Match Review: Arsenal Through to 4th Round After Early Scare

I’d promised to go ballistic on the club heirarchy should Arsenal lose the 3rd Round League Cup encounter at home to Shrewsbury Town and for half an hour into the match… I was preparing my nerves for the vent I would have to unleash.

The visiting Shrewsbury, playing three tiers below Arsenal in League Two, took the lead after 16 minutes through James Collins’ header. Before then Mark Wright had seen his shot go off the post as the Gunners were put on the backfoot early on.

Collins’ goal brought to fore a need to have a critical look at defensive movement of our players as the lads were on pause mode in the moment of the goal, summing up their performance in the opening minutes of the Cup match.

Nerves calmed when Kieran Gibbs scored his first goal ever for Arsenal with a well taken header off Carl Jenkinson’s cross. The latter and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain combining well in the run-up to Gibbs’ goal.

And fifteen minutes into the second half, the club’s most expensive summer signing (AOC) showed more of his potential when he got the ball from 25 yards out and struck very well to give the Gunners the lead on the night.

It also was his first goal for the club and soon enough, he and Gibbs would be joined on a night of first timers by Israel captain Yossi Benayoun who rounded a good move upfront to sweep home the third off Ozyakup’s final pass and complete Arsenal’s passage to the 4th Round.

There, no rant but… it was a win over a League Two side. Good solid win expectedly but still some room for improvement needed at the back.

Away from field matters, the club’s worst start to a league season in some 50 years has in no way convinced the Arsenal board to as much as consider relieving Arsene Wenger of his job with club Director Ivan Gazidis stating le Professeur is only frustrated at the club’s present predicament but not broken by it.

The South African club executive also reiterated that Wenger remains one of the game’s finest managers and contrary to growing speculation, his job as Arsenal manager is very much safe.

With that said as we prepare for Saturday’s visit of Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League, is Wenger really still the man for the job? And what do you feel can be done to sort our defensive frailties?