I am definitely a bit disappointed with the result today. I felt Man U were very poor in the first half and we should have scored more goals or at least kept the score at 1-0, on top of that Wenger completely fucked up the substitutions in the second half. But, at the end of the day, i can't be too disappointed because we could have also lost this game.
Let me address the Wenger issue first. It's not the first time and it won't be the last time that i disagree with his substitutions. What amazes me though is that Arsene is a top class manager (or he was), but sometimes his game adjustments and substitutions are very poor. Today for example, he again took out Rosicky who was one of our better players during the game. I don't mind Wilshere coming in, but the guy who should have been subbed off was Ramsey. Ramsey's performance wasn't even close to Rosicky's, but it's almost as if Wenger is not paying attention to the game and watching who is playing well and who is not. Then he had the nerve to put fucking Gervinho on; and as a striker too! Not only Gervinho is NOT the quality impact player that can swing the game in our favor, you have to give Theo the chance to play up front and use all the space that was starting to open up towards the end of the game when both teams were going for it! And in his last substitution he finally took Ramsey out and put Oxlade in, but now Oxlade was playing through the middle where his pace was not really bothering anyone. It's as simple as this: Wenger should have taken Ramsey out and put Wilshere in his place; then Oxlade should have come in for Podolski - Theo goes to the striker position and Oxlade goes on the right wing. The third substitutions should have been Jenkinson for Sagna, because Sagna was getting frustrated and was lucky not to get a second yellow.
Let me address the Wenger issue first. It's not the first time and it won't be the last time that i disagree with his substitutions. What amazes me though is that Arsene is a top class manager (or he was), but sometimes his game adjustments and substitutions are very poor. Today for example, he again took out Rosicky who was one of our better players during the game. I don't mind Wilshere coming in, but the guy who should have been subbed off was Ramsey. Ramsey's performance wasn't even close to Rosicky's, but it's almost as if Wenger is not paying attention to the game and watching who is playing well and who is not. Then he had the nerve to put fucking Gervinho on; and as a striker too! Not only Gervinho is NOT the quality impact player that can swing the game in our favor, you have to give Theo the chance to play up front and use all the space that was starting to open up towards the end of the game when both teams were going for it! And in his last substitution he finally took Ramsey out and put Oxlade in, but now Oxlade was playing through the middle where his pace was not really bothering anyone. It's as simple as this: Wenger should have taken Ramsey out and put Wilshere in his place; then Oxlade should have come in for Podolski - Theo goes to the striker position and Oxlade goes on the right wing. The third substitutions should have been Jenkinson for Sagna, because Sagna was getting frustrated and was lucky not to get a second yellow.
The game itself started very well for us. Theo scored a great goal (even though it was offside) after a nice pass from Rosicky. Throughout the first half an hour, we were very aggressive with our tackling and shockingly that asshole Phil Dowd was fine with it. Not only that, but he kept booking Man U players like it was his job! I couldn't believe it. Not that i was complaining. We dominated the midfield and Man U were uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball. Unfortunately for us, we dominated pretty much the whole first half but the final ball to score another goal was missing. Slowly towards the end of the half we LET Man U back in the game. First, Mertesacker was wayyy up the pitch trying to intercept a pass and all of sudden Nani was flying on the left and put a perfect ball on the "traitor" (RVP)'s head. Szczesny made himself big and made a great save. A few minutes after that Man U put in another good cross, this time from the right side and Sagna made a great tackle on Jones to prevent him from a flying header. A minute later and all the good work from Sagna was wasted. First Bacary made a bad back pass and then he made an even dumber decision to tackle the "traitor" in the penalty area. The poor back pass was a bad mistake, but Mertesacker was covering behind Sagna and the "traitor" couldn't have done much more than maybe try a simple cross. I guess Sagna wanted to redeem himself, but instead, gave away a very stupid penalty and we went into half time at 1-1.
The second half was more even and there periods where Man U controlled the game. Both teams had chances to win it all, Rosicky and Cazorla were both close with long range strikes, on the other side Rooney and Giggs had opportunities to score as well.
The defense was decent today. I thought both Mertesacker and Koscielny played very well. They made some decisive and important tackles, especially in the second half when Man U were putting us under pressure. Gibbs was alright, he covered a lot of ground and was trying to go forward, but we rarely tried to attack from the left. Up until the 42nd minute, Sagna was having a good game. His crosses weren't great but they never are. Obviously the penalty he gave away was very poor. That affected his game and in the second half not only did he miss a lot of easy passes, he got away with some challenges that could have been a second yellow for him.
The midfield was OK. I was impressed with how we dominated the middle of the field in the first half. We still didn't find the final ball to take advantage of that. I thought Rosicky was our best midfielder for a second game in a row. He gave the pass to Theo for the first goal, he was very active and early in the second half came close to scoring with a good shot outside of the penalty area. I still don't understand why did Wenger take him out. Ramsey had one or two good moments in the game, but for the most part he was very disappointing. Consistency is still the keyword for his game. A lot of games he doesn't have it. Arteta was very good. He was a threat going forward and was constantly involved. He did a lot of defensive work too. Cazorla was average. He missed a lot of passes he normally doesn't miss. His final ball wasn't there but i have nothing against him staying on the field for 90 minutes, because he can change the game with one good shot/pass. Unlike Ramsey.
Up front we were decent. Podolski wasn't great and this is frustrating because we all know he is a very good player and then he gets a start today and doesn't do much. Tough to make an argument that he should start instead of Giroud, if he doesn't take advantage of the chances that he gets. Theo scored a great goal and did a lot of work on the wing, but a lot of times with no end product. Regardless, he was dangerous and was a constant threat. He should have been given a chance up front when Podolski came out. Defensively Walcott did piss me off a few times, when he was allowing way too much space for the Manchester players on the ball, instead of closing them down. Wilshere didn't have much of an impact, but neither did Gervinho and Oxlade.
So a point won, but three would have been better. Then again, we could have had 0. The battle continues and hopefully we can finish strong and win our last 3 games!
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