Flaws exposed by plucky Swansea

Firstly I have no time for anyone who is so fickle as to suddenly turn on our manager after a short series of poor results, get a grip on reality and try to be objective, I know it's hard sometimes but engage your brain before letting loose with any bitter resentful bile.  Secondly well played Swansea, they played some excellent football and their style deserves praise.  Anyway onto the match.

A lot of nonsense will be spouted about how terrible we were today and how Swansea deserved the win, this is just easy and lazy in my opinion.  It was a great game of football that hinged on a few key moments, some of the problems were of our own making, some not.  I am sure Per was far from fully fit today, but our defensive line up has been decimated by a rather unfortunate run of injuries, and this cannot be ignored when looking at today's result, again we played without proper full backs.

We started well and got the early goal, RVP with a great finish when slotted clean through, the angle wasn't easy too.  A key moment soon after when Dyer conned the ref in the box, he stamped on Ramsey, dived down and cheated.  The useless Oliver had a great view and got it completely wrong, given the great penalty shouts we have been denied in recent weeks it is particularly galling to see such a pathetic decision go against us, at such a key time too, it really changed the game, Swansea were up against it til then, the momentum was given to them by this refereeing error.  We need video technology badly.

Swansea had a lot of the ball but didn't create much clear cut for the rest of the half, in fact the better chances fell our way, RVP had a great opportunity with another one on one, Ramsey had a shot cleared off the line.  The warning signs were there though in the midfield, there wasn't enough defending going on, Benayoun and Ramsey didn't provide much beef, the full backs looked very exposed at times and this was to tell in the end.

There were too many poor performances today, the midfielders were gradually overwhelmed as the game wore on, the wisdom of sending Frimpong on load has to be questioned.  The fact Henry adds a lot from the bench says a lot for the sorry state of our forward department in terms of depth and quality.  Arshavin was poor today, Theo was poor as well, we really lack quality in the squad, Oxlade-Chamberlain must start to get some games ahead of the anonymous Russian.  Having a midfield three with Benayoun and Ramsey within, combined with a front three who don't do much defending is ridiculous in my opinion, the defense didn't get enough help from elsewhere and the pressure told in the end.

Dyer had far too much space before he blasted home Swansea's second.  It was gutting that we managed a good equaliser when Theo finished neatly having been played clean through, only then to see Graham given acres of room as he beat Szczesny from a tricky angle, the young Pole will not be happy with letting that one in.  Graham then had another great chance to make the game safe for Swansea.

Still we continued to create some cracking chances and really should have taken at least a draw out of the game.  Mertesacker blasted wide from six yards with the goal at his mercy, Rosicky blasted over on the volley, Koscielny blasted a good volley straight at the keeper after a good initial same, there were some other decent half chances.  Very very frustrating, it was just a great shame that Henry didn't get an opportunity to show his class.

There are too many issues to go into now without writing a long book, but in summary we are short in several areas of our squad now, especially in forward and defensive areas.  I am no fan of the way we play the 4-3-3 formation, we frequently lack defensive grit and the more offensive players regularly fail to do enough in helping us defend as a team, some of our forward players' form has simply not been good enough of late.  I would like to see a return to a more robust 4-4-1-1 or 4-4-2 formation now.

The referee was useless, the penalty was an error and he made numerous other more obvious ones, some of his free kicks were just plain ludicrous, one decision at the death not to give a free kick on the edge of the Swansea box for a head high boot was simply inexplicable.

It was a funny old mixture today, we created several of our own problems, we didn't defend well enough and we missed too many good chances at the other end, Swansea played some great football and took their chances, we lost.  It was not quite as terrible as some would have you believe though, we created more chances, had more shots on and off target than Swansea, despite out defensive failings with some better finishing we could easily have taken something from this game.

Finally to all the idiots who are now slagging off the manager, players and club left, right and centre, get a grip you absolute braindead morons.  Criticism on certain issues is fine but the stupid knee jerk abuse that some indulge in is just beneath contempt, it really is.  Hopefully today can be used to fire us into some action in the market, we need depth and quality in certain areas, we are but a couple of injuries away from a massive crisis.