Arsenal Technique Overcomes Bolton Brawn

By JimC Published: 18th January 2010

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by JAMES CURTIS After scoring his goal, and Arsenal’s second which looked to be the vital clincher, Fran Merida sprinted towards the team dug-out. As he did so, Wenger was giving Pat Rice the nod, and on the Frenchman’s command, the assistant coach produced a sheet of paper bearing the title, “Contract: Fran Merida”. The away fans were to busy celebrating to see Merida pull a pen out of his sock and sign his new four year deal right there and then on the sidelines.

Merida’s goal was of the highest quality; technical skill and calmness personified. If you listened closely, you could almost here it laugh in the face of those who bellow each year that Arsenal lack muscle, they aren’t physical enough, and how those kids must toughen up.

Yes, being able to hold your own and compete bodily is a crucial part of the game, and more so in the Premier League than any other, but without the technical nuance in finishing and assisting goals, at the end of the day, it’s almost not worth exerting the energy.

Bolton battled bravely, and under new manager Owen Coyle, gave Arsenal one of the toughest games this season with a high tempo performance that forced the visitors into hurried passes or saw them caught dwindling on the ball. One thing is for sure about the Gunners though, that is, they will continue to play the same regardless, knowing their technical superiority will rub off over 90 minutes.

After Fabregas had carried the ball into the heart of Botlon’s midfield, he laid it left to Eduardo. The Croatian international lifted the ball into the box, behind the darting Andrey Arshavin but fortuitously into the path of Merida. The Spaniard adjusted on a slight deflection, sweeping the ball with him after the deadliest of touches and slotted home low across the keeper with his right foot.

The ball had almost been behind him, still, with the technical deftness to re-adjust with his left foot Merida had carved out a goal-scoring opportunity in the most meagre of space. It showed why Wenger looks for technique first over muscle and brawn when signing a player.

Matthew Taylor had been the primary string pulling along the rest of Bolton’s midfield. He covered a large amount of ground and wouldn’t grant Arsenal a moments rest. For all what it was worth though, when Taylor was presented his own scoring chances, he lacked any sort of conviction.

On one opportunity Taylor was in on goal after a neatly placed through ball. With a nice angle to shoot hard and low across Manuel Almunia, Taylor’s balance and eagerness to shoot too hard instead saw the ball fly deep into the stands. In the second half, Taylor had sprung the offside trap but shot far too early. He hadn’t even looked up yet the panic in his blundered shot said it all.

To be fair, Taylor has made his mark on the Premier League with some exquisite goals during his career, but on the day it was Arsenal’s modus operandi and simple rule on technique above all else, which collected the three points. Look back on the season so far, and you will notice it’s a continuing story of technique prevailing over strength.

The opener hadn’t been bad either. It was as if Eduardo and Cesc Fabregas were reading from the training manual, orientating from the pages as they calculated the best route through Bolton traffic. In the blinking of an eye, the pair had exchanged passes and the Arsenal skipper struck firmly home from inside the box.

“He wasn’t worked on his finishing especially,” Wenger said of Fabregas during the week. “I believe it’s just his calmness in front of goal. He had always the chances and in some games he missed three or four because he wanted always to finish with power.

“Now he finishes calmly. He places the ball and suddenly he scores goals.”

Take note Mattew Taylor.

The goals were not just testament to the ideals of Wenger in terms of how to play the game, it was also a tribute to his policy on who plays it. Merida is only 19 and showed maturity to take seriously his role as a substitute.

Then there was Craig Eastmond of the same age, starting his first Premiership game. He looked comfortable in the hole. Sometimes he was robbed of possession but even Fabregas was caught short a few times. By all accounts it was an impressive attitude the boy from Wandsworth put on and he even made a foul on the half-way line that Alex Song would have been proud of.

In 1995, Alan Hansen famously proclaimed that, “you can’t win anything with kids.“ Arsenal haven’t won the title yet, and seeing how the league fluctuates weekly, they haven’t even got one hand on it. Still, one thing is for sure; you certainly can’t win things without them, as Arsenal confirmed yesterday.

