As bad as going out of three cup competitions inside two weeks was yesterday’s game at Anfield was, for me, the true nadir of this season. A listless, lethargic Arsenal were taken apart by Liverpool and Peter Crouch who scored a great hat-trick. About 15 minutes in I texted a mate saying ‘We’ll lose this by two or three goals’, half hoping I’d be so incredibly wrong it’d turn things around but mostly because that’s how it looked. At the end I was almost pining for the internationals. So much for having real football back.
The first came when Liverpool put it in from our left and Crouch, known for his lightning pace, got there before Kolo Toure. The second came from a cross from the right, William Gallas didn’t even bother jumping and Crouch beat Diaby, who was at least trying to get back, to power a great header past Jens. Half-time 2-0 and we’d barely had a shot in anger although Adebayor headed over from a corner.
In the second half Adebayor hit the post with a good left footed effort. Their third came from a set piece. A free kick on the right was whipped in and Agger got there before a static Baptista (is there any other kind?) to glance home the header. Then Adebayor had a good header touched onto the post by Reina before Rosicky and Freddie came on for Baptista and Diaby. With 18 minutes left we got one back when Gallas touched it over the line after a corner had beaten everyone but there was no comeback, only time for Liverpool’s fourth. Again the ball came in from the right, Crouch turned Kolo inside out and finished with aplomb. 4-1 Liverpool and there was only time for one more moment which summed up Arsenal’s day. We had a free kick in a central position, with players in the box and Cesc just hoofed it over the bar. Awful.
We’ve lost heavily before. There was 6-1 at Old Trafford and a 4-0 at Anfield a few years back but I can’t remember us being quite so abject before. The lack of effort from some players was worrying and the lack of any discernable footballing ability from others equally so.
I have to question the manager’s team selection. With two players in Freddie and Rosicky who can play wide why did we not choose one of them? Diaby could have played in the middle with Cesc but to put him wide left with those two options on the bench is truly puzzling. Denilson is a tidy young footballer but I’m not sure he’s as good as we like to think he is, yet. Hleb and Baptista were absolutely atrocious. I’ve had quite enough of Hleb giving the ball away and not bothering to even look as if he’s going to try and get it back. Please get rid of him. Please. Baptista is just dreadful. He missed a glorious chance in the first half and if his first touch is bad his second and third are often worse. He’s obviously not going to be around next season so he should only play as a last resort because he’s not even trying. Freddie could easily have done a job up front today or we could have played a 4-5-1.
At the back we were a complete shambles. If that’s our ‘first choice’ back four then I’m worried. Gallas and Toure were torn to shreds, not just once either, and I hope the fans who gave Senderos such a hard time this season will realise that perhaps our defensive woes are more down to the lack of defensive organisation and coaching than the individual abilities of the players. Gallas hardly won a header all day from Crouch. I realise there’s a big height difference but I lost count of the amount of times he had free headers or even time to take the ball down and pass it because nobody went near him. That’s just not good enough. Is it any coicidence that our back four last season, when Martin Keown was working with them, set a new Champions League record for clean sheets and time without conceding? Remember that was a back four with this season’s scapegoat, Philippe Senderos, and Mathieu Flamini at left back. I don’t know who our defensive coach at the moment is but I suspect it must be Jeff Blockley.
The one bright spot was Adebayor who, despite the almost complete lack of service did hit the post twice and looked like he was interested in the game. I want to mention Cesc too. He was quiet and ineffective but when he’s got shite like Baptista in front of him, doing nothing, and shite like Hleb outside him, often not wanting the ball, then it’s hard for a central midfield player. We certainly would have had much more movement if we’d started Freddie and Rosicky and the manager’s insistence on packing his midfield with central midfielders is worrying. I wonder is Mathieu Flamini injured as well. As I mentioned above people seem to have decided that Denilson is a great player after a couple of no-pressure performances because nobody expected anything from him. I know he’s not everyone’s favourite but we could have done with Flamini’s workrate and industry in midfield yesterday.
It strikes me that there’s a real danger that too many fans prefer the player with the odd pretty pass and dragback to the player who is consistently effective in a game. The attitude of some of the players concerns me as well. We won the Cup Winners Cup in 94 with a squad that, in terms of technical ability, wouldn’t get near most of this lot – particularly midfield – but who had a will that won them games. They knew they’re weren’t brilliant so they worked like cunts to make up for it. This lot have everyone telling them how great they are and they’re not putting in the hard work which would make them fantastic. Most of them haven’t won anything yet. The praise of pundits and newspapers doesn’t matter at the end of the day. Even at the start of the second half yesterday we were passing it around like it was a training match. There was no drive, no pace, no aggression, no determination, no snapping into tackles (although Cesc was hampered by being booked for a perfectly good challenge on Alonso).
Is that all down to the players or is the manager culpable in this? Where is the leadership? Where was the person who looked at the way we played on the pitch today and said “This is not good enough! Come on Arsenal. We can do better than this!”? I didn’t see William Gallas, so eager to talk to his journalist friends, doing anything to lead the young players. I saw Kolo clap his hands once or twice but there’s no doubt we missed Gilberto and overall we miss somebody who won’t stand for the kind of lazy crap we got some from of our players and will give them a bollocking to snap them out of it.
Afterwards, Arsene said:
Defensively our performance was horrendous. If we want to finish third now we will have to produce better performances than that. We are not certain of being in the top four.
No arguing with any of that from here and it is positive that he’s said it. It’s not the normal stuff he usually comes out with in the wake of a defeat. At one stage there was a shot of him on the TV and you could see him looking in almost disbelief at some of the players.
Let’s hope, because it’s the only positive we can take from yesterday, that some lessons are learned from this. Not so much by the players but by the manager. Some of the faith he has in some of the players is misplaced. Some of these players have to go. Some new ones have to come in if we want to challenge for the title next season and more than anything the attitude has to change. After their first goal heads went down and that was only four minutes in. After their second if was obvious there was no way back.
He’s got a whole week to work with them ahead of the West Ham game. In a way I feel sorry for him with some of them but at the end of the day they’re his players, he brought them to the club he has to get them to perform. The buck stops with the manager and it’s down to him now to get enough out of these guys between now and the end of the season to secure a top 4 place.
Take it away, Arsene.
