Kevin Whitcher
Arsenal dominated Swansea in last night’s FA Cup 3rd Round replay, especially in the second half, with Jack Wilshere leading by example. If only the team had eleven of him. Chances aplenty were created, with the game remaining scoreless due to a combination of a fine display from the visitors’ keeper and some poor finishing when clear goal opportunities presented themselves, with Theo Walcott the worst offender.
The team selection meant that Wilshere had more of a forward role than traditional, with Santi Cazorla nominally the left-sided attacker. In reality, Cazorla drifted in much of the time, leaving Kieran Gibbs to patrol the flank, and perhaps the double dose of the Spaniard and Wilshere overwhelmed Swansea at times. I thought Francis Coquelin had a very good game in midfield and there is an argument to play him more often.
The first half saw a very open game in which Swansea certainly enjoyed chances of their own, even if it appeared as if, contrary to recent matches between these two sides, they enjoyed less of the possession. The Gunners’ defending at times looked far from solid, with Vermaelen having to make more than one last ditch tackle and the visitors hitting the bar. Laurent Koscielny was suspended for this game and it will be interesting to see who is picked to play centre back at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Arsène Wenger played a very strong side, as good as first choice with the arguable exception of Coquelin. Podolski’s very average display against Manchester City may well have been the reason he was relegated to the bench. There seems little doubt that the manager, conscious of the need to win something, has finally accepted the importance of domestic cups and is no longer in the habit of sacrificing them as he has been doing for a few seasons.
After the interval, the Gunners really upped their game and it seemed a question of whether they could find the goal to prevent extra time, hardly ideal sandwiched between the league fixtures against City and Chelsea. Jack Wilshere was everywhere and an imperious display was capped by his winning strike. It wasn’t a moment on a par with Thierry Henry’s strike at the same stage of the competition last season for pure emotion, but the time of the goal was fairly similar and the relief palpable. No-one fancied Arsenal from a penalty shoot-out if extra time could not separate the teams.
The physical attendance was somewhere around the 40,000 mark. The club did manage to shift most of the 15,000 tickets available to non season-ticket holders (there were about 2,000 unsold in the Clock End upper tier). However, the rest of the 20,000 no shows were club level and season ticket holders who could not get motivated to attend a midweek January game where the temperature was fairly close to zero. It’s strange how season tickets have become like debenture seats. People buy them to have the option of attending, rather than thinking they will use it habitually every time Arsenal play. There has always been an element of this, even at Highbury, but the numbers that do this now are very significant. There are seats that are used once or twice a season, but paid for every game. The crowd for West Ham next week will be better but there will still be a lot of empty spaces.
So it’s all down to Brighton on Saturday week for a match in which everyone and his wife wants a ticket. Arsenal have an allocation of 4,000. The long range forecast indicates the temperatures on the south coast will not be much warmer than last night, so it will be nothing like the fans’ last seaside weekend outing against Blackpool in 2011. The sun shone, Manuel Almunia was replaced in goal by Jens Lehmann and Arsenal’s scorers were Diaby, Eboue and Van Persie. Included in the starting eleven were such names as Clichy, Fabregas, Nasri and Andrey Arshavin. The latter is still on the payroll, and was wrapped up on the bench last night. One wonders if we will ever see him on the field in an Arsenal shirt again…
(Just a quick plug for the latest referendum at the bottom of the home page on the new ticket pricing policy of grade A, B and C matches. Please vote)
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