Nov 23rd – Arsenal 2 PSG 2

Another draw. But this one feels like a loss whereas the previous one had felt like a win. When will we return to winning ways? My bet would be on when we can get Santi back.

PSG are a good team to be fair. In the first half, they dominated. BTW, when are we going to turn up and play for the entire game. i.e. the idea that we can play both halves of the game. Our second half was way better. Up until we took the lead that is. Then they reasserted themselves and we withdrew further and ceeded the initiative. But there was a (small) period in the second half where we found our mo-jo and started to dominate.

That’s what make it so frustrating. Not as frustrating as drawing with Sp*rs or losing to Liverpool. After all, you know if we’d come top of our group we’d have drawn Bayern in the next round anyway – as opposed to the inevitable match v Barcelona. We had the game there for the winning. I’d been screaming at AW (and somehow he could not hear me) to take off Iwobi for about 10 minutes. And after his (overall) performance he should be taken out and beheaded. It’s not like he can use his head to head a ball. How pathetic was his reaction? He essentially ducked out of the way but not before deflecting it past Ospina. Not that Jenkinson covered himself in glory by losing track of Lucas and allowing the ball to by-pass him first. But back to Iwobi. He seems to have lost his game. There was a moment in the first half when he cut in from the left and had a chance to shot but took one too many touches. Last year he’d have shot. But now I think he’s overplaying/overthinking it. Either way, I suspect he’ll be on the bench on Saturday. He left Gibbs exposed several times. I can see why AW did not play Iwobi at ManU. Positionally he does not get how to defend. He is erringly familiar to Chamberlain and Theo in that respect. Though Theo seems to have (finally) figured it out.

So, while the result is not the end of the world the performance was worrying. And the form of some players. Clearly not having our Spanish contingent is destabilizing. Though Gibbs covered pretty well for Monreal – who was sub-par against MU. But we miss Bellerin. And as for Santi…..That leads us to midfield. Let’s start on Ramsey. Why not. I always do. Actually, he was not so bad. But he’s two players rolled into one. He started the more defensive of the two midfielder. Often Coq was ahead of him on the pitch when they had the ball. Ramsey’s distribution when we’re in our own half is too conservative – too many square and backward passes. Too many touches. He takes any forward momentum out of our play. He (like Sanchez) needs to play one touch more often. Interestingly though, you put Ramsey in their half and suddenly he comes alive – his runs into the box are aggressive and direct. His movement is more dynamic and his playing forward passes. And, in all areas of the pitch, he’s tackling was so much better. So, maybe, it’s just an issue of playing time for him in order to find his confidence and touch. We’ll see. I’m sure AW will continue to play him. But we have to find a balance in midfield which we clearly lack now. What’s the right combination without Santi? I love my Coq but I wonder whether Santi-Coq allows Santi to cover up for Coq defensive play. And neither Ramsey nor Elneny can compensate for that lack of creativity. Maybe that means he has to try a Xhaka/Ramsey combination. Except I don’t feel that Xhaka has really found his game yet. He needs a little longer to settle in maybe. This weekend it will be interesting to see what team AW puts out. I’d put Theo back in – drop Iwobi and maybe, try Ramsey+Xhaka (sorry Coq).

Anyway, what was up with Mustafi? It was as though someone high-jacked his body and replaced it with a Cygan or Stephanov. He’s distribution yesterday was as poor as anyone I’ve ever seen. So many of his passes put the ball at PSG feet or put our players under immediate pressure. He normally does this once a game – yesterday it was nearly everytime. It was his worst performance in our colours. Hopefully he’s got that out of his system. Overall he’s been a big positive for us this season. Everyone is allowed a poor game (unless you’re Ramsey…) but yesterday was painful to watch. He’s positioning was off (see their first goal) and his mistakes multiplied as the game progressed. Seeing him move forward with the ball at his feet you just knew the ball was going to PSG. Of course if Santi was there he would have been close by to pick the ball up from him and then move forward. Whereas Ramsey is positioned too far away and then just passes it sideways or backwards anyway. It does not help Jenkinson settle down either when Mustafi puts him under pressure with his passing. Hopefully it was just a one game aberration.

So where is Theo? It feels like he’s fallen out of favour slightly. Or maybe he’s nursing an injury. Or maybe AW is rotating his players? Let’s hope it’s the later. For Saturday I figure Chamberlin will figure more prominently. I still don’t’ trust him but he deserves his chance. And I definitely don’t want to see Iwobi out there.

– LB7

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