Arsenal 2 - Liverpool 1: Vibrant attack, still bad defending.

As we have become accustomed, a win in the Carling Cup in mostly sparkling fashion. It is very refreshing to see some of the younger players bring such an attitude to their game, no fear,and playing as if it is their last game......in an attacking sense. In terms of defending, that is another issue.

Arsenal took a deserved lead when Merida smashed home after a good passing move, then Liverpool equalised with a stunning dipping shot, something that wouldn't have happened if he was closed down and if Fabianski reacted and got his distances right, nice goal, poor defence. The winner in the second half was really good, nice passing and evading before Bendtner smashed home from close range.

The good, well the passing was good and incisive, but this has to be expected. Nasri made his return, and fitness still looks an issue, he needs to get back into his rhythm, and coming after Wenger said that Ramsey and Merida were close to the first team, playing like this, they should be 1st choice subs, and the trainer really needs to ask why those ahead of these two don't replicate these performances, and are better? How must they feel not playing and other with lower performances at times ahead of them.

The bad, well defence again sucked big time. It really SUCKS how easy it is to carve our team up and create a chance, it is way too easy, i'm struggling to see what our defence scheme is throughout the club. Silvestre and Senderos were dragged out of position too easily and were not proactive in how they defended, we better hope Vermaelen and Gallas don't get injured, if they do, Wenger better use 3 defenders at the back as one of these two will cause big trouble, especially as we don't have a dedicated defensive midfielder.

Fabianski may've returned from injury, but Arsenal need a SPECIAL goalkeeper. He is a capable shot stopper, and will save the shots he has to, that is what any keeper should do, what differentiates a standard keeper from a star keeper is one who saves shots he shouldn't. The Insua goal was very preventable, there is no excuse for that ball to dip over his head.


Match Ratings:

Fabianski 4: Bad goal to concede.

Gilbert 5: Decent performance, covered for the rest of the defence.

Senderos 4: Needs to up his game to displace Gallas or Vermaelen.

Silvestre 4: For an experienced player, needs to perform better and lead the rest of the unit.

Gibbs 4: Didn't tuck in when required, not anticipating very well either.

Eastmond 5: Steady from the youngster, nothing special though.

Nasri 5: Not fit, not on his A-game either, more to come we hope.

Merida 7: Continue like this, and a first team berth is close.

Ramsey 7: Needs to play like this in the league, will become a useful player indeed.

Bendtner 6: Well taken goal, needs to play like this in the league more.

Eduardo 5: Good performance, must wonder why he is always playing in this competition instead of the bigger matches.


Trainer Rating

Wenger 6: Decent performance, good tactics, although could have subbed Nasri who was a bit of a disruption to the team as he wasn't fit.

Welcome to the Futures Present, Samir Nasri

The French midfield playmaker has recovered from his injury, and will take his place in the team, in midfield. Samir Nasri is the future of Arsenal, and deployed in central midfield, Arsenal will see why he his name is still sung on the Velodrome terraces. He has a greater physical capacity than captain Fabregas, and is able to use both feet, both for the pass or the shot.

Having spoken to him after the 3-1 massacre against Man Utd, he indicated that players needed to take responsibility, and he is one of the players who can take responsibility. He needs to also secure his position in midfield for Arsenal, because with the World Cup looming if France qualify, he will not get into the side on the flanks, and the emergence of the likes of Moussa Sissoko and greater calls for Benoit Cheyrou in midfield, if Domenech is to ditch his double pivot system, he is a prime candidate to be the link man.

If the captain is to leave this summer, this is the man who will hold all the keys to opening the doors for Arsenal, I am a big fan of the Maghreb descendant, Arsenal, be prepared to be thrilled as he did at the Velodrome, bienvenue Samir.

West Ham 2 - Arsenal 2: Arsenal have learnt nothing, mistakes costs points.

Well, 2 points given to West Ham for nothing, and Arsenal deserved only 1 point, what a shame. Wenger and his boys are not behaving like championship winning candidates,we may play nice football (not today), we may have to score over 3 goals a game to win (we scored 4 goals twice last year and never won either game), we still suck defensively as a unit, players are not taking responsibility, no one is reacting, no one wants to win a major title.

The team took a deserved lead, Sagna decided to learn how to cross properly (only two good crosses in 94 mins), Green missed the ball and Van Persie was obliged to tap into an empty net. Then Gallas headed home the second goal, all before half time, and it looked liked curtains for a team in despair.

However, as any opponent should now know, try a little, and Arsenal will encourage you to score, Diaby gave away a cheap freekick (He gave away at least 3 in dangerous zones), Diamanti launched a shot, Mannone elected to palm it up when it should have been put wide, and it fell to Cole to bundle home, very easy, no reaction from the whole defensive unit in the box. The second, Billong-Song clipped Cole in the box, even if it was a dive or not, no need for that, and it was a penalty which Diamanti fired past Mannone, 2-2, two points given away, and it is not even Christmas.

