Category Archives: Arsenal match reports

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
March 13, 2011 posted by arseblog

Man United 2-0 Arsenal : The better team won

Before kick off it was hard not to look at United’s line-up and think we had a real chance. Injuries meant they started with seven defenders, and with all proper respect, it was hardly as fearsome a United line up as we’ve faced down the years.

Come the end of the game though you realise that what I alluded to yesterday about their character and team ethic is absolutely true. They work better as a team than we do. Can anyone imagine us playing them with a makeshift back four, Gibbs and Eboue on either wing, a dodgy centre-half and a fringe player in midfield, and winning the game? I can’t. Yet it’s no surprise to me that United did yesterday.

Sagna v United

Anyone that writes them off on the back of a couple of defeats is a fool and they made plenty of pundits and commentators look foolish yesterday. When it comes right down to it they know how to win games and, at the moment, we seem to know how to lose them. Does anyone want to break out the stats, the possession, the chances? Not me. As I said after the Barcelona game they don’t tell the full story.

Edwin van der Sar was man of the match yesterday, he made a number of very good saves, and in general I thought we played quite well. We kept the ball nicely, moved it around, kept it some more, moved it around some more, kept it a bit more, and from time to time fashioned some chances. A least one of them, I’m thinking of Chamakh’s second half header in particular, we probably should have scored, but the veteran keeper had an excellent day.

And once again this team showed its Achilles heel – conceding to the first real attempt on goal. Some dodgy defending allowed Fabio to sweep home into the empty net after Almunia had made a good save from Hernandez’s header. I don’t know whether it was Koscielny or Gibbs at fault but Fabio was the left back’s man. Arsene said afterwards:

Manchester United had very few chances, they scored with almost their first attempt on goal.

Unfortunately that’s an all too familiar refrain in recent seasons. How many times have we dominated a game in terms of possession and found ourselves behind to the opposition’s first chance? It’s not bad luck, it’s a fundamental weakness. And while I’m happy to point out the ruthless efficiency of a team like United you can’t say that’s true of all the teams we face.

Also, when you’re 1-0 down and you need a bright start to the second half, it’s generally not a good idea to concede straight away – especially to a team with seven defenders in it, and a team that’s pretty good at that part of the game. That is exactly what we did. Fabio got past Gibbs way too easily on the edge of the box, Djourou blocked the shot/cross very well but it looped up and Rooney’s glancing header crept in at the far post. Again you’ve got to question the defending.

The manager tried to change things, firstly Chamakh came on for Denilson, then Rosicky and Ramsey replaced Diaby and Arshavin. There were chances – Chamakh’s header, a great save from a Koscielny effort, a van Persie curler that went just over the top corner, a Rosicky thumper, a Rosicky fresh air kick from 6 yards out, but unless you take those chances they become meaningless stats. The only one that really counts is the scoreboard and that remained a big, fat nil.

Then, as perfect example of how what little luck we get at the moment is bad luck, Almunia pulled off an incredible save to keep it at 2-0, but in the scramble in the 6 yard area, Sagna and Djourou collided resulting in a dislocated collarbone for the big Swiss and the end of his season. It was the vomit based icing on a cake made of orphan shit. It is a massive blow to our hopes for the rest of the season. He’s been outstanding and we now go into the final league games of the season with just two fit centre-halves, and two who have yet to convince anyone that their parternship works.

Sorry if this all sounds a little down but it’s hard to go out of three cup competitions inside a fortnight and not be a little upset and a little worried about the team and how it can possibly react. Arsene spoke afterwards, saying:

Things do not go our way at the moment. I am very disappointed. We lost three challenges in a strange way.

Now, while I think we’re definitely not getting the rub of the green in terms of decisions and injuries, I have to take him up on this. Losing to Birmingham was losing in a strange way. The calamitous cock-up between Wojscez©® and Koscielny was freakish, no question. Losing to Barcelona, well the red card had an impact, I’ll stand by that, but we can hardly call yesterday strange.

