Before the game I was wondering whether it will be delight or despair at Molineux. Delight it is as Arsenal come away with a 0-2 win on the back of a dogged performance in a tetchy game.
A goal in the first minute, one in the last, and defensive training in between. Not a spectacular performance but a fairly solid display, especially by the back five.
The start was amazing. Fabianski rolled the ball to Squillaci, who in turn found Rosicky. Little Mozart turned his man with ease and galloped 20 yards before slipping it out to Song. Early cross, powerful header, and 0-1 with the fastest goal of the season.
After that Arsenal did a good job of pressing high up the pitch in the opening 15-20 minutes without really trying to control the game. The high pressing led to a glorious chance when Arshavin stole the ball off the Centre Back but his finish was just a little high and was saved by the keeper.
Wolves were winning most of the 50-50’s but Arsenal got enough men behind the ball on most occasions. At the end of the first half the possession stat said 58-42 in favour of the hosts. Not sure if it was a deliberate ploy to defend in numbers or not but Arsenal never really looked interested in creating more chances.
The team did a good job defensively as I don’t remember the hosts creating any clear chances in the first half. Arsenal had one or two other moments apart from the two mentioned above but Hahnemann was strong in his goal.
The story of the first half might have been reversed at the start of the second half. Wilshere slipped inside the box and that allowed the Wolves winger to send in a dangerous cross from the left. Fabianski was covering on the near post and would have been beaten with the strike from the centre but Sagna came up with a phenomenal last gasp tackle that was as good as any goal we’ll score.
The game continued in pretty much the same fashion as the first half. Arsenal created a few chances. Fabregas missed a gilt-edged opening with only the keeper to beat, Arshavin hit the bar, and Djourou was denied by a lucky deflection on the line.
On the other end, Fabianski made a great save just before the hour mark, Rosicky saved one on the line off a set-piece, and in general Arsenal defended well in numbers.
The biggest moment of the game came deep in stoppage time when Fabianski pulled of a blinder. The ball was struck from just outside the box and was creeping into the left corner of his goal. The Pole must have seen it really late as it came through a number of bodies but had the reflexes to get a hand on it.
Not only did the Keeper save us two points with that save, he also had the presence of mind to find Rosicky with a long throw to the half-way line wide on the right. Rosicky played it to Cesc who found Chamakh with his trademark chip. The Moroccan showed he can shoot (!) as he settled the tie in a composed manner.
On another day Wolves might have scored a couple and Arsenal five. But I’m really happy with the defensive display. Let’s not forget this is the same Wolves side that opened Manchester United up time and again at Old Trafford. Credit to them for giving Arsenal a game and kudos to the players for seeing them off.
Finally a word on the ref. I like Mark Halsey, he is not as bad as some of the others. But he should have shown a bit more control over the game. I thought he completely missed Henry’s tackle on Arshavin and Milijas’ one on Song. It’s not a surprise that Fabregas was annoyed and this game could easily have got out of hand.
Individual Analysis:
Fabianski: My MotM. Looked really confident, made a couple of game changing saves, caught everything cleanly (especially some balls that bounced just in front of him), and his distribution was quite good, both goals started from his passes!
Sagna: Back to his solid best. Massive tackle early in the second half, overall a typical dominant performance on the right.
Squillaci: Looked shaky on occasions but recovered well. Good understanding with Djourou. Good composure on the ball and did a decent job of marking his man.
Djourou: Impressive. He had one slip in the game when Clichy bailed him out but overall he won a number of headers, passed the ball well, used his physical presence in an intelligent manner, almost scored.
Clichy: Excellent. Worked hard defensively, hardly let his man cross, did a good job of covering for the centre backs and made a couple of timely interceptions.
On the whole, the back five were extremely impressive. If we can maintain this level consistently we should keep clean sheets on a more regular basis.
Song: Good assist but disappointing in attack. Lost the ball far too easily, especially while facing the Arsenal goal. Good work rate and kept chasing the ball denying space to the opponents.
Cesc: Still nowhere near his best. Like Song, El Capitan also lost the ball quite often in an uncharacteristic manner. Lacked composure but can’t fault his work rate. I’m not convinced his mind is fully focused for whatever reason.
Wilshere: Apart from the slip at the start of the second half he had a decent game. Nothing exceptional but did his job.
I thought the midfield did a good job of staying close to the defence but should have won more of the 50-50’s. It seems when Fabregas is not in the right mood it affects the others as well.
