Birmingham Result Sparks New Year



Robin converts his free kick...Cesc opens the Wall

 I'm writing my report after Chelsea's draw to Aston Villa.  Thanks to Villa's last minute heroics, Chelsea have dropped to fifth with Spurs taking their spot in fourth place.  And thanks to a confident winning performance at Birmingham, we are sitting in third place, one point behind Manchester United and Manchester City.  We are definately sitting in a great position, drafting behind the two Mancs who, if they were wise, would be looking seriously over their collective shoulders at the almost-ready-for prime-time-players of Arsenal.

The match at Birmingham on paper looked as if it could be tricky.  Birmingham had not lost to any of the Big Four teams at home this season and had consisitently held us off the past couple of seasons.  Wenger opted to start the same XI as he did with Chelsea, and they looked as threatening and powerful as they did last Monday.  The main difference in the outcome was that we kept a clean sheet against a defensive, physical side on a poor pitch on a cold and rainy day.  Last season, all three of those factors could have affected our play.  It has to be said though, this is a different, tougher team who are -I think - finally understanding what it takes to win.

Here are a few things I noticed

1. Bacary Sagna is a tough humble man.  Rarely have I seen him given to arguing with a ref afer a bad call or doling out retribution to the opposition after being on the receiving end of dirty play.  Twice yesterday Sagna was the target of petulant stamps by Bowyer.  Both incidents were not seen by any of the officials.  However, since the TV cameras captured the moments, the FA is looking at charging him.  My point is, Sagna did what he always does.  He got up and played on and played well.  He was the Man of the Match for me.
2. Robin is his usual self after coming back from a long layoff. He missed easy opportunites in front of the net.  At the start of last season, Robin took four Premier League matches before he scored and then went on to score 8 times in 9 matches before having his ankle crunched by one of our least favorite Italians.  He's in the right positions, he's unselfish and creating chances for others, and his free kick yesterday (assisted by Bowyer and Cesc's disappearing act from the wall) shows why he has the best left foot in the EPL.
3. Cesc is back.  One can tell from his sprints that he feels unhampered.  He is threading passes and keeping possession of the ball whilst defending it from three defenders.  His heart is there for all to see also as demonstrated by his reaction to Nasri's goal.
4. Djourou and Koz are the best defensive combination we have right now.  This comes as no surprise to many of you, but this duo is unbeaten.  And Koz did not make any costly errors.  In fact, I think his match was pretty error-free.  And DJ was impressive as always.  I can't wait to see the DJ/Vermaelan combination.  Who am I kidding?  I can't wait to see Vermaelan period.  But for right now, these two are holding their own.
5. This next observation has been evolving over the last couple of seasons, but here it is.  We can't get booted off the pitch anymore.  Kick us, bite us, put your studs into our kidneys (Theo) - we are not going to panic.  We are going to take it and then outplay you.  I notice that Wenger has stopped complaining about the bad tackling.  That's good.  Bad tackling needed attention brought to it and now that's done, we're getting on with things.  Hopefully, Bowyer will get a three game ban and Johnson's tackle on Cesc?  Well, that was paid for in spades by ...
6. Birmingham's Own Goal.  That's right.  Believe in Karma or Reaping What You Sow or whatever way you want to put it, but Johnson's deflection into his own net was sheer poetic justice at its best.  We thoroughly deserved it too, as we put all the pressure on them to scramble and defend against us...and they made an error.  It's nice when the other team does it, isn't it?
7. Fabianski made an important save and more than naught was aggressive with the ball on crosses, shot attempts, and set pieces.  He still flounders at times, but seems to build momentum off of one good display.  The drawback...what happens if he has a bad display?
8. Song seems to have found his rightful spot again and balanced his defensive duties with wanting to go forward.  He handled the midfield beautifully yesterday and did not have to race back, foul badly, and earn a needless yellow card.  Well done.
9. Theo is important even when he blows scoring opportunities.  His crosses have improved dramatically and he seems to get better every time he gets a chance to play.  He scares defenders, and after handling Cashley last week, I think Theo's confidence will only improve.  He's also so important for our defense as he raced back and tackled a ball forcing it out of bounds while covering for our full back.  For me, Andrey still needs to find that desire and hustle before replacing Walcott in the starting XI.
10. Nasri continued his goal scoring after being set up by our Skipper.  He had missed an easy opportunity earlier, but made sure to finish this shot - right footing it on the inside corner of the left post just out of reach of a diving Ben Foster.  Lovely.

That's about it really.  We have a HUGE game on Wednesday against Manchester City and speculation will focus on who will be the starting XI.  The squad will have four days in between matches, so theoretically Wenger could stick with the winners from our last match.  With FA and Carling Cup opportunities in the wings, he can afford to rotate later.  Let's hope there's no new injuries reported before Wednesday.  Have a good one Gooners.

P.S. (Oh - if you wondering?  Yes, I held that lucky pennant the WHOLE game - except for halftime.  What'd I tell ya?)