Category Archives: Arsenal match reports

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
December 28, 2010 posted by arseblog

Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea : I hope this is the real Arsenal

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that last night was Arsenal’s best performance of the season. Forget the six goal wins over Blackpool (10 men) and Braga (rubbish). This was an outstanding team performance which made the champions look very ordinary indeed.

I know some people might say that’s because they are ordinary but they were double winners last season and despite the slump in form they’re going through nobody was casting too many aspersions on them pre-game. The team selection was brave. Arshavin consigned to the bench, Nasri shifted from the right and Walcott brought in, van Persie up front with Chamakh rested. At the back Djourou played at the expense of Squillaci. I thought it would be in place of Koscielny but there you go.

Cesc and Theo v Chelsea

"Haha, yes! John Terry *is* a twat"

And from the very start it was obvious Arsenal were up for this. There was no sign of the Old Trafford lethargy. We snapped into tackles, competed, harrassed and chased Chelsea, allowing them no time to settle. We dominated possession without really creating too much in the first half. A lovely ball over the top by Song should have seen van Persie at least trouble Cech but he missed the ball completely. I suppose we can put that down to a bit of rustiness.

I thought we were unlucky not to be given a penalty when Malouda fouled Robin in the edge of the area but Twattenburg waved play on. The one time we were careless with the ball (I think it was Koscielny who was caught) Chelsea threatened through Drogba but his shot fizzed wide. Nasri fired in a free kick which Cech dealt with comfortably enough and he then tipped over a Nasri chip which looked like it was heading into the top corner.

Just before half-time we took the lead. Some nice play around the box between Song and Wilshere saw the ball come through to Cesc. He was fouled, the ref allowed play to continue and Song fired home with his left foot. In recent games Arsenal have conceded to Chelsea in the 15 minutes before half-time and never recovered. It was crucial that we made something of the possession and dominance of the game. The timing of the goal was perfect.

What I worried about at the time was whether or not we’d be able to keep it up for the second half. Within seconds of it starting we had our answer. Chelsea kicked off and Arsenal nicked the ball back straight away. It summed up both teams really. Arsenal fully focussed, Chelsea way too sloppy. And we took full advantage of that by scoring twice inside three minutes. In the 50th minute Essien prodded the ball towards his own goal in a tackle with van Persie. Theo reacted quickest and laid it off for the oncoming Cesc who slid it home to make it 2-0.

Then just a couple of minutes later Cesc returned the favour. Walcott pressured Malouda, Cesc took it on and played a beautfiul pass behind the defence for Theo to run on to and fire home. The quality of the pass was exceptional, a little dinked effort, and the finish was first class too. 3-0 Arsenal and we deserved every bit of it. Arsenal, being Arsenal, meant we had to make things a little more nervous than we would have liked by conceding a few minutes later. Koscielny’s defending was poor and Ivanovic headed past Fabianski but that really was the extent of Chelsea’s threat. When Drogba stepped up to take another free kick Mrs Blogs said ‘Over the bar, watch’, and Drogba listened. It’s always best to listen to Mrs Blogs, I find.

We might have added more. Nasri was clean through but his effort was a bit tame while if Diaby had realised it was legal to smack the ball with his left foot he might have had a go with just the keeper to beat. Instead he allowed John Terry to get back and make the block. In the end it made little difference though. There was only going to be one winner last night. Afterwards Arsene said:

We were questioned about our capability of winning big games. I’m happy with the desire in the team. We kept good discipline in the team for 90 minutes and put in a real team performance. It can be a very pivotal moment, but we have to respond away at Wigan on Wednesday night in a game where we want to turn up and take points. We know to beat the big teams at home will have an important impact on this league.

I spoke before the game about how the impact of a win would be far greater than just three points. And while I’m delighted at finally beating Chelsea I think there’s an important lesson to be learned. If we played every game with the same desire, spirit and energy then we’d be very, very tough to beat. Theo Walcott said afterwards that the team had pressed Chelsea all over the pitch. They did and it worked brilliantly. So here’s the thing – do it to every team. It doesn’t matter if it’s Chelsea, United, Barcelona or anyone. It doesn’t matter if it’s a ‘must win’ game or a derby or a game which will banish hoodoos. That performance last night should be the blueprint for this Arsenal team. It should be the standard. If they can play like that against Chelsea why can’t they do it against West Brom or Newcastle at home?

