warnock’s battling warriors
kojodinho - talkingOfArsenal.com
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Arsène loses the battle, but not the war.
So we lost against Sheffield United. Big deal.
I always thought the game against Sheffield United was going to be a tricky affair, considering that for the Northerners, this was effectively a cup game. Conversely, the Southerners were under the pressure of expectation - no-one expected anything other than an Arsenal win and this fixture gave me a distinct sense of unease.
To summarise, our teams performance was poor. One positive to take away from the game was Baptista’s willingness to get stuck in. Alright he still got bundled over a few times as he has been in recent games when he came on as a sub, and he got kicked in places he’s only likely to become aware of after the game, however I did sense a real push for premiership fitness on the part of the Brazilian. And when he is finally right, he will be awesome.
Arsène is too dedicated to ignore the implications of last nights performance. United never stopped fighting, and in the end, the rain, the mud, a terrible pitch, the cold and a couple of referee-dodging punches to Van Persie’s midriff were enough to reduce our shots on goal to the barest minimum. Even after Uniteds makeshift goalie was installed, we only managed a couple of shots on goal, all of which were barely on target.
Rosicky was disappointing. A light, unattached jog by the Czech international on the two occasions after he gave the ball away were enough to get me worked into a frenzy. A rare oversight by the usually dependable Toure, and a ill-judged decision to force the strikers hand by Lehman, saw Nade coolly slot the ball into the goal from distance in a manner that would’ve made Henry proud.
I hope that the team will learn from the experience. Arguably, we need a few more games like this to learn, in order that we can kill off Arsenals tendency to switch off when the elements are against us. If all our remaining away fixtures were played under similar conditions, a mid-table position would surely be our fate.
It’s a funny old game. Mr Warnock made a couple of references in his post-match interviews that sounded like the win was a triumph of English principles over foriegn players. In truth, most if not all of the second string Arsenal squad would stroll into the Sheffield United side with Warnock as their manager.
Seconds out, round two! Bring on Pardue and Charlton.
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