Arsenal vs Newcastle 7-3

Where do i start today? Let me first say that except for the 2nd and the 3rd sloppy goals that we allowed, this was our best performance in a long, long time!

We started the game very well, Oxlade had a good opening in the first minute of the game! After the initial pressure we put on Newcastle, the game evened out until our first goal. From there until half time we controlled the game, limited Newcastle to very few chances and we should have scored more. The way they equalized was pure garbage and Wilshere was at fault, all the way. Second half we started strong again, went ahead twice to only concede 2 sloppy goals back, but in the end our effectiveness up front today was too much for Newcastle and we deservedly won the game!

Normally i start with the defense, but today i want to start with Theo's performance. He had quite a game and not only made me happy by helping us win, he also helped my fantasy team get some pts. I thought his play today was very, very good and the scary part is that he could be better. All three of his goals were great: great finishing on all three, combined with pace and some dribbling when needed (3rd goal). He also had two assist from which, the first one for Giroud's first goal was simply a perfect cross. Where i feel he could have done better was his passing. We had a 3 vs 2 counter attack in the 39th minute where Theo had the ball and should have passed it to Cazorla, instead he waited too long and then when he did pass it, it was a bad pass. Similar situation in the second half: we had a counter in the 57th min and again Theo had the option to pass to Cazorla or Podolski and instead he took a bad shot at goal. If he can get a bit better at making the right decision/pass at counters, he would be close to unstoppable. 

The defense today was up and down. Great first half, good pressing on the ball and very few chances for the opposition. And then, twice we allowed goals that were sloppy to say the least. Sagna had a tough time with Obertan today. The Frenchman has good pace and simply outran him to set up Newcastle's second goal. Otherwise Bacary was solid but if we weren't playing so well in attack his mistake might have cost us. I would love to see Jenkinson get some games and not because he is better, but so we have two guys that are rotating at that spot. Vermaelen was solid and had no fault for any of the goals. Koscielny had a good game except for the second goal. After Sagna got beat by Obertan, his cross went right by Koscielny who should have closed down the angle and never allowed him to cross that ball. Gibbs also had a good game, an assist and some great runs forward, but he fell asleep for Newcastle's third goal. Ba sneaked behind him and just tapped the ball in. So, a lot of positives for the defense during big parts of the game, and a few bad mistakes.

 Our midfield and attack were outstanding. Podolski had a hell of a game and was involved in almost everything. He gave a superb pass to Theo for the first goal; then he set him up in the 36th minute when Theo should have scored again; gave another great pass to Gibbs who then assisted for Theo's second; and to top it off - scored a goal himself as well! This was one of Lukas's best games for the club and what i loved the most, was his unselfishness: he gave some great/smart passes in situations where he could have shot himself. Arteta was good as usual even though he didn't do much offensively (which is not his job anyway). Wilshere had a tough first half and fucked up miserably for their goal: you either stay where the wall is, or you don't. Also, unlike him, he pussed out and turned his head away from Ba's free kick, instead of heading the ball and blocking it. He made up for all of that in the second half: had two assists and hit some great crosses from corners as well. Cazorla was also very good today, even though he had only one assist, his passing was very sharp and he had some great one-touch passes throughout the game.  Oxlade-Chamberlain had a good game too. He scored a very nice goal and was active on the right side for most of the game.

Giroud obviously had quite an impact for a second half substitute. Both of his goals were very well taken and you can tell he is playing with confidence even though he hasn't played much lately.

So, today was a good day for the Gunners nation. Not only we got a very important win at home, but we actually played WELL! Considering that all of our games coming up in January and February will be pretty tough, it is a good time for us to start playing well. For a first time in a while i was excited about my post! C'mon You Gunners!

p.s. I still think that we need some players in January (left back, defensive midfielder) and i still stand behind my words that we need more squad rotation.

Wigan vs Arsenal 0-1

For those of you who expected a post after the Reading game, i am sorry! I was working and i taped the game but i never had enough time to watch it, so i had to skip a post. If one day i get paid to do this, i promise i won't miss a game :).

It was a tough game today. Everyone was ecstatic after our big win at Reading on Monday, but people seem to forget that everyone these days can score at least 3 goals against Reading. I wasn't impressed with us today. The result was great. Our game - not so much. The first half was pretty even and uneventful. Wigan were doing a good job of pressing us up the pitch and they had two good chances which were both missed by Kone. One of them should have been a goal: Wigan played a high deep ball and we had Mertesacker trying to chase Kone, a race which the German will never win. Kone luckily, slowed down and then mishit the ball otherwise we would have been 1-0 down. We had one good chance in the 9th minute when some good passing got Oxlade in a good shooting position but he tried to beat Al Habsi at his near post.

The second half we started very well. In the 46th and 48th minutes we had two great runs by Oxlade down the right, both ended with good crosses, Theo connected on one of them but shot it right at Al Habsi. Nothing much happened after that, until a great one-two between Theo and Cazorla, got us a penalty. It was a bit soft, but there was contact by Beausejour, who didn't need to foul Theo. Arteta showed some balls and scored and from then on, it was all Wigan. We pretty much sat back and defended for our lifes until the rest of the game which was very stupid. We gave them ton of possession and especially in the last 10 minutes of the game, it seemed the ball was a hot potato and we would do anything to kick it as far as we can, instead of passing it around and finishing off the game. Wigan missed a few more very good chances, Kone again one of the guilty parties.

The defense today was not very solid. Wigan had a lot of chances, we looked nervous especially towards the end of the game, but somehow we kept a clean sheet which is the only positive. Mertesacker was clumsy at times, but also had some very good blocks and tackles. Sagna was very active, but also got caught sleeping a few times and there were some dangerous runs on his side. Same could be said for Gibbs: played well but on more than one occasion in the second half, Stam was running free on our left side (with Gibbs no where in sight) and only his inability to cross the ball saved us from big problems. Vermaelen was maybe the only one who didn't make any memorable mistakes.

In midfield, we were average. Not bad, but not great. Cazorla had some good through balls, but overall, he didn't have much impact on the game. This is the thing that is still missing from him: consistency. He had a great game at Reading and then follows it up with an average one with Wigan. Wilshere was not at his best either. Very active today, running everywhere, but not very efficient. Missed a lot of passes and went into some dangerous challenges. He gets so much into the game, that sometimes slides for balls in a way that is dangerous for his own health. I would like to see him be a bit smarter and protect himself better. Arteta was solid and showed some nerves putting away the penalty. Oxlade was probably our best midfielder today. He still dribbles too much sometimes and doesn't always look to pass, but he had some brilliant runs on the right followed up with some good crosses. Also had a good shot on goal saved by Al Habsi. I don't think he should have been subbed by Ramsey considering that he was our most active player!

