A win is a win is a win

It was great to hear the classic scoreline of 1-0 to the Arsenal at the end of the game on Saturday.  3 points, from 17th we jumped to 11th and the Season can slowly start to get back on track.

I'm not one to write match reports, there are several blogs that do this well enough, so will leave them to that, but I do have my thoughts and observations I'd like to share. 

The team is slowly getting stronger and with Song and Gervinho coming back now things can only continue to rise.  We saw what Gervinho can bring and I think we all know if he's fit he'll start on Tuesday. 

Arteta for me had a great debut and you know as they train/play together more frequently that the midfield will get stronger and stronger.

Mertesacker did his job well, yes caught out a few times, but we didn't concede so lets look at the positives, he's gonna bring something to this team and you can see he's not just reliant on his height, he knows where to be be and what to do.  Really think him and Verm could become a killer defencive duo.

Yossi only got 30 minutes so I don't feel I can comment too much but he didn't let himself down and after reading some blogs over the weekend it seems people expecting him to start Tuesday.  We need all the experience in Germany we can so it would be fully justified if he was.

I am looking forward to see what Park and Santos will bring to the Arsenal but not sure when we'll see them start.

Szczesny was brilliant and whilst not many keepers who concede 8 goals in a game would deserve player of the month, he does, and I don't think he can take any blame as such for the display at United.  A good goalkeeper still needs a good defence and on that day we let ourselves down, with bad positioning and silly tackles/fouls etc.  He made another World Class save on Saturday and several on international break.  Long live Shezzer!

Arshavin is coming back, the way the ball just appeared in front of him and his instinct took over was amazing, a cracking shot from quite a wide angle.  There's many top class strikers who would miss that but not our Andre.  He looked good throughout too and hopefully he's turning a corner.  Maybe he is appreciative that he's no longer alone in regards to the older heads, maybe less pressure equals a better Asharvin?

1-0 at home to Swansea though is a bit different to Dortmund in Germany on Tuesday and this is the test that will show what we've got.  No matter who you play you should always be wary and play to your best but this game will require playing in a different gear.  The experienced heads will have to look after the younger players and they need to remember that, generally as a rule for Arsenal, attack is the best form of defence.  The more the ball is in their half the better.  A win would be great but a draw wouldn't be a bad result away from home to the German Champions. 

Will be interesting to see Goetze as we were linked to him throughout the summer.

Here's to Arsenal and to getting back to winning ways.