ARSENAL 1-2 CHELSEA: TIME TO LEARN AND MOVE FORWARD

I don’t know if this happened to you as well but yesterday morning was a bit funny as before the game I felt a bit scared that we might disappoint. That creepy feeling was uncovered by the fact that a whole lot of Arsenal fans became overly positive that we were going to thrash Chelsea. We had not felt like that since the first day we faced the new Mourinho-led Chelsea in 2004.

And who can blame us? We were defending well, working hard and showing solidity and steel in the middle of the park with confidence. We could also rely on the guile of Santi Cazorla to make sure everything goes smoothly in the attacking third. The only worry for us was the fact that we might not get a lot of goals but it was kind of certain that a loss was out of the way.

Roberto Di Matteo might not be your everyday “big coach” but take it from me, that dude is a tactician. I am not saying this because they won and got away with it, I am making reference to the way he set his team up to win the Champions League; defeating Barcelona in the process and the formation he put out when they visited the Emirates last season.  He knows us and he is aware of those simple textbook ways of frustrating and beating Arsenal. His main objective was to stifle the middle of the park and defend-“DO NOT CONCEDE AND WAIT FOR THEM TO MAKE A MISTAKE; JUST ONE MISTAKE”. That is the golden statement to the destructive and ultra-defensive 4-5-1 formation he put out.

A clear message would have been given to Oscar, Mata and Hazard to fight and work hard for the ball. They would have been told to forget about playing “tiki-taka” at the Emirates and to concede the fact that they would have to defend and pounce on errors by the home team. Di Matteo also did a very good job by sending the indefatigable Ramires after Santi Cazorla- that worked excellently.

Back to Arsenal, the boss went with the same formation that got an impressive point against Man City at the Etihad last week but made a very significant change at the back by bringing in Laurent Koscielny for Per Metersacker. After a very cautious start to the game from both sides, we lost Abou Diaby in the 17^th minute to an annoying hip injury which scared the hell out of me.  To make matters worse, the first goal came in the 20th minute through a set-piece as Fernando Torres out-foxed Koscielny to put the ball in the back of the net. Before the free-kick was sent in, Koscielny was too busy trying to arrange the defensive line while staying close to the Spaniard at the same time. He was trying to make sure Oxlade Chamberlain stayed with his man then he took his eyes off the ball and got punished; one mistake, one goal.

In the 42^nd minute, Gervinho equalized with an instinctive turn in the box to slam the ball in the roof of the net with his right foot. A very good striker’s goal, and to do that between John Terry and David Luiz just in front of the home fans was brilliant. We were back in the game and everyone expected us to grow stronger from there.

The loss of Diaby was felt deeply in the second half as Aaron Ramsey showed that he is not exactly the man to complement Mikel Arteta the way Abou Diaby does. Santi Cazorla also drifted in and out of the game while Podolski seemed lost on the left due to the way and manner Chelsea was set-up. The second goal came via another set piece as Laurent Koscielny tried to stop the in-swinger from Mata which was unsuccessful. He had a slight touch on the ball and more importantly, he distracted Mannone from focusing on saving the ball.

I was a bit surprised with the way we set-up to deal with that set-piece. It was totally different from the way we conceded the goal at the Etihad and we still got punished. That was not zonal marking was it?  Mata put the ball in the gap in front of the goal keeper inviting a touch but to be frank, it was a very soft goal to concede.

We labored to get back into the game afterwards and that was when the frustration started kicking in. We started getting out of shape in the middle, Santi Cazorla drifted out of the game, Arteta was combining two responsibilities and we were constantly giving the ball away sloppily.  Wenger introduced Walcott and Giroud in the 66th minute for Ramsey and Podolski to add more fire power to the attack and the only major highlight after that was the miss by the big French man late in the game.  I must say, that was a difficult ball to score as Cech did well to make himself bigger in front of the ball making it harder for Giroud. He also showed some bit of composure to round Cech and would have scored had he been more confident.

I believe Wenger should stop the act of taking off a striker for another striker when we are in dire need of goals. What was the worst thing that could have happened yesterday? We would lose? Well news flash: WE STILL LOST! I don’t understand the logic of taking off your most lethal striker in an important home game for a man struggling with confidence. Left to me, I would have kept all our attacking players in the game. Chelsea defended throughout the game and hoped to catch us out on a counter occasionally but we failed to put them under genuine pressure for most parts of the game.

Diaby’s injury was a major turning point as I said earlier and the earlier we get Jack Wilshere and Thomas Rosicky back, the better. Once again, Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson did very well and these two lads keep reminding the more experienced full backs in the club that they are not ready to lose their positions in the team.

On the big issue of leaving Per Metersacker out of the game, Wenger said:

“That is a decision which was based on the opposition we played. You can say it was a wrong one maybe, but I believe [that statement] is a lowering the quality of the players who played, they are internationals. If you do not play Koscielny or Vermaelen and cannot win the game, you will ask me the same question.”

