Quote Originally Posted by Syn View Post
Very pleased with the effort. Excellent defensive performance. I think he’s done it consistently enough to say that Koscielny has really turned into a solid, quality CB. Frimpong in the middle put in a typically powerful but surprisingly mature performance - nothing silly. Coquelin too impressed a lot. Going forward, Oxlade is on another level and I’m confident he’d be an improvement on Walcott and Gervinho...but I didn’t see him helping Djourou out anywhere near as much as Gervinho or Walcott would have. I don’t think he’s lazy but atm he doesn’t have the engine for it - and I think that’s the danger with disrupting our new-found work ethic and balance.

I think Benayoun (and later Gervinho) will be disappointed. Gervinho’s confidence is completely shot atm and I really hope he doesn’t turn out to be this season’s Chamakh - a player who started off very well and was very effective initially but didn’t recover from a bad patch of form. Him and Walcott have had a complete turnaround.

The biggest plus from today is knowing that maybe Coquelin and Frimpong would be very good cover for Song incase he picks up an injury. They were up against better players today but definitely got the better of them.

I reckon we were very unlucky to lose that. Oxlade’s awful corner was one of the very few things he did wrong but ended up costing us. Massive shame - looking forward to seeing Coquelin, Frimpong and Oxlade play in Europe next week...that will be another big test for them.
Gervinho adds pace to our game and I quite like him. Just needs to add finishing to his game and I am confident he will be right up there.