Podolski was very disappointing today. On more than one occasion our players were trying to press the Wigan defenders and he was standing good 3 meters away from his man and just watching. He never looked very threatening. Theo found it tougher as a lone striker today. He didn't have too many chances and at times was isolated up front. I definitely think playing as a striker is a great position for him, but he needs to become clinical with his finishing because in games like today he won't get many chances and the few he gets, he has to convert. You can definitely see his lack of size as a striker but he can make up for it with quickness and good positioning.

To sum it up: great two wins in a row, but also a bit misleading. We are not playing great football, still having a tough time to close out a game, and still looking shaky in the back. More improvement is needed, but we will take the 6 pts and hopefully keep getting better.    

Arsenal vs West Brom 2-0

We finally played well enough to deserve a somewhat controversial victory. There is no way to tell if we hadn't gotten the first penalty, would we have scored anyway and won the game, but there is no question that we played much better today than in any of our last 4 games. Our passing was much sharper and quicker, we pressed much better as a team and i feel we probably would have won the game regardless of the two penalties we got. Having said that, Cazorla should be absolutely embarrassed about his dive today. I am sure he will get a lot of shit about it in the next few days and deservedly so. There was absolutely no contact and he grabed his ankle like someone chopped it with an axe. I hope he learns from this and never does it again.

I thought our defense was solid throughout the game. I do feel that West Brom never got into a rhythm and never really put is under continuous pressure. They were missing a lot of passes, so for big parts of the game we were able to win the ball back quickly and keep possession. The fact that we had 59% off it, is a clear indication that we were controlling things.

I thought our biggest improvement from the past few games was our midfield. When we attacked, players were trying to play with one touch passing and always looking to go forward. Wilshere was outstanding today. He is finding the touch in his passing and is becoming more dangerous with every game that he plays. He had some great runs forward, gave some great through balls and was involved in everything we did. Not to mention that he runs non stop for 90 minutes. Arteta did what he was supposed to do: scored both penalties, which was extremely important. He did have a bad giveaway in the 84th min but luckily West Brom didn't capitalize on it. Cazorla was very active and had a very good game, except for the diving part. He was a constant threat going forward and was linking up well with the rest of the team. Oxlade had a quiet first half, but was much more positive in the second half. He had some great runs on the right and was unlucky when some of his crosses were not met by an Arsenal player. I don't know if he fouled Popov to get the ball in the build up for our second goal, but after that he made a great move in the penalty box and deservedly won a penalty. 

Gervinho was very active today but also very inefficient. He had some great chances to score with his feet and with his head and missed them all. This is what is frustrating for me with him: he can put himself in good positions but rarely does he make the right decision with ball, or sometimes his execution is simply not good enough. Still, today he was at least creating something up front, so he wasn't absolutely useless like he normally is.

Giroud had a good game. It was a bit frustrating for him because no one could give him the good pass to put him in a real goal scoring position, but he worked hard and was combining well with the rest of the team. He just needs to whine a bit less, he is a big guy and it's embarrassing when he whines to the ref that he was being fouled in the back or something. You are 6'3, get up and keep playing.

Positive result today. Our game was much better. We still have long ways to go to play well consistently and until i see us put 3,4 good games in a row, i am not going to rush to be too optimistic. But today's win is a start. Let's hope we build on it!

Arsenal vs Swansea 0-2

Tough one today. And this post will be a bit longer than usual because there are a lot of things that need to be discussed. Let's not kid ourselves: The Premier League has changed and that's a fact. You no longer have teams who are happy to come play the big teams and hope they go home without being embarrassed. With the amount of new coaches that are in the League, half of the teams in it, are playing the style of football once only Arsenal was known for: a lot of possession; quick one touch passing; always looking for open spaces and trying to be creative up front. To be successful with that type of football you need to do two very important things well: 1) be quick and decisive going forward ; 2) defend as a team and press the opposition EFFECTIVELY, so you can get the ball back or limit their chances. And as crazy as this sounds, i think we are not/haven't been good enough in both of these aspects of the modern game!

On point 1) I am curious to see, when you look at our possession numbers per game, how many of the successful passes we make are backwards to our defenders and goalkeeper; and side to side between the defenders. I bet you, that it's very high. Most teams that we play, allow us to have the ball, but as soon as we get into their half of the pitch, they press us hard and we end up passing the ball back between our defenders. By doing that, we create the illusion that we are controlling the game but in reality we are not creating any real chances. Our attacks take too long to develop and very often they finish with a cross in the box, which in a game like today when Giroud is on the bench, comes to the likes of Cazorla and Gervinho who are not good headers of the ball. When you combine this with the fact that a lot of teams are also getting better at keeping possession, our chances to score per game are very limited.

The picture bellow illustrates how well Swansea are putting us under pressure as soon as we get into their half of the pitch. Almost every Arsenal player is covered and being pressured by a Swansea player:

Now, on my second point that we don't defend as a team and press effectively, you can look at these pictures bellow:

We have three players around Yueng but everyone is looking at him and the ball and no one is closing him down...

...2 seconds later he in the middle of our own half and still there is no one close enough to him, to prevent him from passing...

Here Michu is on the ball, deep in our half. We have 4 of our players standing in a semi circle and 2 Swansea players next to Michu with no one pressing him OR covering them....

Don't get me wrong, i am not saying we are not trying to press the opposition and win the ball back. A lot of times, we TRY. But we do it in an unorganized way: 1 person is running around, chasing the player with the ball while the rest are watching. The opposition passes the ball a few times, our player gets tired and says "fuck it, i am done running for now". We need to get better at pressing as a TEAM, where when one of our players is pressing on the player with the ball and the rest of our team has covered every opposition player who is nearby, thus forcing them to kick the ball away or pass it to the goalkeeper.

I really don't know if Wenger is the coach who will help us achieve that. For the past 10 years we have never, ever, pressed well as a team. We used to compensate for that by being good offensively. But now-days when teams are organized, they limit our chances and we become an average team that a lot of times runs out of ideas. The scary part is that i thought today, Wenger had the line up correct except for the fact that Gervinho was playing as a striker. He even made the changes early enough and brought in the correct players: Giroud and Oxlade. So, tactically he didn't fuck up the starting line up that much or his changes. That brings me back to the two points i made in the beginning: we are NOT good enough defending as a team; we are NOT good enough going forward. The last two games, both Everton and Swansea looked much sharper in their attacking style and the one touch passing, than we did.

The only solution that i see for us is to:

#1 Get better at defending in an organized way
#2 Start playing more decisive in attack by using quick passes and one touch football
#3 Stop signing and get rid off shitty players like: Squilaci, Fabianski; Denilson; Djourou, Santos and Chamakh and not to forget Gervinho! Ramsey needs to go too, UNLESS he stops being so sloppy and casual with the ball and starts taking accountability for what he is doing on the pitch. I like Diaby, but "i have played" more games for Arsenal than he has.
#4 BUY or bring back from loan, a few good players in important positions: (left back to cover for Gibbs; defensive midfield to give Arteta a breather once in a while (Frimpong); another striker to rotate with Giroud or move Walcott to striker; even another right back, if you don't re-sign Sagna).
#5 Get rid of Gazidis or slash his salary in half, maybe then he will start thinking about what's important for the team and not only about profits!

