Football Special Report: Arsenal's Nasri on top of his class
If Arsenal is on the top of the table despite of their defensive incompetence, it is certainly because of their sumptuous forward play. It is hard to recall the title being won by any team with a defence as ramshackle as Arsenal’s. In the absence of Thomas
Vermaelen, Arsene Wenger’s team is only relying on one man whose performance been worth praising and well deserved and that is none other than Samir Nasri.
Nasri has scored eight league goals and every one of them is scored in some fashion and managed to assist others in scoring for his team. He seems almost ready to fulfil the prophecy of becoming the next Zidane and why wouldn’t he? "He was the difference
between the sides," said Mark Hughes, the Fulham manager after the latest match at the Emirates.
Players like Nasri’s, always prove to be an inspiration and motivation for his team mates. Andrey Arshavin also played a great role in Arsenal’s victory against Fulham. With his close range volley in the sixth minute of the kick off, he could have opened
his goal account for his team but was denied a fabulous save by the keeper Mark Schwarzer. They were then denied at various occasions from yards away the goal post, with Nasri and Arshavin trying their lucks with superb passing between themselves.
When Arsenal was thinking of scoring and getting their team ahead of the rivals, they showed confusion with the defence and paved a way for the Fulham striker to equalize. It was a time when Arsenal defence seemed shackled and would have caused a shrill
in the manager’s spine. Later Sebastien Squillaci and Laurent Koscielny while attempting to head a ball accidently had a clash and took their time to recover lying on the ground. The game went on again and just before the half time, Clint Dempsey played a
beautiful through pass to Diomansy Kamara for a descent try at the goal from 14 yards.
Arsenal started off the second half strongly. It must have been the manager’s speech for sure, but it definitely seemed to have worked for them. They started to play offensively and with Arshavin and Nasri started to penetrate the defence, they managed
to strike a routine ball for an easy punched away for the keeper Lukasz Fabianski. Fulham response to that was a constant contact where they tried to convert every chance they had. They had close calls at various occasions with side corners unable to connect
to them properly. With a queue of attack called off by the home side, Arsenal manager made a strategic move which proved to be the turning point of the match. Robin Van Persie was introduced for Tomasa Rosicky, which in the 70th minute cleared off
a Fulham corner assumingly proven to be the most crucial saving of the match.
Five minutes later, Nasri scored an absolutely sublime goal. A perfect bisecting pass from Van Persie was collected by Nasri close to the box, whom “Zidan-ish mad skills” allowed him to magically chip the ball inside the post from a relatively difficult
angle. "His goals were a combination of touch, intelligence, special talent and also calmness because he needed to be patient to finish on both occasions,"
said by Wenger himself after the match who was pleased to have him signed and paid the price of $11 m or more. About the reports of his signing, the Gunner’s manager cleared all the misconceptions by saying,
"Many people questioned me when I took him here but he is showing he is a special talent and I think there is more to come from him."
Although, Arsenal’s performance was pretty convincing for the fans as well as for the keepers, but the last hitch up of the match came in the 78th minute when Etuhu strike was blocked and cleared away by the Arsenal defenders.
"I agree that at stages we looked a bit vulnerable in the air," said Wenger.
"But every team is struggling for consistency at the moment. We have the desire and spirit to fight for the title – are we good enough? We will find out."
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