Rosicky: Good work up and down the flank. I thought his decision making of when to come towards the centre and when to stay on the wing was good. Played a part in both goals. Made a couple of important contributions on the line while defending.
Chamakh: A close contender for MotM. Two excellent goals to go with his phenomenal work rate. Also won some important headers. The fact that he can still do better only highlights his talents. He needs more such crosses and early balls to make a difference.
Arshavin: Another one who was excellent. Worked much harder than in the recent games. Showed real desire and urgency whenever he was on the ball. On another day he could have scored a couple.
The attackers did a fantastic job. The wingers have to maintain this level of work rate in the upcoming fixtures.
Happy and hope we maintain these standards.
Thinking back, if Arsene had played his kids in the Milk Cup and lost to Newcastle, a number of pundits would have insisted that our run of bad form was down to not taking the Competition seriously and Wenger sending the wrong message, losing confidence, and starting a skid.
However, we went on the skid anyway! So maybe the flack that Wenger took when he passed on the FA Cup for a few seasons and we watched the team take a while to recover wasn’t deserved? Any way, I am glad we got a win. Another three points this w/e please oh please.
Good match write up, but I though Chamakh was a bit lost in the final third. He shapes to make the predictable pass, and then actually tries to make it! And the defense picks it up and they counter attack.
I never bought that FA Cup argument. Pundits just talk nonsense and look for meaningless corelations.
Chamakh is still adapting. Let’s not forget very few players make this kind of an impact after moving to a big club and a different league. He will improve his runs and his passing over time.
I don’t blame Chamakh for getting lost, Fabregas was just as lost, the only difference Chamakh scored two, give him a chance as Desi said it s his first season. people seem to forget how hard it is to move club and homeland.
Chamakh has been one of our best performers this season.
We were definitely not solid – it was like pinball in our defence, as it tends to be. Very glad we won though. Would love us to go back to taking the chances to finish teams off early on, like we had today. That’s nostalgia I guess!
I guess I should have said as solid as Arsenal can be!
There is a fundamental problem with defensive organization at Arsenal. I don’t expect us to have the kind of defence that Chelsea have until that is sorted and I can’t see it sorted by the present coaching staff. We need a defence coach, it’s something I’ve talked a lot about but don’t want to repeat it after every game.
Still Wolves have a decent team and created some big openings at Old Trafford and against City. Considering that I thought we limited their chances quite well even if it wasn’t perfect defending.
the fans are very strange….when chamakh passes they said that the striker should score…when he scores they said that he should pass…..the truth that chamakh loves such games….bordeaux is a deffensive team…chamakh was alone in attack….and first time i see a good cross for him…if only we can use his head…its phenomenal…happy with the 3 points…most important
well said lot of people who criticize chamakh don have a clue about football, in his second goal the way how he kept himself onside shows how clever he is, how many times Bendtner was caught offside when he was in same position?enough times.
i agree with you…if you see how many times chamakh was offside….rarely…chamakh had 2 poor games…newcastle he was sick…and against west ham…when all the midlfield was off…i want just to know how many kilometers he makes every game???it seems that he dont stop running
We really did bounce back and back on the right track.
Are you kidding? If arsenal played like this every match they would finish mid table. I can’t remember Arsenal getting dominated in possesion against any side other than Barca, home or away and to be dominated by a side like Wolves, who will be in a relegation battle all season, shows how much Arsenal struggled to perform to their ability.
I’d not make such generalizations. I think he meant back on the winning track which is fine.
Sometimes it’s good to get points after defending. This won’t happen in every game as Arsenal will go forward in most, but why not appreciate it when it happens!?
Cesc may be thinking that he has lost his chance for getting reunited with his childhood club as barca have now turned their attention towards Ibrahim Afellay, I may be wrong but it could be a possibility
I’m not a fan of rumors and will be surprised if Guardiola would accept Affellay as a replacement for Cesc! Pastore might be a closer approximation.
And if that were the case, considering that he would be at Arsenal for a long period, Cesc should probably focus more on Arsenal, shouldn’t he?
but the Spanish media feels that barca won’t be able to meet the asking price for cesc and on the other hand Cesc might be ruing the fact that he could have forced Arsene’s hand. It could be a possibility
This is possible. If Cesc thinks of it as a lost opportunity and can’t get over it then it would explain his pre-occupied look. But I prefer to give him and the manager the benefit of the doubt. After all, he was phenomenal in some of the earlier games.
Desigunner, you forgot to say “relegation-style“ Arsenal, didnt you ?
The facts of the two games are very different. Perhaps you forgot to check the facts?