Arsenal dominate a game in terms of chances and possession but don’t win. That’s not strange. That, Arsene, seems overwhelmingly normal. And something has got to change. What seems like Groundhog Day could very well become Groundhog season unless we sort ourselves out and find some bottle and character. The odds are stacked against us. One fit keeper, just two centre-halves, some players whose futures at the club are clearly in the balance due to the consistent lack of performance, and a team which has promised so much, yet again, seemingly unable to take that next step.

On paper we had a better team than United yesterday – but on the pitch, despite their injuries, they were too good for us. They are, and remain, a better ‘team’ than us. If a dogged determination and an ability to win games they probably shouldn’t characterises Ferguson’s regime, then an ability to lose games we should probably win is what characterises Arsene’s. Certainly in the second half of his time at Arsenal. It’s hard to look beyond the idea that the flaws we have come from him.

I don’t, for one second, doubt his motivation, how hard he works, his committment to the club, his drive or anything else, but when you find yourselves out of three competitions inside two weeks you have to ask questions. Where is this mental strength he talks so much about? When are we going to respond? How are we now going to play the last ten games of this season, knowing each one is going to be like a cup final, when we’ve shown we can’t win cup finals?

It’s a big job now for the manager to lift this group and to get more out of them. Some of them, sadly, don’t appear up to it. I would happily be proven wrong about that but it’s hard to be confident. The Quadruple is now the Onetuple and a couple of bad results will make in a Nonetuple. Ultimately that will all come back to the strength of the squad. Of course you can’t have 11 Cescs or Nasris but what United proved yesterday is that you can have back-up players who are capable of doing the job required. That’s the difference. Beyond our first 11 we simply don’t have that.

‘The project’ is admirable but there must come a time when Arsene realises that he has to cut his losses with some of these players, admit he was wrong – and there’s no shame in that – and replace them. The club has money to do that, failure to spend and to persist with those weaker links would be negligent. Glorious failure is nothing to be proud of but that’s the road we’re headed down this morning and it hurts.

Anyway, so as not to end on a totally negative note it was great to see Aaron Ramsey make his return yesterday. A year out of the Arsenal colours and hopefully he’ll be given the chance between now and the end of the season to make his mark. I’ve seen enough of some midfielders already. There’s no transfer window but, without wanting to drag up that old cliché, he is like a new signing and should be used to bring some verve and energy into this team.

As well as that, if there’s any small crumb of comfort to be gained from United’s progress, perhaps it’s that their schedule, should they qualify in Europe too, will certainly be busier than ours. Maybe they’ll just use it to keep their momentum going but maybe it’ll mean some tired legs too. Our game against them at home becomes even more important now.

And that’s about that. No talk of picking ourselves up this morning, no dusting down, getting on with it, concentrating on the three two one competition we have left. No more words. It’s down to the manager now to sort this out before it all goes completely pear shaped.

After fifteen years at the club I reckon this is his biggest challenge yet.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
March 9, 2011 posted by arseblog

Barcelona 3-1 Arsenal : The red card changed the game

Ok, let me get this bit out of the way. Barcelona are a great team, they played 11-a-side 5-a-side better than anyone, they have some of the best players in the world, and I understand why many people see great beauty in their football.

Busacca sends van Persie off

In the first half last night they schooled us. We could barely get near the ball and when we did we pretty much gave it straight back to them. A lot of that was to do with how hard they worked and fair play to them for that. That side of their game is the most impressive to me considering the talent they have in the team. However, they were only ahead because of a mistake. Well, you can’t take away from the quality of Iniesta’s pass or Messi’s finish – which was fantastic – but had Cesc not tried that backheel they wouldn’t have had the ball. Not in that exact position anyway.

I thought we defended very well. Some of it was last ditch, as you would expect against a team of this quality, but apart from Adriano smacking the outside of the post from a very tight angle I don’t remember a single clear cut chance. And after Busquets own goal put us in a winning position they created their only chance when it was 11 v 11, we got opened up down the middle and Villa was through but Almunia, on for the injured Wojscez©®, made the first of a number of fantastic saves.

It was only when they had the extra man that they really turned the screw and that’s not unexpected at all. Barcelona are a difficult team to play against with a full complement, let alone a man short. They were able to find the extra space, take advantage of the tired legs and minds, and only for heroics from Almunia might have scored a hatful. Now, they might well have done that if we’d had 11 men but the two games at the Grove showed that we finish better than they do. There was no way we could do it a man light.

