A worthy enough win that brought little more than perhaps just a touch more respect. Though some of that respect is also due to Galatasaray supporters who actively cheered their team on despite them being 3-0 down and having already dropped out of the competition failing even to make the Europa league. They seemed intent on encouraging their team to keep trying to get something out of the game though they must have felt the game was over by half time.
An early goal is always a huge lift when in the sort of fragile form we’ve displayed at times this season and if there’s one thing that Podolski does well it’s putting the ball away when he’s in the box and the ball his on his left foot. More surprising are the two other left foot finishes that followed Poldi’s opener but this time from the right footed Aaron Ramsey. One a finish of deftness and finesse the other a screamer of a volley from way outside the box. He has made similar ‘Hollywood’ attempts quite often this season usually sailing way over the goal to the frustration of the crowd and probably even his own team mates at times. This one won’t have discouraged him from trying again.
Ramsey has been showing signs of getting his game back in recent outings and his first half performance may also give his confidence enough of a boost to attain the heights he had reached over much of last season. With Flamini sitting behind, Ramsey’s central midfield partner Ox also had a good first half with Melo struggling to contain either of them. Ox mixed his game up quite a bit willingly taking players on but also happy to play long with decent accuracy too.
This was billed as an opportunity for Podolski and Campbell to stake their claims but while it’s difficult to argue with Poldi’s two goals, adding a neat right foot finish in the dying seconds of the game, despite also hitting the bar with another attempt or Campbell’s willingness and touch I’m not sure that either were hugely successful in doing so. It’s clear what Poldi does well, very well in fact, but his movement isn’t great and the game seems to pass him by at times. Having said that the second half was played like an exhibition game to test our defensive organisation which isn’t likely to get the most out of players like Poldi who doesn’t really seem to have the pace or positional awareness to play on the counter. He’s a great sniffer of a chance though.
Playing on the right is Campbell likely to get in ahead of players like Walcott, Ox, Sanchez maybe Gnabry even? He didn’t really make a convincing case in this game. Likewise Sanogo toiled manfully and while his neat layoff finally brought a goal in the dying moments he doesn’t really show the control needed for anything other than nuisance value. Maybe it’s there and we just haven’t seen it enough yet but he still seems to have a way to go to me.
With Ramsey and Flamini off at half time for pragmatic reasons the second half wasn’t quite an exhibition match as the Turkish side were determined to make a contest of it. But while Debuchy got 75 minutes of playing time under his belt and looked solid the half was used to give some of the youngsters some experience. Zelalem, who has impressed in recent pre-season games, had more touches than any of our players while he was on the pitch and passed quickly, frequently and accurately though maybe not too ambitiously. Similarly Maitland-Niles saw plenty of the ball, tackled and intercepted, cleared and blocked and still passed accurately. Their respective 91% and 93% pass completion rates when playing on the back foot as we were for much of the second half are commendable stats when giving the ball away has proved costly for us when under pressure in other games.
What can we take from this game? The team has the satisfaction of a good win with which to help combat the negativity that surrounds us all too readily when we don’t win. Mertesacker and Chambers have shown they can defend, Debuchy is back playing, Ramsey maybe back playing too and a few promising youngsters have some positive memories. Oh – and we also have the regret that had it not been for the disappointment of conceding late goals against Anderlecht we would have topped the group.
So who’s up next then? Real, Bayern, Barca perhaps? It’s good to be back competing among Europe’s biggest teams yet again isn’t it!
Share this article
