Wow, just when it looked like we had grown some balls and become smarter, we throw 2 points away, and the championship too. Make no bones about it, with only 6 games to go and the team 4 points behind and with an inferior goal difference, we had no business giving away 2 points.
The team never played the football required to win this game, Wenger had a very questionable team sheet omitting Arshavin, Eboué and Nasri, and starting Walcott instead. Diaby had a good game, although for all his tricks and moves, he never opened up Bham as much as he should have. Fabregas sucked after getting injured, and a note to Wenger, if players are injured, replace them, Nasri could do his job too. Walcott was awful again, Bendtner never looked like making the difference, Rosicky was intelligent but the others around him were not. At the back, Sol has no legs but has lots of personality, Song was steady, Clichy and Sagna gave their usual clinic in how not to cross the ball, seriously, what do they do in training?
Nasri opened the scoring with a nice drive, however he also missed two chances, one he tried to feed Arshavin when one on one, you need to be selfish in such regions. Arshavin sucked as well. This guy is lazy, he picks and chooses when he wants to play, and some say he is a potential Ballon d'Or winner? Ronaldo even when injured puts a solid shift in, Arshavin got 25mins and never did a tenth of the work Rosicky did. At this rate, we need players to replace him in the summer, seeing as he likes talking about new players all the time.
Almunia also sucked, this guy is so lucky to have a boss that thinks he is a real keeper. He can't kick or pass, one time he passed to a Bham player under no pressure. He fumbled a freekick, allowed one shot to hit the post, and saved the best till last with an early Easter present to Bham and Utd-Chelski by palming the ball into his own net, in the last 30 seconds of the game. My declarations, he should be dropped and shipped off when the team is mathematically out of the title race and told to find a new club, each performance sees his value drop. How many more mistakes should the other 10 players have to deal with? 97mins work undone by his antics.
Barcelona
Finally, Wenger will get what he has always wanted, a team that plays all out football, to really judge his side? I can tell all fans what to expect, we will be brushed aside by Barcelona because Wenger will not be smart, he will not change his tactics, he will not want to do all required to win. Already he has come out saying we will not man mark Messi. Is he nuts? Fergie never man marked him in the final, and look what he did to them, he killed them. I bet if Fergie played them again, he'd put Fletcher on Messi for 90mins, it is worth it man marking. He needs to also look at last years semi-final vs Utd, we never changed and we got dismantled. Infact, look at the big games this year, Utd and Chelski knew what we would do and they simply went around us.
Some think that Barcelona are just all out football, but even Guardiola knows 2 games are not the same, and he changes from time to time, even captain Puyol admits this saying, “Our rivals have studied us a lot and we have to look for alternatives,” so we also need to be pragmatic. Some see it as a gift that Iniesta is out for the first leg, but they have many players who can come in to replace him, Keita Seydou-Busquetsa-Toure Yaya and even deploy Messi in midfield, so it is still very very tough.
Some say their defence is weak, but they know how to defend, they have let in only 4 goals in 8 games, we have let in 7 goals. They have scored 12 goals, we have hit 18, but they had a tougher group than us. However they have their full defence to call up upon apart from Abidal, we are down to the bare bones. They have Valdes who is supposed to be the weak link, but he always seems to win them the big games, we saw that in the 2006 and 2009 Finals where he saved his team, can Almunia do that for us? He has consistently shown he does not have the capacity for it.
If we play our 4-3-3 and then our timid 4-5-1 in the Cam Nou, Wenger is to blame for our impending elimination, we all know it is coming as we have seen it many times before.
Showing posts with label Birmingham City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birmingham City. Show all posts
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Saturday, 17 October 2009
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.
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.
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