Fabianski Full stop
Almunia who?
Great Victory for the gunners. Time to show some consistency.
Oh yeah, i totally forgot about Almunia. He is still injured is it ?
btw, Song’s early cross was sublime. More of such crosses please… We now have two towering CFs in Chamakh and Bendtner..
I hope Song gives Sagna some tip on how to deliver pin point crosses..
I feel the thing with Sagna is that by the time he gets on the ball the defenders have had the time to organize and mark the striker. In this case they were nowhere near him.
Ya Thats right.. thats is why we need to do more of EARLY crosses.. Just look at Rooney who for his height scored so many headed goals(10 goals if my memory serves me right) last season. All from early crosses..
With Sagna/Clichy, I still dont think they are good crossers of the ball though they have some good no of assists to their name.
That’s true. Early balls will make a difference and will add a surprise element to our game. Again it will be about finding the right balance, over doing this could break the flow of our game.
Arshavin was really on fire today. He needed someone better than Chamakh in the middle especially with Cesc in such a bad mood/form. But that is Chamakh’s weakness he is no RVP in the final third.
Earlier in the season Chamakh dropped to one of the wings and pulled CBs all over . Also this allowed Arshavin to take positions where he can make a decisive pass in the final third. I am not sure why Chamakh is not doing that, Chamakh is fairly static in the middle and not switching with other forwards.
Rosicky was awesome today as he has been all this season. Towards the end he moved to the center and very close to left wing, and Arshavin lost the ball and watched Wolves took the ball to the other wing. Rosicky ran all the way from near edge of Wolves penalty box to the right wing to defend and he reached the wolves player very quickly. I wonder why none of the midfielders were able to cover for him there, would not have seen it if they had covered
.
Rosicky is a very committed, experienced, creative, defensively brilliant player. I wish he gets his old shooting from distance back.
I thought Cesc should have been subbed with possibly Nasri. We played the exact same way any team plays against us today we defended in numbers retreating all the players in to our own half.
Fabianski was fabulous. His save in the 90+ min and a save after a bad clearance (i guess by Rosicky) ball looped and went at the other end of the post, were fabulous.
If the midfield had played better we would have scored a lot more in this game and Chamakh and Arshavin would have had more value for their work. In this game it would be unfair to question what Chamakh did because he was isolated for large parts and also had to drop deep to defend quite often.
I remember that Rosicky incident but don’t quite remember where the others were. Could be that they were going backwards. Normally if we’re pressing higher, someone would have covered.
I missed that save off the deflection. That was another brilliant one.
I am not blaming Chamakh but he has weaknesses. It was very much evident in the first half.
There were quite a few times inside wolves box, our moves ended up nowhere because Chamakh was either slow or not was not willing to make those quick movements inside the box. He is new to our style and he will adapt and become better.
I am not expecting Chamakh to become RVP. But for some reason he was doing some other better things earlier in the season which he is not doing now.
Desi and other fans, I can’t believe you think it was a solid display! Despite the first 15 mins, Arsenal were very poor. Wolves didn’t just create a couple of chances but they were the better side the whole of the second half. Desi, you’ve called Arsenal relegation style in the past and if you think they were solid in this match, I can’t see how your distinguishing between results and performance. Arsenal may have won 2-0 but I’m not sure if they deserved anything more than a draw.
I am not really sure why do you think we did not deserve anything more than a draw. Sure our midfield did not have much control but our defenders played extremely well they deserved a clean sheet.
We had more shots , more goals, better chances than Wolves defended well what more do you have to do to deserve points ?
sometimes I wonder what Arsenal fans really want: is it playing badly and winning ugly or playing ‘champagne’ football and losing woefully. You know what, I went to bed after the match with a little smile on my face and had a dreamless sleep. Compared to sunday night, I’d rather have a repeat of last night till the end of the season than the nightmare of sunday!
Mate, Arsenal didn’t have more shots it was 18 -14 in favor of Wolves. Wolves also dominated possession and had several great chances albeit failling to score due to some great saves by Fabianski. Differentiate between the result and the performance.
Mate Arsenal didn’t have more shots, Wolves did. Wolves also had more possession and arguably could of won the match if it wasn’t for a brilliant individual display from Fabianski.
I’ve called Arsenal relegation style only once. That was after the Sunderland game and I gave factual evidence after that.
Look at the facts of the two games and you’ll see the performances were quite different. The basic differences were
1) Midfield was much closer to the defence in this game and helped out quite well
2) We created a lot more than we did against Sunderland. In this game you could see Arsenal can score another if need arises.
