Starting Off On the Wrong Foot

Arsenal 1
Manchester United 3

Vermaelen 80

Almunia OG 33
Rooney 37
Park 52


So perhaps it isn't the best time to start a blog in the wake of a calamitous defeat to your title rivals, but then again I've never been one for pragmatism. This afternoon (or morning where I am) Arsenal fans were treated to a lackluster display in which Manchester United managed out of nothing to score 3 goals. In almost a replay of the defeat at Old Trafford earlier in the season we contrived to give away the whole shop and then some. To my astonishment Vermaelen went from a broken leg to starting in a manner of days, which makes one suspect despite all of the reassurances from Wenger the true fitness of Campbell. In the absence of an actual striker we reverted to a 4-5-1 in which forced our Russian midget to lead the line against a much taller defense. Our 5 man midfield lacked both speed and width allowing Manchester to funnel us right down the middle and into the legs of a much physically stronger midfield of Carrick, Fletcher and Scholes. At the back Clichy's lack of match fitness and the overall fatigue evident from the other three produced problems of their own. Clichy's day was bad from the start as Nani skipped around him with ease in the opening minutes and so it came as no surprise that Nani inflicted the opening goal. Nani was forced wide and had picked up a second marker when out of nothing he flicked the ball over Clichy went past both men and almost to the end line where he strode unchallenged to the edge of the 6 yard box. His cross managed to evade Almunia who could only tamely slap the ball into the net. Bruised but not out we managed to press and win a corner as Gallas was well forward when Rooney won the ball and fed Nani who outpaced 3 defenders and returned the ball to the scouser who finished with ease. The Emirates went totally silent as the game had been lost in 5 minutes. After the second goal you could almost see the physical attitude of the team drop. Passes went astray, balls were not chased down and our lone man upfront was out muscled by a second string defense. The halftime cigarette and coffee led to quiet and hopeful self-assurances that an early goal would turn the game on its head. Our midfield would start pulling the possession we need and the midfield would find its legs and the runs that we clearly lacked. But Manchester United is not Bolton. The second half picked off where we had left it. 7 minutes in Park ran at us and we failed to put in a challenge, leaving him the easy task of slotting under our non-existent keeper. Denilson in particular was making the worst of it for much of the game so it came as no surprise that he was first subbed making way for Theo. A short waif for another, it was a perfect swap. Our shape and directness barely changed and when Theo did get out wide to cross, it was dreadful. (Holy hell the boy needs a lot of work!) Our height problem was finally addressed 72 minutes too late as Rosicky and Sagna made way for Nicklaus and Eboue. Bendtner was unable to warm up in time and his touch was off while Rooney made a mockery of Eboue several times. Thomas Managed to volley (!?) in a consolation just inside the box after a corner but that's as close as we got. We pressed and probably should have had another when Gallas found himself with a free header in the box but it wasn't enough. Three goals in 10 (15 with stoppages) minutes would have been too kind considering, and we failed to score again. We did however have enough time to give Rooney one more gilt edged chance but he mercifully slotted wide. Chris Foy blew the final whistle and the recriminations began.
Its rather hard not to get whipped up into some sort of republican style frenzy when you see your team loosen its grip on the title in such an abject fashion. To be so open to the simplicity of speed and the counter attack is a sobering reminder of the naivety of this young squad. Bossing Liverpool is one thing but as we have been shown multiple times in the last couple years this United team is clearly not from the same cloth.
So who do I blame? Wenger is first up for his insistence on playing people out of position. Arshavin is not a center forward, Nasri and Rosicky are not wingers, Denilson is not a defensive midfielder and Almunia is possibly the worst keeper Arsenal have had in the last 20 years. That said the team needed to work harder than it did, runners need to be picked up, tactical fouls have to be made. The natural density that comes from a five man midfield was absent in part to the in ability to win a header, when we did manage to clear our lines it fell to a United player and the cycle of pressure started all over. As much as it pains me to say we are missing Diaby as much as we are Van Persie.
Denilson is as poor as he has ever been, the malaise on display today has been in the making, the two games against Bolton Denilson was easily our worst player. It's not the poor passing, it is his lack of effort, but to fair he's played more games than anyone else in the last 18 months so maybe he's just tired. Whatever the case may be, I hope he's dropped for Sunday. The idea of him passing directly to Fat Frank Lampard who in turn belts one past our pasty Spanish keeper is all to real.
Eduardo will probably start which is good, it will hopefully push Arshavin back wide where he likes it and Nasri to the bench where he deservedly belongs. I admit I still have high hopes for the Frenchman but on current form he doesn't belong in the first team. If he can put in an injury free spring then perhaps he'll be in form for the start of next season, but I fear this year has already passed him by. I do think he's being played too far wide, all of the best performances I've seen have been playing just behind the strikers and running from a central position. Arshavin clearly doesn't have the fitness to run at defenders for an entire match and can't play with his back to goal. In the later parts of the second half you could see he was mentally out of the game and rather unhappy. Which to me questions why Bendtner was on the bench, his is custom built for slugging it out with a pair of center halves. I would have very much fancied his chances against Evans and Brown for the majority of the game. We provided a fair amount of crosses, but with a fat midget contesting them had no chance to the delight of United.
I'm fairly mixed about the defense. For the most part I feel they played well (Almunia aside), Gallas had a fairly good grip on Rooney and Vermaelen is immense in both boxes. I would argue its just the form of our outside backs. We all know what they are capable of but at the moment they just aren't performing. I can see Clichy and Vermaelen having problems but I just think that's down to them not having played together much. Almunia is simply the poorest keeper I have seen in quite some time. More than half the teams in the league have better keepers, Almunia was a gamble that needs to be scraped. If we lose on Sunday I think it would be the best to have Fabianski replace him and play the rest of the season as our #1.
So as the trip to Stamford Bridge now looms our title challenge is hanging by a thread just as it did in November. Coincidentally if we lost here we'll be 11 points behind again but crucially we'll have all of the big teams behind us. As this season has shown us the league has gotten a very tight and every week seems to spring a surprise so all isn't lost. Even if we do lose. Chelsea has the toughest run in, they play Villa, United, Tottenham, Liverpool all in the final seven weeks of the season. United on the other had have never convinced until recently and they still are overly reliant on the Liverpudlian Shrek, I have no doubts they will have a poor run. The table however does not lie and we are at the moment a distinct third. Will we look back at this time as a shock that gave us the impetus to reaffirm our credentials or the moment that we realized that 12 months haven't change anything at all. This time next week we'll be much closer to answering that.


Come on you Gooners!


SFGoon