A few words about the game today. We started slow and didn't create anything for the first 20 minutes. Once Vermaelen and once Szczesny had to save us from being scored on. We woke up a bit after the 25th min and we had some good attacks until the end of the half, unfortunately all of them finishing with crosses in the box. Vermaelen saved us again in the 30th min after making a great tackle on Dyer during a counter by Swansea. It was a high ball, kicked by their keeper, Michu won the high ball and set up Dyer who is lightning quick. This is how i envision using Giroud and Theo together: long ball, Giroud wins the header, Theo outruns everyone and scores. Too bad we rarely used them that way.

The second half we started very well and put them under pressure for the first 20 minutes. But that was about it. After that, Swansea regained their composure and even though Szczesny saved us again in the 83rd min, eventually they got what they deserved and scored. I thought Vermaelen and Szczesny were our best players today. Jenkinson had a decent game but made a bad mistake for the second goal. Mertesacker was also decent but a bit slow to react for their first goal. Gibbs was solid and put a lot of effort going forward. Cazorla finally had a good game. He was very active and took some good shots at goal. Theo and Wilshere weren't very effective today. Gervinho was useless and wasted the only good chance he had. Podolski was also pretty ineffective.

Hoping for better times to come, but the future looks average. I don't think we will make top 4 this year if we don't improve drastically.

Everton vs Arsenal 1-1

Unlike last game against Aston Villa, i thought today we didn't play well at all and i can't be satisfied with our performance, even though we got a point at Goodison Park - which is a tough place to play at. I thought our passing was very, very poor today. I can't remember the last time we were so sloppy with the ball, usually even when we don't create chances, we are calm when we pass the ball around. Last game against Villa, we were being pressed hard for long periods of the game, but we rarely lost control of our passing. Not the case today. We looked nervous every time we got pressed, and we weren't able to consistently keep the ball. Even though we had some decent spells of possession, the amount of missed passes was huge. Everton looked sharper and hungrier throughout the game. They did a very good job of passing the ball quick while opening up spaces for themselves. If anyone should be more disappointed with a draw today it should be them. 

Everton's goal and half of their other clear chances were created after we lost possession of the ball in the dumbest ways possible. If i was coaching the team, Ramsey would have been subbed off at half time! He gave away the ball more than 4 times at very bad positions on the pitch, one of which led to Everton's equalizer. He fucked up in the 7th or 8th minute losing the ball in our own half; then as if he didn't learn his lesson, in the 14th min he was dribbling in front of our own penalty area instead of clearing the ball and it almost cost us again. 27th minute he gave another ball away and this time we got punished, because Sagna also miss-controlled the ball and eventually Fellaini scored. To top it off for the first half, Aaron lost another ball in the 42nd minute and the only thing that prevented Baines from going one on one vs Szczesny was Jelavic who was in an offside position and touched the ball! I can understand someone making a mistake once. Or twice. But after the second one, if you keep repeating your mistakes you are either very stupid or very sloppy and careless. You are playing in a top Premier League team and you should be accountable for what you do on the pitch! If there are no consequences after mistakes like the ones he did today, what will motivate him to not repeat them again? He did play a bit better in the second half, but he should have been off the pitch after his performance in the first. 

The defense today had a very bad outing. People were often out of position with the brightest example being in the 51st min when Mertesacker is chasing Baines on the left, while Gibbs is desperately clearing the cross in the middle of our penalty area? Sagna played one of his worst games in a long time. He made a lot of mistakes and didn't look good at all. I am used to his crossing being horrendous, but other than that he is one of our most consistent defenders. Not today. Gibbs was also shaky but he did have some important tackles and a heads up play at the end of the game, to not score an own goal, after a great cross from Everton. Mertesacker did great dealing with Fellaini in the air. On the ground he wasn't as convincing, but from our 4 defenders, him and Vermaelen were the best two. Thomas played one of his best games recently, he was solid at the back and had some good runs up front as well. The only bright spot defensively was our defending of set pieces for a 2nd week in a row! Considering the amount of crosses Everton use, we dealt with most of them very well.

The only bright spots in the midfield today were Wilshere and Walcott. Wilshere was very active; he was always looking to find space and advance the ball; i just wish he shoots on goal more often. Theo had a good game too; scored a nice goal and even though he had spells where he wasn't too involved, he was always a threat when we went forward. He also gave a great cross to Giroud, who missed the goal by a bit. Arteta was decent today. I thought he put in a lot of hard work defensively and he didn't make a lot of mistakes, except for the tackle on Pienaar which could have easily been a penalty. Cazorla was super disappointing with his performance. For most of the game, the guy was invisible. On top of that he was constantly whining and bitching at the refs. This is not the first time i see him do that. Maybe he needs a game off or something, because he played shit today.

Giroud was also invisible. The guy who was super active against Aston Villa, was nowhere to be seen today. He was taking too long when he had the ball; missed the only good chance he had in 67th minute after Walcott put the ball on his head. He had a good period of 4,5 games in a row so i can cut him some slack. Arsene can say all he wants that he knows what he is doing, but why is he putting Gervinho in the game, in the 80th minute? Who can have an impact on a game for 10 mins? Very few players. If he really wanted to win the game, he should given his substitutions at least 20 to 30 mins playing time. Rosciky was on the bench, so was Oxlade-Chamberlain. Both of these guys can have a solid impact on a game. Curious to see how we will do this Saturday against a Swansea side which just beat West Brom. We need to improve badly!

Aston Villa vs Arsenal 0-0

Today is the first time in a while, that i am satisfied with our performance even though we didn't win the game. Both teams played well, and even though we were a bit more dominant than Villa, a draw seems like a fair result. I wish we had a difference maker coming in as a sub, because Villa got tired at the end and we had way more space to work with, unfortunately we had the clown Gervinho come in and Arshavin, who back in the day was a difference maker but not anymore.

The first half Villa pressed us up the pitch like crazy. This is the type of pressing i want to see US do to teams. We actually did a great job passing the ball around today, considering that there were Villa players in our faces at all times. Because they did such a good job of pressing us so high, we had a tough time getting the ball out of our own half and we spent a lot of time passing it between our defenders. We still created some chances though, the best one being a Koscielny shot up high when he had an open goal ahead of him. The second half you could see that Aston Villa were getting a bit tired, they still tried to press us but they weren't even close to being as effective as the first half. Unfortunately, we weren't able to open them up today. The last ball was missing, we created some good chances to score, but at the end no one was able to put the ball in the net.

