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.
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