Montpellier v Arsenal Analysis – A little lucky but winning teams NEED luck

Montpellier Analysis and Aftermath: by SV

So, that’s three points on the board for the Arsenal then. Not the cleanest of wins by any means but a win is a win nonetheless. There were ample positives and negatives to be taken from the game, but I’ll start with the former.

Some of our play in the first half was truly superb. Besides that early slip up from the Verminator – who has, by the way, been both an outstanding CB and captain so far this term – Arsenal were firmly on top. We scored two clinical team goals of a very high quality and, in general, dominated Montpellier completely. Lukas Podolski and Gervinho, particularly, sparkled in the first half and it is clear that, when they hit their stride, any defence is going to struggle to contain them. Both got goals, which makes it 3 goals in 3 games for both of them, and we have good reason to hope that their form will continue against City.

However, it must be noted that it was not all positives. During the second half, it was Montpellier that dominated us. And, though it’s easy to say we defended resolutely, it may not be true. Though our good defending, no doubt, played a part in keeping them out, they still had plenty of chances to draw and perhaps even win the game. I have always said that good defending is not preventing your opponents from scoring, but preventing them from having chances to score. Once you let them have that chance, the rest is luck. This is what I say to every annoying Chelsea fan that I meet; they got lucky in the UCL last year, both Barca and Bayern had plenty of opportunities to beat them, but missed their chances. Ergo, Chelsea got lucky. And, though we did deserve something out of Tuesday’s game, we must realise that we have been very fortunate to come away with all three points.

But come away with three points we have, which is more that can be said for Manchester City, who suffered a comical loss to Real Madrid, after leading 2-1 with very little left on the clock. It would be dangerous to assume that they will lie down to us after such a disappointment, but I think we can safely say that they will not have fully recovered from such a dramatic and draining defeat.

We ourselves will also be tired, however, with many of our starting XI playing the full ninety against both Montpellier and Sunderland. I’m not sure who I expect to start, but have no doubt that Wenger has a plan…the man always does.
Till tomorrow.

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