Job done. A routine victory against inferior opposition? No way. It’s never routine.
First things first. That formation wasn’t particularly clever, bearing in mind we were lining up against a team of decent technicians who play with 5 across the middle and like to move it about. I sort of got the logic in that we were at home, and the onus was on us to be positive, but looking at it made me knackered on Parker’s behalf before a ball was kicked. By the time he was finally spared doing overtime, the guy was dead on his feet, and if he’s overloaded like that much more, we’re going to break him.
Today, 4-4-2 looked positively prehistoric, and should be a plan B at best, with Defoe being the man to miss out, and VdV, the better footballer, playing behind Adebayor in a 3, in front of Parker and Sandro. Indeed, the only time Rafa broke away from his nominal right-wing shackles, he found himself on the end of a lovely ball from Adebayor to score the games opening goal. There were times in the first half when Arteta had so much space to drift around in, we made him look like bleedin’ Fabregas. THAT’S how bad that 4-4-2 was.
We won this game, not by out-playing or out-thinking them, but purely because we had better players, in better form playing with greater belief. A ravenous home support may have also helped.
5 years ago I’d have taken any kind of victory against this lot. Not today though. It was the best opportunity in recent memory to really establish ourselves as the dominant force in our corner of London
Still, nice hit from Kylie.
