Match Report – By the numbers – Player Ratings – Video
I’ve said a number of times recently that one of the biggest challenges we face is starting this season well because of the summer we’ve had. Yesterday was evidence of that. We were team that looked a long way from its best in terms of match fitness and sharpness, giving debuts to three new players, playing against a Crystal Palace side that may not have had Pulis on the sideline but he was very much part of their essence, so to speak.
They were hard-working, highly disciplined and well organised: difficult enough to cope with on your best day, so when you’re not playing as well as you can it becomes even more of a test. In the end we came through it, but it wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination.
They were quite content to sit deep and let us have the ball, and to be frank we didn’t do an awful lot with it. The sight of Aaron Ramsey in the centre-circle imploring teammates to move for him in the first half summed up the physical deficiencies in our game. We passed it well from side to side but whenever we tried to go forward with it, we either found Palace obdurate in defence or our own passing let us down.
That they took the lead against the run of play should be no surprise to anyone who has watched us over the last few years. It happens so often I didn’t even blink when Hangeland headed home. Some people have pointed the finger at zonal marking, but when you consider that’s the system we used last season and had the best record defending set-pieces in the league I don’t think that’s the issue.
It was the execution of it rather than the system itself. What did worry me was the fact that we had no men on the post from the corner. That’s a new development, obviously something we’ve been working on on the training ground, but it’s hard to escape the fact that a full back on the back post would have stopped the header yesterday. And we only have to cast our minds back to May, when Kieran Gibbs prevented Hull from making it 3-0 in the FA Cup final to see the benefit.
Our most dangerous positions came from set-pieces also but Santi Cazorla, who had a day to forget really, left his good boots at home (probably not helped by being sprayed in the face with the ref’s shaving foam). So when we won a free kick about 40 yards from goal, it was Alexis who clipped in a fantastic ball for Laurent Koscielny to cleverly glance home to make it 1-1 at the break.
The second half continued in much the same way as the first. Lots of Arsenal possession, lots of Arsenal doing very little with that possession. The amount of stray passes and miscommunications meant we never had any fluidity to our game. Alexis never quite seemed on the right wavelength and there was a timidity to his passing which was a bit odd, but look, this was his first game, playing with new teammates, and it might well take him some time to settle.
There was no such problem for Calum Chambers at the back though, who I thought had a fantastic Premier League debut for us. His performance certainly belied his age and experience, and although it’s still early days and I don’t want to go overboard, it’s hard not to be excited by his potential. It’s also easy to see why Arsene Wenger might be tempted to use him in midfield in the long-term, but that’s something for the future.
The manager made changes to try and win it. Monreal for a hamstrung Gibbs was sadly enforced, but Oxlade-Chamberlain came on for Wilshere and Giroud replaced Sanogo who really struggled yesterday. If the key to his start was the fact he’s fitter than Giroud, he was surprisingly lethargic at times – which for all his flaws isn’t usually a complaint you can level at him.
The HFB did make a difference, giving us a stronger focal point in attack and he fizzed a shot not far wide late in the game, but when the winner arrived it was again the result of a set-piece. Koscielny kept the ball alive, nodding it back across goal where Giroud headed it down for Debuchy to hook at shot at the keeper, and from the rebound Aaron Ramsey pounced to snatch all three points.
Was it harsh on Palace? Who cares? As hard as they worked they were also time-wasting from about 15 minutes into the game, which I understand, but it doesn’t leave me with any sympathy for them at all.
Afterwards, the manager said:
I believe that our attitude was right, on our fluency we can do better, but that will come. Let’s get everybody physically ready. Having said that, you could see that Crystal Palace played with the same organisation as last year, when they changed the situation from a relegation team to finishing 11th in the Premier League.
Hopefully yesterday, as well as providing three points, will have served a physical purpose too and the 90 minutes we got under our belts will benefit us in the games to come. The fact is we’re having to use actual matches to get our squad in shape because of the way the summer has played out, with the World Cup and a shortened pre-season.
I don’t think it’s really necessary to tear apart the performance simply because of those circumstances. I don’t think anyone would suggest we played well, but the single most important thing yesterday was getting the points and we managed to do that. Our fitness and sharpness will improve and at that point we can look at how we play more closely.
What is slightly worrying is the injury to Kieran Gibbs which, because of Mertesacker’s late arrival back, leaves us with just five fit defenders going into a Champions League qualifier. If he has tweaked a hamstring, that’s usually three weeks, so our need for a defensive recruit now goes from pressing to critical. If we had a DEFCON for defensive signings it’d be at 1 right now.
There was also no Flamini yesterday. Injury? Something else? Who knows? But we’ll have to see if he makes the trip to Turkey tomorrow. He can, at a push, fill in at full back if we need him to do.
Overall though, we scrapped our way to win on the opening day. There’s obviously room for improvement in terms of our performance, but not when it comes to the amount of points we have this morning.
Till tomorrow.
