vs West Bromwich Albion

Ahh, a new blog! Why did I decide to create this? Well, I love reviewing my team's performances and I thought, maybe down the line, many many years from now, what if I wanted to take a peak at my team (say 20 years back) and its performance in one particular match in one particular season?! As a part of a team-review plan, I have plans of roping in fellow-gunners @Abhishek's and @Prasanna's.

Okay, lemme leave all these aside for the time-being, and get directly into last week's action! Arsenal cut the red ribbon for the new season 08-09' against newly promoted West Bromwich Albion at The Emirates.

Well, proper match-reviews can be read @Arseblogger's and @CulturedLeftFoot's.

So, I'll do a player-by-player analysis instead.

Match Result: Arsenal beat West Brom 1-0 (Nasri 4')

Alumunia - Pretty solid. He made that all-important save (a gone-haywired offside trap from Djourou and Gallas caused the small period of absolute chaos). 5/10

Sagna - Solid as ever! I would expect a little more efficiency and precision in the Final-Third as the season progresses. His work-rate is again amazing! 6.5/10

Gallas (C) - Pretty decent. Took an amazing shot at goal in the first half, an Absolutely Ungallaish effort! He still needs to improve on his 'temper'. He needs to stay cool and not abuse players for mistakes (He abused Djourou for a pretty long time as the Camera kept focussed. That's very disgusting, IMHO!). Needs to work on his sprints too, later in the season he might have to track back players like Torres, Rooney, Drogba, won't be easy! 5/10

Djourou - Pretty good. Never let us feel the absence of Kolo. He is also confident as he dribbles strikers with ease and passes with utmost accuracy. Yes, as many others, he also has the small periods of Concentration Lapse, but that'll improve with age. He is still 21. I think Wenger should throw away the idea of utilizing the guy for CDM later in the season. He is a very good CB, better than Senderos! 6.5/10

Clichy - As always, incredible work-rate, needs to work on his finishing, you never know, even a full-back maybe needed to finish at times. His defence is a little behind his attacking prowess for the time-being. He still needs to get that agression back like from last season. Overall, pretty good and solid! 6.5/10

Eboue - The Peanut-brain will be called so until and unless he uses his heads. He could have easily scored three goals if he had his head above his neck. A player of his talent should score goals week in and week out. But, Wenger just needs to sit with him and explain about the working of the Human Brain! No, wait, let him know that there actually EXISTS a human brain! He played out of position on Saturday, and CDMing is certainly not his forte! He is much better off as a RW or even better as a replacement for Sagna! 5.5/10

Denilson - Honestly, he was heavily man-marked, and to take up Cesc's responsibility for the first match of the season, was really tough for the Brazilian! He, still played a good game, solid in defending but lacked in creativity. He has a lot of work to be done on the shooting front. He should practise nothing but shooting for say, a month or so! :D Am serious! 5.5/10

Nasri - Easily, the best player of the day! Superb goal, clinical touch! Exemplary work rate! Good to see him taking shots on goal unlike Hleb and almost unlike Rosicky! Nasri's shots are also 'ON GOAL'! :D The guy is better off playing in the mid, I believe! He looked dangerous whenever he was in the middle! He needs to make some more runs into the box, take some risks and show a little more aggression like the way he used to, in Marseille. A lot to improve, but an exceptional performance on debut! 7.5/10

Walcott - Almost, unseen throughout the game. A friend remarked after 30 minutes, "okay, wait! ohh..Theo is playing?!". I have kept on telling, if a man(boy) who can make a difference this season, its got to be Theo! he really has to pick himself up and show what he really is! He gives those few minutes of brilliance in the entire match. That doesn't help! He needs to play consistently throughout, easily one of the fastest moving footballers around, he can be a defender's nemesis! Overall, Okayish perfo! 4/10

Adabayor - A conversion rate of 1 out of 10 in a club like Arsenal won't help. He got 300 chances last season and he scored 30 goals. That's not impressive! That's a little below average! Let people talk about his goal-scoring abilities, am still not convinced. He has an amazing work-rate. He runs a lot, but that doesn't help! A striker needn't run a lot, needn't show amazing work-rate, just that one moment of brilliance would be much better. I would prefer Ada staying 'wasted' throughout the game and give us two goals with two brilliant moments in 90 minutes! :) 4.75/10

Bendtner - Comes too deep down, I think he should focus more on scoring goals than assisting Ada or whoever plays with him! He has technically improved a lot in two years. A commentator said yesterday, "Niko has scored more goals from the bench last season than Aliadiare in this entire career at Arsenal!" The guy has talent and a good footballing brain, he just needs to get ambitious! 5.5/10

(Subs)

Toure - Not much to be said! Played out of position as RW! 3/10

Persie - To me, the guy should be an impact player. It is high time he takes bottom-line responsibility of seeing Arsenal through at least against not-so-decent teams! He has probably the best shooting-boots in the team, so he needs to score goals and at least try to keep his attempts on targets. 3.25/10

Decent performance to start with, and also keeping in mind, Cesc, Rosicky, Eduardo, Song, Diaby are missing! Overall - 6.5/10