I thought our defense today was very, very solid. And i don't say that very often! Villa had some chances throughout the game, but the way we dealt with set pieces today was exceptional. They had 7 corner kicks and at least 5 or 6 free kicks but we never looked shaky with their crosses, which is a great improvement. I am glad Jenkinson finally got a start. He was rusty in the beginning and his final ball was a bit suspect but as the game went on, he played better and better. He was very active as usual and showed a great touch in the 73 min when Villa got us on the counter and played a through ball that could have easily been an own goal. Instead he back-heeled it away from our goal which i thought was brilliant by him. Mertesacker also had a very solid game. He made a crucial tackle denying Agbonlahor a 1 vs 1 opportunity against Szczesny. He was also very solid in the air throughout the whole game. It was also great to see Gibbs back in the starting 11. He too had a very good game and was a constant threat on the left side. I just hope Wenger manages him properly so we can have him healthy for longer.

The midfield today was good but not great. As i mentioned we passed the ball very quickly under a lot of pressure which was great, but we were lacking the final pass a little bit. Ramsey who i love to criticize, played well today. He was active, always looking to go forward, had a few good shots at goal. He had a great chance to score towards the end of the game,when the ball fell to him from a corner but couldn't keep the it down. Good to see him have a good game because that's his first good one in a while. Cazorla was very active and was running things in midfield. Had a good shot at goal in the second half and overall played well. He wasn't able to provide that final ball though, and got tired towards the end of the game which was the time that we had the most space to work with. Arteta did his usual solid defensive midfield work. He lost a few balls today which he has done a few times in the last couple of games but part of it, was the good pressure applied from Villa. Oxlade-Chamberlain had a good game today. He was active both offensively and defensively (made a great run back to cover for a defensive player in the 6th min). He was trying to run at the defenders; swing crosses in; and was looking to shoot when he got a chance.

Up front, Giroud had a great first half. He was pretty much everywhere. He did a lot of running, coming back deep to get the ball and then he would flick it with quick "one, two" passes which gave the Villa defenders a lot of trouble. He was basically a constant threat. The second half he got a bit sloppy. His first touch wasn't as good and he took a few bad shots when he could have passed the ball to a teammate in a better position. Regardless, he is playing well at the moment and i like that. Podolski on the other hand had one of his worst games in recent weeks. His first touch was off today pretty much throughout the whole game. He was having a hard time getting into the game and today it wasn't because he had to do too much work on the defensive side.

Wenger made 3 changes in the starting line up today: Jenkinson, Gibbs and Ramsey. That's better than none which he usually does. Let's hope the trend continues and he keeps rotating people at the right times/spots. I thought he was a bit late with the substitutions though. Around the 65th min all of sudden there were gaps all over the field and you could see Villa were tired. He waited until the 70th to put Gervinho in and 77th for Arshavin. By that time Villa had decided to sit back and be more cautious. As far as Gervinho, i really hope we sell him or something. The guy came in and the first chance he got, he did his usual move towards the goal line, that by now every defender in the Premier league knows about. He also didn't impact the game almost at all. Arshavin didn't do much either, except for one really good pass that got cut off by Clark. To win a game like this at the end, we need our subs to be guys who can change a game. I would have much rather seen Wilshere get 20 minutes of play than Gervinho.

Except for the fact that we didn't win, today there were a lot of positive signs that we are playing better. If we can steal a win away at Everton this would be a good patch for us. C'mon You Gunners!!!

Arsenal vs Tottenham 5-2

How do i put this without sounding too negative? Well, i am glad we won today. Beating Tottenham 5-2 is always a good feeling, beating them period, is a good feeling. Almost everyone else losing at the top 4 is also good for us because it will help us climb the table a bit. But the result today is misleading. We didn't play well at the beginning of the game, and in reality we don't know if we would have turned this game around if it was 11 vs 11. So, i will take the result but until i see us playing good football again (11 vs 11) i won't get too excited about us spanking Tottenham.

The defense today was shaky even after we were a man up. The defending for their first goal was horrible. I have no clue what the fuck was Mertesacker doing up the pitch but there was no one covering his spot, so Defoe basically got a present to set up the first goal. Once the idiot Adebayor got himself sent off, we did ok until the end of the first half, but there was a period in the second half where Tottenham scored a goal, and missed one more 100% chance to score a third. When you allow that to happen even though your opponent has 10 men on the pitch, it means your defense is not doing so hot. I thought Koscielny was our best defender today, he always marked his man very tightly and forced them to pass the ball even if he gave away a few fouls in the process. Him and Vermaelen did a great job covering for each other in the 15min, i wish our defenders communicate like this more often. Sagna and Vermaelen played solid for the most part. Mertesacker was obviously at fault for the first goal, it could have been a costly one too. Other than that he finally scored a goal, with his height you would expect him to always be a threat going forward.

Cazorla finally woke up and got out of his slump. Again, i am curious if he would have played so well if it was 11 vs 11. Regardless, he was very active, scored a nice goal and set up another one. Arteta did well, especially after his performance last week. He still gave away some balls, but overall was solid. Wilshere had a decent game, he was probably the only midfielder that had an impact in the first 18 min of the game. He created the only chance for us in the first 20 min by making a great turn on the ball and trying to set up Walcott with a through ball. So, even though he wasn't as affective with goals and assists, he was very active and you can see that he is slowly coming into his own. Walcott did well today, had an assist for Mertesacker's goal but he missed two very good chances in the second half, before he scored his goal. I still think, he is very important for us and he should start, he just wasn't clinical with his finishing today. 

Podolski did well today. He is still doing a bit too much defending for my liking, but he scored a nice goal and set up Cazorla for his. I feel he should be a threat on the left wing, and a lot of times he is back defending and can't be too aggressive going forward. Giroud had another good game. He kept his scoring streak going and his goal was all him, he was being pulled down by a defender but still managed to out-muscle everyone and score!

Two concerns for me, going forward:

1) Today almost everyone had better than average performance but it was against 10 men, until i see Cazorla, Podolski, Arteta and the rest have the same performance against 11 people, i won't be convinced we are back to top form.

2) This is the fourth game in a row where we field pretty much the exact same team. Considering that we have a Champions League game coming up on Wed and then we play Villa away, we need to make more than two changes to keep people fresh. Ever since Sagna is fit, Jenkinson has not seen the pitch. Unless we start rotating some players expect us to start wearing down soon. p.s.Putting Ramsey in the starting 11 does not count as team rotation.

Enough for today, we need a win on Wednesday and hopefully a good performance vs Villa on Sat. C'mon You Gunners!

Arsenal vs Fulham 3-3

Based on our recent performances, the result today was pretty logical. For a first time in a while, i didn't have high expectations for us before a home game against a team from the middle of the table. We just haven't played well, many weeks in a row now.

