Arsenal 4 – Reading 1

There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home! Oh… right… Well, that was one game I rather enjoyed this year. Arsenal finally came out and dominated a lower team from beginning to finish (except for that bone headed defensive lapse where Monreal Nacho-ed himself out of position). Really though, a pleasure to see Arsenal play a complete 90 minutes and control the opposing side like a top tier (?) team should.

I’ll be honest here, I was a bit worried before the game started. First, the lineup. I really thought that AOC had “played” his way into the starting lineup. Additionally, I really was a bit annoyed by trying to place (squeeze) Carzola up left. The guy is a straight up CAM. Just leave him there dammit. Glad to see the interchange between him and Rosicky didn’t bugger it all up. Third. Gervinho starting. Shit. It’s ok, maybe someone will be able to be near or far post to put one of his shitty shots through goal. In the end, the lineup worked and we nabbed 3 needed points (could this be the year of the Chelsea collapse? They do have the makings for one-disgruntled manager, slim lead in points, their own version of Gervinho in Torres).

All things aside though, I still can’t stand Gervinho even after his fairly (teeth clenched) solid game. He did quite a good job attacking a much weaker side, put one into the net and provided 2 for others but the guy STILL screwed things up at times and had me wanting to put the five dollar remote through the screen of a thousand dollar TV!

Example 1: great movement in the 21st, solid run up, and then scuff the shit out of the shot. Serious kudos to the Reading defender as he obviously knew how to play his man (sit back. sit back. wait. wait. you know he will do it. and… yep, scuffed shitty shot. I’m a genius).

Example 2: 24th minute, great run up again, solid movement and… wait for it… oh! there is the Gervinho I know! Scuffed shitty shot!

Example 3: 42 minute, front of goal, shot over the top…

Example 4: Shitty wide open header… You get the point here.

Gervinho could have EASILY had a hat trick in this one against seriously inferior opponents (they hung 5 on us earlier this year? sheesh…). And look, I have to be honest here, I can’t stand him. I want him gone. I enjoy his attacking style (sometimes and albeit only against subpar opponents) but he scrubs WAY too many of his shots and in this year alone I still have nightmares of his shitty shots no more than 10 yards out in the middle of the box. Not to mention that he seems to have brain farts right in the middle of his run up at goal (ok. slip past this guy. done. dribble here. beat that guy. OH SHIT! the goal! what do I do! oh! shoot! wait?! what just happened?!) If there was a team calling for his services I would happily oblige and I hope Arsene does so this summer.

On another note, I haven’t touched on the Diaby news because I just can’t bear the thought of what this guy has had to deal with. He really looked sharp at the beginning of the season, got injured again, never really looked the same and now he is out long term again. For the Yanks who don’t know, he is basically the Stuart Holden of Arsenal and I just want the guy healthy for an entire year to see what he can do for the club. Well, much luck to him but I think this may be the end of his Arsenal career because at some point we will just have to move on (and so will he).

Oh, and don’t even get me started about the missed call on Giroud. It was a penalty. Everyone knew it was and if the score were nil-nil at that point I think it would have been called. That said, the ref surely had his head up someone’s arse because even a blind man would have saw that one.

Alright arseholes, until next time. Enjoy the shot of Gervinho hopefully taking the long walk off into the sunset…

Gervinho (Photo credit: Ronnie Macdonald)