English Premier League: Arsenal vs. Manchester City – Arsenal team analysis (Part 6)
Marouane Chamakh
Ever since the departure of Thierry Henry, Arsenal have seemed to struggle to find a centre forward who can truly lead the line. The team had the likes of Robin Van Persie to try and lead the line, but the Dutch striking sensation can’t
seem to ever be fit for an entire season and do what he was asked to.
Therefore in the summers Arsenal were given a ray of hope. Moroccan born striker Marouane Chamakh, insisted that the only team that he would join as a free transfer, would be Arsenal and the destiny card played its role.
Now ever since his arrival to the side has gone on to prove to be the perfect centre forward that the team could have hoped for and again he was at his best against City.
In the fifth minute of the game, it was Chamakh’s brilliantly timed run that saw him get onto a Fabregas through ball before the Manchester City defender, Boyata. However Boyata still went into the challenge and it wasn’t surprising to
anyone when he failed to make a clean tackle, but instead managed to hack Chamakh’s leg instead. As a result of the clumsy tackle by the young defender he was shown a red card and Arsenal were given a lifeline very early on in the game.
Chamakh apart from being Arsenal’s serial free kick and penalty winner also manages to hold onto the ball rather brilliantly. Every time he gets hold of the ball, he holds onto it and wait’s till another team mate is in a good position
to pass the ball to. The player used this ability of his to his advantage against City as he would receive the ball and then play as the holder up front and target man, to whom all the passes were directed towards.
Chamakh also showed great strength and physical presence throughout the game. There were countless moments in the game, when it was strongly believed that the City defence would get the better of Chamakh, but the forward beat the odds
and quite literally man handled the likes of Jerome Boateng.
The only thing missing from the player’s performance was a goal. The player did almost everything brilliantly other than; he just couldn’t seem to score a goal. He had a golden opportunity to get his name on the score sheet in the eighty
first minute, when Fabregas tied him up to score, but he just couldn’t seem to keep his shot on target. He was soon after replaced by Nicklas Bendtner but left the pitch to a standing ovation at the hands of the visiting Arsenal fans.
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