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.