Tottenham vs Arsenal 2 - 1

I am not going to lie. Losing to fucking Tottenham always hurts. It wasn't any less painful today. It was a very important game for us and even a draw would have been a decent result and kept us at a 4 pt difference. Now, the gap is 7 pts and we should probably try to catch Chelsea first, before we worry about Tottenham. 

I wasn't happy with the starting line up. When healthy, i think Rosicky should start as many games as possible and i would have put him in, instead of Ramsey. Tomas is miles ahead of Ramsey in every department. I would have started Podolski as well and left Giroud on the bench. Theo would have played as a striker. I know that didn't work against Bayern, but that was the wrong team (very strong and physical) to put Theo as a striker. Walcott gives us that speed on the edge of their defense when he plays up front. Giroud can always come in, if we go behind and Tottenham close themselves in the back, then we could use his size.

I thought we started the game pretty well. We had plenty of possession in the first half and only the final pass was missing. Both team were playing a bit cautious and until the last 10 minutes of the first half there only one or two chances created. So after 35 minutes of pretty even possession, our defense cracked horribly. Twice. In the span of 3 minutes. Both goals were conceded in terrible fashion and all of sudden Tottenham were up 2-0 with very little done to deserve it. Sounds familiar? It should, because we have been doing this for many years now: giving away cheap goals and digging ourselves a big whole.

Even though we scored, i feel we were much more disorganized in the second half. We created a couple of very good chances, but we never got into a rhythm, it was more of a good pass here and there, or a bad Tottenham giveaway that helped us create those chances. On the other hand, Tottenham should have scored at least two more goals on their counter attacks with Bale, Sigurdsson and Defoe all guilty of missing great chances. To top it off, we got 6 minutes of extra time and we spent 4 of them just kicking the ball high in the air and wasting time trying to get possession of it. 6 fucking minutes and we can't be smart enough to put the ball on the ground and try to create something, as opposed to just kicking it high up the pitch and hoping for the best?!! It just shows you that this team is in a bad state mentally. There is no clear direction given from their manager and it translates to the players. I will repeat it again: Wenger needs to go! I will keep repeating it, until the club wakes up and lets him go. 

Defensively we started the game decent, but then it all went to shit. We were play a very high line defensively and that's not the smartest strategy against such a speedy team like Tottenham. One mistake from a defender and you have a one on one situation vs the goalie. On both goals we had people switch off at the back:

You can see above that both Arteta and Monreal did not follow Bale when he started his run. Arteta had more fault because Bale ran right past him and he should have done all he could to stay close to him...

...instead he looks behind and hopes there is an offside call given, but correctly there is none...Monreal is also appealing for an offside instead of trying to follow the runner.

For the second goal, the situation is very similar:

This time Monreal is the guilty party and not only let's Lennon run by him, but does not alert Vermaelen that Lennon is behind him...

....before Vermaelen knows it, Lennon is behind him...

 .....and we are down 2-0.

If you look at Monreal here, he is at the same spot as on the first picture. You would think he would follow his man instead of hoping that Vermaelen has eyes on his back and will pick Lennon for him.  

Even though Monreal was partially at fault for both goals, i am not accusing him. It's the whole defense that does not communicate correctly. Everyone should be on the same page as far as who is following the run of who, or which area is every person responsible for, if you are going to do zone defending. Either way it's a shame that we gave away these sloppy goals because Bale had not really troubled the defense in the first half at all. I thought Jenkinson had another good game and i have no clue why Wenger keeps taking him off and puts Ramsey at right back. If it's because Ramsey has more attacking potential as far as shooting, he should think again: Ramsey missed our best chance to equalize in the second half (79 min), after a superb pass by Rosicky! While he was on the pitch i felt Carl played very well, had some good crosses, and was rarely beaten on his side of the pitch. Vermaelen, Monreal and Mertesacker were all in the same boat: played well for the most part of the first half and then broke down for the two goals. In the second half we were pushing forward so the defense was understandably cracking during their counter attacks.

The midfield was up and down. I felt we had control of the game and we were passing the ball well in the first half. But after the two goals, until the end of the game, we never got a good attacking flow in our game. I thought Wilshere had his first average game in a long time. He was trying hard as always, but didn't have his usual impact. Arteta fell asleep for the first goal but did his best throughout the game to disrupt Tottenham's passes in the middle of the field. Cazorla was very active and was trying hard to create chances for us, but the finals ball wasn't there. Ramsey was average. I liked that he was very physical in the first half and was trying to bullly people of the ball. But going forward he was not sharp the whole game. As i mentioned earlier, he missed our best chance to equalize; he had some bad crosses; and after he got moved to right back, he had a tough time running back, which could have resulted in third Tottenham goal if they were more composed in front of goal. After he came in, Rosicky started a bit slow, but then gave some great passes to open Tottenahm up. Too bad the manager does not seem to think he still has what it takes to start the game.

Up front, Giroud was disappointing AGAIN. I don't remember him showing up for a big game. He was trying hard, showed desire, but the few chances he had - he blew. He got a good ball in the 9th min and instead of shooting quickly he waited too long and Vertonghen blocked his shot. He didn't attack the penalty area strong enough when crosses were coming in and that's the main responsibility of a striker! He did give a good back heel to Podolski in the 78th minute but Lukas miscontrolled it. Theo was active the whole game. Gave a good cross for Mertesacker's goal. He was trying to run at the Spurs defense at every chance but i feel he would have done that better if he was up front. At times he was isolated on the wing and wasn't very effective. 

The only change that Wenger made after the Aston Villa game was to put Ramsey instead of Diaby (because Diaby is hurt). Did we have a great game against Villa to prompt him to use the same line up? No. But that's what he does: if we win, same 11 stay on the pitch regardless if we have played shit or not. Only exception: when we have a few games in a week and even then he makes changes reluctantly. We will stay mediocre until Arsene leaves. I wish he could prove me wrong. But after 8 years, i think it's obvious that we need change. Michael Laudrup was a phenomenal player and as a coach has shown that his philosophy of how to play football is similar to how Arsenal wants to play. Offer him the job now, or at the end of the season and he will walk away from Swansea. Wait more, and he might not be available just like Guardiola is taken already.