I’m not being critical here, not for a second, but I suppose that’s what the manager sees this team as being capable of. That’s why he has such faith in them. It’s hard work, it’s tiring, but it doesn’t half bring some rewards with it. The increased defensive discipline, particularly in midfield, paid dividends. As a team last night we were exceptional. There were stand-out performances certainly. Song had his best game of the season by a country mile, Johan Djourou was brilliant at the back, a not fully fit Cesc showed just why he’s so important with a goal and an assist, and Theo’s selection may have raised some eyebrows before the game but he took his chance with aplomb.

Yet how can you ignore the fact that Sagna, Clichy, Koscielny, Wilshere, Nasri, van Persie, Chamakh and Diaby (when they came on) all worked their tits off for the team? Fabianski hardly had a thing to do. It’s lazy to write off Chelsea as rubbish, lazy to suggest the champions aren’t all that because they miss Ray fucking Wilkins. I won’t hear any of that because it takes away from what was an tremendously good Arsenal performance.

And that’s how we’ve got to play every game between now and the end of the season. With that desire, with that work-rate, because it made such a difference last night. Chelsea, let’s face it, haven’t even had to work that hard for their victories in recent games. Perhaps they thought it would be the same again, a slightly timid, apprehensive Arsenal. Looking at the United performance you wouldn’t necessarily blame them. Yet the captain and the manager called for the team to throw off the shackles in these games, to focus on our own game rather than the opposition and we did that last night.

Chelsea might not have been expecting it but they couldn’t respond. A team of vast experience and quality couldn’t live with what we threw at them and that’s such a positive from our point of view. The bottom line now is that we have to repeat it. We can’t undo the good work by going to Wigan and thinking it will be easier. Every game has to approached the same way. Anyway, there’s plenty of time to worry about that game (which is tomorrow!), and plenty of reasons to just enjoy today.

It might only have been three points but it feels like quite a bit more than that this morning. Let’s hope so.

–

Don’t forget the Arsenal Video page for goals/highlights.

Arsenal match reports
December 14, 2010 posted by arseblog

Man Utd 1-0 Arsenal : disappointing but not unexpected

It’s hard to know where to begin. Another big game, another poor performance and another trip home with 0 points.

It was not by any standards a feast of football. United were set up to deny Arsenal time and space and they did it ruthlessly well. The only answer to that kind of system is serious hard work and I can’t avoid the feeling this morning that we didn’t do enough of that.

Arsene Wenger Old Trafford

The pitch lacked a little bit the grassness meh meh meh ...

The only goal of the game came a few minutes before half-time. Ji Sung Park really does love scoring against us and when he twisted to loop a header over Wojscez©® and in off the post it was hard to argue that United didn’t deserve the lead – even if I didn’t necessarily think they deserved to score. If you get me. There was an element of luck in that Nani’s cross deflected off Clichy but I thought the finish was excellent and the Arsenal defending poor to leave him so free for the header.

Their only real chance before that was a Nani shot, after a poor Squillaci header, which flew inches wide. Which is a lot better than anything we created in the first half. We had a couple of efforts from outside the box which barely troubled the ball-boys, let alone van der Sar. In the second half we were a bit better, especially in terms of possession, but again posed little threat to their goal. Our only real opportunity of the game came when Nasri finally found some space, fired in a left footed shot which van der Sar could only parry to his left and into the path of Chamakh. Whether the Moroccan was caught on his heels or just wasn’t quick enough to react I can’t quite remember but Vidic got back to block his effort on goal.

And that, in 90 minutes, was Arsenal’s best chance. The introductions of Cesc, van Persie and then Walcott made little or no difference. I would have preferred to see Bendtner than Walcott. It was clear our passing game wasn’t right and a little more directness and Nick’s aerial ability might have caused them more problems at the back. But United defended very well, we lacked the nous and spark to break them down.

