When the manager of the winning team says something like, “we didn’t play well, but we didn’t have to” there are some serious implications.
Last week we were discussing the need for signing a proper defense coach. Perhaps the team realizes that Wenger doesn’t understand this problem and decided to give him further proof.
Right from the start our defenders looked nervous as Chelsea started with a higher tempo. When the hosts won the free kick I had a knot in my stomach. Surprisingly, Theo got his head onto it but could only divert it for a corner.
That Terry can rise above our players and win a header is not a surprise. Isn’t that one of the main reasons we put two men on the post. What can you do when one of them decides to go walkabout!? While watching live, I couldn’t believe that ball went in as I desperately searched for the man on the post.
The replays showed Clichy moving to the near post but failed to catch the ghost he was following. One thing was proven, in the movies when they show that ghosts can be caught on camera … well, that’s just Bull. Not only did the camera fail to capture Clichy’s phantom, it also failed to pick up the ultra hot and sexy apparition that had captured the imagination and complete attention of Alex Song. No wonder Chelsea have such a strong record at home!
At this juncture I must say the Arsenal players raised their game and started looking more of a threat. Cesc picked out Arshavin with a peach but the little Russian hit it straight at Cech. As we were moving the ball around and Chelsea held firm, there was always a danger of being caught on the break.
If the opposition plays well on a counter you give it to them fair and square. But when you concede a goal because your defenders run around like headless chicken and four of them can’t deal with two strikers … well, you just blame the ghosts.
Anelka made a good run. Agreed. We had Gallas and Sagna to deal with that. Why would Clichy and Vermaelen get attracted towards the center leaving Drogba with acres of space!? Lampard didn’t even have to put a great pass, I could have made that pass. Shocking!
Okay so Drogba got the ball. Big deal. Lets Close him down. How can we close him down when both defenders are taken out by one simple step inwards! Sheer stupidity and lack of basic defensive awareness.
Another example of horrible defending was around the 85th minute when Chelsea got a free kick. Lampard squared it and Anelka was free around our penalty spot. Free as in nobody-within-miles free! Out of respect for Wenger he blasted it over but that’s a different matter.
Clichy, Vermaelen and Song were the culprits this time around. Does it make them bad players? No, it doesn’t and that is precisely why we need serious efforts to get at the root of our defensive problems. It’s not as simple as buy a goalkeeper or buy a DM. Even if Wenger had signed three players in the January window this result wouldn’t have been different. That hurts and that needs to be addressed so that the boys can finally become men.
I won’t get into further details of this game but will give the players credit for fighting hard. This certainly wasn’t as bad a performance as we had against United, but it could easily be down to Chelsea taking it easy.
One worrying aspect was that Cesc and Arshavin both seemed to give up at times during the second half. Were they tired or was it something else? I think we have serious psychological issues and Arsene needs a specialist in this area to get the team back on track. (Yes, I know some people think that buying can solve all our problems and will bring the belief back. I’ll talk about that in a different post.)
Individual Performances
Almunia: Those who have already formed a strong opinion against him will find faults with him even from this game. I don’t see how he could have done anything about the goals. And no, you cannot stop fiercely hit shots from that distance. All you can do is put a hand out and hope that it hits.
Sagna: Didn’t offer anything going forward.
Gallas: Looked nervous initially. Doesn’t have the personality or the ability to lead the defense.
Vermaelen: Had a good game overall but was really poor for the second goal.
Clichy: Shocking! I’m really hoping we get to hear his side of the story, if it exists and even if it has supernatural elements. Was better going forward in the second half. Shades of the old Clichy there.
Song: Worked really hard. Had to run all over and contribute a lot in attack as well. Very costly mistake for the first goal.
Diaby: Looked good at times when in possession. Went AWOL for parts of the game. Should have marked Terry better for the first goal. He can run at defenses like Bolton but doesn’t have much to offer against the bigger teams. Certainly far better than Denilson.
Cesc: Tried hard, looked frustrated and gave up on occasions. Looked like he ran out of ideas. Why do we make him take the corners?
Nasri: Work rate was decent but lacked penetration. Missed a great opportunity to score or play Walcott in. Such moments can change the game.
Arshavin: Should have finished better. Doesn’t have the stamina to play at full tilt in such games. Big players have to perform in big games. Disappointing.
Walcott: Looked clueless. Very poor tactical decision to start with him in such a big game. Was in a great position when Nasri got through but never got the ball.
Subs: Bendtner offered a different dimension but he is seriously out of touch. Rosicky looked lively but couldn’t do much. Eboue looked threatening at times and would have been a better choice to start in place of Walcott.
first! agree with your analysis of the game, and I hear people rounding on almunia for the goal, and as harsh a critic of him that I am, I don’t think he could have done anything about it unless he had the visual processing of a housefly and the reflections of a star nosed mole.
I actually thought Diaby was excellent and Song was poor. His passing was poor and this was probably the first (and hopefully only) shocker of the season for him. Diaby covered for him a lot and even offered penetration and power going forward. Cesc almost ran himself into the ground and It started to tell towards the end with misplaced passes. Except for Diaby and Cesc, I thought the rest could have all done much better.
