Wednesday 12 January 2011

Poor Arsenal allow time wasting Ipswich to prosper

It was a strong eleven and frankly too many of the starting eleven did not perform to the level we needed tonight. Eboue was sloppy, although the rest of the defence played reasonably well, of the midfield three only Wilshere had a decent game, Denilson was his mediocre best and Cesc was markedly loose with his passing. Theo was the only one of the front three to come away with any credit, he kept working hard and chances did fall his way only to be thwarted twice by the excellent Ipswich keeper Fulop. Arshavin had a poor game but at least there was some movement, on the other hand Bendtner was terrible, numerous sloppy touches and some very tired and predictable movement off the ball, far far too static to keep the Ipswich defence on their toes.

The first half saw us create a couple of great openings in the first minute which we wasted, for the rest of the half we got worse as Ipswich were allowed to grow into the game. They created little though, Szczesny had a twenty yarder covered which flew wide and the only other chance was a header which went well over. The second half saw no improvement in our loose passing and the repeated donation of possession to Ipswich continued. There were far too many attempts at ridiculously tricky eye of the needle passes which gave the ball back to Ipswich time and time again.

The alarm bells should have rung when Priskin almost scored not long before the opener came, Djourou doing well to nip in and toe the ball away from him at the last. Priskin was the played through, the linesman missing the fact he was definitely half a yard offside, and he finished expertly leaving Koscielny with no chance at all. We created a few great chances, Walcott was twice unlucky with those saves from the alert Fulop, while Cesc missed s sitter from an excellent Gibbs cross, he also forced another good Fulop save with a well hit effort from the edge of the box.

Overall well done Ipswich, I would give them more credit than I am if they had not done so much cynical time wasting from as early on as the beginning of the second half. Maybe more of the fault should lie with the hopeless Martin Atkinson who allowed them to take the ball away and delay virtually every single free kick that we were awarded, he should have got the yellow card out early for this blatant cheating, and as he did not, Ipswich kept doing it and wasting a lot of valuable time than we could have done with at the end. A couple of shameful dives from their defenders were also rather notable, embarrassing stuff from any team, no matter how desperate they were. Wickham looked sharp, agile and handy, a stark contrast to the hapless Dane at the other end of the field.

Having said that you simply have to have more players on their game if you are going to win these kind of games away from home. Overall we were unlucky to lose it given the chances created by both sides, but even if we had got a draw, the performance was clearly not up to the mark. It always feels a bit harsh to single out certain individuals, but for me Denilson and Bendtner added very very little to our play tonight, although Cesc and Arshavin didn't have great games by any standard, they did threaten and threaten to do things at times. Denilson adds so little both defensively and offensively, while Bendtner doesn't have the strength and power to bully defences, he also doesn't have the pace and movement to open up defences. A far better performance is needed for the return leg, while some big doubts remain over certain players' ability to cut it at the top level playing for Arsenal.

20 comments:

Danish Gooner said...

Ineptitude taken to a new level.They played like they had never seen each other before and this is hand picked talent,they dont care,no urgency and flawed tactics by Tinkerman,who still believes that Denilson is a professional footballer.At 75:37 Song plays a lazy pass out on the flank to Gibbs then he stops yes he stops running instead of putting his body where it hurts in the box,sums it all up perfectly THEY DONT HAVE A CLUE.

Anonymous said...

All these players should hang their heads in shame. Woeful, pathetic, embarrasing.....No excuses. There needs to be a clear out of all the part timers, passengers, sicknotes and inadequate players that Arsenal
have bought over the last 3 or 4yrs.

Well done Ipswich...you showed these
so called superstar internationals
how to play football

Jammathon said...

What's the point of 'time wasting' in the headline? I didnt see them do it to any noticeable extent, not nearly as much as Man City did it. I think you're trying to hide the fact that we are a shambolic outfit full of chancers who do not care, and Fabregas is the biggest to blame for our complacency against smaller teams.

Bill S said...

We were dreadful. The goalkeeper's distribution is poor, Gibbs can't cross the ball and Eboue, Dennilson, Bedtner, Arshavin and Vela should all be sold. What has a guy like JET got to do to get into this awful team?

Anonymous said...

Fabianski, Squillaci, Koscielny,
Clichy, Eboue, Eastmond, Denilson,
Diaby, Rosicknote, Eastmond, Vela,
Arshavin, Bendtner, Walcott should all be sold. Van Persie is always injured and Fabregas must be off
soon after this performance. Time
to sell and rebuild because this lot
aren't gonna win anything. Sad but true. If Arsene carries on with his
pretty football, we'll soon be the sexiest club in mid table

Anonymous said...

We played badly, but ipswich still had to score, so well played. We have to play nasri/rvp/clichy in the next leg. I'm seriously worried about barca after this performance

Danish Gooner said...

Look at the desire Keown show in that picture on your page,who in the current squad have the same desire,NONE.Keown wasnt the most talented footballer but he had more bollocks then any of the useless cunts currently occupying the full back positions.

Anonymous said...

COME ON YOU SPUUURS!

Another show of how Arsenal assume they are so much better than the rest. Enjoy your ponsey neck-warmer longsleeve girlymen failing at a somewhat easy task. Don't underestimate ANY team. EVER.

Nice to see you blame the ref... as usual.