At the other end Rooney missed a penalty, a ridiculously harsh penalty too so justice was probably served there, while Wojscez©® made excellent saves from Anderson and a Rooney chip. When Theo blasted a volley over the bar in injury time it summed up our night, wasteful, lacking in quality and the big question marks about this team’s ability to get results in big games remain.

As a team we played badly and there were some extremely poor individual performances as well. I thought Gael Clichy had a nightmare, to be honest, you can’t win a tackle against a player like Nani then dilly-dally and give it back to him. We might have punished on more than one occassion, but in his defence he was given no protection from midfield and certainly none from Arshavin in front of him. Nani was given far too much time and space and it was shocking that just minutes into the second half, when surely this had been brought up, Clichy found himself with Nani and an overlapping United player (might have been Fletcher) to deal with.

He didn’t play well at all but he needed help and didn’t get it. United’s tactic of pressing the full backs high up the pitch was obvious and when you look at the unsuccessful passes (Sagna 28 out of 81, Clichy 20 out of 56) it meant we were under pressure a lot in our own half and with the usual outlets denied to us.

We conceded plenty of free kicks so it’s hard to suggest we lacked bite but more effective tackling might have helped us out more. Jack Wilshere won 2 of his 2 tackles while Alex Song, the supposed defensive midfield lynchpin, made one successful tackle in 90 minutes. He attempted a grand total of three. Compare to our centre-forward, Chamakh, who attempted 13 and won 5. Song the ball winner? Please.

And elsewhere we had hoped for and expected better from experienced quality players like Arshavin and Tomas Rosicky. The latter looked like a man who hasn’t scored since 1986, or whatever it is, while once again in a big game the Russian disappointed from an attacking point of view (he made four more tackles than Song though!). In-form Samir Nasri was quiet but he’s done plenty this season. This is why you need others to take responsibility and nobody did.

As I said pre-game this result was never going to be decisive regardless of who won but you just wonder what a win would have done for us psychologically. Our record against United and Chelsea is so poor and with the latter coming up in just a couple of weeks it won’t do confidence any good. Last night was a big chance – instead we didn’t stand up long enough to be counted.

Afterwards Arsene said:

It is a big frustration and a big disappointment but what is important is that we bounce back in our next game. Overall on what I have seen tonight there is no reason not to believe and we know we can play better offensively.

He also made some comments about the Old Trafford pitch which, frankly, he should have kept to himself. It was the same for both teams. I agree it looked poor with both teams slipping about at times but it’s not like they had magic slippers to deal with it better. Trying to deflect focus from his team, I know how it works, but sometimes things just aren’t worth mentioning. Bottom line for me is that United worked harder, wanted it more and that’s what made the difference.

So here we are in a position where we’ve lost 5 league games by mid-December and still, somehow, we’re not out of a title race in which the league leaders have yet to lose a game. It’s very odd but unless we can find some consistency to both our performances and results I don’t think that situation will last too long. You can’t lose that many games and not suffer for it – not unless you can pick yourself up and go on a long, unbeaten run.

So far this season the longest we’ve gone without defeat is five games, that was at the start of the season. Since then the sequence is L-L-W-W-W-L-W-W-L-W-W-L. Until we find show some mettle and manage to scrape something out of games like last night I retain serious doubts as to this team’s ability to last the campaign as league challengers.

However, as I said it’s not the end of the world in terms of where we are in the league. If United win their game in hand they’ll have a 5 point advantage. We’ve seen in the past that 5 points can be very quickly hauled in and we’ve got to just regroup and get on with things. The upcoming fixtures are tough. Stoke at home this weekend will be a massive physical test, then there’s Chelsea a couple of days after Christmas, you’d hope a trip to Wigan wouldn’t be as horrible as last season and then it’s Man City at home.

After that comes a run of very winnable games, on paper at least, so there’s no time for the team to feel sorry for themselves. We’ve got to work on getting important players like Cesc and van Persie up to speed in terms of their fitness because clearly they’re both not right at all. And I know I’ve been banging this drum a lot recently but we need to be better defensively. Not just the defenders but the whole team and midfield in particular. I think the incident I mentioned earlier about Nani early in the second half was another illustration of how we’re paying scant attention to our opponent’s strengths.