At least Wenger finally realized that Santos should not be playing and that Theo Walcott should be starting. So, now, we don't have those gaps at the left back position but unfortunately we keep making stupid mistakes at other areas of our defense. I watched the Schalke game during the week and even at 2-0 up i didn't feel that we will win the game because our pressing on the ball was non existent. Schalke just passed the ball around, we gave them time and space and hoped that they won't score. Today we did a bit better at pressing but it was mostly at our own half of the pitch (i will still take that over no press at all). The goals we gave away though were very bad. You CAN NOT put Sagna on Berbatov in a corner kick situation. How is he supposed to guard him when he is 5'9 and Berbatov is 6'2? The second goal, they made a good run on the right and Berbatov gave a good pass but we had 3 or 4 defenders in our penalty area and no one looked back to see where Kacaniklic was! And the penalty Arteta gave away was bad as well. Take away those stupid mistakes and maybe we have a shot at winning this game today.

Sagna was solid on the right, gave some good crosses as well. Mertesacker did decent but nothing more. Koscielny had a good game, especially in the second half when his sliding tackle prevented Berbatov from scoring. Vermaelen was obviously better than the Man U game, i don't think he enjoys playing at left back as much as central defense, but he will have to suck it up until Gibbs comes back. Mannone had an ok game, i thought he could have done better for Fulham's second goal.

Offensively we didn't have a great performance despite the three goals today. In the first half we were slow and we had a hard time creating chances. We scored from a set piece and then after Riise's mistake in the back allowed us to score a second. Other than that, we didn't have any real chances to score. Second half we were a bit better, we moved the ball faster and were more direct, consequently we created more chances but not enough to win the game. Arteta should try to forget this game as soon as possible. He made a bad mistake for the penalty he gave away and then he missed ours (in reality, maybe justice was served because that should not have been a penalty for us). He was also a bit hesitant for most of the game especially after he gave away the penalty for Fulham. Cazorla is still not playing at the level people expect him to play. He woke up a bit in the second half but overall he didn't have much influence on the game at all, which is very disappointing. I thought Coquelin held his own today and was a bit surprised when Wenger subbed him so early unless he was injured. Good old Ramsey that replaced him was absolutely useless. As soon as he got on the field, he gave away a ball in the middle of the pitch and Fulham had a great chance at a counter. He also got booked 5 min after and then kept giving away fouls and pushing his luck for a second yellow. Offensively he was also a waste of a time.

Podolski scored a nice goal but other than that he is still lost on the left flank and doesn't get much service. I wasn't surprised when he complained in the middle of the week that he wants to play a striker role because he has to defend too much on the wing. I don't think he should be the striker but i do feel Wenger has to allow him more freedom on the left wing, now that the meatball Santos doesn't play. Walcott and Giroud were our best players today. Theo had 2 assists and was lively and threatening for most of the game and especially in the second half. I hope he didn't injure himself at the end because he is one of the few guys that are playing well for us right now. Giroud is starting to feel more comfortable up front and his goals are very encouraging. He has a strong physical presence that we haven't had in a while at our striker position. Let's hope he keeps improving and keeps scoring. 

So what does the future hold for us? We need to stop making mistakes in the back, start creating more on offense, and Wenger needs to know the correct starting 11 for every game. I do think that right now, we are just not good enough either for a top 4 spot, or even progressing in the Champions League. But with hard work maybe things will improve. What i do know is that we need to beat Tottenham next week or Wenger will face tough times at the office.      

Manchester United vs Arsenal 2-1

This is as bad as i have EVER seen us play in a big game or any game for that matter. But then again, i never saw the Norwich game two weeks ago. This team looked lethargic, hesitant and with very little desire. Put on top of that a coach that stubbornly continues to make stupid decisions about his team and the way he manages it and you get a result like today: 2 shots on target, both after 91st minute of the game. And to be fair, Man U had a shitty performance as well, otherwise the scoreline would have been closer to the one from last year at Old Trafford.

Where do i start on this one? In the last blog i said that if Santos starts as our left back in this game, we will let in at least 2 goals. Unfortunately, i was correct. To be fair, he didn't have direct impact for both goals we conceded, but he had a huge indirect impact on our whole defense. His inability to cover his zone properly forces Podolski and other players to come back and help him out. And the fact that people run in his zone non stop, creates tension in the rest of the defense because they know they can't count on him to keep up with wingers, so other players are constantly unsure if they should stick to their duties or go help him out. On numerous occasions today, he was beaten over and over on his side. Cleverly, Rafael and Valencia had so many runs  on his side that i can't even count them. Thank god most of them ended up with constantly shitty crosses which just shows you that getting scored on, only twice, was due to luck and bad execution on Man U's part not any good defensive work that we did. I didn't feel like taking pictures today, otherwise i could have taken at least two or three where Santos commits to a tackle and when he misses it, he can't even stay close to the person that passed him.

Vermaelen was awful today. The mistake for the first goal doesn't even need to be discussed. Sadly enough, he repeated it in the beginning of the second half and it should have been another goal. He hasn't been sharp all season long, but i really do think that because of Santos's shitty abilities, Vermaelen starts worrying too much about covering his side as well, which leads to hesitation in his game. Instead of focusing on his own play, he has to worry about the Brazilian meatball on the left. Mertesacker, Sagna and Mannone were our best three players today. Mertesacker has been solid all season long, big improvement in his game compared to last year. Sagna had a good game as well and did all he could to help us out. Same goes for Mannone, he saved what he could and you can't ask much more of him.

Our midfield was horrendous. We made so many bad passes and we lost the ball so many times that after a while, i lost count. Everyone was bad. Cazorla, despite his goal at the end (which really helped my fantasy team), was terrible in the first half and big parts of the second. He missed a ton of passes, gave away a stupid penalty and for 70% of the game, was lifting his arms up and asking for fouls or complaining about passes. That's just not good enough from a guy who is supposed to be our main force in the midfield. And he has been poor for a number of games now. Ramsey had one good run on the right side in the first half and that was about it. The rest of the time, he was also giving the ball away, and not doing anything useful on the pitch. Arteta was uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball and also seemed nervous and edgy. Wilshere had a lot of desire, but his game was nowhere near the performance he put against QPR. He missed a lot of passes and had a tough time with his final ball. That's understandable though, considering the time he has missed. And about his red card, i don't want to even talk about it now, because that's all on Wenger and i will write about it in a minute.

Podolski and Giroud were bad. Especially Giroud. Not so much as performance. But lack of effort and desire at times. He lost the ball numerous times and i saw him walking back and not chasing after it on more than one occasion. To me, that's unacceptable. If you give the ball away, especially in your own half, you have to run and try to win it back. Instead, he would just jog bag and watch what happens. Podolski was no where to be seen but that's partially because he was so busy helping out Santos. You can't expect him to have a big impact on the game if he is constantly running back trying to cover for his left back. Theo should have started the game, he didn't do much after he came on, but by that time, the team was in pretty bad state. He did give a good ball to Giroud at the end, but he couldn't score.

A lot of people might disagree with me, but i put this loss and our performances lately, on Wenger.

