Sunday, December 15, 2013

Arsenal Implode (Lose 6-3 at Man City)

It was a bad end to a bad week for Arsenal, after a draw at home against Everton and a 2-0 loss at Napoli that pushed the Gunners from first to second in their Champion’s League group and created a major test in the first knockout round. The game Saturday provided the team with the opportunity to open up a nine-point lead on City and show their title-worthy chops after the recent setbacks. Instead they looked like the Keystone Cops, making one mistake after another that ended up seeing them ship 6 goals (with 5 based on clear mistakes). The Gunners can be proud of their resiliency in trying to mount comebacks not one, nor twice, but thrice, but upset for again failing to gain points against top competition. There were hints earlier in the year that they might finally be able to match up against the top competition in the EPL, with victories over Tottenham and Liverpool, but since then they have lost to a very average Man United, drew with Everton and lost to Man City, with Chelsea in the wings in 9 days’ time, with their lead in serious doubt.

Rather than a long description of the disappointing loss, I thought I would highlight some key points from the game:

1.  Wenger’s team selection mistakes:  though close to the normal starting 11, it included a couple of head scratchers that seemed to cost the team all game long. The first was to start Nacho Monreal over Kieran Gibbs at left back. Monreal has been solid coming into games late to add an extra defender and hold leads, but has shown some defensive frailties over the past 11 months since his move from Malaga. He was beaten on two of the goals, by not closing on crosses and generally had a game to forget. One wonders if Gibbs would have done better, particularly given the space that sometimes opened up for the Gunners when they went out wide. The second choice was even harder to fathom, allowing Arteta to sit on the bench while Wilshere played with Ramsey and Ozil. Wilshere has been underperforming most of the term, minus a few goals, and his display was below average in the first half and never really amounted to much throughout (he had a decent spell in the middle of the second half when Arsenal briefly got themselves back in the game). He has the lowest pass success rate of any of our midfielders, loses the ball far too often and is a defensive liability when the ball gets beyond him. A questionable choice that cost the team against a team that thrives at home. Hard to understand and reminds us of the wrong choices that have plagued Wenger for the past 8 seasons. And late on, the subs did little to improve the result, instead allowing the shipping of three goals from the 66th minute onward (and two in the last 8 minutes).
2.  Defensive/midfield errors: clear errors from the generally solid Koscielny and Mertesacker were guilty for at least 2, if not 3, of the goals. The first goal came from Aguero (14’), who hooked in a glancing header from Demichelis across goal, when Koscielny fell asleep at the far post allowing the in-form striker to sneak past him from behind. Mertesacker fell asleep for the fourth, allowing the diminutive David Silva (66’) to slip in front of him and finish a nice cross, that Monreal should have closed on; changing the momentum after the Gunners had closed to 3-2. The generally solid Mathieu Flamini was guilty for the third, after failing to latch on to a Ozil pass from deep on the right and allowed Fernandinho (50’) to thrust forward and score (with Szczesny coming out to far). The fifth came after Wilshere again gave the ball away in the midfield, allowing Fernandinho to score a second (88’), with Sz in no man’s land again. And the sixth, came after substitute Gnarby gave the ball away late, and Sz finished a torrid second half by fouling Milner in the box and watching Yaya Toure slide it behind him in a last second penalty (90’ + 6). It was a display of ineptitude that the Gunners will have to forget quickly, if they are to stay in the lead through the holiday season.
3.  Giroud needs a rest: Olivier Giroud had two opportunities to draw the Gunners level, and spurned both of them, with the second a gilt-edged cross from Bacary Sagna that he somehow headed wide from the middle of the box, six yards out. He also missed another great opportunity in front of goal and generally gave up the ball far too often, trying to create too much from Sz’s long balls, rather than pulling them down and distributing back. The reality is that in the past month or so he has spurned far too many chances and that it is starting to really hurt the team, as was the case in the first half of last season. In this case, it appears to be fatigue, and the result of Wenger failing to grab a striker in the summer window. Giroud could have put the Everton game out of reach, had a chance to open things up against Napoli and missed a number of chances across all the fixtures. Strikers need to finish when given chances, and his profligacy in front of goal is starting to take a toll on our title ambitions. If Wenger fails to bring in another striker in January, he has completely lost his mind.
