QPR vs Arsenal

A tough day in the office today, and i feel that we finally ran out of luck. In the seven game winning streak that we had, we got lucky more than once and won games that we didn't really deserved to win (the Liverpool game is a good example). So, today that luck ran out. QPR played a very solid game and were very organized but the game could have easily finished a draw or maybe a win for us if Van Persie had scored in the second half when he had a great chance and the score was still 1-1. To be fair, QPR were probably a bit better than us today, so when you add the fact that we were a bit unlucky as well, they got a deserved win.
In both half's we had spells of 10 - 15 minutes where we had good possession and we controlled the game but we never found our rhythm offensively. Our passing wasn't quick and sharp enough and besides one free kick from RVP we didn't create any chances in the first half until Walcott's goal. Both goals we gave away today were caused by defensive mistakes. I give credit to Taarabt for the way he scored, but if Vermaelen had not gambled and pressed him so high on the wrong side, he does not get that big opening that he used to score the goal. I was impressed by Zamora and i think his physical play had it's influence on the mistakes we made in the back. He is a big and strong guy and they kept passing long balls to him which he controlled pretty well and was putting Koscielny and Vermaelen under pressure throughout the whole game. Same with Mackie and Taarabt, they had very high work rate and created a lot of problems on both wings for us. After we went down 1-0, we still couldn't get anything going offensively and Walcott's goal came out of nowhere. Robin gave a good pass and Theo did well to score the rebound which wasn't as easy to score as it looked. Other than the goal and a few decent crosses from the wing Theo didn't have a good game. 

Second half we started well again and had a great chance when Robin was through on goal but wasn't able to score. I think that was the turning point in the game because had we scored, i think we would have held on and won the game. After that chance we didn't create much more and their second goal killed us. There is no question their pitch was a fucking "potato field" (we have a saying in Bulgaria about shitty pitches which translates exactly to 'potato field' in English) but we can't be sissies and we gotta learn to deal with that. Vermaelen slipped badly which allowed Mackie to set up their second goal. From then on, we tried to put them under a lot pressure but we never really created any real chances. 

Wenger's last 2 substitutions puzzled me as well. I get why Gervinho was brought instead of Ramsey but to put Oxlade instead of Arteta and Chamakh for Gibbs make absolutely no sense. The Ox ended up playing in deep midfield role and we basically asked Vermaelen to play both left back and center back (I am sure Song was supposed to drop back to center back and Vermaelen play the left back, but what's the point?). If you are going to put Oxlade in, take Walcott out and if you gonna put Chamakh in, take either Rosicky or Arteta out, but not fucking Gibbs. To summarize, we didn't play a good game at all. I can't really point out even one player and say he had a great game. Song was trying hard but his final pass was lacking; Rosicky was active but also didn't create anything; Ramsey was almost invincible but so was Gervinho when he replaced him; Robin did set up Theo for the first goal but also wasted a great chance but he didn't have many others; Theo as i mentioned earlier didn't do much besides the goal and a few decent crosses. Probably Arteta and Koscielny were our best two players. Arteta put a tremendous amount of work covering defensively when Vermaelen and Koscielny would go forward. Koscielny did well while under pressure from Zamora for big parts of the game. Vermaelen is a warrior and never backs down but he had two bad mistakes today and i am sure he will be unhappy with his performance. 

And before i go, i do want to mention Joey Barton who is still the same diving/acting/cheating/provoking piece of shit that he has been his whole career. Even though we didn't do anything stupid against him today, he was still diving and simulating any chance he got.

Unfortunately, as i predicted in my last post we have tough games coming up. I do hope Spurs will make some mistakes but i don't think it will happen. So, we really need a W against Man City next week if we want to keep third place and even fourth because if we lose, Chelsea would be only 2 pts behind us. C'mon You Gunners!!! 

Arsenal vs Aston Villa

First, i want to apologize that i didn't write about the Newcastle and the Everton games. Both games were during the week so i wasn't able to watch them completely because i was at work. I saw highlights of both and quite a bit of the Everton game but i didn't want to write blog entries based on highlights. I was really happy with both wins, and you can see how important they were, now that we are 3 pts ahead of Spurs!

Today was another great result for us. The thing i didn't like is that we had too many breakdowns defensively and Villa had more than 3 or 4 good chances to score against us. The first two were both runs by Albrighton on the right and he could have done much better with both of these chances. He had huge amounts of space and had he done a better job Villa would have been up on us because the score was still 0-0 at this point. We had at least two more bad defensive mistakes in the first half, and twice in the second half when Weimann should have scored as well. Some of those mistakes were caused by Gibbs pushing up the pitch and no one covering for him at the back and the rest were sloppy giveaways in our own half, like Santos's mistake for Weimann's first chance. All i am saying is that defensively we didn't have a good game. Having said all that, once i heard Djourou will play in the back because of Koscielny's injury, i was crushed because he is an absolute clown. To his credit he had a decent game. He didn't have any major fuck ups as he normally does, so good for him! That doesn't change my opinion that he sucks and Miquel should be playing ahead of him.
The one defensive aspect of our game that we have done a better job in the last few games is pressing better on the ball. It's still not great but compared to what we normally do, last 3,4 games we have pressed the ball great!

