Going in to the highly-anticipated, North London derby, 3rd round FA Cup tie, a lot was expected of Tim Sherwood’s Tottenham side, who four days previously had beaten Manchester United at Old Trafford. Despite the home form of United this season, this is still no mean feat. The Old Trafford victory capped off what has been a great run of 10 points from a possible 12 since Sherwood’s arrival.
All eyes were on Emmanuel Adebayor. The former Arsenal striker has rediscovered his form as of late and would’ve loved nothing more than to dump the club he scored 46 times for out of the cup. But it was not to be his day, but that of his opposite number. The Arsenal striker Theo Walcott stole the show despite not personally finding the net.
The first chance of the game fell to one of the players brought back in to the fold by Tim Sherwood: Christian Eriksen. The Danish playmaker, who has added some much needed creativity from the left hand side since AVB’s departure, broke through the defense only to see his close range effort hit the side netting.
The first openings for the Premier League leaders, Arsenal, were from Serge Gnabry, whose pace and exuberance gave the Spurs defenders something extra to think about all game and Theo Walcott. Both chances were from just inside the Spurs penalty area and both chances went narrowly wide.
Walcott was excellent throughout, proving that not only can he play as a centre-forward but a very efficient, hard to defend against one too. He ran at players, created space through excellent movement and was always looking to run off the last defender. He was even seen to be making defensive challenges! His performance was so convincing that Arsene Wenger may need to reconsider dipping into the transfer market for a new striker.
Walcott’s big chance came after about 25 minutes when Santi Cazorla, who was like the Cazorla of last season without Mesut Ozil in the side, found him with a through ball. The English striker couldn’t convert the one-on-one with Hugo Lloris. His shot found the body of the France captain.
The breakthrough came after 31 minutes when Gnabry was allowed space at edge of the box by the backing off Spurs centre-backs who had a very clever diagonal Theo Walcott run to contend with. Gnabry thread through the ball to Cazorla, who first-time, leathered the ball into the inside-netting with his left foot.
In the 2nd half Walcott continued his mostly, excellently timed forward runs. This time the result was a side netting finish. He rounded Lloris like a seasoned goalscorer, but the angle was just too tight for him to capitalise.
Just before the hour mark Danny Rose was leisurely strolling with the ball around the halfway line. Until Tomas Rosicky took the innitative into his own hands by sprinting at Rose and tackling the young English left back. He had acres of space and ran at the keeper. Finally some pressure was applied but by that time Lloris had rushed out. Rosicky calmly dinked the ball over the head of the keeper to put the game to bed.
Walcott could’ve finally capped his terrific performance with a goal when he caught the Man of the Match vs United, Vlad Chiriches napping. The ball worked its way to Gnabry who played in Walcott. Walcott missed the target slighty.
Tim Sherwood has been praised for changing the ways of the lethargic, creativity lacking, Soldado isolated AVB era. He’s moved to a 4-4-2 and although the partnership that Soldado and Adebayor have kindled is better than their attacking options when the £26m Spaniard was by himself up front, it does mean that they’re lacking numbers in the centre of midfield, especially compared to the 3 of Arsenal. It also means that Christian Eriksen cant play in his preferred position behind the striker. He instead is forced to play wide left, where he clearly doesnt belong.
Arsenal will be pleased with good performances from Walcott, the exciting Gnabry, Cazorla playmaking once more and Jack Wilshere, who has struggled this season. The only worrying thing for fans of the Gunners is that star-performer Walcott was stretchered off towards the end, although the stretchering did look precautionary.
A word has to go to Mark Clattenburg as well who coped well despite the bad press surrounding him.
Arsenal played very well and deserved the victory. The final score 2-0. Man of the match: Theo Walcott.
What’s your take? Is Theo Walcott ready to be Arsenal’s go-to centre-forward?
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