4. On the other hand, Walcott!: Theo has been missed, with this being the winger’s first start since September. But while we do lose a little on the defensive end when he plays, he more than made up for it with two nice goals. The first came in the 31st minute, when an Arsenal counter started by Aaron Ramsey stealing the ball from Toure in midfield led to a pass from Ozil across goal to Walcott, who finished with a less than impressive, but still successful shot to equalize. In the 63rd minute, Walcott brought the Gunners back into the game, with a lovely chip across goal, beating the 6’7” Pantillmon (who might find himself back on the bench after this display). His speed down the right and clever movement across the pitch gave the Gunners more outlets and his finishing was something to behold, after the spurned chances from Giroud, Wilshere and Ramsey.
5. Flamini/Ozil Off: one of the criticisms leveled against Wenger is that he overplays his started and they thus tire out as the season wears on. This was the case for the first few years of the Gunners recent silverware-free period, but Arsenal have finished strong two years in a row to take the final UCL place. But this year, fatigue and a bevy of injuries have started to take a toll in big games. And it might be the case with our two new signings, with Ozil having a rather poor game after the first-half assist and Flamini less than stellar, allowing the fourth goal in with what looked like a tired half-attempt at latching onto an Ozil pass from deep in their own zone and missing a nice chance to score in the first half. His passing is generally perfect, but he gave the ball up recklessly throughout, and missed far too many tackles, allowing City’s attacking troops to round him with far too much ease. Luckily both have a 9 day breather to get back to top form, and they’ll need it against a Chelsea team that is winning mainly by scoring more goals then their opponents.
6. Referees Again Costing Gunners: last year was the first year that I can remember where Arsenal might have gotten more calls than their opponents throughout a season. But since the beginning of this campaign, the Gunners have been overcoming bad calls, rather than getting calls in their favor. Against Aston Villa, a questionable penalty and red card saw them lose their opening game, before the run that followed. In a few other games early, clear penalty appeals were ignored and questionable penalties called against Koscielny. Foul calls that made little sense went against the Gunners while others, like Napoli in midweek, bullied the team without punishment. On top of this, the yellows seem to come out far too often against the team; with Arteta sent off for two yellows on the only two fouls he committed all game. In this one, there were three questionable offsides calls against Arsenal, with two disallowing goals. Yes, that’s right. The score could easily have been 6-5, or 10-8 for that matter, if the refs hadn’t incorrectly intervened. There was also a penalty appeal that seemed legitimate, as Zaboleta kneed the ball into his outstretched arm in the box. But the Gunners really have themselves to blame for both losses, and so I don’t want to exaggerate the importance of the blown calls (there were also two corners that magically became goal kicks for City).


So the expected drop in form has emerged for the Gunners, even as they came back on three separate occasions to keep it close until the final minutes. On Wednesday, it appeared to be a case of relaxing too soon, when Dortmund was knotted in the late stages and the Gunners looked certain for first place, before the second in injury time made the score look worse than it was. But today the Gunners suffered an embarrassing defeat based on far too many errors by the midfield and defenders and too many missed opportunities when they were pushing forward. The mistakes are starting to creep in with increased frequency and Koscielny might be out for a little while with a nasty gash in his knee. Arsenal need to reassert themselves by beating Chelsea at home and heading into Christmas with the lead retained. They have already dropped some points when a win would have heaped real pressure on their two major competitors for the crown, Chelsea and City, and now they have to show they can play with the big boys. So far, they have been less than impressive in this regard, forgoing the away win at Dortmund in the UCL and the early success over Tottenham and Liverpool. COYG! 

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