February 2nd
What a game. Our home record went as West Ham won 3-2 but, although in some ways it was almost masochistic, it was entertaining.
We started really well, moved the ball well, passed it around and made some chances. Thierry had a goalbound effort deflected out of play by Freddie Ljungberg of all people while Robin van Persie started really brightly and hit the post after turning a West Ham defender inside out. After 20 minutes you felt a goal just had to come. After 24 minutes it did come except it wasn’t for Arsenal. The ball broke towards our goal in midfield and to call Sol Campbell’s effort at tackle or clearance half-hearted would be understating it by about 345,000,000%. It was the challenge of a player who doesn’t really care anymore. He swung a leg at it with no committment, West Ham captain Nigel Reo Coker went clean through and finished smartly past Jens Lehmann.
To add to his own, and our misery, a few minutes later Campbell was comprehensively muscled off the ball by Bobby Zamora who actually did nothing but stand his ground. Zamora then curled a fine shot over Jens Lehmann to make it 2-0 to West Ham. Unbelievable but given the way our season has gone nothing is a surprise. In between the goals we lost right back Kerrea Gilbert to a back injury meaning Mathieu Flamini was brought on to play in an unfamilar role. We gave ourselves a lifeline and a boost before half-time when Thierry touched in a Robert Pires shot to make it 2-1.
When the teams emerged for the second half out came Sebastian Larsson and Sol Campbell was nowhere to be seen. The TV said he had an ‘injury’ but there’s no doubt he was hauled off and rightly so, in my opinion. Senderos moved to centre-half and Larsson went to right back meaning the back four consisted of two midfielders as full backs and an 19 and 20 year old all Swiss centre-half combination. Midway through the half Thierry had a chance to make it 2-2 as he curled one just wide and although we were playing well we weren’t really making clear cut chances. Then the manager brought on Dennis Bergkamp for Abou Diaby.
For me this was the wrong decision. Diaby grew as the game went on, he looked dynamic, got forward, challenged well and won tackles. Gilberto had another very poor game, gave the ball away a lot, didn’t tackle much and really slowed things down in midfield. It seems to take him so long to get the ball under control that our attacking play broke down when it should have flowed from midfield. Then without about 10 minutes to go Seb Larsson, who otherwise did really well I thought, got caught in possession on the touchline, West Ham crossed it to Etherington whose shot would easily have been saved by Jens Lehmann but it clipped Flamini’s heels, looped over him and Robert Pires couldn’t get there in time to stop it going in. Two former Sp*rs players scoring for West Ham against us, Grrrrrreeeat.
We pressed forward again, Hislop made a great save from Pires who eventually brought it back to 3-2 with a neat finish after a Bergkamp drive had been saved. Despite 4 minutes of injury time being signalled the ref blew up as we were attacking with still about 40 seconds to go. So three defensive mistakes and three points lost. Very disappointing but strangely exciting. Those mistakes apart we played well and would have won the game but it’s those kind of mistakes that have been costing us all season long.
Let’s come back to Sol Campbell though. Maybe he’s been injury hit but for a player of his stature to have played the way he’s played this season is just not good enough. When we needed the experienced heads to stand up and be counted he’s gone missing, shirked the responsibility and performed badly more than once. Last night he reached his nadir. Those two mistakes cost us the game. You gift two goals to any Premiership side and you are going to struggle to get them back. Sky reported, about 15 minutes into the second half, that Campbell had showered, changed and left Highbury by the front door.
Perhaps there were some harsh words said in the dressing room at half-time but if that’s the kind of response we get from one of our senior players then you’ll forgive me if I have little time for him. He deserved the harsh words.
Maybe it would have been hard to come back to the bench but he showed his committment again by simply walking out. Not good enough by any standards, let alone Arsenal’s. Afterwards the manager denied a bust-up, saying “I took Sol Campbell off at half-time because he was very down and feeling guilty that he’d made some mistakes and I felt it was better for him to stop. But there was no row when he came off, Sol was just showing his frustration. He did not have permission (to leave) but he did not mean it to be disrespectful to the club or the team.”
I have a feeling the manager is keeping things in-house, which is probably the right thing to do, but for someone who normally errs on the side of conservative when it comes to substitions it’s hard to imagine him putting on a midfielder to make his Premiership debut at left without there being something more to it. It’s all well and good for Sol to be frustrated but the Arsenal fans are frustrated too. We don’t go storming out the front door. We might kick the cat a little bit and have a bitch and a moan now and then but those kind of histrionics just aren’t acceptable.
With Sp*rs losing yesterday 3 points last night would have put us in a good position to kick on for the 4th Champions League place but we’re really making hard work of it now. We have Sp*rs and Bolton to play before the end of the season but we also have Liverpool home and away and Manchester United away so there are some really tough games on the horizon. The way things are going at the moment it’s hard to be too optimistic but often things can turn around as quickly as the went bad. On a night like last night I’m sure the last thing the manager expected was his senior defender to hand West Ham two goals because he didn’t concentrate and didn’t care enough to do simple things, things he’s done his whole career. With Sven watching it’ll be a surprise if he makes England’s World Cup squad which will no doubt hurt him more than costing Arsenal any three points. The bottom line is we are missing Lauren (who could be out for the rest of the season as it’s feared his knee injury needs surgery), Cole, Clichy, Eboue, Kolo, Cygan and now Gilbert. We don’t have time for people who are feeling sorry for themselves. We need people to fight for the team, not primadonnas whose first thought is to leave it all behind when things go wrong.
The manager must be hoping the Ivory Coast get beaten in their next ACN game so we can have Kolo and Eboue back. We’ve really missed Kolo in the last while, his drive and energy is so hard to replace and he’s a very good defender. Once he is back I’d like to see him and Senderos reforge the partnership that was so solid at the end of last season. Djourou looks an excellent prospect as well. In midfield I really can’t wait to see Diaby and Cesc together and I’d have Flamini as back. Gilberto and Sol can play Cluedo in the dressing room for all I care.
Plenty to talk about though, eh?
