Arsenal: Uncharacteristic Win Could Lead To Successful Season
Arsenal scraped through Saturday’s match with Southampton thanks to a late Santi Cazorla penalty. The uncharacteristic win could bring great success.
Winning ugly is how champions are born. Last season, surprising and unexpected league winners Leicester City, while wiping the floor with the competition early in the season, then began grinding out the victories in the latter half with a series of 1-0 wins. Arsenal were very ugly on Saturday. They also won.
The match started in uncharacteristic (a word that acutely and accurately describes the the performance at the weekend) fashion. Southampton dominated the early stages, winning the ball with ease in midfield and limiting the fluency of Arsenal’s intricate passing, especially in central areas.
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The breakthrough came in unfortunate circumstances as Dusan Tadic stepped up to curl a dangerous free kick towards goal. Petr Cech stretched, tipped the ball onto the woodwork only to see it rebound off his back and trickle into net. While the start was poor, both in performance and result, the latter stages of the game brought an improved result without the performance.
Laurent Koscielny, the birthday boy, scored the equaliser with a fantastic overhead kick but a frustrating second half in which chances were few and far between, Arsenal relied on the naivety of Jose Fonte and the kindness of the referee to secure the three points. The penalty came through a foul on Olivier Giroud, someone who certainly provided a much needed physical element to the attack once on the pitch, and Santi Cazorla, after a nervewracking wait, swept home the resultant spot kick.
This was not a consummate, free flowing, typical performance that as fans we have come accustomed to witnessing. The midfield looked rusty, mechanical and awkward, plagued by sideways and backwards passes, rather than looking forward with any cutting edge or incision. It was, as previously mentioned, uncharacteristic.
For how many years have Arsene Wenger’s sides dominated games, creating tons of chances, controlling the match, playing beautiful football and losing 1-0? The winning mentality has been a critique of Wenger and his team in recent seasons, and rightly so, but against Southampton, they showed it in spades, and it could lead to a season full of success.
I am not saying that because of one lucky result, Arsenal are now nailed on Premier League champions. Simply, that this is a win that is very rarely seen from a Gunners side. It is a win built on will, and it could will them to greater success this coming year.
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