At the end of the Liverpool game on Tuesday night the cameras did their usual bit of following the players around. They focussed on Arshavin, rightly, but for a few moments they settled on Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri.
As they made their way to salute the Arsenal fans at the end of the ground the look on the captain’s face was one of frustration and unhappiness. The incredible achievement of Arshavin’s four goals was not what was on his mind. It’s fairly easy to work out what he was discussing with Nasri.
That Arsenal had, not for the first time this season, let slip a lead, in injury time when they should have held on and won the game. I suspect he was wondering how it was that two Liverpool players were unmarked in our box, allowing them not only to score the equaliser but score it easily.
As they walked down the pitch Cesc and Nasri were talking about our defence and how mistakes and general poor play cost us a famous victory at Anfield. The captain took up the subject yesterday, saying:
From an attacking point of view we played one of the best games of the season. It might even have been the best but defensively we need to improve a lot if we really want to be in the Champions League final. I think we have to concentrate on that.
We gave away the goals too easily. After all we’d done to create the chances and score four great goals, coming back like we did, when we concede goals like we did, it is difficult to take.
No doubt the injuries to key players were a factor in the last couple of games. Silvestre’s lack of match sharpness, and ultimately quality, showing in both the Chelsea and Liverpool games. We’re without Gallas who was probably going through his best ever run of form since he joined the club. Gael Clichy is out, Bacary Sagna has been absent through illness and Lukasz Fabianski’s confidence sapping game at Wembley added to the feeble display at Anfield.
And when the defence is stretched like that, when you’re playing an 18 year old at left back who has barely made a first team appearance, when you’re using your 4th choice centre-half, your 2nd choice keeper, there’s a responsibility on the rest of the team to help out. So while Andrei Arshavin echoed the captain’s thoughts about how we have to do better in defence, he hit the nail squarely on the head when he said:
Everybody must take responsibility for the fact we conceded four goals. Not just the defence or the keeper, because everyone must help.
The Liverpool game needs to be a big wake-up ahead of the Champions League games against United. We know how offensively powerful they are. They’re a relentless attacking machine. And with the current personnel our foundations are weak. It’s a cliché to say you defend from the front but we were all over the place when Liverpool scored their fourth. If we’d been organised, with 10 men behind the ball, they wouldn’t have scored.
If our midfield had bothered to track the runners into the box they wouldn’t have scored. Yes, we were all over the place at the back on Tuesday night but that’s when you need people to dig in a bit more and help that side of our game. We know we can attack, we know we can go forward at great speed, score goals, scare defences, but when we’re not doing that every single player on the pitch needs to be aware that they have other responsibilities too.
You don’t want to see someone like Diaby, who has just come on, strolling back as the cross comes in for Liverpool’s goal. You want him busting his balls to get back and make a tackle the same way Arshavin busted his to get forward for the goal. You can’t legislate for individual errors which led to at least two of the goals, merely hope that they’re not repeated.
But to my mind it’s good that Cesc has addressed this and done it publicly. Firstly it means he’s noticed and will, as captain, do more during games to ensure defensive stability. He’s still young, still learning, particularly as captain, but he’s an intelligent young man and he won’t want a repeat of Tuesday’s shambles. Secondly, it means the rest of the team are going to be more aware of what’s expected of them. This isn’t 5-a-side where you just go out to score more no matter how many you let in and defending is not the sole preserve of the back four..
We need to circle the wagons, in effect. If we’re weak back there then we have to do more all over the pitch to protect them. That means midfield working harder to prevent crosses and balls getting into our box where we’re vulnerable. It means forwards trying to stop the easy passes into midfield. Every little bit helps and at the moment we need it.
Maybe, in a weird way, it’s better to have been taught this lesson now before we play in the Champions League semi-finals than to be taught it at Old Trafford or at the Grove in the second leg. It’s not like it’s the first time we’ve been exposed at the back this season but hopefully with a lot of work and a lot more focus it will be the last.
The good news, unconfirmed though it might be, is that Johan Djourou reckons he’s going to be fit for the Man United games. Obviously it’d be great to have more options at the back and I think his height and his pace could prove very important. Fingers crossed that he makes it. Add his presence to a 100% Sagna, a more reliable Almunia behind them, and it won’t be quite as scary.
The other positive news is that Andrei Arshavin reckons he still needs time to settle in before we see the best of him. That really is a mouth-watering prospect.
Lukasz Fabianski talks about, and apologises for, his Chelsea nightmare. It’s a brutally honest interview but there isn’t a keeper alive who hasn’t done something similar. If he learns from it and improves then we just have to accept it as part of the game.
Big congratulations this morning to Arsenal’s kids who have reached the FA Youth Cup final for the first time since 2001. A 4-1 win last night over Man City gave them a 6-2 aggregate win. The goals came from Jack Wilshere, Sanchez Watt (2) and Kyle Bartley. Bouldie’s Boys are likely to play Liverpool in the final and over 9,500 turned up at the Grove last night to watch them.
Right, that’s about that. Tomorrow we can start looking ahead to the weekend’s fixture against Boro and, hopefully, with an Arsecast.
Till then.