3) Against Sunderland we played much better after Song was off and Arshavin was substituted by Denilson. This was a similar to that performance although probably better than that.
I can also mention statistical differences but not worth getting into.
As I’ve said in the past, we can’t always expect a top class game. It happens to all the teams. I don’t mind a scrappy game as long as the players try hard and don’t go missing on the pitch.
I’m not trying to highlight statistical evidence that shows Arsenal were “relegation style” im pointing out that Wolves, a team in a relegation battle all season dominated possesion and most of the match. Arsenal won the match but they didn’t play well.
Wolves dominated possession and had more shots at goal while Fabianski keept Arsenal in the game with some great saves that on another day could of been goals.
If you think it was a “solid” display I point out what happened at the end of the match. Did you see Arsenal players congratulating Fabianski? Fabi made 2 outrageous saves as well as being solid all night. He almost single handedly keept Arsenal in the game. Arsenal players were congratulating him because without his saves wolves could of easily won the match. It’s good that our keeper played so well but it’s unfortunate that the performance of the team was bad enough that they relied on him to stay in the contest.
Specifically, in reference to your 3 points;
1. Maybe. Wolves still dominated midfield for the majority of the game so I’m not sure how good Arsenal’s midfield was in defence or attack.
2. Against Sunderland Arsenal created 17 shots against Wolves 14. Furthermore, Sunderland was arguably better defensively than Wolves (Sunderland has the second most clean sheets in the league). Also, other than Chamahk’s opening goal, Arsenal’s best chances arose from Wolves defensive mistakes and turnovers.
3.Considering possesion and territory stats, Arsenal were better against Sunderland than they were against Wolves. Especially during the period in the match against Sunderland you choose to highlight.
No question Fabianski was man of the match. He bounced back brilliantly from Sunday’s howler and made four or five top-class saves.
It was a tough, tough game, and although we did ride our luck a bit at times it was very encouraging to see us come through with a highly committed defensive showing. As you point out, pressing high up the pitch made a big difference. More of the same required at Everton on Sunday!
http://thearmchairsportsfan.com/2010/11/11/fabianski-pretty-in-pink-as-chamakh-goals-bookend-arsenal-win/
I thought it’s a good game from Arsenal, contrary to some of the folks think. It was hard fought which is why it’s a well deserve win. We could’ve win in a bigger margin even. It is. A typical away game which is well done considering the 3 points. It’s definitely better vs. Sunderland both on performance and points.
A certain blue team called Chelsea play this kind of game week in and week out and they called them champion mentality. I woul d take this game in any week from Arsenal.
Now on the player, I thought Arshavin played brilliantly as what he supposed to do, attacking minded. He’s abit unlucky not to be on the scoresheet. In this aspect, he has the edge vs. The superb Nasri. Once AA got the ball, there’s one thing in his mind, to score a goal. Only RVP matchs him in this instinct.
Fabianski, chamakh are the obvious top performer in this game, but the defensive unit also had a very good game. I thought Fabregas was OK considering that he’s not 100 percent fit.
On a side note, I always like Kevin Doyle, he’s a fighter, he would fit in Ljungberg mould if he ever play for Arsenal, which I don’t think we have this kind of player at the moment, a poacher and a worker.
Doyle is an interesting player but I’m not sure he’ll make it at a big club. There is something missing from his game, can’t quite pin point it. I guess if he’d found someone like Arsene at a younger age when he could have developed it would have been a different story.
Great analysis but i am still not fully convinced about Djourou and his positioning. He also tends to slide into tackles a lot often leaving Squillaci exposed when he doesn’t win the ball. I think he needs to learn to stay on his feet when defending in a 1v1 situation.
Did you notice Song making a lot of forward runs into the box in the first half? i thought that left our midfield unbalanced and left jack alone to deal with a 2v1 situation. I think in the second half Wenger must have told him to limit the forward runs.
Overall great writeup i agree with most of the analysis.
I agree Djourou does go down at times. But I do feel he is improving as he gets more games. To be honest he’s doing much better than what I’d expected at the start of the season. I was also impressed by his distribution from the back.
are you on twitter desi gunner?
I have an id that is same as my email but I don’t use it that often. I keep thinking I should start exploring but the day never arrives
[...] Wolves 0 – 2 Arsenal: Match Thoughts And Individual Analysis Before the game I was wondering whether it will be delight or despair at Molineux. Delight it is as Arsenal come away [...] [...]