Defensive blunders aside, in midfield and attack, i thought we were great! We created a lot of chances; we looked threatening most of the time; had some great combinations and scored a great 2nd goal. The pass from Song and the execution from Walcott were top class. Theo has really played better in the last 5, 6 weeks. He is making better runs and positioning himself much better on the pitch. And he needed to start playing better because he had a patch where he was under performing for a number of games in a row. Rosicky was great, very active and had a great shot on goal blocked by Given. Gervinho didn't have a spectacular game but gave a good pass for Gibbs's first goal and on at least 2 important occasions he tracked people back and helped defensively which was great to see. Robin had a decent game, he was a bit unlucky not score today but i don't mind seeing different goal scorers on the board from time to time. Arteta scored a beautiful goal and had another great shot blocked in the first half.

So, overall it was another great win for us. I would have enjoyed it much more if we had not allowed Villa so many chances but at the end of the day a 3 goal win is always good. Now we are 4+ goals on Spurs in the goal difference department as well as 3 pts ahead. We have to be careful though, because i looked at the games we have left and Tottenham have easier games than us until the end of the season, so this will be a dog fight!The next 2 games at QPR away and City at home will be very very important for us. If we can keep the distance between us and Spurs after those 2 games, we will have a good shot for 3rd place. Not to mention that i would love for us to end City's title dreams by beating them at our house, so those stupid traitors Nasri and Clichy will win 0 trophies after they left "to win trophies". C'mon You Gunners!!!

Liverpool vs Arsenal

To those of you who have read this blog more than once, it might seem that i am a grumpy motherfucker who is never happy with Arsenal's wins but believe me: It's not true. I was ecstatic both this Saturday when we beat Liverpool and last week when we beat Tottenham. As a fan i am always happy to see my team win!

But as a blogger and a person who really wants their team to be one of the best, i can't say that we deserved to win against Liverpool, heck, even a draw would have been too much for us the way we played most of that game. As i watched the first half, i couldn't believe how disorganized and sloppy we were with the ball. We couldn't keep possession (the one thing we do well even when we suck) partly because Liverpool were doing a great job of pressing us as soon as we got the ball, and our defense was being toyed with for most of that first half.

What drives me nuts is that Wenger can obviously see what's happening (this is his quotes after the game) " Liverpool had a very good first half and we were not in the game - what was flattering for us was to be 1-1 at half time.  Liverpool played with a rhythm and pace above us in the first half and our fluency was not there at all, we gave them too much room.  ". Let me re-read the second line: "we gave them too much room". We give too much fucking room to everyone we play against!!! This has been our problem for so many years and if he can see it, it would be nice for him to do something about it. I took some pictures in the second half of the game because i couldn't take it anymore. In the first half, Downing was firing crosses from the left non stop and Sagna (who actually had a good game) would just give him room to keep crossing the ball with no pressure on him whatsoever. How hard is it to close the distance and not allow a guy who is good at crossing to cross the ball? Even when Liverpool had possession in our half of the pitch we would still sit back a few feet away from them and wait for them to pass the ball around. Because i couldn't take it anymore, in the second half i took the pictures below:

This is Vermaelen in front of OUR penalty area being pressured by Henderson, he passes to Koscielny...

...and Kyut is already there closing down on him. The result was that the Koscielny kicked the ball forward and we lost posession...

...now compare the above picture to this: the ball is in our OWN half and look at the room Diaby has given to the guy with the ball...

76th minute - we are still not closing down on opposing players who are about to cross the ball, can Henderson have any more space to cross?

My whole point is that, too many times we allow teams do have space and time on the ball instead of closing them down. That creates pressure on our defense and if we weren't so lucky this Saturday we could have lost 3 or 4-1. So yes, i am very happy we got an ugly win but our luck won't last forever.

I was really disappointed with Benayoun, Rosicky and Arteta. The last two had a great game against Tottenham, and on Saturday they couldn't string two or three passes in a row. I expect more from senior players like them, not one good game and then a complete meltdown. Benayoun was even more disappointing   to me because he started a 2nd game in a row (most of us think he needs more games to show his true potential) and not only he didn't improve from the previous game but he was unnoticeable the whole game. Theo was not great either. Szczesny was the man of the match with Van Persie right next to him. They both played great and gave us a win we didn't deserve. I definetely want to mention Sagna's cross for the first goal because i always bash his crossing, i hope he keeps proving me wrong. And Song deserves mention for another creative pass, for a defensive midfielder he keeps showing great touch and vision in the final third.

Last but not least: i really hope Wenger makes some changes for the AC Milan game, these 11 guys are tired and some of them injured, we need some fresh legs and this is a great opportunity for guys like Miquel and Park to step up. Hopefully Djourou won't play because we don't need clumsiness on the field on Tuesday. Huge game against Newcastle coming up as well. C'mon you Gunners!!!