Montpellier 1 - 2 Arsenal: Just about escaped with a smash and grab victory

As far as Arsenal performances go this season so far, what we saw tonight was probably our sloppiest and most lethargic. Montpellier might have been in poor form domestically, but clearly the occasional got them well up for this one and it showed with their performance being far more dynamic than our's.

Even first half
The first half was something of a stalemate, with neither midfield being able to assert their authority on the game. Chances were few and far between and all three goals came in the space of just a few minutes.

There was little doubt about the validity of the penalty. Camara managed the subtlest of touches to knock the ball away just as Vermaelen was coming in to tackle. By no means was it a bad mistake, but with Vermaelen's aggressive way of defending there's always a chance of these sorts of fouls.

Younes Belhanda scored a Panenka and Montpellier had the lead in only eight minutes.

Thankfully, Arsenal responded like the top team they are and grabbed two quick goals. Cazorla picked the ball up between the lines and plays it in to Giroud, who managed to poke it through first time to Podolski to round him off simply. For the second goal, we finally saw some link-up play down the right hand side. Gervinho ducked in off his flank, which opened up space for Jenkinson. The ball fortunately ricocheted into the Anglo-Fin's (is that even a word? ) path and he played in a good cross for Gervinho to tap-in.

At this point, I thought Arsenal could have killed the game off. Montpellier's momentum had been stopped dead and Arsenal were looking good going forward. They chose to rest on their laurels, though, and it could have proved costly...

Inability to retain ball leads to poor transitions in second half

Montpellier must have received a rocket up the arse during half-time, because they started the second half considerably better than they ended the first.

Arsenal had multiple problems in this half. To begin with, Montpellier's increased pressure on our midfield; they got in tight quickly and launched attacks as soon as they nicked it back. Arsenal failed to play around the pressure.

The reason why we couldn't play around the pressure is twofold. Firstly, the double pivot of Arteta and Diaby and the trio of Cazorla, Podolski and Gervinho were too far away from each other. This meant that whenever one of the three got on the ball, they had no one to pass to when they were inevitably surrounded by three Montpellier players. Likewise, whenever Arteta and Diaby got on the ball, they couldn't find the attackers since they were too far up and marked tightly.

To further exacerbate the issue, Giroud regularly failed to hold the ball up and struggled against Montpellier's defenders all game.

Not being able to keep the ball, Arsenal could not transition from their defensive shape to an offensive one, so we couldn't create any opportunities to kill the game off.

Moreover, we had to constantly backtrack and reset our defensive shape, which was exceptionally difficult with Montpellier playing quick and fluid football. Hence, we were under intense pressure for a good fifteen to twenty minutes.

What helped us get the win in the end was that we settled into a defensive shape. We still struggled to counter, but at least we had men back in some form of shape. Luck played it's part, too. Towards the end, we looked a tired and ragged side and there were gaps for Montpellier to exploit. Fortunately, their finishing let them down.

Still a good start

So it was a performance that was far from perfect. In general, I thought we could have done more in the first half and looked tired in the second. Make no mistake, it takes very high levels of stamina and concentration to play the sort football we're playing; quick, attacking play, and regularly transitioning between an organised defensive shape and a fluid attacking one. I daresay there was an element of over-confidence here, too, but I won't go into that.

Saying all that, three points away in Europe, no matter who it is against, is always a very good thing. Podolski and Gervinho continue their good goalscoring form and it's our third win on the bounce and only our second goal conceded in five games.

Looking ahead to Manchester City game

Needless to say, Arsenal will have to play a lot better if they're to get a good result on Sunday. This will be a good opportunity to see if this Arsenal side can put one bad performance aside and return to earlier set standards straight away.

12 months ago we would have buckled under pressure

praise our determination

We were awful but 3 points much more important than the performance tonight.

