Well I didn’t feel good going
into Tuesday night’s game with Chelsea and I sure as hell didn’t feel any
better afterwards. I don’t want to try and dissect the game too much as it
really won’t do us any good now. To sum things up they have a better squad than
us, and when you see those squad players are Samuel Eto’o, Willian, David Luiz
and my favourite non arsenal player in the premier league – Juan Mata, then I
couldn’t really expect more. I don’t really need to vindicate that statement
because we all know what the Spaniard is capable of on the pitch, but if you
see his post-match interview with sky sports you will see the guy just exudes
class, he’s really not a Chelsea-esque player at all.
As the vigilante pointed out
in yesterday’s post, individual errors proved costly again. Nicklas Bendtner
did nothing out there, Ryo just is nowhere near ready for premier league
football. In the middle of the park Jack and Aaron really tried to drive us
forward but Chelsea where far too organised in the middle and shut us out with
ease. Maybe with Flamini in there we could of pressed a bit harder and won the
ball more and played with a higher tempo but I don’t think it would of made a
great deal of difference on the night.
What I do feel would of made
a great deal of difference on the night is having an outlet in the wide areas.
It’s becoming more apparent with every passing game that we are missing that. At
first we didn’t feel the full effects of Walcott’s absence as Serge Gnabry came
in and did very well. He is a very similar player, lightning quick, playing off
the shoulders of the opposing defenders with instinctive finishing ability.
Since he last played, against Napoli I believe, the performances have been in
gradual decline. While I maintain we have an embarrassment of riches in central
midfield we do need this kind of outlet, a direct player to stretch a defense,
or get in behind when the opposition defensive line plays high. And right now
the four players we have who can effectively do that are all injured. When
Podolski, The Ox, Gnabry, and most importantly Theo return to action we will
have that option back as well as they goals they all contribute. In the meantime
our highly talented and interchangeable midfield is just too easy to defend
against and we are always likely to concede one. While we will get away with
this against the lesser teams it’s going to make it harder against the big
boys. I feel that until we get these player back maybe we should do what we
done so well in the last 10 games or so of last season. Defend well and
organised, try to be efficient in front of goal and make the most of the set
pieces, we have a killer dead ball specialist in Ozil and a couple of towering
presences in Giroud and Mertesacker. So maybe let’s just focus on not losing
and build on those performances.
On Saturday we see the first
of 3 big tests in just over a week when we host the scousers. They are enjoying
a consistent season and Suarez is on fire but I think we will beat them, I think
it’s exactly the game we need right now and then we face Dortmund midweek. I
will stick to my prediction of 1 point from the 2 games against the German
outfit. I don’t want to think further ahead to United and the Dutch skunk and
the little boy he’s inside etc, it was something like that right? We’ll save
that for next Wednesday because any opinion on that game could well be
invalidated. The poor Man united side we have seen this season could be riding
a 6 game win streak by then, it’s like they say…….a week is a long time in
football. Iets have a better week ahead than the one just gone please Arsenal.
Oh and one more thing, How
can the very best of Crowded House truly be the very best of Crowded House when
it doesn’t feature the Hit single ‘chocolate cake’? I know it upset a few
American’s back in the day but………I’m digressing here. I’ll be in a better mood
next week if we get a euro/domestic combi 4 or 6 points in the bank.
Come on you Gunners!
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