Arsenal vs. Reading: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Arsenal defeated visiting Reading by final score of 4-1 yesterday, and while it could have been a much larger margin, let's not get too churlish on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Here's what we took away from the match in terms of :D, :/, and >:( yesterday:

The Good

--Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey did an excellent job yesterday keeping things running in the midfield, and he was unlucky not to score with both the shots that he took. One casual backheel aside in the early running, Ramsey was yet again solid.

--Gervinho is alive. What's that? Arsenal's two most-maligned players both were good yesterday? Yep. Gervinho was all over the place yesterday, scoring a goal and providing passes for two more. His goal was affirmation of something he did all game long, and which nobody else on Arsenal does as much, which is to constantly crash the goal in search of carrion to feed off of. He is always making that run at the far post and getting into the box, which is fun. And for his second assist, he was all alone until the last moment, when he made the space and the pass for Olivier Giroud.

--Santi. Santi Cazorla is super super fun to watch. That is all. His goal was a beautiful, perfect shot from 18 yards.

The Bad

--Finishing. Arsenal had many, many chances to score yesterday. Four goals is nice, but there are still times (e.g. Tomas Rosicky not shooting, headers wide, headers at the keeper) when one thinks that something is just wrong with the players. It's a minor complaint on a day with four goals, however.

--Chris Foy. Yesterday's referee wasn't particularly on the ball when Stuart Taylor took out Giroud, plain as day, right in front of him, or when Santi Cazorla earned a free kick in the D and no call came in. Still, at least he caught Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain winning a penalty, so that's good.

The Ugly

--Reading's goal. From an Arsenal perspective, that was just a dumb goal to allow. Bacary Sagna was too easily fooled by his man and reacted too slowly. The cross was incredibly good as a result, and Nacho Monreal didn't do enough to keep Hal Robson-Kanu at bay. Had he done so, the cross may still have caused some problems or possibly just gone out for a goal kick, but overall, neither Arsenal defender did his job, and the result was predictable. Nacho getting hurt as a result of the play didn't help, either.

What did you think about yesterday's match? What was good, bad, and ugly for you?