Arsene Wenger Content With Patience And Focus In Win Over QPR

Arsene Wenger Content With Patience And Focus In Win Over QPR

Arsenal came out close 2-1 winners in a game that meant alot for both sides, as pretty much every game does for any side near the top or bottom of the league as the two sides are at the moment. A win for caretaker boss, Chris Ramsey’s Queens Park Rangers would have taken the West Londoners out of the relegation places while a win for Arsenal allowed them to retain their position in 3rd, a point ahead of Man United in 4th and only 4 points behind Man City. Chris Ramsey is a Gooner but he clearly put his personal allegiances aside for this match as his side put on a courageous display and they made the last 10 minutes a nervy affair for the Gunners after Charlie Austin popped up to pull one back for the Superhoops on 82 minutes.

It was excellent to see the ever industrious Alexis back on the score sheet with his first goal in 8 games (which seems hard to believe) and Olivier Giroud continued his good form with his 7th goal in 10 games. QPR are a tough nut to crack at home as their record shows. They have won almost all of their points at home and the first half reflected this as Rangers raised their game to face their high-flying London rivals and were certainly the better side through the first half as Sandro and Henry commanded the midfield denying Arsenal from making much of an impression on the match.


This pattern changed however as Arsenal took control of the match after the break and were dominant from the whistle with Ozil almost grabbing the first goal if it were not for him being fouled by QPR’s Henry. When Giroud scored on 64 minutes it was not long before Sanchez had beaten Robert Green to make it 2-0 and Ozil almost made it 3-0 except for an excellent save from the busy Green who was at full-stretch to deny the German and push his shot onto the post and away. As a direct contrast Ospina was a virtual spectator in the Gunners’ goal and even though things did get a little nervy after Austin’s late strike Arsenal had the composure and patience to maintain possession and see out the last minutes of the game plus injury time to seal an important win which was their 9th in 11 games.

Not many people would say that Arsenal are a better side this season but as the boss suggests they are now looking at overhauling Man City in 2nd as opposed to looking behind them plus they have already beaten the Champions and seem like they can mix it with any team this year despite their Champions League loss to Monaco and other inconsistent results along the way.

Once again the business end of the season is upon us and Monday night’s FA Cup quarter-final vs Man United will go along way towards shaping things for the Gunners in terms of winning a trophy but their League run-in actually looks pretty favourable despite games vs Chelsea, Liverpool and Man United the other 7 games are all eminently winnable so finishing 2nd as the boss says may actually be a realistic goal.

A big downer on the night was the injury to Gabriel who had to come off in the first half after tweaking a hamstring to be replaced by Laurent Koscielny. It seems likely to be weeks that the Brazilian is out rather than months but it is still an untimely injury given that he had just begun what was hopefully going to be a long run in the side.