By Boris Mellor
February 21 2007

Let’s dispense with the inverted Arsenal are a one man team argument, i.e. it all went wrong because Henry did not play well. I sometimes think that Arsenal fans are the most fervent supporters of the wrong theory that Arsenal are a one man team.

Football is a team game, and one man’s form doesn’t explain everything – even if he tried to explain it all at the end.

Actually Henry’s explanation is a good place to start. He believed that Arsenal controlled the game in the first half, and then lost to a 30-yard strike end of story; it could have looked that way to him, and to most of the Arsenal Team.

However to PSV it probably looked like Arsenal had done their worst and couldn’t score. Henry’s shooting was not his best, but it can hardly be claimed he wasted any gilt edged chances, he had to work hard to get into shooting positions, and they were controlled by PSV.

I can’t remember Adebayor (although he worked hard) getting a shot in all night. The only other players to get shots in were Rosicky and Fabregas. Senderos had a header that went wide. But even though Arsenal created more openings than PSV I don’t remember Gomes having to make more than 2 or 3 difficult saves all night. Even so those two or three saves made him competitor for Man of the Match. Meanwhile the only serious save Lehmann had to make was the one he failed to complete as the ball evaded his outstretched fingers.

So Arsenal had all the possession for the first 45 minutes, but PSV had avoided the threat of conceding. There was no one who could pick the lock on their defence, or open the tin of PSVs massed ranks. Henry, in the past, had Pires or Ljungberg to do that job. But Rosicky is not, at least at the moment, a lock picker, and Adebayor rarely opens the can with a sneaky goal. Henry was still looking for his range and getting closer. But in the second half the chances dried up so his range finding remained incomplete.

However when Arsenal came out at for the second half they probably thought they just had to keep doing more of the same and the goal would come. But they failed to notice that PSV had grown in confidence, they now believed in themselves and began to press harder against the Gunners. Now the mistakes began to flow. The midfield had failed to raise the tempo all night, and now they were being forced into errors, and became ragged. The chances became less and less.

Arsenal needed more tempo, by allowing the game to be played slowly they lost control. Tony Adams was 100% right when he said that the Gunners only played when they had the ball, and not when they didn’t. Too many players were waiting to see what would happen next, and didn’t try to force the pace by not letting PSV settle on the ball. Most of the forwards were trying to get into the area, but not looking for off ball space.

Quite a few Arsenal players had a poor game, mainly in the midfield; the defence did its best, but provided little in the way of overlap. Perhaps right back was a bridge too far for Gallas in terms of attacking. Gilberto looked rusty, and Fabregas seemed slower than usual, and he must be given a break from taking corners.

Around about 60 minutes the Gunners conceded a goal when Gilberto went missing as the invisible wall. It didn’t come out of the blue, it was to be expected. And a few minutes later it could have been 2-0, fortunately it stayed at 1-0. The Gunners tried to raise the tempo, but no team is better than PSV at stopping that happening once they are a goal up. Plenty of blocks and minor fouls ensured the game didn't get moving. As Arsenal began to become increasingly frustrated PSV began to move the ball about smoothly.

Wenger says the teams physical level dropped in the second half, possibly, but it was never that high in the first place. Wenger was more analytical than Henry, that’s why he is manager. He admitted that the team lost control of the midfield in the second half, and that PSV seized their chance. It was this more than anything that caused the defeat. Wenger was at a loss as to why this happened, perhaps some had played too many games, and some not enough.

It looked like a strong team on paper, but the game is played on grass, with real legs, lungs, and with mental and match fitness. If last year we sometimes had too many youngsters in the team perhaps this time there were not enough.

However it’s half time and Arsenal are a goal down, nothing new there then, there is still everything to play for. It will be very tough, but not impossible. Looking for scapegoats will not help, it’s an overall team improvement that is required.

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