flank but he doesn't know how to take on and run at the defenders. His performance in this match, though, was much much better than what I've seen in a while.
3) Because of Eduardo and Eboue, Arsneal midfield seems weak. The linkage between the middle and the final thirds is dominated by Milan who were content to just sit back and absorb the pressure.
Kaka was strangely quiet. It almost seems like he was just watching and taking notes for use in the return leg. I expect him to shine at the San Siro in two weeks.
Several AC Milan players were subdued. It was a big missed opportunity for Arsenal: 2-0 would have been a logical result. The second half of the game was more open than the first half.
I am very pleased with Senderos' play. Did you noticed after Eduardo sent in a corner in the first half, big Phil took the ball down to the byline and tried to send in a cross with his left foot? I almost broke out laughing! His commitment is unquestionable.
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