Bould's influence

Boudl makes us win shit games

I was watching the game of the century. How did Poldi and Merte play? Did Cazorla assist? ( fantasy team).

only 2 gaols conceded so far

Mertesacker was a Rock. Podolski has 3 goals in 3 games now. Was great attacking and defending.

I am glad with the 3 points, but I missed the first half how was Grioud playing?

REWB wrote:im starting to think giroud is just not mobile enough to be an arsenal forward. but we will see, he still has time.

He just needs that one goal.

We need King Henry back ASAP.

Giroud would score

REWB wrote:im starting to think giroud is just not mobile enough to be an arsenal forward. but we will see, he still has time.

Apart from the assist to Poldi, he was poor. When the team need him to hold on to the ball and relieve pressure he kept loosing it

RealGunner wrote:Mertesacker was a Rock. Podolski has 3 goals in 3 games now. Was great attacking and defending.

Thanks for the info. My prediction from the last year is coming true slowly. I told you you had one of the best defences talent wise. Your wingers didn't track back. Now, that they do you see their real face

their energy was amazing all night long.

we won the game because of Arteta. 10/10 performance. Absolute masterclass in midfield

It was like that Everton away game last season. We got battered and bruised tonight but 3 points feel a lot sweeter in these conditions.

Let's just move on and hope we can nick a point at City in the weekend.
(yeah, I'm that humble )

Just the result Arsenal of old wouldn't get. We wouldn't have been able to grind out a game we were the poorer team in before.

content that we managed to get away with 3 points.. but not happy with our performance..
*
in the second half, we saw our defence exposed for the first time this season.. we were pretty poor and put a tired performance..
We have an important match coming this weekend, we played last Saturday.. Still.. We started again with the usual guys.. and.. Why the F**k was our SUBSTITUTIONS were not used properly.. Diaby was tired in the second half and was putting clumpsy challenges.. Gervinho andd Cazorla too looked tired.. and we use our last 2 subs at 89th min trying to protect a lead.. and who comes.. Walcott ! i expected Koscielny or Santos.. Can any1 here give a logical explanation ?
*
Mannone - 7 had a decent game
Jenkinson - 7 good game.. great cross..
Metskr - 6 lucky that Belhanda wasted the oppertunity.. went for it and completely missed it..
Verm - 6.5 good
Gibbs - 5.5 nowhere near the Gibbs we have seen this season
Arteta - 7 tried hard to win some possession with good success
Diaby - 6 mixed display.. 1st half dominated eveyone..2nd half.. looked tired.. grew overconfident.. lucky not to concede the penalty..
Cazorla - 6 didnt have much of the ball.. had some moments of class..
Podolski- 6.5 showed composure with a cool finish.. good interlinking play.. weared off in 2nd half..
Gervinho - 7 had a nice game.. excellent 1st half and fatigue effected him in the 2nd half..
Giroud - 6.5 good game.. won all the duels.. good play..
Ramsey - 6 looked energetic..

We won with our backs against the wall for 45 minutes, we won without AW tonight (Despite what some will say that has a massive impact on team performance).

We went a goal down and responded in electric fashion, to me the team had their eyes on City after 45 minutes. 3 points away from home in Europe is always welcome.

We need Szczensy back on Sunday, Mannone is nowhere near his level.

Done with the first post.

I didn't touch on it then, but I did suspect that Arsenal underestimated Montpellier a touch in the second half and thought they could see out the game without much effort and save themselves for Sunday.

But as we all know, you can't take your foot off the peddle at this level of competition. A better and more savvy side would have punished us.

I expect that the level of focus we've seen in our league games will return on Sunday.

The first half was good enough, maybe not great but good enough. The second half, yeah, not so much. I'm pretty happy with our defence though, bar a few blips that are to be expected when you defend for a whole half!

We probably deserved a draw at best, but like others have said, I'll take a gritty win for once.

guys.. most of you agree that we were fatigued and planning to see out the game.. but still we didnt use our sustitutes well in such game.. dont u think that was pretty poor management ?