The sending off itself was ludicrous. Robin’s first yellow came after tempers were frayed a little in the first half. After Wilshere was hurt and Barcelona objected to what they considered gamesmanship and time-wasting – yeah, funny coming from them, I know – there was a bit of a scuffle as Wilshere lay hurt. Abidal grabbed van Persie by the throat, no card, and Dani Alves, who is right up there with John Terry as one of football’s most noxious cunts, got involved too.

When play restarted there was a ball to be challenged for, van Persie, still bristling, went for it, barely touched Alves and the jug-eared cunny went down as if he’d been poleaxed. No whistling and jeering for gamesmanship then. Perhaps Robin should have been more careful, this was a ref who was clearly happy to dish out cards to us for the smallest reason, but at the same time who wouldn’t want to have a go at Alves?

So while the first booking was probably avoidable the second was actually amazing. Cesc played a ball over the top, Robin controlled it, the flag went up, the ref blew the whistle and Robin finished with his right foot 1 second later. His eyes never left the ball. Incredibly, Massimo Busacca gave him a second yellow for timewasting/kicking the ball away. 1 second. It was a terrible, terrible decision which, even in the cold light of day, I can’t find any sense in.

Barcelona don’t need that kind of help from referees and Arsenal, already struggling, were always going to find the rest of the game even more difficult. Speaking about afterwards Robin was understandably irate, saying:

How can I hear this whistle with 95 000 people jumping up? It’s a joke. He’s been bad all evening, whistling against us. I don’t know why he’s here tonight. We feel betrayed a bit, when it was 1-1 it was all to play for and in my opinion this referee killed the game.

While Arsene Wenger said:

I just spoke to Uefa people. They are shocked as well as it killed a promising, fantastic match. Frankly it’s embarrassing for the game.

With Arsenal down to 10, Barcelona took full advantage as a team of their quality can. The move for Xavi’s goal was excellent and the penalty was certainly a penalty. In goal, Manuel Almunia stood tall and made a series of excellent saves as Barcelona threatened to score time and time again. And while you can give them credit for the way they play and their performance there’s no doubt in my mind that the red card changed things.

Before the red card, one clear chance on goal. After the red card, countless chances. I’m not saying they we’d have won the game but we were in a winning position and in general, despite all their possession, defending well. Sure, we were being tested but some of the tackling was first class. As soon as we went down to 10 men the pressure was increased and it became more and more difficult for us to find any kind of composure. Maybe I’m viewing this with my Arsenal glasses fully on but that’s why you’re here, right?

And amazingly, there was still time for us to win it. Jack Wilshere’s ball to Nicklas Bendnter in the final couple of minutes needed, and deserved, a better first touch. It allowed Mascherano to get back and defend and while we can certainly have some regrets over that overall I think our biggest regret is the scandalous second yellow for van Persie.

I know people will point to the stats and the attempts but I’d love to get a breakdown of those. How many came pre and post the red card? Not many in the first half, I suspect. In terms of our performance it’s true to say we didn’t get going in the first half but I saw much the same from a more experienced and mature Arsenal team at the Camp Nou in ’99. We got passed off the park in the first half that night too. I thought we were showing some signs of life until Busacca’s intervention, and I just can’t escape the feeling that it would have been different had that not happened.

At 1-1 we were going through. We all knew Barcelona would probably score so it wasn’t a shock when they did, even if the manner of the goal was uncharacteristic of the captain. We all knew we’d probably have to score and we did. Even then Barcelona needed two goals to win outright. If we had a full team I think the outcome would have been different. Or at the very least it would have been much more difficult for them to score the goals they needed. Based on the chances they had at 11 v 11 I think they’d have found it tough.

Even if they scored one we’d have gone to extra time and to me it’s inconceivable that any team could dominate a game for 120 minutes, no matter how good they are. Bussaca has refereed Spanish teams 29 times in his career, they have never lost under his stewardship. A coincidence, probably, but there’s no doubt Barcelona got a helping hand last night. For all Barcelona’s possession Arsenal can feel rightly aggrieved this morning because until the sending off we were coping well with a team who we expected to do exactly what Barcelona did.

