january 22nd
After the week we’ve had, signing three new players and the excitement that has brought, yesterday’s game against Everton was typical of our season and made everything very much an anti-climax. A 1-0 defeat and another insipid away performance.
We played 4-5-1 in the first half and that was our first mistake. After taking Boro apart playing 4-4-2 why the manager chose to play a formation which just doesn’t suit us and makes us as much of a goal threat as Kaba Diawara with two broken legs is beyond me. We can’t play 4-5-1 – we have never put in a good performance using it – and I feared the worst.
The second mistake came when James Beattie got between a hesitant Philippe Senderos and a stationary, leaden footed Sol Campbell (who carried on his fine form of letting small players beat him to headers all day long) to clip the ball past Lehmann to make it 1-0. I will come back to this goal in a bit. He could have had a second when Cesc was surrounded and not a single Arsenal player made any kind of move to allow him to pass. He tried to pass it back to the keeper, didn’t see Beattie but luckily he clipped the ball well wide when he should have just gone past the keeper.
We had two decent chances first half, the first of which saw Freddie hit the post via the keeper and Cesc put the rebound wide, the second was when Cesc was clean through and forced a decent save from Nigel Martyn although Pires looked well placed for a square ball.
You can’t blame him for shooting in that position though, we’re accused of overplaying too much as it is and Pires was probably offside. In the second half we played 4-4-2 and looked a little bit more dangerous although not much. We saw Hleb come on and do nothing, as usual, while Abou Diaby got 10 minutes at the end and it’s impossible to make any judgement on him although physically he is very like Vieira. Right at the death Cesc got a red card for grabbing Tim Cahill around the neck. You’ll hear the usual shite about how you shouldn’t raise your hands which is all well and good but Cahill fell over like a girl and Cesc was trying to stick up for his captain who felt he had been fouled earlier. Granted he shouldn’t have done it but if more of our players showed more of his passion and commitment then we wouldn’t suffer horrible away days like this one. He explains himself here I suppose he’ll get 3 matches now which is the last thing we need as I come back to the Everton goal.
The ball is dropping, underneath it is a footballer who is paid thousands and thousands of pounds a week, he’s a World Cup winner and vastly experienced. Instead of trying to control the ball he fly kicks it like a Sunday league player right up in the air, it drops to an Everton player in the end who plays it through for Beattie to score. I lost count the number of times Gilberto either gave the ball away or pussied out of tackles or challenges. Even though it was only on TV I swear to God I could see him try for one header with his eyes closed. It was another atrocious performance from him and maybe the reason we’re playing 4-5-1 is to try and add some stability to a midfield in which he has been the weak link all season long. The only time he did make a challenge was a cowardly two footed lunge into the back of an Everton player for which he was rightly booked and which sums up everything about him at the moment. He is playing so badly it’s hard to find words for it. I’m really not one to single out players for poor performance, and I like him as a person, but Gilberto needs a very hard kick up the arse. He is afraid to tackle, afraid to be physical and he insists on giving the ball back to the opposition as much as possible. Some people might say Cesc is lightweight but he’s not afraid to get stuck in and his partner in central midfield is embarrassing to watch now. It’s such a shame Cesc got a red card because it means Gilberto will play more. If I was the manager I’d send him back to Brazil with a one way ticket.
He’s supposed to be the senior man in midfield but he doesn’t take any responsibility and leaves an 18 year old to try and do the job of two men. Unacceptable.
That’s not to say the rest of them were much better yesterday. Thierry booted the ball away at the final whistle and if he’d put that much energy into the game we might have done better. Yesterday we lacked leadership, we needed him as the captain to show an example but he was strutting around on the back of a hat-trick last week. Now, I love Thierry. He’s a fucking brilliant player but as valuable as his 3 goals against Boro are we need him to do more in games when we struggle. As a forward he’s not going to be involved as much as other players but he was sloppy and careless yesterday and we need more than that. That said the poxy 4-5-1 formation doesn’t suit him at all and I really do have to ask a question of the manager. I understand wanting to be more solid away from home but after a 7-0 win which would have done wonders for our confidence why do we go back into our shell and play a formation which, with the players we have, we’re fucking crap at?
And why take off the right back who was having a decent debut and put Freddie Ljungberg, one of this season’s worst offenders, there instead? Bizarre.
The sooner we get back to playing 4-4-2 home and away the better. Maybe we can’t carry Pires and Ljungberg away from home as the wide players but we could easily drop them both, play José on the left and let Flamini do a Ray Parlour style job on the right. Watching us lose is depressing but watching us lose knowing we’ve handed the initiative to the opposition right at the kick off by playing 4-5-1 breaks my heart. And I’m a double-hard bastard, so I am.
Anyway, again it was the senior players letting us down and letting down their younger team-mates who have needed more from them all season. There are a number of players I would be quite happy to see us sell this coming summer, despite all they’ve done for us, so they can go pick up their retirement fund wages elsewhere.
The manager was critical of Everton afterwards calling them efficient but saying they didn’t play football. Sour grapes, if you ask me. They were committed and energetic and they all knew their jobs, the direct opposite of us. They weren’t dirty or overly physical. As for the sun being in our eyes, well I’m lost for words. I know it’s a difficult thing to deal with but come on. He then went on to invite everyone to a re-run next week against Bolton which will just redouble Bolton’s ambition to play a physical game. We used to cope with physical games by playing good football and dishing out a bit back. We can’t seem to do either at the moment.
And while our away form certainly warrants close investigation and criticism it’s the manner of these defeats that is most worrying. There’s no fight, no sense of urgency, nobody really standing up and taking responsibility. Cesc was the most vocal yesterday but where was the cajoling and encouragement from the likes of Sol Campbell? The boss says he’s worried about the Champions League place. I think we all are. Despite the excitement of the signings it’s all very depressing at the moment.
Anyway, a quick game of spot the difference to liven up this Sunday. On January 12th new signing Emmanuel Adebayor slammed his then club Monaco, saying “They don’t want me to play for my country, but I’m ready to die for my country. My country is my country and I’m going to play for them whether they like it or not.”
Yesterday, after being left on the bench for Togo’s first game in the ACN, he said “I am done with Togo for the Nations Cup and I’m heading home to visit my sick mother.”
Excellent, sounds like we’ve got a real class act on our hands here. If he’s not playing in the ACN then he should really come to the club that’s now paying his wages but that probably doesn’t suit him. Away from that fella if you were wondering why the Walcott deal took so long the 84 signatures must have had something to do with it.
Have a good Sunday, Arsefans. A few beers might help.