1) Ever since Gibbs got injured, we have been struggling with Santos in the back. You give him a game or two and when you see that he is a disability for your team, you make a change! Vermaelen can play left back, Koscielny can come in at centre back, so could Ignasi Miquel (i know he is hurt now). Also, when you know Gibbs's injury record and you know Santos is not good enough (we know that from last year), you BUY a left back in the summer, so you have some cover. Arsene always says, "if everyone is healthy, we have a tremendous squad and we don't need new players". Guess what? They never are. No team ever is in full strength. If we don't buy a left back in January, Wenger is an idiot. p.s.I know he will say "Gibbs is healthy now, we don't need a left back". The question will be, how long will Gibbs stay healthy? Man U have had Vidic, Smallings and Jones injured since the beginning of the season. That's three players that used to start for them! But they make good enough adjustments to plug the gaps. They haven't been great defensively but they have patched things up enough so they can still win.
 

2) Wilshere should have been subbed off today. If you know the guy, you know he cares, and plays with passion and desire. He wasn't having as big of an impact on the game as he did against QPR and you know he already had a yellow card in the first 10 minutes, so when you get to the 60th minute, you change him. It won't affect your game as much because he wasn't playing as well and you still leave your team with a chance to win (i mean draw). When Cleverly got his yellow card, what did Ferguson do? He waited until the second half and as soon as Cleverly had a bad foul, he subbed him right after. That's what good managers do. They don't count on young (even if experienced) players to hold their nerve and be smart, the managers take that decision for them!

3) How many shitty games in a row do we need to play for Wenger to start playing Theo. I am not saying, Theo will magically take us out of this slump we are in, but he is always a threat going forward and gives pace to our attacks. Something we really need, when we have trouble breaking teams down. Every time he has come on this year, he has had a positive impact. I understand you have a contract dispute, but if he doesn't sign and you have to sell him in January, shouldn't you at least take full advantage of him while you can? Or the interests of the club are more important than the result on the pitch? Fuck our team performance, let's make sure we show Theo we won't budge and keep him a sub, when meanwhile we are playing shit and that would be even bigger motivation for him to leave.

I have always been a huge supporter of Wenger, but i am getting really tired of the same lame excuses and answers. Of his refusal to tweak his strategy when it's obvious it's not working. Of his inability to make rotations at the RIGHT times. Today's Arsenal was lifeless. No passion. No energy. No clear idea of what to do on the pitch. The best words to describe us today are Confused and Hesitant. If you can't get your team ready for a big game like this, i doubt it will be easier to motivate them to play against Norwich or QPR or whoever it is. Since when did shitty performances like today are OK for AFC? I guess we will just have to continue to enjoy shitty wins here and there, try to get to the top four and always use our injured players as an excuse.

Arsenal vs QPR 1-0

Positive news: we got a win. Reality: we still played shit. More reality: our goal was from an offside position; Reading had two 100% chances to score with 10 men on the field in the last 5 minutes of the game!!! What does that tell you? We are nowhere close to being a top team right now. And we got away with a very, very lucky win. Let's hope Wenger and his staff will be honest with themselves and get back to work, because if we perform like we did today against Man U next week, i see a painful 90 minutes ahead for any Arsenal supporter.

The best thing that happened to us today was seeing Jack Wilshere back in the starting 11. He was our most impressive player while he was on the pitch. The guy looked like he hasn't missed a beat in the last year and a half without football. He was energetic, hungry to play and was involved in every decent move we had going forward. What i love about him is that, when he gets the ball with his back to the opponent goal, he always looks for an opportunity to turn and advance forward and then look for the pass or his shot. That opens up space for other players and also makes us much more dangerous when we try to attack quickly and more direct. A lot of the other midfielders, when they get the ball with their backs to the opponents goal, they play the ball back or start twisting and turning at the same spot. That's fine, but slows down our attack and our runs are not very penetrating. Not to mention, defenders recover and we have no space to work with. Bottom line, Wilshere was great today and i was really happy to see him playing again! That guy is a true fighter and plays with his heart, let's hope he stays healthy for many years to come!

Another positive today, was the return of Sagna. I really like Jenkinson, but Sagna is very important for us with his quality and the need for rotation. He also had a great game today. Had some good crosses, made a very important stop in the 65th minute when Hoilett was about to be one on one vs Mannone. He looked sharp throughout the whole game and that was great to see. Mertesacker and Vermaelen were steady in the back up until the last 10 minutes of the game where we allowed twice Granero and Mackie to be one on one vs Mannone. I am not saying it was only their fault but the defense (with the exception of Santos whom i will talk about, in the next paragraph) was pretty good for most of the game and then it collapsed the last 10 min.

Now the Santos topic. The guy is a liability at the back against any player with some speed. Not only that, but often he is in the wrong parts of the pitch, thus creating even bigger challenge for himself to get back and keep up with players. To give you some proof i took pictures during the game today of two situations when he was nowhere near where his position requires him to be and that allowed for huge pockets of space on his side and i am amazed QPR didn't do better on those chances. The first sequence is in the 21st minute:

The ball is in the middle of the pitch, Santos pushes way up to attack the guy with the ball who passes to Shaun Wright-Phillips...

..now there is a huge gap on the right side, Santos is no where near the guy with the ball...

...which leaves with a 5 vs 5 situation....

The next situation is in the 53rd minute:

High ball towards Zamora, Vermaelen is right behind him. Santos LEAVES his position to try to win a high ball from Zamora!....

...obviously Santos loses that duel, and now...

...Wright Phillips has the ball again with lots of space to work with...

The point i am trying to make here is that not only Santos is not fast enough to keep up with people, he is also NOT DISCIPLINED enough with his positioning to make up for it! I am going to make a little prediction today: if Santos is our left back for the Man U game, we will get scored on at least twice. Let's hope i am wrong but the way i see it, good teams punish mistakes like this. p.s. If you look at my post from an year ago when we beat Chelsea 5-3 at Stamford Bridge, you will see similar pictures with our boy Santos being the main hero again.

The midfield today was not great. We still didn't create nearly enough chances to win the game and at times in the second half we were dominated by QPR. Wilshere was the bright spot as i mentioned earlier. Ramsey had a decent game but neither him, or Cazorla  created many chances. A lot of times guys were not on the same page for one-two passes; Cazorla did a bit too much of dribbling the ball and turning 360 degrees instead of passing it quicker. He also missed a great chance with an open goal. Podolski was working hard but also didn't create much. We just need to get on the same page as to what we are trying to do offensively. Be more direct with our runs, have more through balls and be decisive in the final third.

Giroud put a good effort today. He wins a lot of high balls but the guys around him almost don't expect him to do it, so they sit around watching, instead of making runs anticipating that he will win the high balls! The good news today was that Gervinho didn't start and even though i am sorry he got injured, i promise i won't miss him a lot. Walcott has to get more playing time if we want our offense to become more dynamic. We will take the points today but let's not kid ourselves, we need to IMPROVE! C'mon You Gunners!!!

