Top of the morning to yall
Saturday’s game was the most
expensive game in premier league history by the virtue of Arsenal’s new ticket
grading system. With the cheapest price as high as £62, and matchday revenue
estimated to be around £6million, it was probably the worst day for the team to
turn up their worst performance of the season so far as fans would at least
want to get value for the high ticket prices they are paying for.
Instead, it was a game riddled with
mistakes not only for the players, but also an admittance of a wrong decision
from the manager. Here are some reasons I think we lost the game
Choosing to Rest Per Mertesacker:
From the beginning of the season, any
Arsenal fan (I mean the right thinking ones) would tell you that our best
defender has been Per Mertesacker. Up until now, he has been excellent,
bringing a measure of confidence and solidity to the backline. His composure,
reading of the game and tackling has be top notch so far and with his
performances, it’s not a coincidence that we had conceded so few goals. After
so much criticism about his lack of pace, he has shown that his experience and
maturity are his major strengths and brought that to the fore, thus making up
for his lack of speed.
Leaving Mertesacker on the bench was
something that Wenger admitted might have been a wrong decision though lowering
the quality of the players that played.
During the course of the game, I
think we missed the calmness and organisation that The BFG brings to the
defence. Both goals were the fault of the defence and Koscielny in particular
for the first goal by concentrating on tussling with Torres instead of
attacking the ball. Having The BFG on the pitch would have brought a lot of
stability to the back particularly at dealing with those balls into the box.
We Lost Abou Diaby Early
When Diaby took that shot that went
straight at Petr Cech and limped afterwards, am sure am not the only Arsenal
fan in the world that had their hearts in their mouths and prayed it was just a
false alarm and when he was substituted afterwards, we were all like
“aaaaarghhhh not again”. But yes that's exactly what happened, he got injured.
AGAIN! And I think it’s one of the reasons that we lost the game. We lost our
box to box midfielder. This season, the Arsenal midfield has been primarily
made of Arteta, Diaby and Cazorla, each player with his specific role based on
their unique abilities.
Arteta sits in the DMF position –
even though Arsene says there are no DMF’s in the modern game- (rolls eyes), shielding
the back four, breaking up the oppositions play with tackles and interceptions
and linking up play between the defence and midfield with short tidy passes. Cazorla
plays as the most advanced of the midfield trio linking the midfield and the
forwards. With good ball retention abilities and vision, he is best suited for
this role. Diaby with his physical presence and dribbling and tackling makes
him the perfect box to box midfielder, his performance against Liverpool this
season embodies this role. But yesterday, his injury in the 17th
minute robbed us of his specialist abilities. We were robbed of his ball
winning abilities, physical presence, tackling and dribbling in the middle.
At the time he got injured, I thought
Wenger will bring on someone else that can offer us something similar to Diaby.
I thought he would bring on Coquelin, who is also combative and has a good work
rate and could give us that balance in the middle, but his choice of The Ox
coming on and choosing to switch Ramsey to the Diaby role was one that back
fired. Don’t get me wrong, I think, I think Aaron Ramsey is a fine footballer
but he playing the Diaby role in a game against Chelsea was a bad idea as there
was no one to support Arteta in containing Chelsea’s very mobile midfielders. In
my opinion, Le Coq would have brought the much needed steel in the midfield
that we would have had with Diaby and chelsea’s ability to run the midfield
especially after the second goal meant we were always going to struggle to get
a hold of the game.
Defensive Lapses
Arsene Wenger has admitted this
morning that we were passive on both goals that we conceded and that we should
have been more active. That's the fault of the defenders more than anything
else, especially the centre backs. Koscielny who was unarguably our best
defender last season was directly at fault for the first goal, choosing to play
push and shove with Torres while the striker concentrated on the flight of the
ball and stuck out his leg at the perfect time to guide the ball home.
Vermaelen should also take some stick
for the fouls he committed at very dangerous positions of the pitch. So far
this season, he has been very disciplined at the back, not rushing forward like
he normally does. But yesterday, that side came out again as he was caught up
front during a counter and while tracking back, had to commit a foul that led
to the second goal.
Throughout the 90mins, Chelsea had
just 3 shots on target and they scored with 2 not at all fantastic goals. That
shows how guilty our centre backs were.
I think it’s a wakeup call. A very
sound one that they have to be on their toes throughout the season. That every
game is a battle that must be approached with all seriousness and
professionalism. Am that Steve Bould would be mighty pissed with the two centre
backs for their performance and am sure he would not mince words in letting
them know it.
It would be unfair though to
concentrate all the blame on the defence. Like I pointed out earlier, having
Ramsey play the Diaby role in the middle was a bad choice, but hindsight is
very easy and am sure that if we had at least drawn the game, I probably won’t posting
this particular blog.
Players such an Oxlade-Chamberlain,
Podolski had an average game and Giroud missed that glorious chance to snatch a
point in the end that hit the side netting.
We play Olympiacos in the Champions
League on Wednesday and it’s a quick chance for the team to show what they are
made up as Wenger serves the second of his 3 game ban. Looking forward to that
already.
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God bless the Arsenal, iree o
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