Youthfulness may have its downside when competing against far stronger, fully grown athletes, the likes of which Bolton prosper upon. At Arsenal though, that is compensated for by a generation of lads hungry to succeed and thriving upon the best schooling available in world football.

Of course Merida didn’t pull a pen from his sock and sign a contract, but if the young Spaniard knows what is good for him, he will stay put. His confidence to believe he should be starting games is healthy, but there is plenty of time ahead in his career and he is at a club incomparable to anything else around.

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JimC

TJ14

Gallas and Vermaelen were immense yesterday as was Sagna. They threw themselves at everything. Vermaelen is so hard it is frightening. You can see how much he loves defending. There was a point in the first half when Kevin Davies was running down the wing towards the 146th long ball played forward and TV5′s eyes lit up as he slid in to win it and took Davies out too.

Eduardo had a great game also, starting centrally he was involved in everything taht was good. Hopefully he is coming back to his best. Expect a goal or 2 from him on Wednesday.
ian lai

merida has the potential to be a good player. with him staying who knows we could have the most devastating catalan midfield duo after iniesta & xavi, but in arsenal colours!!
db10

You’re right on the whole but i wish we wouldn’t have to win it with kids because the team’s avereage age isn’t that young anymore if all our players were fit.

Eduardo is getting better with each game and looked good down the middle and the overall team play in the first half was better with AA allowed to drop deep and create along with cesc and rosicky. Eddy’s movement was good and he was looking to run in behind the defenders and if he was a tiny bit quicker (like he was before the injury) he would have got to the through balls that cesc and arshavin played him for a one on one.

I really want him to score a one on one with his feet because he’s missed a few recently but i think once he gets one they’ll keep on coming. Hopefully it will be on Wednesday. If he stays fit I don’t think we will need a new striker and would rather we sppent the money on a goalkeeper or a defensive midfielder. although eastmond did well it will be much much harder for him against villa in a week on wednesday.

also i thought rosicky looked good and if he can stay fit i think he will start to get better at the sharp end and get some goals and assists.

By the way if Cameroon get knocked out of the acn in the round after the group stages when can we expect Song to be back?
db10

You’re right but i still think ramsey is ahead of merida.
Jim

TJ, I share your admiration of Vermaelen’s dead assasin stare. And how good was it when he stepped up to take a free-kick? It’s not completely uncommong for a centre-half to take a set-piece but usually they lash it, like Alex. TV went for top bag. Qualtiy !!
Jim

I’ve seen enough now to see that Merida is a player. It’s never easy to judge how far a youngster can go at Arsenal, but that touch yesterday was the sort Arsenal invest in. We watch on patiently to see his next move, lets hope Fran can find the same patience though.
Jim

Oh yes, Rambo before Franny every time.
db10

so you can see that it will be difficult for fran to remain patient when he sees someone who is roughly a year younger than him in front of him in the pecking order. And Ramsey isn’t even first choice. I hope fran stays but i wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t.
goonamerica

we would not have won this game last year. the muscle would have out shown the skill. but our quality shined through and with our chief enforcer, mr. song away, traore at lb, cesc just back from injury, no pure striker, and rosicky just back also. but we didn’t and even rockie showed some bite in defense of diaby. of course bolton deserved a sending off when cesc was kicked in the face in what bright defined as handbags. but it was the cynical sh*t we’ve come to expect from teams with little skill. nobble the other teams star, and they almost got away with it!
solid result really. and in re Franny. look it takes a squad and give me the name of any player who left arsenal at Fran’s young age and became a major star. my short list is upson, journey man centerback, and anelka, who bounced around top flight football like an excited electron until he found chelski but but due to his greed, ego or both under achieved through the years. if fran wants to go we have 2 or 3 others in the wings ready to go. he would be well advised to signup, stay put, work hard and abosrb everything he can from the maestro AW and his apprentice, CF.
LB

Eduardo is getting better. He’ll be fine. Remember when the year started RVP also struggled to get goals. I assume the new system, where we have midfielders more involved in attack is the reason for drought as the strikers adjust. But RVP adjusted and he became an amazing striker, in terms of link-up play, assists and goals. Eduardo will do the same. Give him time. He’s a smart player.
db10

Also i don’t think his spell on the left did his confidence any good. The commentators suggested it was to ease him back in so hopefully he will play down the middle from now on
Jim

db10: Yea, with a fully fit squad the average age naturally rises although I’m sure it’s considerably lower than the following pack (let’s hope by Wednesday night this is literal speak).

