The most galling thing about yesterday’s game against the most morally bankrupt club of all time, was the predictability with which we enabled them to pick up a result, from both the sending off and the goal we conceded.
In the morning as I blogged, I was nervous because of our appalling record against footballs equivalent of Fred and Rosemary West, but deep down I knew that we were the better team and should the match not involve any incident, we could break the hoodoo. However, there was one type of action I alluded to beforehand, which would be Cesc Fabregas sitting deeper and playing a diagonal ball to Costa down the channels after our full backs had pushed on.
It only took 18 minutes for that scenario to play out and the result, as we know, changed the shape of the game. Mertesacker’s lumbering body going to ground against Diego Costa was always going to result in a red; from the moment he lunged, Costa dived and the Chelski players surrounded the referee. When Clattenberg produced the red, the game was effectively done, which was the case when Costa scored five minutes later.
Chelski had their goal, they had their man advantage, so all that was left to do was to slowly choke the life out of the game.
Had this been Chelski of three years ago, it probably would have been an even more painful experience than it was actually, but this Chelski team give away chances. Which is probably why there is even more frustration this morning. Flamini should have touched the ball in unmarked on halftime, there were a few goalmouth scrambles in the second half and Theo – captain for the day – should have stayed onside for a couple of his chances.
But the boring predictability of this result played out and I’m wondering what atrocities Arsenal have committed for the same scenarios to be played out again and again like a Bill Murray 90s movie. What football karma have we upset? How has the force been put out of balance that a team regularly in the top positions in the league cannot beat another team regularly at the top of the league? Only at Arsenal. I don’t think you’ll find many teams who have failed to score in five or six matches in a row. Even the teams lower down the division muster goals.
I can only look at the psychology of the situation. I mentioned it yesterday. Arsène has talked about the past not playing on players minds, but how can it not? How can you have a repeat of the same failings again and again?
In the second half we put on a spirited performance, so you can’t say that there wasn’t any desire from the players, but perhaps they just know they’re beaten. Even if that’s not the case, maybe there’s some kind of subconscious blockade, because in the final third yesterday, we looked like we had no idea.
Individually, there were some players that just didn’t work at all and with hindsight, it’s easy to say that bringing Giroud off was a bad decision. But at the time I thought it made sense. With a man advantage Chelski were sure to press higher up the pitch and so the ability to break with pace could catch them out. But as soon as they scored it meant that they didn’t have to come out at us and that, coupled by a woeful Walcott performance, contrived to make the whole game one big frustration. When Theo wasn’t doing anything, he was getting himself flagged offside, or misplacing passes. Joel Campbell faded too and at times Flamini looked like a League One player. Özil played well I thought, as well as Monreal and Bellerin going forward, but with no focal point to feed the ball in to, the two would get to the byline and not really have anything on.
The good news was the return of Alexis and I pray that Coquelin is fit enough to make the bench in the FA Cup next weekend. The difference between him and Flamini will be obvious when he does return.
So to Per. Oh Per. The man with the turning circle of a mid nineties Ford Mondeo, looks horribly exposed when a team has somebody who is pacey and can run the channels, which is what I’d be asking my forwards to be doing every time they play Arsenal from now on. Gabriel has the recovery pace to jockey someone like Costa in that position, so should be have a good game against Burnley on Saturday, you’d have to wonder if this is his chance. Arsène has stuck with Big Per and Kos up until this point, possibly out of loyalty to the vice captain, but you feel the changing of the guard will happen soon. Gabriel has been decent every time he’s played – barring the bowler at Norwich – so perhaps now is his moment to seize. Arsène did the same to Debuchy at the beginning of the season. One poor performance against West Ham and he was out and Bellerin in, with the rest as they say, being history. So Wenger has precedent to drop the German in favour of the Brazilian. It’s time to be ruthless Arsène; I love the BFG, but we can’t have teams playing that same ball that got us in trouble yesterday, every week.
Form wise, it’s a good job that we’re getting players back, because it allows for some rotation because two points out of nine is not the stuff of champions.
There’s a break from the Premier League now for a week, which is probably a good thing, but we need to sort ourselves out, because this season is already threatening to unravel itself if we carry on in our current form.
Sorry; not a positive blog today, but I’m not in a particularly good mood, I’m afraid.
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