:)

1979gooner said...

agree with some, disagree with some rather over the top stuff

get rid of theo and koscielny? come on, that's utterly ridiculous and just makes the sensible stuff fade away

the point of timewasting was because Ipswich indulged in blatant timewasting for the whole second half, wasting about ten minutes and atkinson did fuck all to stop it

there were several occasions when the free kick was given, the Ipswich players then took the ball away, kicked it away and delayed, they also blocked every single free kick from about three yards away

have to say that denilson, bendtner, arshavin, vela, diaby are running out of time fast,

arguably the poor performances from the players on the fringes is what is looking like costing us this season,

the top first eleven that played vs city and chelsea looks so much superior to the one that played tonight and against leeds

cesc should be criticised too, awful game, he seems to be immune from criticism in certain quarters as he is 'cesc', this is not on when he plays this badly

1979gooner said...

hi spuds fan

typical moronic braindead comment

i am not blaming the ref

i am saying arsenal were poor and ipswich played well

however if you watched the game then you could not fail but notice their appalling time wasting which must equate to cheating

mind you, brainless baised spuds like you probably ignored it because of your rose tinted specs

visionary said...

shame on all of you, wenger has just been voted manager of the DECADE,this team has got mental strength, go support spurs u are not true fans

Anonymous said...

You are obsessed with the referee. Pretty sure you are Wenger's PR machine. Time wasting? What would you like Ipswich to do, allow us to play?

Get a grip. That is what teams do when they are lesser quality. Something our arrogant side should pick up when we play Barca instead of just letting them rip us apart.

Anonymous said...

I remember Wenger saying in 2006 that he was building a squad to
be champions by 2008...

Well, IT AIN'T HAPPENING!!!
Stop buying cheap nobodies who clearly play way out of their
league. It's a dishonour and an embarrasment to the name and the
history of our club. This wasn't
even a performance, it was a
woeful disgrace....

Anonymous said...

In response to visionary. This is called a blog. Blogs are an OPEN FORUM for DEBATE. We r debating the teams performance. All managers and teams have bad games and all supporters criticise. Thats what fans do. Sitting there an putting up with it is not what fans do. AND FANS DONT CHANGE TEAMS LIKE THAT.

kissmyarsenal said...

REAL QUESTION:

Why are there always Spurs fans commenting here? seriously why are you even here? I just don't understand why you would sit down and think 'let's see what those arsenal bastards are up to..'

Clearly you fans are jealous and obsessive, so stick to your own hapless blogs where belong you scumbags.

Today's game was a joke, anyone would think they didn't know the system we have been playing for years. Hold the ball in their half and demoralize them until their is an opening-not get the ball and try and do some impossible pass to a striker with a poor touch(Arshavin and Bendtner).

Fab had a shocking game after his press piece, way too much ego at times.

I agree with whoever said JET deserves a game, are we missing something here? Denilson has one function but when wilshere is on the pitch he is largely unnecessary. For me he doesn't add anything defensively. There was one point in the second half when they stole the ball and he just switched off with Johan having to chase it down instead.

To be fair I think carlos vela has done pretty well the last two occasisions he has come on for us, I don't think he could do any worse than arshavin at the moment who just can't seem to find space anymore. He can't play in a crowded area.

Eboue was sloppy his standards is slowly declining but maybe it's down to the lack of games.

The so called second string are being carried by the likes of nasri this season and there need to be some sales or some more buys to put them under competition. Wenger's attempt to stop their growth from being stunted has given them licence p*ss about.

People say our team is one dimensional with only one style of play, the least we can do it play that one style properly.

Goodnight Gooners

Anonymous said...

Visionary? Deluded more like....
There was no mental strength on
show tonight. Just because people
rightly criticise a disgraceful
performance doesn't make them any
less "fans" just as accepting that
the quality of too many of our players is well below Arsenal standard makes you a TRUE FAN!!
If you're happy watching our club
slowly slipping into mediocraty
then thats your concern. Some of us
expect far better than what we saw tonight. Wake up and smell the coffee mate!

Anonymous said...

Visionary? Deluded more like....
There was no mental strength on
show tonight. Just because people
rightly criticise a disgraceful
performance doesn't make them any
less "fans" just as accepting that
the quality of too many of our players is well below Arsenal standard makes you a TRUE FAN!!
If you're happy watching our club
slowly slipping into mediocraty
then thats your concern. Some of us
expect far better than what we saw tonight. Wake up and smell the coffee mate!

Anonymous said...

the worst performance i have seen for a long time. simple, basic fundamentals of defending, not executed. ipswich just played long balls, over the top, and time after time we just couldnt deal with it. we had kos and djorou against one centre forward and we still struggled. at one point, the ipswich keeper took a long goal kick, straight down the middle, and suddenly the striker is one on one. how? where have the centre backs gone?

arshavin- dont get me started. he looks shattered. if its not going well then at least put in a defensive shift. not even that. weak.

bendtner- ok he didnt get any service, but he didnt exactly do anything when he got the ball. he thinks he's the bees knees but he's actually pants.

denilson. what exactly is the point of his existence on this earth? who is he and what is his role in the team? is he a defensive mid? nope, can defend to save his life. he stands square on when someone is running at him. thats the first mistake a defender can make. side on goddamit! a third fit ramsey wouldve done a better job.

the ivorian al pacino, eboue. fed up of his diving and feigning injury. it was funny for a while, but now he can just sod off. god forbid sagna gets injured after he comes back and misses the barcelona games. not that it really matters. defending collectively like that, we'll lose 13-0 on aggregate, guaranteed.

having said all that, we're probably gona scrape it vs ipswich 2nd leg at the emirates, but it doesnt mask the fact that we just dont know how to defend as a team.

Anonymous said...

Are the bigger boys tackling too hard diddums? Boo fucking hoo

Anonymous said...

I'll ignore the smirks from the Stratford Hotspurs contingent on this blog....however the comments from Cesc about Ipswich's style of football were out of order, imo.

Cesc should have the good grace to admit our team were not good enough on the night, and as an Arsenal follower, I found his comments embarrassing.