We got the away goal, that it was fortuitous doesn’t matter one bit. When Inter ground out a win in the semi-final last season there was no pointing to the fact that Barcelona dominated in terms of attempts on goal, only some media sucking of Mourinho’s knob for the way his team defended.

Overall, disappointing,and annoying, but not heartbreaking. There’s nothing like a bit of outrage to help cope with a defeat. Sometimes it’s misplaced, sometimes it’s easier to use that to take away from flaws elsewhere, but this time I think we’re absolutely right to be fucked off at a shit decision from a shit referee. It won’t change the result, and I suspect we might pick up a ban or two along the way for some of the comments made about the shit referee, but there you go.

In terms of the collateral damage we have to see how costly the game is. Wojscez©® has dislocated his finger and will be assessed to see how long he’s going to be out. If there’s damage to the tendon it could be a season finisher, leaving us with Almunia as our only fit senior keeper. And Cesc has tweaked his hamstring again which could well be costly. The captain said of last night:

I take full blame for the result tonight. One of the worst moments of my life. I apologise.

Which is noble of him and all but it’s a team game. We win as a team, we lose as a team, we get knocked out of the Champions League by a shit referee as a team. Hopefully the injury, picked up early in the first half, isn’t too bad. The Interlull, after the West Brom game, could be very timely indeed because we’ve got quite the run-in to the league season. Anyway, we can worry about that in the days and weeks to come.

We’ve got to lick our wounds, pick ourselves up and prepare for an FA Cup game against Man United at Old Trafford on Saturday. Just the tonic.

Till tomorrow.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
March 6, 2011 posted by arseblog

Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland : Flat Arsenal fail to take advantage

There’s no doubt this Arsenal team can frustrate and exhilarate (not always in equal measure) and when faced with a ‘big’ game we have a tendency to let it slip.

For every Barcelona or Chelsea there’s a Sunderland or a Birmingham cup final or Newcastle away. Yesterday was one of those frustrating days in terms of the performance. It was altogether too flat, without verve or energy for too long and in the end I think we paid the price for that.

A frustrated Arsene Wenger

However, we’ve had those days before and scrapped out a result. I don’t think there was any lack of effort, we kept going, created some chances and, ultimately were robbed of the points by a wrongful offside decision. These things happen in football though. We had the benefit, such as it was in the end, of a terrible offside decision in the first minute at Wembley last weekend. Yesterday we scored a perfectly good goal and it was taken away from us.

I think the less said about the first half, the better. The two best chances fell to Bendtner. One an overhead kick from close range after a corner which, luckily for Sunderland, went straight to the keeper. The other created by the dynamic Jack Wilshere, a young man who is never flat or without verve, but the shot from an angle was well saved by Mignolet. I don’t remember a real Sunderland chance at all.

That’s not to say we didn’t try to give them a helping hand. A couple of generously donated corners were well dealt with by the defence but might well have cost us. In attack it seemed we were always looking for the most difficult ball when the simple one might have been most effective. We huffed and puffed but we made little headway until the manager made a change. Denilson came off, Chamakh came on, and we were instantly better. Make of that what you will.

The Moroccan got in behind the Sunderland defence and had Arshavin free in the box. His pull back was a bit too weighty though meaning it had to be hit first time. A more gentle ball meant he could have controlled it and had more time with the shot, but it was better from us. Mignolet pulled off a brilliant save from a Nasri free kick and we began to really pile on the pressure. Wilshere crossed from the left and Chamakh hit the bar with a header. Unlucky, yes, but he should have scored from there.

Then two moments which had people questioning the officials. First Arshavin was sent through, there was a tug from Bramble, then a push as he tried to stay on his feet and get the shot away. The shot ended up going wide and the ref gave nothing when it should have been a penalty and a red card. Perhaps Arshavin should have gone down but he’d probably have been booked for diving the way the decisions were going.

Then the incident which had Arsene, and everyone else, really fuming. Bendnter picked out Arshavin with a fantastic ball, his run was perfectly timed, he was onside but by the time he’d rounded the keeper and rolled it home the flag had been up for some time. I know some people afterwards were suggesting that the referee being from Manchester had a bearing on that decision. I suppose if it had been the referee who gave the offside then it might have some vague merit. I don’t buy the conspiracy stuff though. It was just a terrible decision by the linesman. He got it badly wrong.

