Arsenal
No Fabregas - Not on form - Soft in head?
Dodgy Keeper
By Boris Mellor
August 16 2010
According to who you believe Arsenal had from 58% to 64% of possession against Liverpool, and clearly had more shots on and off target. With 6 on target to Liverpool's 4 and six off target to Liverpool's three. Arsenal even had more corners, and yet still contrived to only draw.
Yet if Reina had not intervened this could have been a defeat leaving Arsenal at the bottom of the form table. What form table? The table that includes 5 games from last season. Arsenal now have one win out of the last six Premiership games thanks to Fulham's surrender at the Grove.
Is the form table irrelevant at this stage? Possibly, but Arsenal were near the top of it by the first game of the invincible season. In other words the invincible season was built on the good form of the closing month of the previous season.
The inability to win without Fabregas, or not win as often, would appear to have continued into the new season. Don't be misled by the pundits who would blame tippy tappy football for this moderate start to the season, after all Arsenal created more chances than Liverpool; and the defence, apart from one massive error was surprisingly resilient.
No the problem was the lack of an incisive ball, or shot, and not enough players in the box. In the first half this didn't seem to matter, the game was boring but Arsenal seemed in control. Arsenal depend on Fabregas for the killer pass or shot. They depend on him to switch the game.
Soft in the head?
Wenger often claims that his team has mental strength, but what kind of strength is it that panics because the other side has gone down to ten men? Panic might not be the right word, but to give away a goal 60 seconds after the opposition has been reduced to ten men is hardly mental strength.
Once having given away the goal Arsenal had no choice but to go all out for goal, although that wasn't really obvious until the last ten minutes. Then what was demonstrated, once again is that Nasri is not Fabregas. Oh he worked hard enough, but again and again he was trapped in the Liverpool cul de sac. When Arsenal finally got an incisive ball in the box only Chamakh was available. This meant that all Liverpool had to do was counter attack in the wide open spaces left by 11 men chasing the game.
Rosicky turned it
To my mind what made the equaliser possible was the introduction of Rosicky, he was quick out of the Arsenal half, direct and inspired urgency amongst his team mates. I didn't believe we would ever equalise until he came on.
Wenger and ten men
Wenger had lots of attacking midfielders, but only one striker, I don't understand why he didn't bring on RVP as soon as Liverpool went down to ten men. Liverpool had only one man up with 11 men, with 10 men nothing changed, so why not put on an extra striker? I don't accept that Walcott is that striker when RvP is available.
Keepers
Wenger probably kept fans guessing about the no 1 until the match so that fans would be relieved, and Almunia would appear in a better light. For once the Gooner nation was united, phew thanks goodness it was the waiter and not the clown. Yes Almunia flapped a couple of times, and some say he should have stopped the goal, but it was a good shot; and the defence was more to blame than the keeper.
However the Arsenal keeper made a couple of saves that atoned for his possible error, in particular from a Gerrard free kick. I don't see that Schwarzer is any better, Given yes. Meanwhile Reina won the butterfingers of the day award with his hilarious Flapianski impression.
Considering Almunia had few games pre-season he could still improve. What concerns me is that if he is injured his stand in doesn't bear thinking about, that being the case a new keeper should still be a priority.
Red Cards
Mark Lawrenson on MOTD stated clearly that Cole's card was correct; he argued it wasn't deliberate or malicious and I can agree with that. However, shame on the Liverpool cretins who kept up a howl of abuse at Koscielny. Cole did make contact with the Frenchman's shin, and there was real concern his leg was broken. Would those Scousers who booed have been more satisfied if it had been?
All credit to Koscielny for a good debut, those pundits who claim he had a poor one because he got a red are talking out of their backsides. He had a cool calm and collected game in what, at times, was a frenetic match. All the bleeding hearts are out for Cole, but Koscielny's second yellow for alleged handball was laughable.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:08:20:11:02:27 by Padre Pio.
Again, the fun is in watching our rivals come a cropper at ANfield.
Why pick on Arshavin, were Diaby, Eboue or Wilshere any better?
For a team that claims its going to win the league, or at least the manager does, then a draw at Liverpool is only moderate, it might be good enough for Spurs but not for Arsenal.
Did we miss Fab? Are we soft in the head, is the lack of form a real concern - these are the main issues for discussion, not one line about moderate result.
"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.
Soft in the head indeed.
Anyway, I think Arsenal's downfall was... the other team... playing well in defence.
If we were given a draw before the match we would have taken it,
Almunia did o.k. we were blaming him for mistakes last season, there was mistakes in areas he was never class in and a well taken goal, we need some more CB's.
Theodore roosevelt - In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
I thought Koscienly deserved his second yellow, seemed deliberate enough. We should have won since they were down to 10 men with it 0-0 at the start of the second half. Almunia's flapping was poor, seemed like we'd concede everytime they had a set peice though he made a couple decent saves off Johnson and that gerrard free kick right at the end. Though he should've stopped the goal IMO.
Quote:celine dion
Ive just had an idea. Why dont why BUY Shay Given, then TEACH him to command his box. Just a thought. Or would that be too tricky.
then we could BUY emile heskey and TEACH him to score
"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.
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