Belated happy new year to you my reader(s). I’ve been unable to post due to the demands of pre-transfer period scouting on behalf of Arsenal. AW himself requested that I help identify targets for this transfer window and subsequently I’ve been traveling the green fields of England searching for suitable upgrades (notice how I chose not to search for anyone in Wales). Anyway, unfortunately the best I could do was find a remarkable goalkeeper with immense potential but unfortunately he’s a midget and also injury prone.
I was able to enjoy the West Brom game (which was utterly unenjoyable) and the Crystal Palace romp care of our acrobatic Giroud. So, given that this is Arsenal I had that regularly impending sense of doom going into this match. And boy did this team not let me down.
The first 10 minutes or so we looked quite good given the team selection. But then we proceeded to be one of those teams we like to play against. That is, the team that gives up two goals in a few minutes. Both were horrendous mistakes. The first by Bellend and the second by Chakakhan.
So let’s start with Bellend. How fucking dreadful was he? He reached new lows today. Lows that even Santos or Jenkinson would have been embarrassed with. Utterly stank out the place. Not a single pass, move or run worked today. It was as though he’d been on the piss since new years eve and has not stopped. How he could get sucked out of position so easily for that first goal was amateurish – even when Ramsey pointed out the man he should be marking he still stayed focused on the player that was now being marked by Musafa. And then he proceeded to get skinned by a no-name left back. He looked more interested in his hairnet than in defending. Complete bollocks. And that was just the start. His passing was off as were all his decisions. And then for their final goal – which could have been called a foul. In fact, though Michael Oliver had an outstanding game, the push on Bellend was not that dissimilar from Chakakhans that lead to the penalty. But Bellend has to be more physical. Fraiser, who is even smaller than Bellend, blew on him and he fell over. Pathetic. If we weren’t so far behind and already using two subs, I would have ripped the guy off the field and cut his balls of. BTW, in both these instances Cech did not exactly cover himself in glory.
Phew, ok, that’s Bellend dealt with for the moment. Chakakhan! What kind of fucking defending was that. The guy was running away form the goal. There was no need to make any sort of challenge. It was a clear penalty and completely unnecessary. Classic Arsenal self-destruction. All three of their goals were through our mistakes. That’s not to say Bournemouth did not play well. Even at the end, down to 10 men, they could have won the game. They found it very easy to rip apart our defense. After their first goal they played the better football. As the crowd noted, why would Wilshire want to move from this team to ours?
The balance in our team was wrong. I was lucky enough to be joined by DB10 for this match. He duely noted that AW got the selection wrong today. We should have left Ob1 in the 10 spot. Starting Ramsey there was a waste. We had no fluency. Giroud was not in the game and we could not get the ball to Sanchez. Only when Coq got injured – and we seem to be replicating Rosicky hamstring injuries on various team members – Ramsey dropped back and Ob1 got more involved in the game. And, coincidentally, Ramsey also got more involved. He really is box to box and is wasted as a number 10.
It’s also worrying to see Koscleny go off – that’s the spine of our team now on the physios workbench. If only we could put Bellend in there as well.
Anyway, we deserved to be 3-0 down and heading to oblivion. But then, against the odds we woke up. To be fair that does not include Sanchez, who was the only one working his arse off the entire game. But once Perez came on we looked a different team. The ball got feed to Sanchez more often and even the useless Monreal was able to support him. Did I mention that this is 3 games in a row where Monreal has been shit. He gets beaten way to easily. It’s so annoying that Gibbs had to bundle into that late tackle to pick up his obligatory injury. If he’d not have done that then I’m sure Gibbs would be starting. As it is he’s crowding out the injury room with the aforementioned players. And having Ox in front of Bellend meant we had a little more edge on the right hand side. And that’s where the first goal came from. A nice flick from Giround – who finally decided to participate in the game – and predatory Sanchez was there to finish it off.
And then we had the exquisite finish of Perez – very Podolski like (thanks FatBoy for that reminder). And finally the equalizer from Giroud – along with his wonderful celebration moves. We could still have won the game in the final minutes – which would have been very unfair on Bournemouth. But it’s a minor miracle that we could come out of this match with a point. At 3-0 down I’m sure we all thought we were dead and buried. I don’t believe Arsenal have even come back from a 3-0 deficit (at least not since the Premier League has been in existence). So that’s some achievement. It does show some character. And I was shouting, cheering and mighty relived at the end. But, again, we have to sort out the balance in the team. Ob1 can’t play right wing (notice that he had drifted right across the pitch when the play was switched for their first goal). I’m still concerned that with Giroud upfront we are too slow and static though he does keep scoring. Perez has now earned the right to start – his movement is dynamic and he can chase back and defend. And we need to get Sanchez more involved. Today he was our best player by a country mile. With all due respect to Ozil, Sanchez is our clear super-star. We must do everything to retain him. Today he was the heart and soul of the team. He is our one player that would walk (or, in his case, run) into every other top 5 PL team.
We now have a stupid F A Cup game. For this I would play Bellend as punishment. Don’t give him any rest. Then for the next league game I’d drop him – play Gabriel there (assuming Koscleny is fit). I hated everything about him today (like you could not tell). Most annoying (again as DB10 observed), was that given his shitty performance he should have tailored his movement and passes to minimize mistakes given that someone must have slipped him some kryptonite.
Do I think we can catch Chelski – hell no. Not a chance. But it’s a long season and others will drop points. My fear though is that this team is too fragile. When Bournemouth were high pressing us, we looked unable to play our game. Again, that’s because of the lack of balance in the team. We miss Santi – but that’s not going to change. And we need Chakahan to stop making unforced errors. Yes, he’s young (thanks FatBoy) but he’d still an international who should know better. We also missed TW14 today – who would have thought I’d say that last season. Hopefully he’s back soon. But, honestly, I don’t think this team is good enough to win the league. It’s definitely better than last year – but then so are the other 5 teams. That’s also why the losses to Everton and ManCity are so frustrating. We should never have caved into either of them. But that’s an issue of leadership and backbone; which we are lacking.
There will be very thin margins come the end of the season. We might end up being grateful for the point today but we will certainly regret giving ManCity those 3 points.
And finally, let’s take a moment to discuss the referees. What the fuck is Mike Dean doing on the Premier League approved list. He killed the West Ham game yesterday. Absolutely unforgivable decision for that sending off. Compare that to Michael Oliver today. He let play continue and stayed out of the limelight. Dean has been our nemesis in the past and yesterday he was there to bail out ManU. Not that they need help with all their money. But they look shit and boring. A long way from winning the league. We are going to have to contend with Liverpool, ManC and Sp*rs for the top 4. Which means when we play away at two of these venues we can’t loose. How we play against the top 5 will determine our season. And the first one will be against Chelski on Feb 4th. Let’s hope we have some of our spine back by then.
– LB7