Can't believe that was only 1 - 0. Bendtner and Eboue proved yet again they have no composure with shots or the final ball, bloody uselsss. Nasri was superb. I can't see us struggling against them back in Rome to be honest they were pretty awful all night.
Bendtner had relatively few chances to be honest, there isn't a striker in the world who doesn't miss chances, hell Henry missed a pretty decent amount. But you also have to remember, Bendtner and especially Eboue have all year been played essentially in desparation by Wenger, dropped when playing well, used as scapegoats and are only getting played when others are injured, it hardly does their confidence any good.
Eboue was blooming great tonight, yes sometimes he should pass and he doesn't, and sometimes he makes the wrong decisions, so does everyone. he gave us the drive to go forwards, good interplay, his chance was deceptive, the defender recovered excellently and there was never actually a point where there wasn't a defender and a keeper between him and the goal. He won, without cheating, loads of freekicks in great positions, but our relative crappyness at them and we didn't really threaten from most. I wouldn't play him for his shooting ability, but his driving forwards and defensive cover, over the two hapless twits, easily. Wenger screwed us later in the game, taking off Bendtner when he had been very effective wasn't the right move, he was up to speed and playing great, Vela never got into the game, he stopped us having a target man to win headers and hold up the ball which he'd done great. Eboue should have been subbed around the 70th as he's barely played a full game lately and was knackered, considering he was running the entire length of the pitch, full speed, and popping up all over the left side of the pitch in their box aswell, he had a right to be tired. Worked harder than anyone on that pitch tonight tbh.
I would say again that Denilson looked not great defensively, them giving us the ball constantly helped loads, Song when he came on looked pathetic. When we've actually managed to play this kind of enthusiastic fast breaking football(which is a rarity) it only shows up how slow and useless Song/Denilson are at that football. Diaby had one or two moments of brilliance with an almost perfect long ball to RVP, but other than that, was generally poor, missed passes constant fouling, no tackling ability to speak of.
It was a good performance that would only have been improved by Denilson, Diaby and Song not being involved. Clichy made one early mistake where he stepped up, missed the challenge and left the guy to run in behind, other than that he was absolutely fantastic, intercepting constantly, running the ball, pushing up the field.
Again we had next to no support from a attacking central midfielder though, Denilson/Song offer no threat at all. To get anywhere near a cup this or next year they have to be dropped. Again tonight I think Vela uptop, Eboue as the DM, RVP right and in the future Arshavin/Fabregas in the central mid role is going to be our strongest team. or vela left/Nasri right and RVP upfront.