It’s all well and good saying we’re going to focus on our own game but you can’t just ignore them either. I agree with Arsene when he says we can do more from an offensive point of view but being more solid at the back will enable us to do more up front. I genuinely believe Alex Song needs some competition too.

To end on a positive note though I have to give mention to Wojscez©® who made his Premier League debut last night and despite some iffy distribution early on really looked the part. The save from Anderson was fantastic, reminiscent of a certain United keeper, and his handling was first rate throughout. Whether he was there simply because Fabianski was injured I don’t know but he’s definitely given the manager something to think about.

So, as I said, we’ve got to pick ourselves up and get on with things. Last night was a failure of performance but it needn’t be fatal. The margin for error, already small, is shrinking though.

Till tomorrow.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
December 9, 2010 posted by arseblog

Arsenal 3-1 Partizan: unconvincing but enough

Qualification to the knock-out stages of the Champions League was achieved last night in a game that really doesn’t merit a great deal of reporting.

Performance-wise it wasn’t exactly great from an Arsenal point of view. We got the job done but not without the now customary making it more difficult than it should have been part. We went in at half time 1-0 thanks to a Robin van Persie penalty. The award seemed a bit generous, I have to say, but it was good to see Robin dispatch it so confidently for his first goal of the season.

Theo Walcott celebrates his goal against Partizan

Fuck, it went in!

Beyond that it’s hard to remember us creating an opening in the first half. Chamakh and van Persie together look like a combination that will a fair few games to find an understanding, van Persie dropped deep constantly while service to Chamakh was patchy at best.

With the game crying out for the second goal so we could relax the second half became more frustrating as we really just didn’t click at all. Denilson played a great ball through the defence but Chamakh couldn’t control it, Nasri fired one over, and apart from that we spent a lot of time struggling to get beyond the Partizan defence. In and around their area it seemed to break down time and again.

Then they scored. Hardly unexpected. I mean, they’d been essentially crap all game and hadn’t had a shot on target – the perfect recipe for scoring against Arsenal with your first shot on goal. Neither of the centre-halves covered themselves in glory but Koscielny’s rash attempt to intercept left Squillaci with two men to cover. He was caught between closing down the man with the ball or covering the run and when he did choose to go to Cleo the shot deflected off him and past Fabianski. Weak in the centre again and no matter what Arsene says it’s not just a freak that we seem to concede with the opponent’s first chance – it’s because when we give chances away they’re the kind that any professional football really should take.

Having had enough of Arshavin falling over, giving it away and dribbling into tackles, the manager took him off and put Theo Walcott on. He added a bit of spark to our attack and when a Sagna cross wasn’t dealt with by the Partizan defence he calmly fired us 2-1 ahead. It was very nice finish from close range which showed good touch and composure.

Samir Nasri added the third after some lovely work between Song and Bendtner in their box. Nasri’s footwork was equally nimble and he fired home his 12th goal of the season. A player in the form of his life, according to the captain, and it’s hard to disagree. The sending off of Bacary Sagna with a couple of minutes to go was entirely the right decision. If it had been up the other end we’d have been looking for it. The Partizan man was through on goal, Sagna made no contact with the ball, the red card was the right decision. He’ll now serve a one game ban, missing the first leg of the first knockout game.

Goals, reaction and highlights can be found on the video page.

Finishing second in the group means that our draw is far more difficult than it might have been. It’s one of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Schalke. I know you have to play the big teams at some point but there’s still a sense of regret that we didn’t top this group after winning the first three games so well. Let’s be brutally honest about this – while Shaktar are a decent side with a good home record – both Braga and Partizan are mediocre at best.

The loss away in Portugal was hugely disappointing and should we get one of the Spanish teams in the next round we might well regret that night even more. I remember beating Real Madrid at their place on the way to the final in 05-6 but I’m not sure that was the best Madrid team of all time. Despite their hammering by Barcelona they have the Mourinho factor. A slimy, snide, cheating, cunthammer of a factor it might be but it’ll play a part. As for Barcelona, well, the idea of us trying to defend against them right now makes my bowels loosen.

