Well that was depressing. Some Arsenal fans have gone quite ballistic on blogs and twitter. Understandable although surely losing to Fulham and Swansea were worse?
That substitution!
Anyway, let’s start with what everyone’s talking about – the substitution of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with Andrey Arshavin. Arsene Wenger says he had to come off as he was beginning to fatigue and suffer cramp. Well this was his first Premier League start and he hasn’t played a whole lot of competitive football so maybe that’s right. Plausible enough. What I don’t get, and neither does anyone else, is why he was replaced with Andrey Arshavin.
OK so he didn’t have a lot of options on the bench, it was a choice between Arshavin, Benayoun or Park. We’d just got a goal back, but we were still under pressure from a team that never gives up or they wouldn’t dare go back into the dressing room. Neither Arshavin nor Benayoun are great defenders, they are both attacking midfielders, but the key difference is that Benayoun makes the effort. He really looks like he cares what happens. Admittedly Arshavin has upped his work rate over the last couple of games, but he’s never really put much in defensively and his form this season has been poor.
It was also very poor for a player to come on to booing by his club’s own supporters. I’ve blogged elsewhere about it and those who’ve commented don’t agree, but I still think it was a crap thing to do.
So was the defeat all Arshavin’s fault? No it wasn’t. But he was hopeless in the lead up to Man United’s second goal and we definitely lost momentum.
The Ox has arrived
But in picking apart the decision to substitute him, let’s not lose sight of Chamberlain’s performance. The guy was an absolute star. OK so he may get caught out of position a bit, but this was his his first league start and he’s only eighteen. And he was playing Manchester United. He’s got pace and strength. He is determined not to get muscled off the ball and he has a clear idea of what he’s going to do with it. There’s plenty of end product along with all the effort.
It’s natural to compare him with Walcott, so everyone doing that today. Pity for Theo that he had such an ineffectual time yesterday. They are not identical. AOC doesn’t have the same pace that Walcott has, but he is plenty fast enough and accelerates well. He has more muscle and bulk than Walcott. It took a couple of seasons for Theo to stop getting bounced off the ball by featherlite challenges. AOC already has that resilience now and more. If Theo wasn’t already looking over his shoulder, he should be now. The Ox has arrived and yesterday made a convincing case for starting more often.
Three typical goals
The three goals could all be described as typical. United’s first came with us being beaten out in the right fullback position. It went on for most of the game, mainly with Nani beating Djourou, but this time it was Giggs eluding the covering Walcott. In went the cross and on the far side Valencia beat Vermaelen to the ball and headed in from close range.
Our goal was a typical classy counterattack. Koscielny calmly played the ball out of defence, Rosicky combined with AOC, who slipped the ball to Van Persie. You didn’t fancy RVP’s chances where he was and the players in the way, but he scored, reversing the ball through a defender’s legs and across the the keeper. It crept into the corner and Arsenal had crept back into the game. Van Persie didn’t actually have the best of games, missing a bit of a sitter earlier. But the goal showed why he is such an asset. You couldn’t imagine anyone else in the squad, apart from Henry resting in the stand, who would have scored from there.
Man Utd’s winner was also sadly typical with Arshavin first tentative, then typically casual and then finally off the pace when Valencia made his run into the box to create the opportunity for Welbeck.
Temporary fullbacks and Nico Yennaris
The lack of proper fullbacks is hurting us. Not every game, but in every game where we come up against pace. Central defenders are not built for speed and you have to do a lot of running out wide. Against Swansea’s Sinclair and Dyer, United’s Nani and Valencia, Djourou, Vermaelen and Miquel are struggling. By halftime yesterday, Djourou was knackered and getting beaten time and again. He isn’t a bad player, worth his place in the squad, but he isn’t a genuine fullback and Nani is a genuine winger. At halftime, Arsene Wenger ended his pain by bring on Nico Yennaris. A longstanding debate. Which is the better option, experience out of position vs youth? Last night the answer was clear. Yennaris didn’t shut out United completely but he was clearly the better option. He isn’t Bacary Sagna yet, but he looks a very decent player.
Rosicky and Koscielny
This isn’t meant to be a blow by blow account, but these two have to have mention. Tomas Rosicky had a great game. You wouldn’t start him ahead of a fit Arteta, but he is clever, passes well, holds the ball and he cares about the result. Koscielny also played a blinder. To think how we scorned him in his first season! He has great skill, reads the game well and supplies a great deal of the team’s backbone now.
Fifth
So there we are, emotionally drained, still fifth, but slightly further off the golden top four slots. The only glimmers of the weekend were Spurs and the two rivals immediately behind losing. We’re still in the hunt and we have players to come back. But it got harder again this weekend. Last night wasn’t our worst performance in January, not even our second worst. But it still hurts in the morning.
Loading ...
