Note To Self…

…never write anything when you are angry!

I took that advice from the great ‘Holic over at Goonerholic and I have tried to keep it in mind. Today, however, is different. Today I AM going to write whilst I am angry because if I didn’t I wouldn’t be writing again for a while!

Afternoon Gooners and welcome to yet another conversation about profligacy in front of goal, bad defending, poor refereeing and players that simply are not consistently good enough to wear the Arsenal shirt.

In real terms the awful mess we just made of that game is fairly meaningless. We are still in the process of gelling a new look side, new tactics, newish formation and even new partnerships. What this team clearly needs more than anything else is time. What they will very shortly find they have least of in the world is that very commodity.

5 games in, 13^th in the table, 14 goals conceded and sitting 8 points and a game in hand off the leaders and confidence is surely at an all-time low. These are troublesome times indeed.

Having started brightly, passing the ball around cleanly and getting a great goal on 10 minutes through Gervinho after a fabulous straight ball by Song that tore the Blackburn defence in two, we then dominated possession, keeping the ball well, Ramsey and Song in particular looking a class apart. Then, as is so often the case, totally against the run of play, we throw away a goal with poor defensive coverage and communication. After a little pinball on the edge of the box, the ball was picked up by the exciting Hoilett who played a fairly simple and even more predictable toe poke through to Yakubu, lurking on the edge of the box. A simple early touch by him and the pace on the ball took it wide of Szczesny and inside the far post.

A great finish by a seasoned pro, but in truth, he should never have been allowed anywhere near the goal. When Hoilett picked up the ball The Yak was between Koscielny and Mertesacker both left to right and front to back. Mertesacker had his back to him and was also the closest defender to Hoilett so obviously he stood his ground so as to close the space. Kos, who had actually shown some of that same intensity we saw against Dortmund until now, facing Yakubu signalled his awareness of the danger by pointing at him and obviously gesturing to the eyes n the back of Mertesacker’s head that he should follow the run. I have to say that I am unsure of what Kos was planning to occupy himself with had the big German engaged his psychic powers, managed to turn 180 degrees and make up the yard that Yakubu already had on him at that point as there was literally no other Blackburn player even close to the play.

In short, the combination of his decision to pass all responsibility to a player in a weaker position than him and a simple pass played to the only player Kos really needed to concern himself with was enough to give Yakubu an extra yard, presenting him with the opportunity to coolly slot the ball home. 25 minutes gone and it’s 1-1.

The next 15 minutes provided a couple of heart in mouth moments most notably when Samba got in at the back post and above Koscielny, to reach a corner that the defence should never have allowed to travel that far. In truth, had he not tried to head the ball whilst almost falling over backwards to get to it, his colleague (apologies, I forget who!) a yard behind him would surely have scored.

So, riding our luck as usual, a delightful pass from the very impressive Sagna found Ramsey in acres of space heading into the penalty area. Without so much as looking up, he cut the ball back to the penalty spot and Arteta arrived to score his first goal with a side-footed effort into the roof of the net against the same team against whom he scored his last goal for Everton.

2-1 and we could all be forgiven for thinking that normal service had been resumed and that the gelling process was well and truly underway given the remarkable understanding shown between Ramsey and his new team mate.

But that was just it, wasn’t it. Normal service indeed WAS resumed.

Enjoying almost total possession of the ball once again and creating good chances, Van Persie found himself on the end of a lovely chip over the defence from Arteta.Had it not been for the quick reactions of the seemingly always in form against Arsenal Paul Robinson, he would have found himself with a great goal scoring opportunity. Robinson got to the ball just in time to collect and shut down the danger.

Gervinho shot when a pass to the open Van Persie would have been a much better option, he also over hit a reasonably straightforward cross field pass to Arshavin when we were 3 against 2 on the counterattack and Kos found himself with a decent opportunity in space in the penalty area but his control let him down.

So, half-time, 2-1 and things were looking quite good for us on the whole as well as for my 3-1 prediction, although Kos was continuing to do a good job of making the entire defence look sloppy.

The second half begins and one had to wonder what had gone on in the dressing rooms at half-time that had created such differing responses from both teams. 3 minutes in and the frankly hopeless Arshavin almost played Yakubu in with a suicide pass across the front of the penalty area, saved by the quick thinking of Mertesacker who intercepted and cleared. A minute later and Arshavin was involved again. Incredibly running half the length of the pitch to track back, he threw out a leg at Rovers midfielder Lowe on the right hand side of the penalty area who willingly accepted the opportunity to pick up a free kick in a dangerous area.

