Kevin Whitcher
Ed’s note – I followed the game last night in a French bar which had a screen showing a Premier League show ‘Match of Ze Day’. It focussed primarily on relaying live segments from the Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal games (plus Liverpool at half-time of those and after those three games had finished), also showing the goals of other matches when scored. I was not going to attempt to do a write-up of the events at QPR having seen approx 20 minutes in total of the game, although my impression was that of a scrappy win against a relegation-doomed side from what I did see, a couple of rare moments of quality making the difference. However, to give a more accurate picture, I asked regular Gooner contributor and podcast panellist David Oudôt to fill the gap on this one. His write-up of the match follows with my thanks to him for stepping in…
Arsenal’s third League win a row since that tragic afternoon at WHL seemed to be a combination of the Everton and Palace games in different ways with the mixture of a slow first half and a nail-biting last few minutes, but ultimately a deserved and well worked win was achieved and five restful days can be taken before our Monday trip up the M6 in the FA Cup.
The team selection saw Wenger realise that the advantage of having three genuine centre halves is that you can rotate them when they're knackered, with Mertesacker rested against Everton rather than being dropped. Koscielny was given the day off and Gabriel moved over to the left hand side of the centre back duo. The other change saw Rosicky swapping places with The Ox to start, and a supposedly ill Szczesny replaced on the bench by Martinez.
Chris Ramsey's QPR has a very different air to it than 'Arry's with a lot more eagerness and desire about them, and a degree of motivation. As was to be expected, a relegation-bound side had to throw the kitchen sink at every fixture as though each was a Cup Final in disguise. The R's had a lot more of the ball for the opening half an hour but with the visitors being a lot more sturdy than last season they withheld them comfortably and the Hoops resorted to hit and hope crosses towards Zamora and Austin and a long-range in-swinger, all of which were dealt with very well by the improving Ospina. With Gabriel making only his second Premier League start it was understandable for the West London side to have the 'big-boned' Austin and Zamora look to bully him with tough tackles both aerially and on the ground. Whilst the new signing handled them very well it ultimately led to a supposed 'hamstring strain' and Koscielny replaced him after half an hour. Hopefully this turns out to be a 'Welcome to England' game that toughens him up rather than another bout of Ramsey-itis.
Aside from a toned-down version of Wilshere's goal versus Norwich from last season, which brought a good save by Green from Cazorla, it wasn't until the second half Arsenal generated a real chance. Rosicky got to the goal line and pulled back a chance for Ozil to tap in but the misnamed referee 'Friend' did not give a penalty despite Karl Henry clearly tugging the German back. The saddest thing is that if this happened on the halfway line the free kick would have been given in a heartbeat and Henry rightly cautioned for deliberate foul play, but with referees being paranoid and cowardly because of the numerous cameras in the ground, Friend ran away.
Thankfully the Gunners’ worries were initially allayed just after the hour with a great counter-attack goal finished off by Giroud, but the worries reappeared when Alexis spurned a chance he would have easily taken in games prior to his seven game goal drought. After stealing the ball from Caulker 30 yards out he had an easy one-on-one, and the Alexis of pre-Xmas would have curled into the far corner straight away. Sadly with confidence apparently not as high as it was back then he didn't know whether to shoot or give it to Ozil and instead gave the ball away which made Gooners slightly concerned as a one goal lead is never enough until the ref blows for time.
But whilst confidence is something that comes and goes, class is permanent and shortly after that miss Alexis scored a beauty. He picked the ball up in the QPR box on the goal-line and proceeded to cut inside and then send the ball back from whence it came, somehow squeezing it through the 7.5 inch gap between the post and Green's foot. Normal service on Sanchez TV has been resumed.
From here the team looked hungry for more and the pacey and continually-improving Bellerin made a habit of getting to the byline and knocking the ball across to create chances, but the last 10 minutes became an elongated version of the end of the Palace game. With Austin pulling a goal back out of nowhere (debatable as to whether Ospina was slightly at fault or out of sight of the shot) the nails were bitten and the Arsenal end stopped singing. But thankfully Mertesacker's week off helped to refresh him with challenges and headers won regularly, no goal conceded, and when the final whistle was blown, the job was done. With each of the other six teams around the Gunners all winning it was crucial for them to do so and hopefully they can continue this against Wham a week on Saturday. Whilst the most Arsène Wenger’s side can hope for in the League is a CL qualification place, if there's any way that can be guaranteed prior to the last day of the season (and hopefully allow for a comfortable preparation for another FA Cup Final) I'm sure we'd all snatch it straight away.
One final point of note. Looking into the Directors' Box during the game, the only recognisable Arsenal representatives in there were Ken Friar and first team coaches Boro Primorac and Neil Banfield. Unless they are in Spain pre-signing the likes of Khedira, Ronaldo and Messi it's rather sad if the likes of Gazidis, Keswick and/or the Kroenkes couldn't (be bothered to) make it over to Shepherd's Bush on a Wednesday evening to watch a game that isn't live on TV. Shame.
Twitter@davidoudot
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Further Reading
A sequel to Arsènal – The Making of a Modern Superclub and entitled Arsène and Arsenal The Quest to Rediscover Past Glories has been written by myself and co-author Alex Fynn. It takes up the story of the club from the last update of the previous book, and can be bought online here. Use the promo code ‘Gooner’ to get 10% off the publisher’s price of £8.99.