Bendtner, 21, Walcott, 20, Nasri, 22, Song, 22, Denilson, 21, Diaby, 23, even Cesc at 23, that’s a well young attacking line. Slip in players like Clichy, 24, Eduardo and RVP, 26, the average age isn’t rising.

I guess when I’m talking about the quality of having youngsters, it’s sometimes about having a special exuberance on the bench as well.

Old names coming off the bench usually are given a job to see out a game, at Arsenal, our young subs are there to change it and change it they do.
Jim

Yeah I can understand that and we dont really know how frustrating that must be for Merida.

But Wenger rewards good performances/ positive training sessions and if he sees an improvement in Merida there will be a chance.

I wouldnt want him to rot at Atheltico. Anyway, I’m sure Wenger has his own unanswered questions.
Jim

How wise was Wenger in keeping Traore on the pitch and playing Clichy infront of him? Traore’s confidence remains in tack … There is no gurantee he wont be needed much more this season.
db10

i know what you mean and we do have a young squad but my point was that my first team with everyone fit isn’t that young. also at arsenal i don’t think 24 or 25 is considered young anymore (with so many teenagers in the first team squad) and these players should be in peak physical condition.

Of the players you mention who are younger than 24 only nasri song and cesc would be in my first team.
chris

We absolutely would have won this game last year -

A worse team shorn of Fabregas, with Arshavin still not there yet ground out enough results usually horrible looking before Christmas to enable an improved team to get the results they needed after Arshavin turned up.
Eeven before Arshavin they would have won against a team who could not shoot to save their lives and lets at least on in every game -

I’m not really saying anything (except I think that finding a way to win ugly thing they had to do last year is a big part of growing up) just don’t coast on the easy hype.
john

Dont wana be a killjoy, think we should all calm down, any1 forget that we still need a striker, just think we have bolton again, then 4 league matches in a row consisting of Villa(away),The Manx(home),Chelski(away) and liverpool(home), does any1 think we can win theses matches with no striker or no plan b, especially in the chelsea game.
Like I said im pleased as punch at the minute, but around the corner there is always something to keep you in check and not let you get too exited. We are playing fantastically well, but I still think we need another striker in case the passing game dosent click, then maybe we could have a plan B. Dont get me wrong I would love for it not to matter, and the midfielders keep scoring, but alas it cant last till the end of the season,there will be times where things wont go as scripted.

Keep Gooning
Jim

john, i think the whole premiership script, the complete guide to every teams role in the league this year, was thrown out, probably around the time burnley beat united.

arsenal’s usual script is something like a greek tragedy, so if things are to not go as rehersed we should come away from villa, united, chelsea and liverpool with 12 points, more like a disney

i will take wins against villa, united and liverpool, draw with chelsea.
Jim

A draw against Tunisia is likely to take Cameroon through in 2nd place. If that happens they play Egypt on Monday 25th.

The Pharos are pretty good so hopefully Song will be flying home the next day.

Villa are on Wednesday 27th but it is unlikely he will play in that. Perhaps United on Sunday 31st …

If Tunisia beat Cameroon, Song’s tournament will be over as soon as Thursday
john

I would indeed take that also, but a tall, tall order indeed. I might need to go on a 3wk holiday with no tv, radio, phone, or anything where I could find out a result, then come home and let it hit me, then stick the insider on and c just how good or bad it was, i think I should john ‘killjoy’ silk. Anyway im always finding things to bring me down when im up. Maybe I should be Victor Meldrew, might as well, me wife keeps telling me thats the way im going.
Berg10

Agreed on Ramsey but he has had more games, 9 starts + 14 as a sub to Fran’s 3+3 in all competitions
db10

i think that if we can go through these four games without losing we will be in a very strong position and realistically we can do that. these teams still have to play each other and we will have an easier run in and the added bonus of players returning to fitness (hopefully). i’d take three draws and a win although it could go much better than that or it could go worse