What followed can only be described as a mixture of a laughably static defence and a fairly large slice of bad luck. Rochina flipped the ball into the six yard box with almost no pace on it and no obvious intention of reaching anyone in particular when all 5ft 11” of Gael Givet rose above the flatfooted 6ft 1“ Koscielny and his flick-on from the near post found a line of 6 unchallenged Arsenal players doing impersonations of statues as the ball dropped to the only one that did move! Unfortunately for the otherwise decent Song, his involuntary reaction was enough for his left thigh to nudge the ball into the bottom corner of the net. 50 minutes gone and we were all square again. 2-2.

Now, people will of course claim that this was a result of zonal and not man to man marking and use it as a reason to start screaming for Wenger’s head again. The truth of the matter is, the zonal marking actually did its job perfectly. Not a Blackburn player anywhere near the ball and a queue of Arsenal players with all the time in the world to hoof it clear, not forgetting that Kos should never have allowed to Givet have gotten the flick-on. But this is a rough time to be an Arsenal player and the general lack of confidence seems to put the fear of Dennis into almost everybody in a red shirt whenever the ball enters the penalty area.

54 minutes gone and disaster of a different kind strikes. Sagna, who got a knock in the first half, had to go off, to be replaced at right back by Djourou. I can only assume that Djourou made the bench ahead of Jenkinson because of his (in)ability to play both right back and centre half. Anyway, his introduction caused the defence to go from carrying one clown to carrying two! Caught out of position, Djourou left space for Hoilett to get in behind the defence, lovingly played onside by the yet again flat-footed Koscielny, but thankfully the “Pole between the Poles” was more than a match for his rasping shot and his outstretched hand was just enough to turn the ball away. Szczesny had a good game overall apart from one moment where he chose to go walkabout in the box for a ball he was never going to get to, but on that occasion his defence returned some of his recent favours and dug him out of it.

Djourou found himself again out of position and allowed Hoilett to get past him again. A fairly cynical but altogether necessary shirt tug later and the referee was asking for the correct spelling of his name. A fully deserved yellow card.

On 59 minutes another set piece and a never rains but it pours refereeing decision saw Yakubu, marginally offside, with a simple tap-in from 4 yards out. For the record, Kos was the man tugging on Yakubu’s shirt as he ran out of the six yard box in an attempt to spring the offside trap. Had Santos a step further forward Yakubu’s would have been clearly offside and given the linesman, who had a perfectly clear view, no choice but to raise his flag. In the end, neither of these things happened and the goal was allowed to stand regardless of the furious protestations of Mertesacker. 2-3 and the ghost of season’s past was clearly in attendance once again.

5 minutes later and Van Persie found himself on the end of the pass from Gervinho that he should have received in the first half but a combination of the tight angle Paul Robinson saw the keeper cover his angles well and beat the ball out. A minute later and the back to normal after playing well against Swansea Arshavin was replaced by Walcott who almost immediately threatened down the right hand side, drawing a cynical foul from Scott Dann who rightly received a yellow card for his troubles. In all honestly, that and a decent cross or two was about all Theo managed in half an hour of football, if you don’t count the fastest player at the club’s inability to actually run at defenders or his stunning ability to simply run into dead ends. I have to say, when Arshavin came off I was surprised that we didn’t switch to a 4-4-2 with Arteta moving out to the left, Gervinho staying out on the right and Ramsey and Song filling the central midfield positions thus giving Theo the chance to get into a central role.With Van Persie finding lots of time on the ball about 30 yards from goal for much of the game having somebody with lightning pace to play the ball up to would have made a lot of sense. Yet again we wonder if Wenger simply enjoys putting goal scorers on the wings and all but eliminating their chances of scoring.

On 68 minutes the almost inevitable happened. Blackburn, defending a corner (and defending it well I might add) cleared the ball to first half substitute Olssen on the right wing. Djourou came across and, with the Rovers defender on the touchline, 50 yards from goal and with little support  threw himself into a totally unnecessary sliding tackle, missing by some margin and allowing the full back to continue his run. Reaching the by-line and with two attackers in great positions, Olssen took the only possible option, ramming it across the face of goal for Koscielny to complete his perfect day and turn the ball into his own net. 4-2 and Rovers had a goal more than they had managed shots on target in the entire game!

