A better performance than United, the losing margin still the same. We wanted a response from the team and I suppose we got it, spending large parts of the game in the Chelsea half but over the 90 minutes the difference was Chelsea have a striker who is dangerous and efficient and we … well … we didn’t have a striker at all.
Over the course of the game I can remember two opportunities for us. The first when Cesc played a beautiful ball over the top to Andrei Arshavin. His first time shot was saved by Petr Cech. To be fair he was a bit unlucky, a couple of inches to the left and that was going straight between the keeper’s legs. The next chance came in the second half, Samir Nasri found himself behind the Chelsea defence, with Theo Walcott (I think) outside him. Nasri obviously got caught in two minds. He should have taken the shot. I think Walcott was ahead of him so would have been offside but when you’re more or less one on one with the keeper inside the box, be decisive. Nasri wasn’t, dillied, dallied and allowed them to get back and the chance was gone.
And from Arsenal’s point of view that was as much as we created. There was the Cesc free kick late on also but it’s hard to see that we played to our strengths. In the first half we must have got wide and crossed it a dozen times. Hulking centre-forward Arshavin had no chance and it was meat and drink for the Chelsea defence. When Nicklas Bendnter came on I can’t remember a cross at all. Typical. Again I come back to the point I made after the United game – we played one of the best teams in Europe without a recognised striker in the starting XI. And we did exactly the same yesterday. Despite the improved performance, how did he think we were going to win that game?
Chelsea’s defence is big, strong and experienced. We went at them with a Polly Pocket sized Russian, a French midfielder and Theo Walcott who still looks a long way from a player who can trouble defences at this level. The manager should have had claxons going off in his head when van Persie got injured. The extent of the Dutch misdiagnosis was known on November 28th, giving him the best part of two months to search, prepare and do a deal for a striker. Bendnter had already been out injured since the end of October. He talks constantly about how Eduardo’s big injury creates lots of little niggles so must have known he would be without him for periods of time. Theo Walcott has hardly ever been played as a striker, Carlos Vela is another guy who spends periods out with injury, and then there’s Arshavin. A creative number 10, a guy you want on the ball feeding the main man, being asked to play a role which suits him about as much as centre-half. That he has one goal in his last eleven games tells you everything about his suitability for that position.
Arsene was rather disingenuous pre-Chelsea saying:
In England, it seems all the problems are sorted out by buying players. But I do not believe that.We manage as well the Club within our financial resources and when you listen to people you always have to buy five or six players.
I listen and read a lot of opinion, on this site from the people who comment etc, to other blogs and websites, and I don’t think I heard one person say anything about buying 5 of 6 players. Of course that’s ridiculous. Buying one player isn’t. Buying a striker when it’s blindingly obvious to the world and his mother that you need a striker is not going to bankrupt the club, but it seems that Wenger would prefer to wait to pick up a player on a free in the summer than sort out the problem we have right now. He gambled, hoped he could muddle through, perhaps get a goal or two from Arshavin, a couple from Cesc or one of the other midfielders, Gallas or Vermaelen might save his skin and his wallet, but he lost. And he will be criticised for it.
There’s absolutely no guarantee that a new player would have come in and made any difference to the recent results but nobody could ever accuse him of not trying, which is the accusation that will be leveled at him now. Fans know there’s money to spend, on Dec 1st he said we’d be active in the transfer market (although there’s a nice little caveat in his quote there), yet here we are heading towards mid-February and we’ve just played our two main title rivals and lost both games. I’m beyond baffled that a man who used to collect strikers for fun would allow himself and his team to be in a position where they’re challenging for the title only to see that challenge falter on the lack of a proper forward.
I think he should have bought someone in January, I think he had enough time and resources to find a player who would have suited this team, but he didn’t. And it is frustrating.
To be fair to him, he couldn’t possibly have legislated for the abject defending yesterday which allowed Drogba to score both goals (although when I re-read that it seems silly, of course he should have expected suicidal defending. It has been our forte this season). His record against us is incredible, but we lubed ourselves up, stuck our arse in the air and told him go at it whenever he pleased yesterday. I don’t know what’s happened to Gael Clichy but something’s got to give. He’s costing us goals and was culpable for both Chelsea goals yesterday. Yes, Diaby might have done better against Terry in the air but players win headers sometimes. Yes, Alex Song should have tracked Drogba better, but quite what Gael Clichy was doing is beyond me. It’s like he was seeing ghosts. Instead of staying on the post, he started pointing at something nobody else could see, ran off into the middle of the six yard box and was in no-man’s land when Drogba had a tap-in at the back post that he should have been guarding. Appalling.
For the second he ignored the man outside him, came inside, realised too late what was happening and got done easily, allowing Drogba to slam home his second. When a guy has the Indian sign over you like Drogba does, the last thing you want to do is make it easy for him. We made it easy for him. And he punished like we were his prison bitch. It hurts.
Afterwards Arsene said he was ‘completely happy‘ with our performance. I can see where he’s coming from, we had a spirited second half, but you can’t be completely happy when your left back plays like that, when your keeper is shanking balls in the air like a club-footed mule and watching free kicks as if they were works of art, when all your possession counts for little in the way of chances created and when you’ve lost the game. Here’s an interesting quote from the boss though about Chelsea:
They always make the foul when they are caught on the counter- attack, at the right time, in the right place in the middle in the pitch. It is only a little foul, not enough for a yellow card. These are the tricks of a very experienced team and they do that very well.
These are the tricks you need to be teaching them, Arsene. For their second we were watching and imploring somebody to stop the counter-attack in midfield. Take the yellow card even. The last player I can remember doing this consistently was Senderos. For all his faults he had no problem cunting somebody on the halfway line if it would stop a more dangerous situation emerging. We have to learn that. Instead we stand off, allow teams to play, perhaps our purist principles don’t allow for tactical fouling, but we get punished time and again. Watch Clichy last week against Rooney for United’s second. He could have gone through him, not dangerously, but he could have fouled him, ensured he didn’t get a pass away, but stood off him and we know how that ended up.
Arsene called us naive last week, the same applies today, and it doesn’t come to down to age or experience. You don’t need to be 29 to know it’s better to stop an attack as early as possible. Arsene might bemoan the likes of Darren Fletcher but a player like that is a valuable asset. How many times have you seen United or Chelsea caught on the break the way we are? Anyway, that’s something for him to sort out.
So, Liverpool up next. The final part of the fearsome foursome which has brought us one point thus far. Are we out the title race? I think so. This league is funny. The midweek games are tough. Chelsea are away to Everton, United away to Villa, there’s every chance they might drop points. We could certainly win against Liverpool which would close the gap, but I still think, despite the number of games left, we’ll drop more points than either United or Chelsea. I don’t think we’re a team that believes we can win the title and most unfortunately I don’t think we’re a team that is good enough to win it. We’ve got too many areas on the pitch that urgently need addressing and the resources to fix those problems don’t exist within the current squad. Clichy or Traore? Almunia or Fabianski? No recognised, experienced striker. You can’t win a title with those problems, in my opinion.
As I said though, this season is strange and football is a strange game. You never know what might happen. We could find our form and go on a run but I think the experience and quality of United and Chelsea will see this Premier League turn into a two horse race. Which hurts like fuck.
Final word to Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti. Responding to Arsene comments about how much of the ball we had, he said:
Maybe Arsenal had more possession than us but that is not football. Football is about results.
Quite.