Norwich vs Arsenal 1-0, Arsenal vs Schalke 0-2

One of my good friends was getting married this weekend, so i didn't have a chance to either watch the Norwich game or write about it. My initial plan was, when i got back home on Monday, to watch the tape and then write my blog. I obviously checked the score and heard  that we lost; then one of my buddies who saw the game said we played shit; Wenger in his post match interview admitted we played shit; so i decided i am not going to go through the suffering of watching 90 minutes of shit football. I have seen plenty of those games in the last 7 years: lots of possession, no real chances, mistake in the back, lose away from home. I did watch the extended highlights of the game and we maybe had 1 or 2 decent chances for the whole game. What i did watch today, was our Champions League game against Schalke 04, and i will share my thoughts about it, without going into great detail as i normally do.

First and foremost, i have to mention our team selection. The SAME team from this weekend against Norwich, with ONE change: Coquelin for Giroud. I repeat: ONE change! I am not a math scientist but i am pretty sure that if you had a match on Saturday and you played shit, and then you have a match on Wednesday and you play the same exact team, the result is not going to be much different. Obviously with Walcott, Diaby and Gibbs out injured, you don't have a huge choice, but you DO have other options. If i am not mistaken: Arteta, Cazorla, Podolski, Vermaelen, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Gibbs (before he got hurt) have played in EVERY single Premier League or Champions League match this season. And then you have Ramsey (after Diaby got hurt) and Gervinho who played ALMOST every game.

Wenger said after the Norwich match and i quote "I felt we lacked a bit of sharpness. But we missed what makes the success at the top level - that is complete focus. And they were sharper than us" ; "We had a lot of the ball but did not create much with it. It was an illusionary domination. It was a disappointing performance on our side" Well, no shit Sherlock, if we play the SAME core group of players in EVERY single game of course there will be lack of sharpness. Players get tired both mentally and physically. I am surprised Arteta, Cazorla and the rest, have not gotten injured yet. If Wenger does not start rotating the team more and mix and match the teams for Champions League and the Premier League, i expect more of the same results that we had this Saturday and today. 

Today's game against Schalke just proved that if ANY team, plays very organized and presses well up the pitch against us, we have no answer, except keeping possession and not creating much. It's not "we don't have a good scorer" problem; it's "we don't execute well enough to CREATE chances" problem. Not to mention our current left back, good old Mr. Santos is slower than a turtle and leaves the defense exposed every time he goes forward. Heck, we are exposed even when he stays back, because he can't catch up to anyone. I don't know how many times Mertesacker had to clear the ball from our penalty area because Santos got repeatedly beat down the left and balls/crosses just kept coming in. If you are Wenger and you know your second left back is liability, you manage Gibbs better, and give him breathers on less important games during the season, so you don't get stuck with Santos when Gibbs gets one of his regular injuries. Or maybe you go BUY a left back that can run. I would even put Koscielny in at centre half, and put Vermaelen at left back. But then again, that means the SAME  four defenders would have to play every game.

I have said this many times in previous posts, but i honestly feel that if Wenger doesn't change and adapt his management style, our mediocrity will continue. We will be a top 4, top 6 team, maybe pass the group stage at the Champions League but that's about it. I don't think we should let Wenger go, but HE should stop repeating the same mistakes he always does and then give us the same bulshit excuse: "We were a bit tired today; We lacked sharpness and focus; But our attitude was great and i can't ask for more from my players". Fuck man, i am tired of bulshit. Enough for today.

p.s.I don't support the idea of bringing in a new coach that spends like Chelsea and Man City because we don't have sugar daddies like they do. And i do feel that many players nowadays are unrealistically overpaid. I like the way we run our wage structure and so on, but we must NOT buy and pay decent salaries to awful players like Almunia, Squilaci, Djourou and so on. And we also have to manage and use the good players that we do have, in a smarter/better way.  

West Ham vs Arsenal 1-3

Huge win for us today! Mostly because we have a tough time against physical teams in general and going a goal down today, doesn't make it any easier. Not to mention, despite a lot of possession in the first half, we barely had any clear chances until Giroud's equalizer. So from this view point this was a massive win for us!!! It redeems us a bit for the bad loss/performance vs Chelsea and it will also give this team a lot of confidence going forward.

The performance today was up and down. The possession we had during the game was great (69%). Even if we didn't create a lot in the first half, we still kept the ball very well and controlled the game. West Ham were counting mainly on high balls to Carroll and unfortunately that wasn't a bad tactic for them because we couldn't deal with him all game long. Defensively we were shaky the whole game and we continued to struggle with crosses. Nolan could have single handedly scored 3 goals against us today! At the end of the first half (46m) Carroll won ANOTHER ball from a cross and Nolan had the ball in his feet 1 yard away from Mannone. How he missed that, i have no clue. He then missed 2 more chances in the second half which could have been goals as well. Carroll missed an open goal header when Mannone stupidly tried to come out for a cross but simply got man handled. And for West Ham's goal today, Ramsey allowed to be passed by way too easily and then Mertesacker decided to guess incorrectly what Diame will do, instead of closing the distance to the ball and trying to prevent the shot. So, regardless of the result and the great win, let's not kid ourselves that we played well defensively today.

Individually i don't think the defenders had a bad game. It's the unit as a whole, that allows too many opportunities for teams to score against us. Jenkinson was great again today. Solid performance throughout the whole game. I would say our best defender this game. Gibbs was solid, hopefully his injury is not too bad ( i will speak about this at the end). Mertesacker as i mentioned, made a bad mistake for their goal but then had some very important blocks and tackles, one being the breakaway chance Nolan had in the second half. He also did well in the air, especially in the second half. So, good game for the German. Vermaelen has been a bit disappointing for me lately. Not that he had a bad game today, but he is just not as dominating in games as much as we are used to seeing him.

The midfield today was great with one exception. Yes, you guessed it: Gervinho! To be honest, i can't complain about him doing stupid shit with the ball today, because he was almost unnoticeable the whole game. I wrote after the Man City game, that the chance he missed in that game - on the right side, when he miscontrolled the ball, would have been converted and scored had Theo Wallcott been on the field; and i hope today is a proof of that for people who disagree with me! This doesn't mean that Theo never misses but he has a very high  %  of scoring when he is through on goal with 1 or 2 men to beat. And i do believe his finishing and decision making is better than Gervinho's. I also couldn't believe Wenger made a change in the 60th minute, that by itself made my day. Normally he waits until the 75th, so credit to him. Arteta was solid as usual, the way he has played this season i might as well even stop mentioning him every time, instead you guys can assume he had another great game working hard and being everywhere on the field. Ramsey, i guess got tired of me writing shit about him and had a great game as well. Fucked up big time for their goal, but other than that he was very active and had some great passes, nice to see a good performance by him. Cazorla was by far our best midfielder today. I am glad that he bounced back after the really bad game he had against Chelsea. Especially in the second half today, he was very dangerous. Had 2 shots heading for goal unluckily blocked by teammates; scored a phenomenal goal; gave an unreal pass to Giroud at the end of the game which the Frenchman should have scored. Great game for him! Podolski was great as well. I love how this guy works so hard for the team, today his crossing was off the charts. Gave a great ball for Giroud's goal; constantly was breaking on the left delivering good crosses in the box where Cazorla twice got his shot blocked. He also forced a great save by Jaaskelainen towards the end of the game.