Well you can’t answer the question more intelligently than that but I must say, I had my worries. We keep going on about the Vermaelen-Koscielny partnership as if it is the great partnership that we’ve all been craving to see since the invincibles. We saw it last season and it was not very fantastic based on statistics. What I know for sure is that before Per Metersacker’s injury against Wolves last season, our defence was beginning to take some “shape”- we all know what happened the next game at the San Siro. Same thing has happened again this season as we maintained some sort of defensive stability before Wenger decided to tweak it.  You can say all you want about the BFG but he gives us something we don’t have at the back-STABILITY. Vermaelen and Koscielny are like two hot-heads that can’t perform at their best when playing together in my honest opinion. Now, this is purely based on results and we can see the number of times our defence got exposed on countless occasions yesterday; something I had not seen since the season started.

I hope he gets re-installed in the heart of our defence the next game so we can move on. We were not woeful but we just feel we could have beaten Chelsea with the momentum we had going prior to the game. I sincerely feel Giroud, Coquelin and Per Metersacker should all start our next game. Till Diaby or Jack comes back, I will play: Mannone, Jenkinson, Metersacker, Vermaelen (Koscielny), Gibbs, Arteta, Coquelin, Cazorla, Podolski, Gervinho and Giroud.  Bringing in Coquelin will help reduce the pressure on Mikel Arteta as the French youngster knows his primary responsibility in the team which is to help the defence.

Worry all you want about scoring but if you don’t concede, you won’t lose and if you don’t lose, you confidence can only go higher. I can’t wait for us to show the whole world again that we can now defend- it is key to our challenge(s) this season. Our next set of matches are all winnable and we must make sure we start Olivier Giroud in each and every one of them to help this man find his confidence: Olympiacos (H), West Ham United (A), Norwich (A), Schalke 04 (H), QPR (H) and Reading (A)- the sort of run that can give you the momentum you need to kick start a title winning campaign.

Winning the EPL is about BELIEF. Manchester United look like trash almost at the beginning of every season in recent history but they always end up stronger or strongest (winning). Reason is they find it easy to convince themselves they can do it when they look back in history. They have always been doing it so why can they do it this time? THIS IS WHAT WE NEED AT THE ARSENAL and I am sure it will come once we win ONE TROPHY to start with. ONE TROPHY MONSIEUR!

ROBIN WHO? ARSENAL BANISH THE GHOST OF JUDAS AT ANFIELD

                     

After the disappointing inactivity of the club on the transfer window deadline day, a lot of Arsenal fans were livid and worried about the depth of the squad. I for one went absolutely mental. A deep lying midfielder was desperately needed to replace Alex Song based on Wenger’s comments the week before but to our surprise, nobody came in.

So for someone that saw the way Liverpool dominated Manchester City last week at Anfield with such pace and pressure, I was almost sure that we were going to have a tough time there. I thought Raheem Sterling would torment the inexperienced Jenkinson all day and the thought of Suarez’s trickery against Per Metersacker made me shiver. I was mostly concerned about how we would deal with the pressure from their three forward players.

The starting lineup was not too surprising as news had filtered in yesterday that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain might be brought in to replace either Gervinho or Diaby. Oh bless God it was not the latter. The England winger was slotted on the right wing while Don Vito kept his place as Wojciech Szczęsny failed to recover from his rib injury.

Liverpool started with a midfield Trio of Sahin, Allen and Gerard and for me I think the inclusion of Sahin in midfield affected the intensity of their game a bit to our advantage. Compared to the way Lucas Leiva and later Jonjo Shelvy kept up the tempo against Man City last week, I was very pleased they made that move to our benefit. They had some flashy moments in the early hours of the game with Luis Suarez and Fabio Borini moving the ball with pace and trickery in dangerous areas, while Raheem Sterling looked impressive as well when he had the ball. The first scare came when Luis Suarez went past Per Metersacker only for the BFG to pull him down earning himself a yellow card. Carl Jenkinson also misplaced a pass across the central defence area but luckily we were not punished.

Our first goal came in the 31st minute after a misplaced pass from Captain Steven Gerard was intercepted by Thomas Vermaelen who passed the ball to Podolski to counter in a devastating fashion. The German’s forward pass to Cazorla was returned by a carefully threaded through ball to his left foot for him to deliver a ferocious low shot past Pepe Reina. Yes! We broke the deadlock and gave the annoying British press one less thing to talk about. The counter was sharp, effective and clinical, making a case for Lukas Podolski. He is not the most flamboyant player out there but he is as deadly as ever. He does not fluff around and needs a half chance to whack a shot in. I love that about him! I have seen a certain Arsenal STRIKER try to pass the ball back 6 yards from goal- that should explain it better.

The second half came and Liverpool had a penalty shout in the 51st minute when Luis Suarez went down in the box after a he appeared to have out-foxed Metersacker. Howard Webb ignored him and I think that was based on his ridiculous diving pedigree and for me that would have been a soft penalty to give. Liverpool later replaced the rather quiet Nuri Sahin introducing the skin head (Jonjo Shelvy) to increase the pressure on us.