After that there was little time to do anything else. A Koscielny header from a late corner went just wide but it was tame anyway. There was no late winner, we had Wojscez©® to thank for an excellent save from Welbeck to keep us in it, and in the end the chance to cut the gap at the top to 1 point went begging. As I said, not for the want of trying, but I think there are definitely issues in terms of quality of performance from some players.

Afterwards Arsene was understandably frustrated at the bad decisions, first saying:

I am too disgusted to speak about it frankly

Then finding a way:

We had two decisions go against us today that punished us severely, especially the offside. What can you do? If you say to me it was offside, the only thing I can say is that if he is not offside.

It’s a disappointment, yes. Today was the kind of game you want to win 1-0. We do not want to have things going against you, it happened. I cannot fault the players’ attitude.

I think it was West Ham earlier in the season that we won 1-0 with a late Alex Song goal. A similar kind of game to yesterday, a team determined to defend well and deny us space but who got caught out with a late goal. Yesterday we scored a perfectly good goal which was given offside. The margins are so tight. Had that goal been given we’d obviously have a very different outlook on yesterday. It wasn’t so we have to just get on with it. Bitching about officials isn’t going to make the blindest bit of difference.

And while you can certainly point fingers at the linesman for the offside and the ref for the penalty that wasn’t, you have to look at Arsenal’s performance as a big factor too. We tried, no doubt about it, but we lacked rather too much and didn’t get going until late in the second half. I thought the decision to play Wilshere in the Cesc role was a strange one. I can see why he tried it but at half-time it was clear it wasn’t right. The Diabnilson axis behind him just wasn’t working at all and I think it might have been better to move Wilshere back and let Diaby go forward – or bite the bullet and bring on Chamakh or Rosicky earlier in place of one of them.

While Jack did his best to make things happen further up the pitch we lacked that drive in the engine room where perhaps it was more necessary. Deniaby were just pedestrian and the lack of movement to open up space and even just take a pass meant we ended up going backwards far too often. I’m looking forward to the return of Ramsey who is always looking to make something happen and tends not to slow down the play as much.

As well as that it shows how much we struggle without Cesc, van Persie and Walcott. Without making any excuses take away three of the most creative attacking players from any team and they’d have problems. Still, for all the reasoning and perspective, it doesn’t make the fact we couldn’t take full advantage of United’s midweek loss any less frustrating. We’ve got to hope the Mugsmashers can do us a favour today. I’m not especially hopeful but you never know.

From our point of view we have to turn our attention to Barcelona and all that entails. Jack Wilshere is a bit of an injury doubt having picked up an ankle knock yesterday from the close attentions of Muntari, so fingers crossed he can make it. We’re told Cesc is more likely than Song and if the latter misses out the manager has a big decision to make as to who fills that gap. Anyway, we can think about that in the days ahead.

So, keep fingers crossed that the ‘smashers can help us out a bit. It’s a shame that having had it ‘in our hands’ we’re now reliant on others, but what can you do?

Till tomorrow.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
March 3, 2011 posted by arseblog

Arsenal 5-0 Leyton Orient : Professional

Well that was just what the doctor ordered. Pre-game it was Dr Kevorkian. Afterwards it was very much a case of “Hi, Dr Nick!”

Gael Clichy goal

"See, when it goes in the net it's a goal ...!"

As expected there were lots of changes, only Rosicky remained from Sunday, and there was a debut for young Irish international Conor Henderson, known in the club for his big feet. It didn’t take long to break the deadlock. Rosicky drove into the box, pulled it back for Marouane Chamakh who sidefooted home his first goal since November. Just the start we needed.

We dominated possession but that didn’t stop Orient causing a few early problems. As Eboue stopped to gaze in awe at all the people gazing in awe at him, our opponents used the space he should have been in to fire in a decent cross to the near post. The forward’s effort was off target but the Orient fans up the far end thought it was in and went “Yaaaaayyyyyyaaaahhhhweknewitwasntin … shut up”.

