The last twenty minutes against Man City at the Eastlands was a terrible repeat episode of what we perhaps had too quickly thought was last season's weaknesses. Whilst I strongly applaud the sensible comments that are doing the rounds on the decent blogs this Sunday, there is no escaping the fact that shipping 4 goals against Man City is a shite result, albeit coming from a performance that was better than the scoreline might have suggested.
However, I cannot help thinking today that despite the change in formation to 4-3-3 this season, there are certain key factors that are letting us down. I make no particular attempt to point the finger of blame, but Abou Diaby remains a mystery of a player to me and a real Albatross around our necks. I simply don't think that Diaby deserves the number of chances he is getting and can't imagine that he would make it into any other squads in the top 6 teams. Gael Clichy and Manuel Almunia also continue to look error prone this season, whilst Sagna is also not yet back to his best. But i don't think wholesale changes in personnel are required. The whole team just needs to work harder. We let Adebayor make his point yesterday.
Bendntner is wasted on the wing, our midfield plays at a pedestrian pace most of the time and we lack an air of professionalism to close matches out that we should win. I find it disappointing that the recognised mercenaries of Citeh's ranks play with determination and passion that we cannot muster.
That said, i think we have played well enough this season to think that zero points from 2 matches in Manchester was harsh on us. But having got back into the game at 1-1 yesterday, my sense is that we naively pushed on for the winner too quickly, whereas we had some more time and things might have developed for us. Just as ManUre had to do very little to get the winner against us at Old Trafford. Instead, we flooded forwards against Citeh and got caught. Its the sort of gift that we do not receive very often and teams know better than to over-commit against us. We really need to stop being so generous.
Its a bad two results at Manchester, but we shouldn't overeact at that this stage. But next week's games now take on a new light. We need to put this episode behind us and get back on with it against Wigan.
13 comments:
We should have had at least 4 points from the last two games. We destroyed Utd really. I didnt catch the game yesterday, but from the sounds of it "naivity" aside we were marginally better or equal on the day
I cant remember too many games against quality sides when arsenal have won while starting with denilson and diaby from the past 2 years..
Yep. I have a prob with Diaby and Bendtner. Their passes aren't as quick and sharp. They take too long to make up their minds whether to take a shot or play the through ball. The midfield was more fluid in the pre season and even at ManUre. It was just to slow at Eastlands!
Its an odd one. The highlights of the game suggest that a couple of mistakes from key players cost us goals.its shocking that we let in 4.
But no-one would have said in august that we need another full back.
That said, Diaby and Fabregas offered little defensive protection.
So I think you're right. We have to stop playing fantasy football and get back to winning ugly.
My goodness, some are generous. We keep on outplaying teams like we did against manu and citeh and everything will be fine? We dominated manu, sheesh. I guess the totts dominated manu yesterday as well.
Good sum summary Ted. At the start of the season I reckoned I'd be contented with 7 points from the first 4 games given our tough start. So 6 points is disappointing.
I think what is really frustrating is that most Arsenal fans would've said we were at least 2 or 3 signings short of a title winning team. That still seems spot on. I am already resigning myself to a battle for fourth place. Seems a real shame. Wenger is too stubborn. We are one or two injuries short of a real nightmare. With our full backs and Manuel playing the way they are and the prospect of Senderos or Silvestre coming in if there's an injury we could be up a defensive creek shortly.
Sorry, just very down about it all this evening.
Adebayor is a great player, when he wants to be.
But we should be grateful that he does not play for us anymore.Even though that makes us a weaker team.
Those two games showed we needed experience. Many people have said it many times we we should have purchased a good defender, a good defence midfielder, and a striker. What happens when VP cannot play. Why sell 2 good players to your nearest competitor? Last year we struggled due to lack of numbers. This year we sold 2 good players kept the money and believe we can win something. I love Mr Wenger and the work the board has been doing but unless we change the policy of feeding other clubs and keeping the money we will struggle to win anything. For 4 years the project has not worked and it may not work unless we make changes.
great article ted.
-rahul
this is going way too far we really need to wake up mate!
we need to win everything from now on!
great article!
cheers
Good news - Eduardo's ban has been repealed by UEFA!
If you're interested in the full account:
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/eduardo-s-suspension-is-annulled-by-uefa
I guess UEFA saw what Adebayor did and realized that what Eduardo did was chicken feed by comparison.
Better defending from the midfield, Boss, better defending from the midfield... People much more familiar with this club than I am have been saying it longer, and it's still a big need.
A healthy Arshavin might not have helped, unless you think he would've scored a brace or set up goals for others and made it 4-4.
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