Arsenal vs Aston Villa 2-1

Same old story today. We squeezed out a win, but the problems are still there. As much as i am happy about us getting a result, i feel we continue to be very, very naive defensively. I really don't know how things are going to change until Wenger is in charge. I hope i am wrong about this, but even getting to top 4 this year won't change my mind.

We started the game pretty well and put Villa under pressure, so Cazorla's goal was well deserved and at a great time for us - nice and early in the game. Unfortunately, the rest of the first half, the game was back and forth. We got caught with counters more than once. Wilshere, Diaby and Cazorla on three different occasions gave the ball away pretty sloppily and each time Villa were lightning fast on the counter. All three times they had decent chances to score. During those fast breaks Monreal was beaten pretty badly twice. Unlike fat ass Santos, Monreal is fast, he just got caught pushing pretty high up the pitch, and once he was beat, they had a lot of space on his side. Going forward, we had some good attacks but when the cross across goal would come, no one was attacking the ball. Giroud was guilty of that throughout the whole game.

The second half we were more in control, kept the ball for longer periods of time and really put Villla under a lot of consistent pressure. Two times we had good attacks ruined in the last moment. The first chance Cazorla had the ball at the edge of their penalty area and Theo was free to his left, but he didn't give him the ball. A bit later Giroud got the ball on the left side and should have just teed Wilshere up, for an easy tap in, instead he shot the ball out of the stadium. Ironically, even though we played better in the second half and Villa had less chances, they still caught us on the break and Weimann scored with a shot that Szczesny should have saved. The goal shocked us a bit and for about 5 minutes Villa had another chance to score, but eventually we settled down and a great combination between Wilshere and Monreal was finished by Cazorla the way Giroud should have been attacking those crosses all game long. We hung on until the end and got a great win, but we were less than impressive today.

 
As i mentioned earlier defensively we were shaky the whole game (what's new). Interesting enough, the defenders individually had a pretty good game but as a team we weren't organized enough. Jenkinson really impressed me today. He was our best defender by far. What was so impressive about his performance was that unlike last game he played, he wasn't throwing himself in stupid, dangerous tackles, instead he was running with his man and pressuring them until he would win the ball cleanly. That was great to see and he did it on more than one occasion in both half's. Going forward he did well as well and had some good crosses not taken advantage of. Mertesacker was solid and he has played much better in the last few games. His lack of pace and his questionable physicality hasn't been very evident lately. Vermaelen was solid as well and had a good game. Monreal was caught a few times and Villa had breaks on his side of the pitch, but he was working hard and gave a great pass to Cazorla for his second goal. Szczesny conitnuies to play shitty and that won't change until Wenger makes him realize that if he keeps messing up, Mannone will take his spot.

The midfield and attack weren't that great today. We did a lot of attacking with very little end product. One of our weakest areas is that we get people running on the wings and crossing balls but no one is attacking the goal line trying to tap them in. Diaby had a decent game, but it looked like he got injured AGAIN. Arteta did ok as well, nothing great, but not bad. Cazorla and Wilshere were our engines today. Cazorla was outstanding and his work rate was very good. He scored two great goals and was constantly attacking Villa's defense with shots and crosses. Wilshere was energetic as usual, some of his final balls weren't great but his pass to Monreal just before Cazorla's second goal was great.

Wallcott had a tough game. He wasn't getting a lot of service, but he worked really hard and was a threat on the wing. He had some good crosses, but as i said earlier: no one attacks the penalty area aggressively enough to take advantage of our crosses. He also put a corner kick on top of Giroud's head and with no one around Giroud hit it right at the goalie. Speaking of Giroud, his shitty form continues. He is so up and down and that's very frustrating. He can have great performances and get us all optimistic about his skills and then he has couple of games in a row when he is complete shit. The fact that he doesn't attack the penalty area enough is alarming because that's what true strikers do.

We will take this win today, but next week will be a good check up for us. If we continue to defend shitty, expect problems at White Shit Lane.