In the absence of Robin van Persie it was interesting, in so far as that goes, to wonder which of Chamakh or Bendtner the manager would pick for the central role in the games ahead. Chamakh made a good start with his goal but he’s very much a finsher, a player you want on the end of moves. When asked to do anything a bit creative he seems to struggle. So, it was nice to see Bentdner step it up.

First he rose well to head home a Gibbs cross. It was an excellent header as the cross had all the pace of a goalkeeper running through treacle. Then, after a typically Nicky miscontrol on the edge of the box, he got the ball back, cut inside from our left, shifted it across the box and made just enough space to curl one into the far corner. Not too dissimilar from his goal against Ipswich and for me that’s why he’s ahead of Chamakh – the range of goals he scores is just much better. Plus I still think opponents think ‘Ahh, it’s only Bendtner, he’ll never score from ther – oh bollocks’.

3-0 at half-time was game over really. There was no chance of a Newcastle style collapse. Bendtner made it 4-0 with a penalty after Gibbs had been tripped in the box and the manager, having decided he was now the number 1 striker, hauled him off to protect his asset. There was still time for one more goal. Gael Clichy has played eleventy hundred and fifty seven and a half times for us and his only goal was a scabby effort against Stoke in a game we lost.

So it was quite a surprise to see him get onto the end of a cross which had fizzed it’s way across the box and then smack it home first time into the bottom corner. And if I was surprised so was he. He hadn’t the first clue what to do to celebrate this momentous occasion, instead he stood rigid, stunned like a rabbit in the headlights, until someone came over and told him this was all right, this was a good thing.

And so it ended, 5-0 to the Arsenal, a decent response to Sunday and a professional job done well. Afterwards Arsene said:

It was important that we had a response tonight after what happened over the weekend. We did it in a professional way, we were always focused.

And on the strikers finding the net:

We have lost Van Persie so for Bendtner and Chamakh to score is very important, they now have a level of confidence that we need to be successful in the big games. You need your strikers to take any chance and tonight Bendtner did that very well.

I know some folk will say it’s ‘only’ Orient but frankly I don’t understand that. Yes, we need him to do it in the bigger games to come but you can’t criticise when he does it at all. I think that’s his second Arsenal hat-trick and he now has 8 goals for the season. It was also good to see Chamakh get on the scoresheet. His efforts in the first half of the season shouldn’t be forgotten, he carried the can, and after a long gap without a goal that’ll boost his confidence.

Beyond that there was a solid, if unespectacular, debut for Conor Henderon. The young midfielder looks to have good delivery with his left foot (don’t worry, we can coach that out of him) and another decent display at the back for young Spaniard Ignasi Miquel. Don’t undersestimate the importance of the clean sheet or the fact that the ‘second string’ clicked at last.

It sets up a 6th round tie against Manchester United at Old Trafford but that’s a game we can put on the back burner for now. One thing that was noticeable, and commendable, was the way Orient tried to play last night when they had the ball. The hoofs out of defence were few and far between, they successfully passed their way out of trouble a few times and it’s rare you see that, so fair play. I’m sure they’ll enjoy their trip to Vegas.

Now we have to turn our attention to the Premier League again and Sunderland on Saturday. After United’s defeat in midweek we have a chance to cut the gap to just one point. More on that in the days ahead.

Meanwhile, Cesc updated us on his injury via the match programme last night, saying:

I am running, getting better and don’t sense any pain. We’ll see how the next few days go. Perhaps I’ll have a chance for Saturday.

It would be timely, that’s for sure, but with Barcelona coming up I suspect they’ll give it just that few extra days to really make sure. Again something we can cover in the coming days. The manager explained a bit more about Robin van Persie’s injury too (check the link above). He has a small ligament tear at the back of his knee which could take 3-4 weeks to heal. He misses the Camp Nou for the second year running but hopefully the boys can do the job and give him a big stage to come back to.

You can check out highlights, goals and post-match interviews from last night on the Arsenal Video page. The Bendtner/Eboue interview is quite funny, Nick’s face a picture at times.

And that’s about that for this morning. Back tomorrow with the Arsecast and whatever else crops up between now and then.