The first thing we should say about yesterday’s game is that we very obviously played an Everton team still smarting from the opening day pasting we gave them. That day they let down their manager, they let down their fans and they let themselves down. From the first whistle it was obvious they weren’t going to let that happen as they pressed us all over the pitch and snapped into tackles.
There’s not a lot that’s positive to report about Arsenal’s performance. We never got our game going, we just didn’t click, and while much of that is down to how Everton refused us the time and space to play, it’s still disappointing that we didn’t really have any period where we rose above that.
Abou Diaby was a positive, the run of games has done wonders for his fitness. He’s now a 90 minute player and he drove us forward at 2-1 down to set up Rosicky for the equaliser. You have to also give credit to the spirit and desire of the lads. A goal down heading into injury time they kept at it and got the goal. I would never say it wasn’t deserved, despite what the commentators on their Everton love in kept saying, because if you keep working hard and at least trying when things aren’t going your way, nobody can say you didn’t deserve it. If you hide and give up and somehow fluke a goal then that’s another thing entirely.
I thought Arsene’s comment after the game was telling though. He said:
We played against a very good Everton team who for the biggest part of the game was more dangerous, sharper than us. At the end of the day we dropped two points but, looking at the game, we gained one point. We were closer to losing the game than winning it.
He’s not normally so forthright about our lack of performance, and we’ve played some stinkers in our time and heard Arsene trot out the usual lines about ‘lacking a little bit the sharpness’, so he knows we kind of got out of jail yesterday. In the circumstances it’s a good point and who knows how crucial it might be at the end of the season? It’s also worth noting that Everton are a team which finished 5th last season. They’ve had a truly rotten run of form but it was too much to expect them to play like that for the whole campaign. Remember, they drew 3-3 at Chelsea and yesterday they showed they’re a good, spirited side and to win games against teams like that you have to be close to, if not at, your best.
So from that point of view I’m reasonably content with things this morning. Nevertheless, certain subjects merit discussion. Firstly, their goals. While I have given credit to Everton for the way they played, the fact is we gifted them two goals. For the first nobody picked up Leon Osman from the Everton corner. He was allowed to run unchallenged into our box and head home. Who was supposed to be marking him and why didn’t they? It doesn’t get any more basic than that. They have a corner, everbody has a man, you mark your man and if you get beaten in the air then hold your hands up and say the other fella did better. When the other fella didn’t even have anyone to beat, and when the other fella is barely taller than Arshavin, conceding a goal like that is just poor defending.
Their second was a gift as well. As we pressed for a winner we got caught out with everybody in their half of the field and when a Rosicky pass was intercepted, Peinaar was able to run into our half of the field with nobody anywhere near him before clipping a lovely finish over Almunia. It seemed our formation had changed from 4-3-3 to 0-5-5. That Nasri was the closest man to him says it all. I know we’d had a series of corners but again it’s schoolboy stuff and sympomatic of the kind of goals we’ve been conceding this season. There are very few that you can say ‘Wow, they took us apart there with brilliant football’. They’ve nearly all been down to individual, or collective, defensive mistakes. We are a very generous team. We need to be misers.
So there are definitely questions for the defence and, in truth, for the team as a whole in terms of defending. Armand Traore didn’t have his best game ever, a number of times there were Everton men in space in our left back position with nobody anywhere near them, but there’s a responsibility on the team as a whole to defend. Even if Traore were correctly positioned he was being left to deal with two men and overall we needed to be better organised.
Then we come to the goalkeeper, who I now really believe is a factor in how poorly we defend at times. Once again Almunia was all over the place yesterday. Coming for crosses and getting nowhere near them, leaving himself stranded. He threw a ball out to Sagna when there was an Everton man on top of him, the subsequent tackle left the right back needing treatment and the last thing we need is another injury, especially one that could easily have been avoided. And late on when Traore was obviously ahead of the Everton player in a race towards our goal, Almunia didn’t drop back and provide the option of a back pass, he came charging out and after Traore had cleared the ball he took out the left back as if he were he ball – and at first I thought he’d knocked him out cold.
The bloke is all over the place. He looks like a bag of nerves and he’s unsettling the defence, in my opinion. He genuinely scares me now because nobody has the faintest idea what he’s going to. Is he going to come or stay? Will he catch it or punch it? At any level if you play with a keeper in whom you have no confidence it unsettles you and I don’t think our defence trust him at all.
Also his distribution has gone to pot completely. I’ve mentioned it before but he used to play it short as much as possible. Now when he plays it short he’s capable of putting us in trouble at any moment, and when he’s not he’s hoofing long balls to a 5’6 centre-forward who has got no chance whatsoever of winning the ball. Watch Arshavin, his jumps are a token gesture. He knows he’s not getting it.
At this point I’d like Arsene to do one of two things. The first is buy a new goalkeeper. However, I don’t think he’s going to do that … not in January anyway. In that case I’d like to see Fabianski get a run in the team. He’s young, ambitious, motivated and he’s not a nervous nelly like Almunia. It’s funny how certain players seem to get more leeway from Arsene than others. Was Jens anywhere near this bad when he got unceremoniously dropped for Almunia? I don’t think so. Almunia’s decline has been sad, I have to say, and it’s not nice to see a player so obviously struggling but unless we make a change which at least goes some way to making us more confident at the back then I’m going to be a worried man.
Up front, a quiet game again for the forwards. Bendtner can’t come back quick enough for me although how typical would it be of Arsene to bring him back and play him in one of the wide positions? Anyway, that’s just me worrying but I will say Andrei Arshavin is no centre-forward. He was a passenger again yesterday, to me it looks like he’s really not enjoying his football at the moment and his one positive moment against Everton came when he picked the ball up inside our half on the left hand side, drove past Lucas Neill and had a shot which eventually went out for a corner. That’s where we need him. Playing him at centre-forward robs the team of a creative outlet who can get the ball, attack defences with pace and skill and generally worry them. No defence in the Premier League is going to worry too much about an Arshavin that is given the task of competing for headers, holding the ball up and playing with his back to goal. That’s easy pickings, for the most part.
So while I stand by my blog from yesterday about how our defence probably needs to be improved more than our attack (we still scored 2 yesterday despite playing poorly), we have to find a solution to our centre-forward position … and fast. He’s reluctant play Eduardo there. We know Walcott is not that kind of player. Vela came on yesterday and once again in the Premier League did little of note, so maybe he does need to give himself a headache in the summer and take advantage of the fact that a long term contract might also equal a larger fee for a player we have decided to sell.
The only other game yesterday saw Man United draw 1-1 with Birmingham so that made our point against Everton much easier to cope with too. It does mean that our game in hand is now gone and we didn’t take full advantage of it but there are plenty of points to pick up in the weeks ahead. Our games against the other title/Champions League contenders are going to be the ones on which our challenge depends. This point is one I’m happy to have on the board.
There’s not much else going on, certainly not much transfer speculation in today’s Sundays from what I can see, so we’ll leave it there. With the whole of the week free until we travel to Bolton on Saturday you would hope that Arsene would use the time to make up his mind about what he’s going to do in the transfer market. If he wants players, get it done now. The sooner the better for all concerned. Heading into a difficult period a couple of new faces, whoever they might be, could just give the squad a lift. Here’s hoping.
Till tomorrow.