For the record, Olssen was booked for his celebrations and, a few minutes later, after literally throwing himself to the ground with Aaron Ramsey almost a full yard away and the referee with a clear view, was lucky to get a free kick for the “foul” rather than the yellow card that the smirking little git should have received.

5 minutes and a lot of sloppy passing after the goal a header from Van Persie had Robinson scrambling to put the ball over the bar although it was never really in any doubt that he would get to it. A minute later and Chamakh, on as a substitute for Song, drew a fine save from Robinson although the whistle had correctly been blown for a push on a Blackburn defender.

Another five minutes of inconsistency in possession saw Arteta whip in a great cross for Van Persie who again saw his effort saved by Robinson. Before the next goal there was still time for Djourou to reach the ball down the right hand channel with a ridiculous amount of space and time only to slice his cross into the crowd halfway between the goal and the corner flag. Seriously, if this guy is EVER going to be good enough for the Arsenal, we are going to have to be relegated first. Hopeless.

Anyway, I promised another goal and another goal we got. An absolutely inch-perfect cross from Van Persie on the found Chamakh in between to Blackburn defenders but he still managed to get above them both and place a header into the back of the net to get himself on the score sheet for the first time since November 2010.

Cue 10 minutes of all-out madness! Constant waves of attack were launched at the Blackburn penalty area resulting in Chamakh returning a cross from Walcott back across the six yard box only to find nobody there to tap it in, Mertesacker, now basically playing as a third centre forward, almost fulfilling my prediction of scoring today, heading an excellent cross from Santos over the bar when he really should have at least hit the target and Chamakh managing to miss a far easier header than the one for his goal after a cross in from the left corner of the penalty area by Walcott saw put his free header well wide of the target.

Theo was also denied a fairly decent late penalty claim. Well, I say decent. If Robinson coming flying out of his goal and sliding into Theo without even getting close to touching the ball isn’t as clear a penalty as you will see this week anywhere in football, I would be stunned.

The final whistle came after 95 minutes to end the mayhem and Arsenal found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-2 loss. The “fans” will be getting their knives out again, the back pages will think that the circus is back in town and the sports news channels will be harping on about our inability to perform simple defensive duties, our inability to convert good chances and our inability to hold onto a lead.

In all seriousness, I believe that we were a combination of let down by a combination of bad luck, a little bad refereeing, some horrible football by three players in particular, Kos and Djourou at the back and Arshavin nowhere in particular as usual but I also think that the problems for which we can take responsibility can and should be corrected over the next few weeks.

They better be or Wenger may find himself looking for work BEFORE Steve Kean.

Arsenal Is In A Defensive Crisis

Arsenal has been battling injuries all season long, but the Gunners having been doing well without one of their top two central defenders. But now they’ve lost their rock at the back for the rest of the season, and that could signal Arsenal’s downfall if you’re gambling online.

Thomas Vermaelen has been out since August because of an ailing Achilles, and the Belgian defender says he has no idea when he’ll be able to play again. That left Johan Djourou as Arsenal’s best central defender, and the Swiss has been brilliant this season under tough circumstances. But Djourou suffered a dislocated shoulder and will be out for the season, and the numbers show that Arsenal struggles at the back without him. To compound that, the Gunners have had to bring goalkeeper Jens Lehmann out of retirement in light of injuries to Wojciech Szczesny, Vito Mannone and Lukasz Fabianski, leaving Arsenal with only Manuel Almunia between the sticks. Much has been made about the time prior to Lehmann’s retirement, when he thought he was still capable of being the No.1 guy, but the Gunners were trying to bring along Almunia. Lehmann says that he doesn’t want to go through that again, and he and Almunia will have to come to some sort of agreement to make this work.

As we said, the Gunners are no strangers to injury, but to have these problems at the back at this time of year is potentially crippling. One positive way to spin it is that the Gunners only have to worry about the league title now as they’re out of the Champions League, FA Cup and Carling Cup, but they’re still chasing Manchester United in the Premier League, while trying to hold off Manchester City and Chelsea for second place. It’s going to be very interesting to see how manager Arsene Wenger handles this. Bacary Sagna will likely have to move into the middle, and there may be more time for Sebastian Squillaci, who has been less than impressive since moving to the Emirates. Finally, Laurent Koscielny has to put his disappointing play of the last couple of weeks behind him to give Arsenal a chance.

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