By Boris Mellor
September 10 2006

The new catchphrase, which for some people is becoming a substitute for thinking, is "over elaborate". Now one thing that elaboration means is to do things in detail. And when it comes to defence there could be an argument that Arsenal aren't elaborate enough.

In my preview yesterday I wrote:

Although Arsenal have failed to score, except once, I still feel the defence has been the bigger problem by conceding soft goals. Once the Villa's or Manchester City's of this world get one goal up then all they have to do is defend. It's not just Arsenal that find it difficult to break down the 10-man wall, Brazil had the same problem against Wales. But Brazil unlike Arsenal, did not concede any soft goals.

Once again the Arsenal defence conceded a soft goal, indeed Middlesborough had only one shot in the entire match, and I can't remember them having a corner. Indeed Arsenal had 67% of the possession. A defence that concedes goals in these circumstances is not paying attention to detail, it is not elaborate enough.

Middlesborough was the third Premiership game in a row where the team has conceded the first goal. That means three matches in a row the Gunners have had to chase the game.

So did Arsenal over elaborate when it came to attack? It cannot be denied that there were times when one less pass would have done, but nonetheless Arsenal did have 17 shots, nine of which were on target. The fact that only one of these nine shots went in was not due to over elaboration. At least three did not go in due to the brilliant goalkeeping of Schwarzer, a few clipped the post and others were just poor shots. Some of the eight off target missed narrowly, and others missed by a mile.

It seems to me that rather than over elaboration being the main problem there is a bigger problem of a lack of sharpness in the Gunners shooting. And it won't really help for the crowd to yell shoot every time an Arsenal player has the ball from 40 yards out onwards, especially when Gilberto has the ball, it will undermine the confidence of the team. Patience is needed in these situations. Nor should Arsenal fans let the producers of cat litter material set the agenda, these brainless purveyors of the soundbite are happily repeating their mantra of over elaboration, without providing any serious analysis, to sell their grubby rags. They need a crisis, and if there isn't one they will invent one. Arsenal fans should not aid them in fulfilling their prophecies by unsettling the confidence of the team.

That's not to say there were no problems with yesterday's performance, as I've already said the defence must stop conceding soft goals, Middlesborough had only one serious attack on goal and scored one. Does that mean if they had attacked three times it would have been three-one?

In attack Robin van Persie had a desultory game, some of the best chances fell to him but he seemed to be doing up his shoelaces, or looking for a sim card he had just dropped, every time the ball came to him in a good goalscoring position. Nor did he seem to link up with anyone very much, and was probably lucky not to get sent off. Now I have a lot of faith in his ability, and perhaps he was hung over from scoring two goals for Holland, but I must say I was relieved when he was substituted. It seems that he still lacks consistency and his temperament can be suspect at times.

Hleb seemed to hang on to the ball far too long, yet he was far better when Rosicky came on, Rosicky was magnificent during his 20 minutes, meanwhile Adebayor continued to trip over his own feet. It was good to see the Beast come on, who did his best to get into the game, but at times he looked slightly bemused at the pace of the game, and the frenetic tackling.

In the end it was Eboue who broke the deadlock with a wonderful run into the penalty area that drew a foul from Downing. I have read in some blogs that this was a dive, perhaps Eboue's reputation goes before him, but neither match of the day or the Observer could find any evidence other than it was a foul.

I have a theory that when players cannot score in open play they will not score from a penalty, fat Frank certainly proved that theory at the World Cup. I could hardly bear to watch as Henry stepped up, and even turned away, fortunately I turned round in time to see Schwarzer dive the wrong way and Thierry's shot find the corner of the net. Thank goodness theories are not always right, or pundits come to that.

Now Arsenal went all out for victory, but the combination of Woodgate, Schwarzer, and blatant time wasting deprived Arsenal of the second goal. It seems to me that the first eleven was not the best 11, we need one more defender to strengthen the defence and let Gallas play in the middle. Gallas is good, but he is no over lapper, and we need him in his best position. Rosicky should start, and the quicker the Beast acclimatises the better. However it was a difficult juggling act for Wenger, which players were least affected by international week, who would play against Hamburg, and who will that leave for the Manchester game?

However all that matters now is the game away at Hamburg, a good result will boost the confidence of the team and feed into Premiership results it will be no time to rest key players.