Saturday, March 22, 2014

Arsenal Circus Returns to London (Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0)

I’m too depressed at the moment to recount the destruction that took place at Stamford Bridge today, so I’ll just say that Arsenal was down 1-0 after 5 minutes, 2-0 after 7 and down to ten men and down 3-0 before 20 minutes had passed. And three more Chelsea goals would follow to make it the biggest EPL victory of Mourinho’s career and yet another loss for Wenger in the head to head between these two iconic managers. And thus the Gunner circus that has shown up at Anfield and the Ethiad already this season returned to London for an encore performance that would even leave the happiest clown in tears.

Arsenal this season by the numbers …

Record against top seven this season: 3-4-3 (with 2 of the 3 early in season)
Goals per game vs. top seven: .9
Goals conceded per game vs. top seven: 1.9
Goals conceded on road vs. other top 3: 17
Goals conceded in first 20 minutes of those games: 8
Errors Leading to goals in games against top 3: at least 9
Record against Mourinho in EPL: 0-3-5
Record against Mourinho in other comps: 0-3-0
Overall record against Mourinho: 0-6-5
Composite Score of 3 games versus Chelsea this season: 0-8
Composite Score of 2 games versus Man United: 0-1 (and 1 point)
Goals scored on road against top 7: 5
Goals concede of road against top 7: 18

1)  Ox: I mentioned this last week after the Tottenham game, but Ox still has a lot of maturing to do. In fact, it looks like he might need more time on the wing before he can really take over in the middle of the park. The bulging injury list is the reason he got the start in this game, I assume, but his performance essentially gave the game away in the first 10 minutes, first by giving the ball away for the first goal, then handling the third, which appeared to be going wide leading to the penalty and ejection of Gibbs (though it should have been him). After his assist for the goal against Tottenham, he has been playing far too wildly, giving the ball up in dangerous positions that too often lead to counters. Flamini also had an error that led to a goal, but Ox needs to take much of the blame for letting the game get away so quickly today. The other big problem was …

2)  Giroud: since last summer, fans and critics have been calling for Wenger to buy a second striker, and while he came close on several occasions, including the flirtations with Higuian and Suarez and the last second loss of Demba Ba last summer (as Mourinho didn’t want to strengthen a “rival”), he never actually signed anyone. And so it was left to an overworked Giroud, an underperforming wantaway Bendtner and a young Sanogo to carry the load as Arsenal headed into the second half with their best chance to win the title in a decade. As points started to be left on the pitch – against Southampton, Liverpool, Man United and now Chelsea -- one can’t help but wonder what could have been. Giroud has been playing with what appears to be really tired legs of late. He had no shots on goal against Tottenham last weekend and missed a real opportunity in the 4th minute that should have given the Gunners the lead, after Rosicky had sent him through on goal, and might have led to a very different result. But as is too often the case, he missed that opening and the game went against the Gunners. How many of those missed opportunities over the past two seasons would have been taken by a better striker? We’ll never know, but too many points seem to disappear under his faltering shots and near misses. Wenger will probably end up paying for his continued stubbornness with another title to add to his three.


3)  Wenger & the Big Game: Arsene Wenger hit 1,000 games as manager of Arsenal today and that is to be lauded. He oversaw two doubles, a perfect season and 7 major trophies in all. He led the team through the lean times after the move to the Emirates and has essentially ensured their long term financial solvency as other top teams remain mired in insane debt. He continues to impress by making the Champions League year after year after year. But maybe the real leitmotif of the Wenger reign is the near misses. There were trophies that they just missed in 1999, 2000, 200, 2008, and 2010 (among other opportunities that disappeared). There were the two European Cups they lost in the finals (2000 to Gattasaray on penalties), with the painful 2006 2-1 defeat to Barca putting the final nail in the Invincibles. There was the Carling Cup late disaster against soon to be relegated Birmingham, the second leg loss to Barca in 2011, numerous FA Cup losses to United and Chelsea (once with a 1-0 lead they lost to two Drogba strikes), the pathetic capitulations to Bradford and Blackburn last season in the Capital One and FA Cups respectively, the rather paltry effort against Chelsea in the Capital One Cup this season and awful first leg performances against Bayern the past two seasons and AC Milan the season before (which they came a simply finish from RVP from tying in regulation in the second leg). The reality is that Wenger’s entire career at Arsenal has been defined by near misses and almosts. Sure there are the titles, FA Cups and Invincibles. But nine years without a trophy for a club as big as Arsenal is all but unforgiveable. And the way the Gunners have played against their major competition this year, and in the past several, has been downright appalling, as the numbers above show. Arsenal should win the FA Cup this year to end the drought, one hopes, but they need to find a way to win the big games if they are to take the next step and actually compete for titles and Champions League glory. Is Wenger the man to take us there? Real questions remain regarding the answer to that question …

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