Welbeck nets impressive hat trick as Arsenal pound sorry Galatasaray
LONDON --
Aurelian Chedjou's attempted clearance was dreadful, the ball clipping the back of his head and setting Danny Welbeck clean through. He burned off Felipe Melo and swept his finish past Fernando Muslera, feet slipping from under him as he did so. A tremor could be felt around the Emorates; it wasn't just that his goal had put Arsenal 2-0 up and out of sight of a poor Galatasaray side, it was that the aesthetic, the way he opened his body, was pure Thierry Henry.
It's one goal, and one against a peculiarly indisciplined side vulnerable to just the sort of run that Welbeck makes, but still, his hat-trick suggests that he might be the striker Arsenal has been missing since Robin van Persie was sold in 2012. Certainly it won't take many more nights like this to convince the doubters that his finishing is nowhere near as poor as it has been painted after the Gunners defeated Galatasaray 4-1 on Wednesday night.
What Welbeck offers first and foremost, though is pace in combination with Alexis Sanchez -- and it will become even more formidable when Theo Walcott returns from injury. That perhaps in part explained the unusual formation selected by the Galatasaray coach Cesare Prandelli, with Felipe Melo the central of three centerbacks, Wesley Sneijder playmaking at the back of midfield and Alex Telles and Veysel San as two extremely attack-minded wing-backs. Galatasaray had tested it out in the 2-1 win over Sivasspor at the weekend, the logic presumably being that Felipe Melo could drop deep to provide a extra player of cover if one of Arsenal's flyers got a run on the defense. It didn't work.
The major doubt that remains with Welbeck is that his decision-making doesn't necessarily match his pace. There was a moment five minutes in when he charged thrillingly behind Veysel San and, with Sanchez making ground in the middle, scuffed his cross straight into the covering defender having chosen, oddly, neither to take the ball on his left foot, nor to check back to create an angle to use his right.
At the same time, he is a player of such puppyish enthusiasm that it's hard not to warm to him, and every now and again there are glimpses of a truly first-rate footballer beneath the occasional fluffed finishes and inexplicable passing. Arsenal's opener was a goal of deceptive simplicity, conceived by Sanchez as he received the ball from Kieran Gibbs on the left and executed by Welbeck, who made the perfect run in anticipation of Sanchez's pass before poking his finish between the goalkeeper's legs.
His second, on the half hour, was the result of his pace and a fine finish, even if Chedjou was the prime architect of Galatsaray's downfall. And his third goal, early in the second half, was delightful, a minimalist dink over Muslera as he ran on to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's through ball. But the other Welbeck was still there, lurking beneath. Three minutes after his second goal, as Mesut Ozil laid a deflected cross back to him, he snatched dreadfully at the chance and scuffed it straight at the goalkeeper. Still, the three he did score more than made up for that.
The third goal was also the result of Arsenal's pace. Ozil had been selected through the middle in a 4-2-3-1, the position from which had produced his best performance of the season in the 3-0 away win over Aston Villa. After that game, Arsene Wenger noted sardonically that a lot of his squad preferred that role which -- aside from prompting the obvious question of why he'd signed them all -- summed up both his options and his difficulties in the attacking third.
But it is true that Ozil looks a different player in that central role, particularly when he has pace breaking beyond him. His pass for the third was masterly, as much for his awareness as for the delivery of the pass. Sanchez ran on, cut inside the hapless Chedjou, and rolled the ball into the bottom corner.
It wasn't an entirely joyous night, Wojciech Szczesny being sent off as he tripped Burak Yilmaz in the box, seemingly bringing him down as he tried to pull out of making the challenge. Still, there was little disputing the red card. Burak converted the penalty, and Galatsaray, who had been so poor earlier in the game that its fans, having run out of flares to hurl, had turned their backs on the pitch, enjoyed some pressure. David Ospina, the substitute goalkeeper, even made one spectacular save from a Burak header, but Arsenal's victory had long since stopped being in doubt.
This said little about Arsenal's capacity against the best sides, or whether it has begin to solve the issues at the back of midfield. Yet it did at least show that Welbeck, given space to run into, can be an extremely potent weapon.
