In the grand scheme of things 1-1 away at a team like Blackburn isn’t a bad result but the disappointment felt stems from the way we conceded the equaliser. After going ahead in the first half through Robin van Persie and scrapping like mad for the rest of the game, particularly in the second half when they were very much on top I thought, it was a truly horrendous mistake by Jens Lehmann which let them back into it.
David Dunn (who must surely have the biggest head of anybody, anywhere. There are blue whales with smaller heads than him) fired off a pretty decent left footed shot but it should have been meat and drink to Jens. Instead he let the ball slip through, or off, his hands and it went in. Now, I’ve always been a fan of Jens but this mistake following so soon after the equally bad one against Fulham raises serious, serious doubts over his position in the team and the decision to keep him on for one more year.
As keepers get older they get more error prone, we saw that with David Seaman who was also allowed stay too long, and we’re seeing it now from Jens. Two horrible mistakes in two consecutive Premier League games. Last week the rest of the lads bailed him out but this time his mistake cost us the three points. Previous to the mistake, and subsequently, I thought he’d played pretty well to be honest. He came for high balls, corners and crosses and took them all very well but it’s going to be difficult for a defence to feel 100% sure of him now. After Gallas went off injured Senderos came on and I thought we coped pretty well with them so to have all that hard work undone by a mistake like that must be gutting.
I saw Cesc on Sky after the game and naturally he was supportive of his teammate but the manager now has a big decision to make. Does he figure that the chances of another mistake are slim after two so close together and stick, or does he believe those mistakes have come from Jens being complacent or simply just because age is catching up with him? If it’s the latter then he’s got to drop him. Maybe it’s a bit like kicking man when he’s down but the manager has to think of the team first and in the past Jens responded well to time on the bench, this might do the same. Maybe though it’s just a case that at 38 these kinds of errors become more frequent – not because you don’t train well or you don’t prepare well, just because at 38 you’re coming towards the end of your football career. It’s a bit sad, really.
Leaving all that aside I thought we did pretty well considering. The early goal was a good fillip for the team and certainly we played better in the first half than the second. I thought Eduardo looked lively, mobile and I liked that he wasn’t afraid to have a pop from outside the area, which is something we’ve been looking for the team to do more of. In Bacary Sagna we have a right back that is, in my opinion, a huge improvement on both Eboue and Hoyte. He’s strong, quick, good defensively and good going forward. Thus far he looks to be a very good signing.
As well as that I thought we coped very well with a very physical Blackburn team. We might be young and we might not be the biggest team in the world but we’re showing that we won’t let anyone push us around. This was perfectly illustrated by Cesc’s bone crunching tackle on Pedersen after the Norwegian had given him a sly kick in the head during the second half. Arsene Wenger felt the Blackburn approach was ‘over-physical’ and leaning towards ‘violent’ and at some stages they came very close to the line. It wasn’t so much violent as relentlessly nearly violent. On the other hand we pretty much gave as good as we got from Savage and his ilk. Mark Hughes will defend his team no doubt but they were the ones who ended up with 10 men.
A quick word for the Blackburn fans – once again you’ve demonstrated you are amongst the most clueless, contemptible crowd of shitehawks in history. “1-0 to the referee” they chanted at one stage, as if it was Alan Wiley (who was crap, I’ll admit) who fumbled the ball into van Persie’s path and not Brad Friedel. As for Robbie Savage (labelled a histrionic disgrace by The Times), if he could translate 1% of his cuntiness into footballing ability he’d be better than Maradona.
Now, while the focus will be on Jens and the mistake and the ‘violence’ I thought we were a bit toothless going forward today and, more than anything, lacking in options to change the game. Theo got another game under his belt and that will be good for him but he still looks very raw and indecisive. He’s probably hyper-aware of being a team player but sometimes it’s good to be a bit selfish, especially if you do have ability which we’ve seen in glimpses before. I thought Hleb worked very hard on the left hand side and the defensive part of his game was very good but we lacked an outlet on either side.
Eduardo, as I said, was promising, but overall the squad still looks short on quality in certain areas and I really hope the manager is planning to augment the squad. Gallas is now out for three weeks and if either Kolo or Senderos picks up a knock we’re without an established first team centre-half to take their place. While you can’t legislate for injuries, if you look at how many we’ve picked up in recent seasons you might question the wisdom of letting Djourou go out on loan. We have Hoyte who can play there and then we either play Alex Song, Gilberto or Nordveidt, the 17 year old. None of those would be ideal and some far less ideal than others. Still, they are options, but offensively is where I think we really need to buy. When asked by the BBC if he might be busy in the transfer market before deadline day Arsene’s response was ‘Not really, no’. Make of that what you will.
Still, overall there was a good bit to be positive about and that’s probably overlooked this morning due to the circumstances. Between the start of this season and the end of last we’re on a 9 game unbeaten run in the league. Next up we’ve got high flying Man City who beat United yesterday to go top of the table and leave Demento’s men with just 2 points from their first 3 games. Elsewhere there was refereeing madness in the Liverpool v Chelsea game and some strange stuff on Sky Sports afterwards from Richard Keys, as Left Back notes.
There are some international friendlies this week, at this stage I’m not 100% sure who’s taking part and who’s not but I’ll see what I can dig up for you tomorrow.
Until then have a happy Monday from the rainiest city on earth.