Theo Walcott obviously had a big impact on the game. He didn't change our attacking strategy much, nor did he all of a sudden took over the game, but  he converted the first chance he had with a much needed goal at the time. I am really happy for him and i think he deserves to start more games for us, hopefully this performance will force Wenger to think about it. And finally Giroud. We can say that today was his breakout game performance. I personally think he should have done much better and scored at least one more goal, but the reason i feel this is going to be his breakout game is because he scored a great goal at a very important time for the team, which will give him a lot of confidence. The cross he got from Poldi was a tough one to connect with, making his finish look even more impressive! He showed a lot of hustle and desire today, and a bit of sloppiness missing a great chance to make it four after a great pass from Cazorla. Anyway, i definitely think his size and presence bring a different dimension to the team, so let this game be a starting block for many more goals from him.

Before i write my last thoughts on Wenger, i do have to mention that today's last 3,4 minutes of regular time and the 5 minutes extra time given, was the most comfortable i have seen our team in an away game of some importance in the past 3,4 years. We did a great job keeping the ball and just passing it around, compared to our really bad habit of just kicking the ball away, and then defending for our lives from crosses in the box which often ended up with goals against us, thus raising my blood pressure to immense heights.

As far as my thoughts on Wenger. I firmly believe that despite his undeniable genius of knowing what the fuck he is doing at his job, his rotational policy is absolute shit. I do hope Gibbs is ok and there is nothing wrong with him, but you can't expect to make only 2 changes per game when you play Wednesday-Saturday schedule and not have people get injured eventually. Champions League games are important but we have enough quality players to have a good rotation. The douchebag coach at Man U is super annoying but he is not scared to make rotations to his team, i give him big credit for that. Most recent example: Man U's team vs Tottenham you have Giggs, Carrick, Nani, Scholes and Kagawa. Champions League game vs Cluj you have Anderson, Cleverly, Fletcher, Rooney, Hernandez. That's 5 fucking players and that's how you should make rotations when you have a lot of games. I am sure having Santos, Walcott, Arshavin or Giroud start against Olympiacos wouldn't have hurt our chances of winning the game. Especially when you know Gibbs's track record of not being super durable.

So, we do have a lot to improve on, but today's win was very important for us, let's pray for no injuries during the International break and then it's time to spank Norwich! C'mon You Gunners!!!

Arsenal vs Chelsea 1-2

Even though it's hard for me to admit/accept it, we got outplayed and out coached today. Not that Chelsea were that much better than us, i actually think we have the capabilities to win this game, they just played better as a team, and Wenger came out with the wrong starting 11 which he has only himself to blame for.

Ramsey and Gervinho should have not started for us. After the decent game he had last week, today Ramsey was horrible. Made so many mistakes in his passes, his crosses were bad, he looked sloppy like he has been for most of the end of last year and the beginning of this season. Gervinho scored a goal; DID pass the ball at least 2 times to an open teammate, and had one good run to help the defense in the 26th min. Other than that he was invincible. Continued with his clueless dribbling today as he always does; gave away the ball in the 64th min which gave Chelsea a great chance for a counter and we got lucky they didn't score a third. I still firmly believe he is not good enough to play against the good teams, not until he learns to play quicker and combine better with his teammates.

Which leads me to my next point. After the good performance Giroud, Walcott, Arshavin, and Chamberlain had against Coventry, at least two of them should have started. I would have liked for Theo to get a start and hopefully build on his good performance on Tuesday. Giroud up front would have also helped because he could bother Chelsea's defense with his size. The only change Wenger made, was Koscielny for Mertesacker and you could argue that it backfired a little bit in the sense that Koscielny didn't have a good day. I understand the rationale behind it because Mertesacker is a bit slower, but he would have given us some extra height for the set pieces.

Talking about set pieces, both goals we conceded today were from free kicks. For the first one, our
marking was terrible. I spoke about that in my last post and today again, we didn't mark man to man
in our box. Even if Torres had not scored, we had no one even close to Luiz on that cross. If the last
two Premier League games don't convince Bould and Wenger that we have to start marking man to man on set pieces, i don't know what will. Our defending today especially in the second half was all over the place but that can sum up our performance as a whole as well. Too many times we looked a bit unorganized; not pressing as a team; offensively people were not on the same page.

Jenkinson had another good game, i can't recall to many attack going through his side. He was also constantly going forward and had some good crosses in the box. Gibbs was a bit more vulnerable today but also had a decent game. Koscielny as i mentioned has had better days, he didn't look very comfortable out there. Vermaelen was ok, didn't make any mistakes but wasn't as influential as he normally is.

Cazorla had his worse game of the season. Nothing was working for him today, he missed a lot of passes, wasn't as sharp with his decision making as he normally is. A few times during the game i saw him getting frustrated and giving up on chasing people. He also, dived a bit for a penalty and even though there was contact, he definitely over reacted. I already mentioned that Ramsey and Gervinho were useless. Diaby didn't play long enough to be judged. Chamberlain had some good moments, he had a great assist for our goal; had some good runs on the right. But he also made a lot of mistakes with his passes, gave away the ball plenty of times. The one bright spot today was Arteta. That guy continues to do most of our dirty work, joins the attack when he gets a chance, covers a lot of ground and shows enormous desire for 90 minutes. Podolski is the same way as far as effort and desire. He didn't have any chances in the first half, 2nd half he played better, forced Chech into a
great save and had some good runs on the left. I have no clue why Wenger took him off instead of taking Gervinho out. You know that if Podolski gets a chance, there is a great chance he will score. You also know that he will be pushing hard for 90 minutes.

Theo and Giroud didn't do much after they came on. But to be honest, after we conceded the second goal we never found our fluency until the end of the game. Giroud had a good chance at the end but it didn't go in for him. Again. So today, i really think Wenger messed up the starting line up but i also give credit to Chelsea. They were very organized when they were defending, and they made better decisions with the ball than we did. We looked a bit edgy and nervious, and when we finally settled down and looked like we can win the game, we let in another goal and that's all she wrote. Hopefully, today's loss will help Wenger realize that he has to rotate the team and make sure he keeps the right players on the field, not subbing Podolski in the 65th minute and leaving Gervinho in for all 90. Time to move on and get ready for the Champions League. C'mon You Gunners!!!