Thankfully that game, should it happen, won’t take place right now and we’ve got until the new year to tighten up. Of course we could go to Germany too. I’d much rather Bratwurst than Chorizo. Schalke would be the ideal draw but then given our record against so called weaker teams this season … gah … I’m being too negative, I know. I just feel this is a group we should have won and I worry that the fact we didn’t might say more about our quality than our opponents.

Still, European football is about the games against the leading lights, the legendary continental teams, so regardless of how nervous I might feel you’ve got to love the fact we’re involved. Which I do. The draw for the knockout stages takes place next Friday. The ceremony begins and midday with the actual draw taking place at around 18.30 when all the UEFA twats have stopped talking.

The other downside to last night was yet another injury to Kieran Gibbs. He went over on his right ankle after about twenty minutes, tried to carry on but in the end was replaced by Emmanuel Eboue. He’s desperately unlucky, almost every time he gets a chance he ends up crocked in some way. Can whoever is cursing him please stop now? He’s suffered enough. He left the ground on crutches last night, hopefully more precautionary than anything else, but he’s going to be out for a little while I’d imagine.

Anyway, with Champions League qualification out of the way we can begin to look forward to the game against Man United. It’s strange having it on a Monday night, which means the weekend will be a bit less interesting than usual, but I suppose it’s so they hype it up to the max. What is interesting is that for the first time in a while it’s a genuine top of the table clash between us. Sure it’s only December but there are points to be won as well as points to be proved.

We can focus on that in the days ahead, as well as our potential team. Cesc has spoken about how he’s not going to take a risk with his hamstring and while it’d be a more difficult job without him I have to agree. Getting him properly fit is the most important thing. There’s still a long way to go and the season does not depend on Monday night’s game, even if it’s important to get something from it.

Finally, thanks to everyone for reading the live blog last night. I think we’ve managed to figure out a way of doing it that doesn’t break the entire internet. A positive step, for sure.

Plenty to come in the days ahead, back tomorrow with an Arsecast. Till then.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
December 5, 2010 posted by arseblog

Arsenal 2-1 Fulham: Super Sam sends us top

This Arsenal team, eh? They really do put themselves, and us, through the wringer in nearly every game. A hard-fought three points, that I think we just about deserved, but it won’t have done anybody’s blood pressure any good.

Too often at home we’ve been guilty of a sluggish start but yesterday was quite the opposite. For the first half an hour we were thrilling, inventive, quick and direct. We made chances, we pressed Fulham all over the pitch, snapped into tackles and looked as if we could score at any time. Arshavin had a chance with a volley that Schwarzer saved well, then the Russian played in Nasri but he toe-poked it just wide.

The next time the two combined it brought the opening goal. Arshavin played a ball across the box to Nasri, left free by the Fulham defence for some reason, and he stepped inside one challenge, then another leaving the defenders on their arses, before slamming home with his left foot. An outstanding goal from a player in fantastic form.

Samir Nasri scores against Fulham

And we continued to create chances, the best of which fell to Alex Song but with nobody anywhere near him he put it wide from about 8 yards. A really bad miss and you just worried that with the fragilities in this team that we might regret not going further ahead. And so it was. Fulham tried time and again to get Kamara behind our defence and to be fair to him he did the getting behind bit very well, it was the whole staying onside thing he couldn’t manage.

Then a simple ball over the top and a lack of communication between the centre-halves resulted in a clash of heads. Well, it was the top of Squillaci’s head and Koscielny’s face. It left the latter dazed and confused, so confused he forgot to go down. Had he done so I think the ref would have stopped play for the injury, because he didn’t we can’t complain. From then on though we didn’t defend it well at all. Song went to ground trying to tackle Dempsey and when the American clipped it through to where Koscielny should have been it was a simple enough finish for Kamara.

