While the defensive performance from Arsenal wasn’t great the front two certainly made up for it with excellent performances. Both Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were really up for it and besides scoring the three goals between them they also harried and chased the Valencia defenders from the first minute to the last. Like quite a few others I’ve been critical of both players recently, but then again I’ve been critical of most of the rest of the team too.
I wondered before the game whether the players had been playing so badly recently because the semi finals were weighing on their minds and after last night that seems quite possible. They definitely showed an awful lot more desire and commitment than they did in their previous three league which all ended in defeat. The chances of a top four finish aren’t dead just yet though and a win at home to Brighton on Sunday mighy just reignite them if Chelsea drop any points at home to Watford earlier in the day.
I thought we were good value for our win last night despite Valencia having a few chances of their own. It’s easy to be critical of our defence, but at this level you have to expect the opposition to make chances and we had the best of the chances by a long way last night. It remains to be seen if we can create enough chances away from home to get an away goal which might just prove crucial to our hopes. From the evidence of last night I think our pace in attack is a real asset in that away game and performances anything like last night from our strikers should hopefully be enough to get us through to the final.
Looking towards Sunday it’s really a matter of who’s up to playing as the hectic schedule looks to be taking it’s toll on the players. Laurent Koscielny looked like he had to go off last night as he had nothing left after giving his all yet again and I thought the team as a while looked very tired towards the end with the exception of the two strikers. It’s been a very busy time for all the players recently which hasn’t been helped by our wafer thin squad.
The long term absences of Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck as well as the recent loss of Aaron Ramsey denied us of four players who would have been crucial to the squad at such a busy time. The fact that the arrivals of Stephan Lichsteiner and Denis Suarez didn’t work out denied us two more players and those losses have added to the work load for other players. I really don’t know if they have enough in the tank to keep our top four hopes alive until the final day of the season by beating Brighton on Sunday.
On the face of it we should have an easy task against a team with only one goal in their last seven games, but it might not be so. They will either be playing for the result they need to assure their Premier League survival or free of any shakles if Cardiff don’t win their game against Palace. I hope we can get the win and a few goals to go with it would be great, but keeping players fit for next Thursday night is fairly important too.
We’ll have an idea of what we will have to do before the game depending on how Chelsea do against Watford earlier in the day. They have to go to Leicester on the final day and that’s no easy game either, but our trip to Burnley is a tough one too. Despite looking dead and buried I think we will fall behind United if we don’t win our last two games as they have two easy games and it would be a real blow to finish sixth again so we really need to win our last two games.
Finally with the Europa League final in Baku it’s a serious haul for Arsenal fans if we do make it. My brother in law spends half of the year in Dubai and he got himself a ticket as he’s actually nearer to Baku than London is. I hope he gets to use that ticket watching the team he has supported since he was born next to the stadium play in the final and lift the trophy.
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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