It was great to see another away victory secured, especially at yet another tough ground. Arsenal have now beaten Man City, Everton, Aston Villa, Blackburn and Wolves and drawn at Liverpool and Sunderland. An excellent record, especially when you consider the emphatic wins at tottenham and Newcastle in the Carling Cup and the win at Partizan in the Champions League.
Andrey Arshavin stood out on Saturday with an excellent goal, an inventive assist that wasn't as easy as it looked and a hard working, creative performance. It's nice to see the hard work and ability together, as he looks an amazing player when he turns it on like he did at Villa Park. I think people have been a bit hard on him saying that he has had a poor season so far, he has played very well in quite a large number of games and scored 6 goals and has created a lot of assists. There's not many players I'd swap him for.
He also played very well when he went into a central attacking midfield position in the second half, getting on the ball more in dangerous positions, running at Villa's defence and drifting wherever his heart desired. This is interesting as it's surprising Wenger chose to do this during the game and I wonder if he plans to use Arshavin in this role more often this season. If he does I'll be glad because he looks at his best in that position.
Another player that stood out for me was Chamakh. This sort of game should suit him down to the ground and it's also the sort of game where he should come in very handy. His physical presence out- did that of Dunne and Collins, he scored a goal, provided the assist for goal no. 4 and always looked dangerous, his header in between the first two goals that was saved comes to mind, especially when you bare in mind he climbed above Collins to head that ball with such power and intent. I would imagine van Persie will play some part against Wigan on Tuesday, but I am curious about how things will pan out up- front this season what with Chamakh's terrific form this season so far and van Persie's quality. Last season at Villa we drew 0-0 with Arshavin up-front on his own and this time we had Chamakh up-front who made a massive difference, check the result for proof.
An excellent performance, one where we looked threatening and dangerous going forward and solid defensively with Koscielny having a very good game. I know we conceded two goals but the first one shouldn't have counted and the second one was from a corner, in open play we looked very solid. It's rather impressive that we are so good going forward even without Fabregas and van Persie, which shows the strength in depth of the squad and the improvements made by players like Nasri and Wilshere this season. Long may it continue.
Player ratings:
Fabianski 7
Sagna 8
Squillaci 7
Koscielny 8
Clichy 7
Rosicky 8
Song 8
Wilshere 9
Nasri 8
Arshavin 9
Chamakh 9
Denilson 7
Gibbs 6
Djourou N/A
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