The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of us, as is our wont, and Fulham had the best of the rest of the first half. Kamara got behind us again, he was offside but it wasn’t given, and forced Fabianski into a good save, and instead of going in at half-time comfortably ahead we found ourselves level and somewhat punch drunk.

In the second half there were chances at both ends. Rosicky fired a volley just wide, then quick feet from Arshavin were matched by Schwarzer as he saved the Russian’s effort at the near post. Up the other end van Persie cleared one off the line, Gera had an overhead kick and it was hard to tell which way the next goal was going to go. At times like this you need your important players to take the game by the scruff of the neck and Nasri did just that.

He played a ball into Arshavin who gave it to van Persie on the edge of the box. I thought he was going to shoot himself but he saw Nasri continuing his run, played a lovely ball into his path and the Frenchman went through the Fulham defence, round the keeper before pirouetting to finish and make it 2-1. It was another brilliant goal, the ball was on the very edge of his control from the moment he got into the box and it’s a testament to his ability that he was able to score it. Had Lionel Messi scored those goals yesterday there’d be pundit jizz everywhere.

There was still time for Chamakh to fire wide after great work by Clichy, Etuhu shot just wide after a corner scramble and Fabianski was called on again to make a very good save from Gera, but in the end we hung on, got the three points, took advantage of Chelsea’s draw and went back to the top of the table.

Afterwards Arsene said:

We needed not only quality but sprit and resilience today and we got it. We scored two exceptional goals from Samir that were a combination of touch, intelligence, special talent and calmness.

Rightly enough he praised the contribution of Nasri who now has 11 goals in all competitions. He’s become a vital component of this team and while we could always see the talent and ability he lacked consistency until now. He’s just a pleasure to watch. Also up for major props was Johan Dourou who made a big difference when he came on to replace Koscielny. The boss said:

He is doing very well. He has been out for a year and as you have noticed I have rotated him a little bit. We do not want to lose him and a guy that has been out for a year you cannot play him three games a week. From the start of the season he has gone from strength to strength and today, in the difficult period when we had to defend in the air, he was dominant

One of the issues I had with Djourou as a centre-half was his reluctance to attack the ball. He had a tendency to let it bounce which is just not the way to do it, but yesterday he went for everything, and won most of them too. I think the combination of Djourou and Squillaci is the best one we have at the moment but obviously there are reasons beyond form for the rotation. Nevertheless, the Swiss will rightly feel hard done by if he doesn’t keep his place now. He looks fit, sharp and adds physical presence to our defence.

Some other thoughts – without wanting to piss on anyone’s chips and bearing in mind that we are top of the league, it’s still worth looking at areas in which we can improve. The reaction to the goal, for example. We seem to react to every slap in the face like we’ve just been kicked in the balls.  You could see yesterday how badly we were affected, it takes us too long to get our heads up again. I’m sure the players feel the same sense of inevitability when we concede but they have to remember it’s not the end of the world and they have to react better and faster.

The issue of our defensive midfielder, or lack of it, is worrying now. Alex Song didn’t have a great game yesterday at all. The miss was terrible, his passing was all over the place, but what was most frustrating was the shirking of his main duty which is to protect the back four. This is what he did last season with great effect, he sat back, let those in front of him do the creating and scoring, while he broke up play and shielded his defence. Simple but effective. I know he’s made some contributions this season in terms of goalscoring but we need him to revert a little bit.

This season he’s caught too far forward too often. So much so that I’m inclined to think it’s because he’s been given the freedom to do that by the manager. In which case I’d like the manager to reign him in a little bit and remind him that on his day he’s a fine defensive midfielder but will never be a Nasri or a Fabregas. The defence yesterday needed more protection, Song did not do enough in that regard. Whether it’s his own desire to be Maradona or the manager’s willingness to tolerate it, it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is Fulham exploited that yesterday and better teams will have much more success.

Anyway, we should focus on the fact that we are top of the league. It’s a nice place to be and with our next league game away at Old Trafford it could all get very interesting indeed.

For goals and highlights don’t forget the Arsenal Video page, powered by 101 Great Goals.

And that’s about that. Have a table topping Sunday, back tomorrow.