Clichy tried really hard as usual but he made mistakes at key moments which seems to be a virus afflicting our team right now. When someone makes a mistake, the other player apparently gets drawn into making another mistake thereby gifting the opposition a goal. We collapse like a house of cards.
I thought sagna and clichy’s delivery was woeful but they weren’t helped much by the big n numerous attackers in the arsenal box.
Walcott was truly woeful in this game, however, I cant blame because it was his first start in a long time, and his team mates didn’t really have a great game either.
Eboue looked bright but his final ball when he was in a good position let him down.
All in all, a disappointing result. The performance wasn’t bad, but for the fact that we defended like star struck amateurs
*reflexes of a star…
Oh and great point about Arshavin’s fitness desi. He does seem to fade in games, but to be fair to him, he must be amongst the top 3 in games played this season
Yes he has been playing with an injured foot as well. But I think his fitness was the main reason Wenger was hesitant before signing him. Even from his interviews it’s clear that he doesn’t like training much.
same problem desi as ur last post about 433 being the problem THE PROBLEM IS OUR FORMATION ,451 AND 433 ARE BAD I DONT KNOW HOW U CANT SEE THIS AFER 2 SEASONS 1 OF BOTH =this is george the g man we changed our formation when we were strong always at 442 just had wrong mentality and aproach and not as strong squad (after invincibles).now we have been playing stupid 451 s which ruins all end of last season cup chances any one can see if they look at it and consider it ,against weak clubs maybe but any half decent ones no ,since these messed up formations every week week out we look vulnerable and we never did with 442 we were only caught by one goal if ever did we lose and they would just sitback and try to defend and as i said due mentality inexperience and aproach and squad we sometimes could not break them down but now we know what to do and with 442 we will domininate if we see 442 you will see ,and so after this ludicrus 451 we went too another experiment 433 much better and effective anything better than that 451 but i still saw the vulnerability in it even in the everton game and all of them i s have been screaming this since i saw us with that joke 451 and have still to this day just not as much with the 433 as i thought maybe since we looked good and won even though looking vulnerable but now my fears are more clear if not certain ,dont get me wrong i think we could pull it off with any formation if anyone can its arsenal .we never looked vulnerable or like conceding with 442 and now we do since these crazy formations in my opinion we were surgicaly dismatled by man city because of this as with these two formations is no balance 433 weakness in defence leads to weakness in attack and 451 vice versa to me this is clear to see as i am a great very talanted footballer and have experince in formations so with this 433 we our very defensively weak especialy on the break with the 442 we will have harmony invinceable defence midfield and attack surely some one must agree does anyone agree,only with strong tall and creative engine players in midfield wud we pull it off barca pull it off but this is in the spanish league which is nothing compared to the premiership eccept barca ,real and they have messi who in there games comes back to win the ball and is always back until they have the ball and then he gets forward
george, while I agree we probably would be better off with a 442, I doubt that playing 442 would have stopped clichy and vermaelen from goofing up for our 2nd goal today neither would it have stopped clichy and song from going awol for the first.
I do agree that this formation doesn’t seem to be working against the big teams. However most big teams play with these formations and hardly anyone plays the two up top.
Our mistakes are too widespread and too basic to be formation dependent.
god. it bothers me nasri was so anonymous, that he didn’t take that chance to have a shot when was at the 18. to me that summed up the teams confidence.
i don’t think they’re offloading for the perfect pass
i think they’re offloading the pressure to other people with simple passes that don’t need to be made.
then they hold the ball to long.
all i can ever think about is this team with van persie. it’s terrible though, i’ve got to stop, but the man is pure class. him and bendtner enabled some super movement at the beginning of this season.
so hopefully we can destroy every game from now on against the weaker, and just battle in the champions league.
maybe RVP will be back in march, fingers crossed
i wish, but dang. it wasn’t fair he was takin from us on international duty. how can you say wenger forsees him and bendtner going out, then eduardo going out of form
wenger is a great owner type manager. but people forget you have to be a good manager, sometimes you have to put faith in the players who’ve played their asses off for you. how can you deny them their chance
i think eduardo really was in form before the diving incident, so i understood letting him and others have goes.
but no i really do not agree with alot he’s done. alot
but i know arsene is very smart, he’s built an ingenious club i think we can all agree if everyone is fit and injury free. i also think he’s somewhat heard the call for reinforcements
i have no doubts that it’s almunia out in the summer
and i think he’ll try and bring a world class keeper in. keyword being try and i hope that doesn’t turn out the case
he’ll probably try and bring some players in over the summer. at least i think he will, the injuries have plighted him too many times
woah sorry for the very speculative post, very speculative
all i can say is though. we can’t be totally negative about a team that really is badass as fuck
wow. i’m definitely quite high off a nice joint so i rambled a bit. basically that was me saying, arsene should be given at least a season more before anyone can even claim the right to call him out
I think I`ve said all I need to say in another post/comment but I do ask the same question as Desi
“why does Fabregas take corners”? He`s an opportunist and should be in he middle? Even I can take a corner and I`m as old as Moses and got two false knees.
