Jan 14th – Swansea 0 Arsenal 4

We were shit and they were shittier. I know I should be happy but there are too many parts of this team I don’t like. I know we won 4-0. I know we helped our goal difference. I know we kept a clean sheet. But I also know we are a weak team mentally waiting to be pulled apart.

Swansea had their chances. And the penalty decision ended up deciding the game. In real-time I was sure it was a penalty. In the lead up to the play you could see both Xhaka and Monreal fail to track their players – this was happening the entire first half. And prior to this Mike Jones should have given Dyer a yellow card. So you just knew it that because Jones had kept the card in his pocket after all those fouls on Monreal, that the first card would go to Arsenal. And there were a number of soft challenges where, for example, Ramsey won the ball but a free-kick was given. So it was obvious this was a penalty, right? I was convinced. And assumed that Koscleny picked up the first yellow. Only on third viewing did I appreciate that Ki intentionally dangled his leg out to induce a foul. How in the hell does a (shit) referee catch that in real-time. And therein the game was decided.

So, maybe the best player was Mike Jones? Nope. That would have been the Swansea back-line that decided they wanted to score all our goals. Thank you very much. And overall their defense was atrocious. In their box, all the deflections went our way. And we needed it. We started the game so slowly. Xhaka continues to be careless with the ball. Making simple mistakes on simple passes. Ramsey continues to frustrate. I don’t get his game. His passing is sideways and backwards. He takes too many touches and we loose momentum. Ob1 was ineffective (in the first half) and not involved enough in the game. And Mustafa continues to give the ball away because of his poor distribution. When an opposing coach figures out the best move is to close Mustafa down then we will concede more goals. Sure, I know we’ve not lost a game when he’s started but that’s just a statistical anomaly. These four players (Xhaka, Ramsey, Ob1 and Mustafa) impede our ability to build up play. We need our Coq back. And we should have seen Perez instead of Ob1.

The interesting thing about Ob1 is that his second half was so much superior to his first. As the game wore on he reverted to a more central role and then out to the left wing.  He was more direct and he instigated the moves that lead to most of our goals. When he is confident and takes the ball forward he is so much more impactful.

After the first half an hour it seemed we finally realized that we were supposed to actually play football. There was a little bit more urgency. But it was not until the second half that we truly imposed ourselves. Again. What is it with this mentality where we only play one half of a game. Against a half way decent team we’d be butchered. But thankfully this was woeful Swansea. I don’t care who’s their manager they will be in the Championship next year.

Where is Kieran Gibbs? We need a left-back to challenge Monreal. He looks really quite vulnerable to anyway who has pace. He fails to track back and inside when Koscleny covers out left for him. He just switches off. Maybe our non-league addition can give him competition.

Going into this game I thought it could be the most important game of the season. That was stupid obviously. But it was the type of match where we could have dropped points against a newly motivated team with a new manager. So I’m grateful for the points. But truly, they were shit. And this was them at home with a supportive crowd. They look dead and buried. Of course we at least know who their manager is. If we did not, then the camera man made sure we were aware of it at least once a minute. Now anyone who reads these reports (actually, does anyone – I doubt it) will know one of my favorite peeves is the awful camera work. I’ve resisted mentioning it for a long time but today felt like we found new lows. Between watching their manager and then various fans in the crowd, we were unable to actually watch the game. Compound this with the obligatory replays and I lost count of the number of times we weren’t able to actually watch the game. For many years now I have been thoroughly angered by this. It’s like they (some deep, dark malevolent soul) is trying to turn watching a game into a MTV music video (there, I just dated myself). Why can’t we just watch the fucking game? Also, why are they now insisting on close ups on all the players and the action. You loose depth perspective and can’t track the game or the players movements. I fear this is a trend that will only progressively deteriorate. My only  hope is that, at some point, we’ll get picture-in-picture.  Or get to choose which cameras we can follow. Or maybe we’ll all end up using virtual goggles. And then maybe we’ll be able to insert ourselves into the game avatar-like. I’d have to choose which player I’d want to be. Or, rather, who I’d never be. i.e. Ramsey.

Back to the game. It’s noticeable though how – and this is stating the blindingly obvious – that the same player that looks like shit in one position (i.e. Ramsey or Ob1) can look entirely different – and impressive – in another position (i.e. Ob1). Weird that.

Big Ears was not really exposed or tested today (unlike Monreal). That’s fine but we need Bellend back. Along with our Coq. I fear though that until Ramsey gets injured we’re going to be stuck with  his insufferable dallying on the ball and multi-touches. And then, maybe, someone can go looking for Theo. Maybe, once we attained the pinnacle of his career . that is, the coffee machine, he’s been missing. Maybe it’s a caffeine allergy. Let’s see if we can find Ramsey’s allergies.

– LB7

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