In the 68th minute, Santi Cazorla made it 2 after combining brilliantly with Lucas Podolski once again down the left to score a heartbreaking goal.  He hit it hard and low to make it clumsier for Reina. 2-0 and we killed whatever motivation the Liverpool players had left in them with the way we defended effectively. We were tight and organized making it difficult for them to create too many chances and at the end of the day; we left Anfield with 3 precious points.

Analysis

As we all know, Arsenal have now gone 3 games without conceding a goal- the first time on 88 years. Now you might think it is too early to start making noise about the immediate influence of Steve Bould but if you look back at the way we have defended since 2006, you will understand better. At no point in the game was our defence “all over the place” and this was a phrase commonly used by commentators and journalists when referring to our defensive discipline.

Once again, our defence looked “coached” and we made sure Mannone did not have much to do (besides making some impressive stops). I once made a point to one of my Arsenal pals that a great defence is not just about 4 players and a goalkeeper, it is a team thing. Mikel Arteta and Abou Diaby fully understood their primary responsibility of not exposing the back 4 and our forwards tracked back to help out. Times without number, Lucas Podolski tracked back to double up on Glenn Johnson and any other Liverpool player that tried to trouble Gibbs down the left. Jenkinson put in another fearless shift making sure Raheem Sterling does not steal the headlines and Metersacker recovered well from the early yellow card he received. Thomas Vermaelen produced another fine captain’s performance leading the team from the back; it is vital he stays fit this season and Arsene Wenger was quick to say after the match that the injury he picked up late in the game is not a serious one.

The midfield once again did its job effectively with Abou Diaby stealing the headlines. The Frenchman can be frustrating sometimes but you will hardly find fault in what he is currently doing. He serves as a pivot in midfield supporting Arteta in defending and bursting forward at will to ease the responsibilities on Santi Cazorla. He was everywhere and gave Liverpool all sorts of problems with his body movement and swerve. That brilliant reverse through pass to Giroud after an amazing run from deep was his best move of the game.

Santi Cazorla was brilliant again and he keeps reminding us that he will ease that pain we felt when Cesc Fabregas left for Barcelona. It will be very interesting to see how the team will line up when Jack Wilshere and Thomas Rosicky return to the side. Wenger reckons Wilshere is 4 weeks away and he had said a week ago that Rosicky is close to returning as well. Diaby is playing like a beast in midfield and Arteta and Cazorla are untouchable- it will be interesting.

Olivier Giroud played like a man under a lot of pressure and who can blame him? He has been singled out as the main man brought in to replace Judas Iscariot and that is a huge responsibility. The chance he got from that Diaby’s pass should have been put away but again, his finishing let him down. He also fluffed a clear header from a corner kick in the second half and I quite understand the impatience of some Arsenal fans. The way Gervinho has played since he joined and the way Chamakh ended up are not great examples helping the French man at the moment. This is when Arsene Wenger’s player management skills will be needed, we need him to come out of his shell and prove to us that he can hold his own amongst the best in the world. Lukas Podolski is getting more accustomed to the pace of the premier league and he looked sharper today. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had a rather quiet game as he did more of covering than attacking before he was substituted for Aaron Ramsey. I hope the knock picked up is not too serious as we will need all our key players fit this season considering the size of our squad.

Our next game is in 2 weeks against Southampton at the Emirates before we head to France two days later to face the current Ligue 1 champions in the Champions League. Every Arsenal fan will be hoping our boys don’t come back after the international break with niggling injuries, it is vital to keep up the pace. Victoria Concordia Crescit!!!!!

NB: Did anyone notice I just wrote an Arsenal piece without mentioning Theo Walcott? I hope he got the message.

Follow @MDGunner on Twitter.

Vermaelen vs. Koscielny (Opinion Poll)

Hi guys, so boring weekend this one, eh? A weekend with no Arsenal fixture is like bread without butter, garri without water, Lagos Island without gutter…well, at this point I don’t think I’m making much sense any longer but you get my point? Yeah, the weekend sucks when there is no Arsenal game to break our heart cheer on.

Before we go on, we will like to express our support for Fabrice Muamba (who passed out at White Hart Lane during the FA cup tie between Bolton and Spurs). We thank God his condition is stable now and our prayers/thoughts are with him and his loved ones. He will recover fully and get back to playing the game he loves, by God’s grace.

So while to wait for time to pass, till Wednesday when we play Everton (away), I had a discussion with fellow WazoBlogger @dhebbur on who is the better defender between the Verminator and Bosscielny: The answer wasn’t as straightforward as I would have thought prior to the question asked so we decided to have a poll on that (to kill football time).

Please vote in the poll below and also feel free to explain why you prefer one to the other (in the comment section for this post). I will keep my argument to myself at this moment not to ‘corrupt’ your judgment.

Up The Arse!