Again, as this blog reluctantly points out, the team doesn't relish keeping clean sheets, and in relation to improvement, last season the team won here, this year they have drawn, so they have regressed in the result. The team was ahead by half time, and again took it very easy and casual, do we need 3 goals to win games now? The midfield and attack never looked to score a third goal, and went through the motions, and we have paid the price. On a day when our rivals have slipped up, we have failed to take the initiative and improve our prospects.

Player Ratings:

Mannone 2: Should have pushed that ball out for a corner, not into the direction of a striker, and cheap yellow card to get.

Sagna 4: Decent cross for goal, but now I can see why on France Telefoot1, the fellow Arsenal players labelled him and Silvestre the least technically gifted.

Gallas 4: Nice goal, but untidy and unstructured defending as a whole.

Vermaelen 4: Decent, but struggled aerially, also untidy defending.

Clichy 4: Did his job defensively, not much offensive work.

Song-Billong 3: Over run at time, not willing to tackle when he should, and costly clip for the penalty, not on song today my friend.

Diaby 4: Bad tackling ability, good technical ability, needs to take responsibility more.

Fabregas 4: Off colour, never made the passes he likes to make. Never took responsibility.

Eboue 4: Good link up with Sagna for the goal, but nothing else except wasting chances.

Arshavin 2: Never made any impact, never brought his A-game yet again, what is up with this guy? Arsenal need the real Arshavin, not this one, not the first time he has underperformed.

Van Persie 4: Decent, nice goal, not much after that, needed to take the lead and show he is the one to make the difference.

Bendtner and Eduardo NA: Both late subs, both came on far too late.


Trainer Rating

Wenger 3: On a week he celebrated his birthday, a catalogue of errors has cost the team 2 points. First, why select a right back as a forward winger, when he has two strikers on the bench? Secondly, why persist with a rookie goal keeper and keep our best keeper on the bench? Thirdly, why did it take the opposition to score twice for him to bring on bigger weapons to try win the match?

I don't get Wenger sometimes, we don't have the players for a 4-3-3 today, is it too much to ask for some variation to stifle the opposition, especially when we were 2-0 up? We have players like Ramsey who we could use in a 4-5-1 if you are worried about Nasri's fitness, or a 4-4-2 with Eduardo coming on? I thought the team was told to learn from conceding late goals, one in midweek, two this weekend, I thought our defensive patterns would have been rectified this year? Why is Almunia on the bench? Will it take the team dropping points with a rookie before he is reinstated? This has cost us today.

Arsenal will pay for same mistakes.

This blog takes a lot of heat for being overly critical, but it is critical for one reason, the team has made the same errors for the past 5 years and not won, so if they make the same ones, they will continue not to win.

Even when Arsenal were scoring freely and beating teams by 2 goals or more margins, I have been critical at how some of the goals let in have happened. Finally,the chickens came home to roost on Tuesday. Let me catalogue the lapses:

1)Saha vs Arsenal, when Arsenal are 6-0 up. A goal the team had no need to concede, even if winning, you cannot let up, you defend with your life to the final whistle. Defending is a collective art, so why when Clichy has to come inside, why doesn't a midfielder take his spot?

2) Kaboul vs Arsenal, when Arsenal are 2-0 up. Again, after storming ahead, Arsenal never crushed Portsmouth, stepped off the gas, and allowed a very soft and preventable goal, and let us not forget, Portsmouth rallied well in the match until Arsenal scored a third.

3) Donati vs Arsenal, when Arsenal are 3-0 up and 5-0 up on aggregate. Again, the team relaxed, knew the tie was off, and decided to coast, and Sagna never applied pressure, Almunia never even tried to save the goal.


4)N'zonzi and Dunn vs Arsenal, when 0-0 and 1-1. Again, lack of dedicated focus, lack on concentration especially on the second, why was Sagna and Clichy both forward and none of Diaby/Fabregas dropping deeper to help Billong? Where was Vermamelen?

5) Bowyer vs Arsenal when 2-0 up. Again, when it looked like Arsenal would smash the opposition, the team relaxed, lost focus and a match that they should have seen out very early, became nervy until the dying embers of the game.

That is 5 preventable matches where Arsenal have shown they lose focus, so it is no surprise they couldn't see out the last game. West Ham may be in bad form, but without full focus, even when ahead, could rouse the team to fight back, putting Arsenal in a position they don't have to be in. This week, Bacary Sagna said the team had to learn to concentrate for the whole game. There were 5 instances already where they never concentrated, and were punished, why didn't they take those lessons? Please learn now, you are all professionals, this is a prerequisite.

