What a start, we were utterly shambolic at the back and so terribly naive, caught out by Wigan on the counter attack, they killed us and took a shock lead early doors, Di Santo not being tracked by anyone and somehow working the ball into the net after Szczesny had almost stopped him. Wigan then got a second, some more shocking defending, Sagna tricked by Moses, his cross was not cut out and Szczesny seemed to have two hands on the ball, obviously he didn't and it was two nil, a terrible start and a mountain to climb.
We were terrific for the rest of the first half, and in honesty we should have been ahead by half time, Vermaelen did halve the deficit with a terrific powered header from a great Sagna cross, we had countless other chances though, Benayoun forcing a fine save from Al Habsi, Djourou shooting a few inches wide with the keeper beaten. Wigan did look dangerous on the counter attack and our defensive frailty persisted, a really worrying sign.
The second half was poor, we didn't really get going and Wigan do deserve a lot of credit for this, they defended well and made things difficult. One has to add that the referee Andre Marriner, ignoring some of his woeful decisions in the second half, allowed a ridiculous amount of cheating in the form of time wasting, a didn't produce a yellow card until injury time and it allowed Wigan to time waste, time waste and time waste, it was quite pathetic.
Wigan players routinely held the ball and walked away with it after free kicks had been given against them, it was blatant cheating but the useless Marriner did nothing to stamp it out. There were numerous examples of kicking the ball away after the whistle had gone, there was a lot of feigning injury from Gomez and Di Santo in particular. I don't massively blame Wigan for it, but how on earth can a qualified referee allow this kind of systematic cheating in order to waste time? It is beyond belief.
All in all though there were too many poor performances tonight and I think we lost discipline, we left ourselves too open as a team early on and paid a heavy price, it was ultra naive. Arteta's injury didn't help but Song put in a rather woeful shift, his defending was indisciplined and lazy, his distribution poor, Ramsey didn't do a great deal good, Walcott was largely anonymous, Rosicky was tremendous though. The substitutions came too late, Gervinho and the Ox came on when we had already gone flat. Our lack of a good second striker is obvious, if we had someone of quality on the bench then this would have been the kind of game RVP needed some more support up top.
Tonight summed up our season, there was some brilliant high tempo attacking play at times, but overall it was all wrecked by some really naive and indisciplined team defending. Well done Wigan, I truly hope you stay up. We have now made things much harder for ourselves, what could have been an eight point gap is now a five point one and it puts a lot of extra pressure on us for Sunday. So frustrating to see such gaping holes in our defence, a 0-0 would have been easier to take than this kamikaze shambles.
11 comments:
And chelsea will beat us on Sat.
I hope we manage 4th place in the end.
Do we have the worst ball boys or what? We almost always have to go chasing our own balls when it goes out. ridiculous!
The match reminds me of the matches against MU/Chelsea and HUll. These teams let the gunners have 90% possession.The gunners then procede to engage in a series of passes right to the box.
So when the attack breaks down,the counter is on. With so many gunners having surged forward it is three against three oreven two.So it's not surprising Wigan scored two in quick succession.
As for the gunners they were againsteightto nine defenders. Space was at a apremium and time was denied to the gunners.
No wonder the gunners found it hard to score.I am no soccer coach but I do know the gunners take alonger time to break out after the Wigan attack broke down.
These will be the tactics adopted by other teams.A golden chance was spurned which shows the present squad aint up to the std required to challenge for trophies.
Our goal was from a Rosicky's cross. Why did we have to wait until the 70th minute for subs??????
Theo was having one of those numerous nights when u wonder if Arsenal has only 10 players on the pitch.Dont know why he was left on the pitch when he should have being taken off. Arsenal were so complacent for the first 10mins.
Both goals were because Arteta was injured and we were effectively playing with 10 men. Very poor communication between the players though. We should have been back in numbers when Arteta was off for the second goal. For the first one, Benayoun was standing there pointing to an injured Arteta. Both the goals were freaky.
Arsenal better be aware of Chelsea.I don't have cofidence in Djourou and Santos.The Blues will let the gunners have 80% possession.If the gunners are not direct and engage in triangular or other passes and when these break down,expect Chelsea to score first.
The it would be real fight for fourth or even thire place.
Leaving aside the various team and decisional problems that tonight highlighted (vulnerability to counter-attack, choice and timing of substitutions), for me it confirmed something that has been bothering me for some time. I'm just not sure that Aaron Ramsey is good enough to cut it at this level. Technically he's decent, and he has goodish vision, but the negative thing that I first noticed about him before his injury is still apparent: he's just too slow for the very top level of football. I have always felt he dwells on the ball a tad too long before making up his mind what to do with it - and I still do. Tonight he laboured away, but to little avail. When Arteta was injured (I do hope he's back for the weekend) I hoped that AW would shift Benayoun to the centre and bring the Ox on wide right, but he preferred Ramsay down the middle. It didn't really work. Rosicky was brilliant until he (not surprisingly) ran out of steam - very similar to his performance against Milan. Gervinho can occupy opponents with his directness and pace, but he's a bit of a headless chicken. Santos worked his socks off: I like him. Thought Sagna struggled tonight - partly because he was trying to mark the best player on the pitch, of course. I'm a huge fan of Szczesny's but he has to take some responsibility for the second (and maybe the first?) goal tonight: that was his ball, yet somehow it squirmed out of his hands. We're nearly there, but we need one more classy player in each department of the pitch.
Meaner says...Did Benayoun deserve to be replaced? We were playing 9 against 11, both Walcork and Ramilson were invisible.
Without space, Walcork is as good as none.
Ramilson on the pitch only allow more amble time for Wigan to reorganise. Maybe Ramilson feels he is still young, so time is on his side, so whatever he does is slow and steady. Probably he would fuck a woman in slow motion as well, taking his fucking own sweet time.
Before RVP renew his contract, these are the factors he would consider… his body language shows he is not please with Ramilson in particular..
Congra to Wigan.
Walcott and Wenger lost this for us.
Walcott for not turning up for the game. Wenger for not seeing it.
Walcott is so out of form. His first touch is terrible, his penetration non-existing. No tackles, no passion, no power to stay on his feet when he is pushed.
Imagine how the second half would have been if Oxlade-Chamberlain had replaced Walcott right after the break?
Instead Wenger takes off our best player, Benayoun!!!
It's so frustrating to watch our manager's total tactical ignorance.
If he had spent less energy on complaining to the 4th official and more on watching and reading the game he could have made the right substitutions and perhaps saved the game for us.
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