Arsenal Lose Again

Another lead. Another opportunity (to top the group). And another loss. This is becoming a habit for the Gunners this year, who don't play well in front, don't play well even and certainly don't play well from behind. In fact, it seems with every passing game the call to sack Wenger gains steam. The Gunners brought their B team to the game, with a few of the starters peppered in. Maybe we should have just rested everyone. Olympiakos controlled large portions of the game, looked dangerous going forward and ultimately won 2-1. Even with the depleted squad, we could easily have won the game though. We went into half-time up 1-0, after a lovely finish from Rosicky from a nice lay-off from Gervinho dribbling through the box to the right. But many other opportunities went wanting, the most obvious dropping to Ramsey who could have scored to the left or right after a header from Chamakh, but flubbed the shot and then dribbled out (when a corner was in the offing). He then missed another half chance in the box and reaffirmed my belief that he is the worst regular player for the team. He gave the ball up constantly, took too long to make decisions, contributed to the first Greek goal by chesting directly to their striker, missed open players and flubbed his opportunities in the box. Is Wenger even watching these games, giving him time over and over again? Ramsey is essentially the best 12th man in football -- for the other team. Chamakh was also pretty bad, missing several chances one on one with the goalie by failing to control nice passes through the air. 

It wasn't that surprising that we gave the game back in the second half, even though we looked relatively safe before the goal was scored. For one, the brightest player on the pitch for the Gunners was sat down for Arshavin at half-time. Rosicky looked great and should get more time on the pitch going forward, though his subbing out was probably the result of his just returning from injury. For another, with Squillaci in the back line and Coquelin trying to marshal the midfield in front of him, we looked open far too often. In fact Squillaci's most lively play of the game was ducking out of the way of the shot that gave Olympiakos the lead in the 73rd minute. Szczesny did have a nice game with a number of good saves, but could do little about the two Olympiakos goals. Looking at the other players, the Ox was uneven but did have some nice forward runs (with one leading to the goal). Gervinho did assist the sole goal, but really needs to raise his head and look around when he charges forward, as he missed good runs giving the ball away on several occasions. Vermaelen was average, Jenkinson did little going forward and Coquelin was okay. The refs were also awful throughout and one terrible call led to the corner that yielded the first goal. They also missed a number of free kicks for Arsenal and a decent penalty appeal when Gervinho was pushed from behind in the box after a decent surge forward. The only good news is that finishing second this year is not as bad as normal -- as Real, PSG and a host of other quality clubs came second. 

But a victory might have helped to restore a little faith in a club clearly going in the wrong direction; as well as giving us the return home game in the next round. We simply look like a shell of our former selves, whether its the starters or youngsters. We have won but 4 of our last 13 matches and have now ceded four leads in the past eight fixtures, including the blown two goal leads against Fulham and Schalke, this game and the 1-0 lead we had against Everton. The other three ended in draws, but we couldn't even manage that here. It is an awful run and continues the questions about Wenger's ability to turn this team around. A couple days ago I outlined my reasons why this should be Wenger's last season and don't want to reiterate them here. But just to add one last element to the argument, everyone including Wenger agreed that we needed another striker and defensive midfielder as the window was closing this summer. But we got neither and continue to suffer for the absence of both. In this game, a decent backup striker might easily have had a hat trick. Chamakh was held scoreless yet again, hopefully ending all the silly commentators on Bleacher Report arguing he should have a run of games. In any case, I hope someone is at least calling Guardiola. He said he wanted a challenge ... and he would certainly have one turning this sorry club around.