Alexandre Song is a real Hardman now.

Many are still hoping for the return of a snarling and aggressive holding player in the Arsenal midfield, but they should be very proud they have one of the best players around in midfield. Alexandre Song-Billong after February has becoming one of the key components in the team, and when he was 'rested' in some matches last season, many openly questioned why he was rested when the team have so dearly needed him.

Alexandre Song-Billong has now shown he can hold his own for the team, and this comes after a very impressive outing in the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations where he was elected into the team of the tournament, playing and aiding his team all the way to the final, and his presence was missed after he was injured in the final and Egypt took control of the midfield.

Now he has shown he has a true side of a winner, not taking any nonsense. There is a saying, 'a man who can sacrifice even his best friend is a man without weakness', and Alexandre Song-Billong is one who this applies to. Despite Emmanuel Adebayor crying when he left and some of the squad regretting his departure, his actions when he played Arsenal and his team won 4-2 has drawn a clear line between him and and Arsenal squad.

In the game, Alexandre Song-Billong never acknowledged his former team mate during the game and after it, and this exploded further during the last World Cup Qualification match in Yaounde, which Cameroon won 3-0, Alexandre Song-Billong imposed his stature on the Togo captain.

During the match, Alexandre Song-Billong picked the pocket of Adebayor at least 4 times cleanly to show he is a player of the top level, but this descended when Adebayor landed on Alexandre, and then proceeded to try unnerve Alexandre, kicking him twice, to which Alexandre retaliated by kicking him back. One thing the players of Cameroon are not guilty of are backing down, and his uncle Rigobert came to his aid to ratchet up the pressure on Adebayor.

Adebayor was then shaken up, and like a scared captain, demanded to be substituted, leaving his team rudderless whilst Alexandre went on to dominate the rest of the game. It must be said, that without Alexandre in the team following his 3 game ban, Cameroon had won 0, lost 1, drawn 2, since his return, they have won both games, and are now back in serious contention to qualify.

This has been taken further by Adebayor admitting in open, he doesn't speak to Alexandre anymore, and that he 'lost his cool' at they way he was being pick pocketed by the Arsenal enforcer, and head trainer Paul Le Guen has also stated that Alexandre is his second name on the list after captain Eto'o-Fils. His persistence in the Togo game outshone those of seasoned veteran Makoun. Arsenal fans should be proud of their young intelligent warrior in midfield.

It is a far cry from the days when Alexandre and Adebayor were close buddies, even appearing on a music video on French TV with Bacary Sagna last season.

Arsenal 3 - Birmingham 1: 3 goals, 3 points, Team Defence sucks.

A win is always welcome, and based on the last time B'ham came for a league match at the Grove, it is an improvement on the draw they shared last time. The goals today were nicely executed, as expected, with the technicians the club has, this has to be expected rather than hoped for as a surprise. Van Persie slipped in a shot, Diaby rounded off a routine move, and Arshavin guided his goal home. Nice, obligations met, 3 points in the bag.

However, as all will have seen, there were so many errors made today, the first by Mannone, knowing Almunia is back, he needs to ensure he keeps him on the bench, the error today should not be tolerated, this is the big time, no room for such elementary errors. He had two choices, either catch the ball or punch it clear, he did none with conviction, and Bowyer shot into an unguarded net.

Then there were a string of missed passes, Gibbs is another who needs to bring his A-game to the table, with Clichy out injured, this performance was not one that will keep Clichy on the bench. Defensively, he lost his composure after a few missed passes and the error for the goal.

As a team, after B'ham scored, the team never reacted quickly to push ahead, and B'ham had many opportunities to score an equaliser, the midfield wasn't compact, the defence pushed up in suicide fashion for one B'ham chance that needed a fine stop by Mannone to keep it at 2-1. The midfield need to improve on regaining the ball quicker and constricting the space.

Arsenal were 2-1 ahead, why should we be the ones who have to soak up the pressure? Do we want to show we are a class above? There is no need to wait 84 mins to put a game to bed the way we did today. Do we not understand we face tough opponents every week, with Champions League as well, if you are 2-0 ahead after 20 mins, the game should be over, you should impose yourself on the opposition to know that there is no way back into the contest. I hope we learn from this, it is a long season, and with energy being sapped, players injured, errors we make every game, we need to stake everything in our favour to win matches, no need for such performances.


Player Ratings

Mannone 4: Bad error for the B'ham goal, he needs no praise for the other save as he was simply doing his job, that is what he is supposed to do.

Eboue 6: One of the better players, never arrowed in aimless crosses like Sagna loves to do, kept the ball well and created space on the offence.

Vermaelen 5: Decent performance, not much more.

Gallas 5: Decent performance, although when the line was very high, he should have been the one to set the depth, would have been very costly.

