Let’s leave aside all thoughts of how we’d have been happy enough with a point yesterday considering the players we had missing. We blew another big chance yesterday for one reason and one reason only – this Arsenal team does not know how to defend.
We could have been 3 or 4 down at half-time. Incredibly we found ourselves one up. Football is a strange game like that. Villa hit the woodwork three times. Firstly when Song allowed Sidwell to get ahead of him at a corner and the former Arsenal man’s header hit the bar, bounced down off Denilson’s head and away.
Then Nasri completely shirked his defensive responsibilities. Sylvester had been drawn into the middle, Milner was left alone in acres of space and his shot hit the post and very fortunately rebounded into the arms of Manuel Almunia. Curtis Davies hit a looping shot which hit the bar, Almunia then made a good save and only a fantastic block by William Gallas prevented the goal on the follow up, and Bacary Sagna made an incredible, acrobatic goal-line clearance to prevent a goal.
Yet we went in ahead. Denilson taking advantage of a Reo-Coker mistake to scurry in and slide it home between Friedel’s legs. Even more amazingly we scored a quite brilliant goal to go 2-0 up. Diaby had the ball on our right, for once one of his little flicks came off, he played it to Eboue, the two of them charged towards goal, Eboue’s little poke into Diaby’s path was perfection and the finish was excellent. Right up there with the best goals of the season, in my opinion.
So, redefining the term ‘against the run of play’ we found ourselves 2-0 up at the home of our closest rivals. It might even have been 3-0 but Robin van Persie’s shot hit the post – he really should have scored from there. Still, would it be too much to expect this Arsenal team to hang on? Yes, of course it would. They were given a lifeline back into the game when William Gallas brought down Agbonlahor with a stupid, stupid tackle. He may not have got much of the man but he made it easy for the penalty to be given. It was an amateurish attempt at a tackle, the angle was all wrong, and for our most experienced defender to give away a penalty like that was utterly infuriating.
Then, of course, you’re watching the rest of the game knowing that this is a team that is capable of conceding at any moment. Villa piled on the pressure, we became more and more ragged and in the first minute of injury time they scored. Zat Knight was left all alone in the box and he slammed home a left foot shot to make it 2-2.
Looking at replays there were 4 Villa players and only 3 Arsenal defenders. That is shambolic. It shouldn’t happen at Sunday League level let alone in the last couple of minutes of an important Premier League game. It comes down to organisation – there simply wasn’t any and that’s inexcusable. Our defence is probably the most experienced part of the team. We have Gallas, Toure and Sylvester and whatever you think about their abilities as defenders you cannot deny they are hugely experienced players.
Not one of them took any responsibility in terms of organising that defence or the players in front of them who are much more raw. That we were outnumbered in our own box in injury time while trying to hang on to a lead speaks volumes about this team and until we sort out our defence we are never going to win a thing. Often, you can paper over the cracks of a weak defence with outstanding attacking players but we don’t have those either. In 19 league games this season we have conceded in 14 of them, a total of 23 goals. Not good enough.
Now, firstly you could say we need some better players. Kolo Toure looks about 10% of the player we used to know, Gallas’s head is all over the place and he provided another costly moment, and Sylvester is just a bit shit, which is why United let him go. The only one to come out of that back four with any credit is Bacary Sagna who was absolutely heroic yesterday. A proper defender who must feel horribly let down by his colleagues today.
Secondly, and probably more importantly, we need better defensive coaching. While a good foundation is essential (and by that I mean the back four + keeper), even the best defence in the world will struggle if the rest of the team aren’t doing their jobs. It was in Tony Adams’ biography where he took Arsene aside during the 97/98 season and told him he felt Vieira and Petit weren’t doing enough to protect the back four. Wenger had words with the two Frenchmen and we all know what happened at the end of that season.
The rest of the players cannot shirk their defensive responsibilities. Too many of them amble back, watching and hoping the defence will cope when they should be playing their part. Nasri’s sheer ignorance of the fact that Milner was in space tells you that these players aren’t properly aware of their jobs on the pitch.
Can anyone look at the defensive players we have and tell me that they wouldn’t benefit hugely from the kind of drills that George Graham used to forge his famous back four? Maybe this isn’t the kind of coaching Arsene Wenger does but maybe it’s about time he started – or if he can’t do it then get someone in who can.
Get someone who can make us much less vulnerable from set-pieces because at the moment every time we try to defend a corner or a free kick my heart is in my mouth. Get someone who can make these players communicate properly, the lack of communication and organisation is a big part of why our defence is so poor. Villa’s equaliser yesterday should be rock bottom for Arsene Wenger – he needs to look at that and think ‘I’ve got a real problem here’.
Sometimes the hardest thing in the world is admitting you’re wrong about something. At any level, under any circumstances, it’s difficult to swallow your pride and ask for help but unless he does that then this team is going to continue to struggle. We simply do not know how to defend and despite the lessons we’re being taught week in, week out we continue not to learn them. To me that means we need a new teacher, a better teacher.
You can talk about the spine of a team all you like but for me every successful side is built on having a solid defence. There was a time when Arsenal could score a goal and the opposition knew they were fucked. That bar some moment of magic or a mistake they were facing a back four who could take whatever was thrown at them all day long. Now, even if we were three up I wouldn’t feel comfortable in a game.
Arsene Wenger is still talking about the title – he’s deluded if he really believes we can win it. The simple fact is that we are in a big battle to stay in the top four this season. Talk of the title is little more than a pipe dream. Villa are ahead of us, Everton are closing behind us, that’s where our focus must be. If we can finish higher than 4th this season, with this team, with its very obvious failings, then it will be a little miracle, in my opinion.
Arsenal cannot defend and every other team in this league knows it. Unless the manager takes steps to improve our squad and improve our coaching then I can’t help but be really worried.