People seem to forget that yesterday’s match was to a large degree determined in advance. How can we be upset when our deficiencies have been obvious for some time. Whatever the reason, we’ve been an under-powered side for years.
Our squad has some qualities but power/size/maturity aren’t among them. When we face an opponent who matches our technical level as well as possesses the above qualities that we don’t, we just don’t fare well unless we rely totally on exceptional moments of quality, also known as luck.
And though fortune may favour the bold, it can also be quite fickle and really isn’t much of a strategy.
I don’t think we conceded any goal due to power or size. Maturity is a vague term and I am not sure defensive stupidty can be same as lack of maturity. Certainly not from the likes of Vermaelen, Clichy and Song.
Desi, Terry’s header and Drogba’s turn were all about their size/power/maturity and our lack of it, or fear of it, whichever you prefer. Like wenger, you may choose to ignore these things, but the proof remains. Some might think it stupid to stick your leg out only to see it injured or broken(nasri), have you played much football?
Vermaelen/Gallas put on a brave face but were physically roughed up out there, that also goes for the rest of our team on Sunday. Again, when equally matched on a technical level, but outmatched physically, the result is largely determined in advance, luck notwithstanding.
So you are saying Terry is taller and stronger than Diaby? Diaby was supposed to mark him but failed. I think it’s down to technique and practice. And if Terry is taller and stronger than one of our strongest players then we might have to sell everyone and start from scratch. How can one or two players change this?
Even Drogba shrugged off two of our defenders with one turn. That to me is down to a lack of co-ordination and awareness more than power.
I don’t deny the importance of power and height. That’s exactly the point. It’s not black and white – Height/Power matters or doesn’t matter. These things matter but the game is far more complex and we have to get to the root of the problem.
Anyway, a respectable post today Desi, agree with much of what you said, I just believe that our problems have been on display for some time. Incidentally, the first goal also looked like a set play, and we’ve certainly beat that horse into a bloody speck.
We have certainly had these problems for a long time. The other post I had written about signing a defense coach addressed a lot of these issues.
I feel we have a lot of room for improvement and if this team can be third with all these problems, then we can definitely do much better if we can solve this issues.
Thanks for your post. Its always a pleasure to read one coming from your stable. This is my first comment on your blogs. I almost totally agree with you. I’ve used almost cuz I strongly believe that the result would have been different had we had some strong aerial presence, both upfront and back of the field. Its not like we never had chances. As a matter of fact, I really enjoyed
watching the gunners play the way they did (except for the moments when they looked wetting their pants when going 2 or 3 on 1 with Drogba). But, yet again, we played to play and not to win. Winning was not possible at the Bridge with such a timid squad. At best, it could have been a draw. Its not like we never had chances. But it all boils down to our confidence level in front of the goal. That was visibly in shatters. Drogba has had some really devastating effect on our psycho which needs to be addressed. Hes no more treated as a human by our team. Whenever he gets the ball our movement and orientation….to put a milder word….goes astray. I don’t believe we can win the title anymore (pardon my sentiments) but I’ll say this. If the professor hasn’t learned anything from this game, we will always be boys. Both physically and psychologically.
Keep writing. You are one of the very few blogs I enjoy.
Thanks Dushyant.
Aerial presence always helps. I don’t deny that at all.
But we had Diaby marking Terry who just didn’t have the awareness and technique to even compete for the ball. He was left two yards behind by a simple run from Terry. Similarly Drogba didn’t need height to score either of his goals. My point is that even if we have height, unless our basics are better we have no hope.
Just like Park’s goalib the last game, Clichy had no clue when he stupidly ran around in front of Vermaelen leaving Drogba free. He clearly needs Keown to scream at him and slap him to wake up and be a defender. I love Wenger but I really wish he would drop players who are clearly playing awful. At least Traore can cross good and would run back.
Anyone who had a go at Diaby awhile back need to rethink though. He’s now a star in the team and it’s clear he’s now much better than Denilson.
diaby is a star now….but wenger shud send denilson on loan….i mean he played every single game last season and he hasn’t improved a bit…eastmond wud do better than him if he is given that amount of games….
it’s been 3 years that arsenal is having the same problems at defence but wenger refuses to see it…how pathetic….again ur spot on but isn’t it the same thing that u said before?..out of the title race out of the fa cup what next??? out of the cl….why wenger wants to create a team of midgets? it’s certain that wenger can find talent but he can’t develop characters…and i seriously think if this continues big players gonna leave arsenal…i mean what will they play for??they won’t get their worth and always an empty promises that this year is gonna b arsenal year…wenger is sadly taking arsenal back to the place where he found it……
433 or 4321 or 4123. All work but a 460 never works. Not against proper footballing sides like United & Chelsea. Wenger should be knowing this. It’s a shame we missed the chance to make our stance clear. Hope, we put our head down & start collecting few points here on. Faith.
http://11gunners.com/opinion/a-perfect-exhibition-of-the-elephant-syndrome/3081/
Sigh.
http://bigfourza.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/fixture-computer-madness-part-iii/