Gibbs 4: Many missed passes, lacked composure in defensive motions, not a good showing, won't displace Clichy playing like this.

Song-Billong 5: Decent performance, nice passing mostly, not compressing space however.

Diaby 5: Worked very hard, we all know he has good technique, but needs to improve decision making, improved performance though.

Fabregas 6: More involved defensively, however as a captain, needs to ensure the team are in charge all the time, came very close to having a draw.

Rosicky 5: Decent performance from the experienced man, although fitness was an issue, allowed B'ham to break past him very easily.

Walcott 4: Only saw 32mins of action, brutal follow through tackle ensured he played no more.

Van Persie 6: Looking decent as a leading striker, nice technique and distribution and variety of attacking positions.

Arshavin 5: Not able to get into the rhythm of the team, looks an individualist at times, needs to bring his collective A-game all the time. Nice goal though.

Sagna 4: Misplaced pass led to a corner, that the team is never comfortable defending. He also needs to stop crossing, simply gives the ball away.


Trainer Rating

Wenger 6: Obligated 3 points, deployed his assets in decent fashion, but why did he allow the team to suffer for so long? The team was 2-0 up very early on, do the pragmatic thing and ensure the mentality of the team is that of being an immovable object, B'ham were allowed into the match way too easily. The fixture list is going to be crunch time soon, we need to conserve energy and get a right attitude for such matches, because with this attitude, we will lose crunch matches.

Arsenal 6 - Blackburn Rovers 2: Irresistible flaws.

13 years under the Wenger administration, the Arsenal fans have become used to attacking football painted by artists. This afternoon, the same applied, the football that was produced was akin to football produced on the continent. This team is filled to the rafters with midfield technicians of the high quality, Rosicky-Arshavin-Nasri when he returns-Diaby, and the chief protagonist Fabregas. On this display, it is no wonder the team has been able to score 24 goals in 7 matches. All praise for the attacking style shown.


The downside though is probably something I keep mentioning, the midfield is not compact in defensive motions. The opposition seem able to pass easily around the halfway and 10 m behind, with no applied pressure around them and sufficient space to think for a pass. The use of a 3 man midfield also has repercussions for the defence, the prevalence of one-on-one duels, which if the opposition win, they are in on goal. The full backs as well today were not in good form, the crossing poor as usual,and lax defending, especially Sagna, who of late looks like he is in a comfort zone with the casual approach he takes at times.


In terms of the championship race, the result today means little, Arsenal beat Rovers 4-0 twice last year, so they were expected to smash them again today and pick up the obligated 3 points. Wenger needs to rectify the faults though on show today if he wants to get a team to be consistent and efficient unit able to attack and defend in equal quantities.


Player Ratings


Mannone 5: Two goals let in, probably his last match for a while as Almunia 'recovers'. Not much he had to do.

Sagna 4: Bad crossing, bad defending, what has happened to the Sagna of Auxerre and two seasons ago? He has become casual in his approach and isn't looking to improve his level.

Gallas 5: Not as commanding as he can be, probably thinking of skippering France in the upcoming matches as Henry may not play.

Vermaelen 6: Defensive lapse allowed a cheap goal, stunning strike to equalise, after that coasted through, lets hope he tries to maintain his level for a very long time.

Song-Billong 6: Good link man today, however needs extra work tactically to compensate for his low mobility. Needs to work with Fabregas and Diaby, you need to defend as a collective, not individually.

Diaby 5: Flashes of skill, but today he has seen what he is up against with the performance given by the other attackers, and with Nasri to return, this is another chance he has spurned. Needs to work as a collective when defending.

Fabregas 7: 3 assists, 1 goal, top performance by the captain. However needs to show the same aptitude in defensive motions where all the work is being left to Song-Billong. If he works on his defensive game, he will be a much better player.

Rosicky 6: Getting close to full fitness, however his maturity and genius influence is there for all to see. Get fully fit and he will be a major asset.

Arshavin 6: Nice goal, and more involved today than he has been all season, maybe warming up for the German invasion next week.

Van Persie 7: Nice goal, varied the points of attack, some nice build up work too. Will need to work on his poaching skills though in the future.

Walcott 5: Not on long, but long enough to score. Bigger thighs as well.

Ramsey 5: Also not on long, but some really delicious passing and appreciation of space.

Bendtner 5: Also not on long, 2 chances, 1 goal. 1 aimless run showing he wasn't on the same wavelength as his team mates.



Trainer Rating


Wenger 8. Deployed all his weapons where they should be, never interrupted them in the game as well, and some good substitutions. However maybe he could tell the team to close down more aggressively to ensure the opposition have no breathing space. Also could have instructed them to slow the game down more after the 4th goal and to be more compact and see the result out. Gets extra marks as well today for staying as long as he had, 13 years is a long time, lets hope the trophies come back soon.