For me personally, our performance today was embarrassing! It starts with the coach who continues to annoy the fuck out of me with his decisions. If you play with 11 players vs 10 players for 75 mins you should be winning the game easily (we are not playing some European powerhouse team, that is super organized with 10 men). Or at least create tons of chances and maybe have a bad day and miss them. We didn't do either. The simple truth is that with a bit more luck Fulham could have come away with a draw from today's game which is fucking sad!
For those of you who didn't watch the game, Fulham missed a big chance in the 2nd minute of the game when Monreal made a risky sliding tackle and Manolev was free on the wing, his cross created havoc in our penalty area but we cleared the danger. The next 10 minutes we completely took control of the game and passed the ball around with comfort. In the 12th minute Sidwell got a deserved red card for a stupid studs up tackle in the middle of the field. After his red card you would think the game was done and we will tear Fulham to pieces. Nope. Fulham actually got more organized and created better chances for themselves after Sidwell was sent off. We, on the other hand went the opposite way: we were sloppy with the ball, we didn't create almost anything and we tried to pass the ball into their net. Giroud who was absolutely useless today, hit the bar in the 34th min and that was his only contribution to the game. Eventually, we scored from a set piece (who would have thought?), Walcott crossed the ball from a free kick, Koscielny jumped the highest and hit a decent header across goal, where Mertesacker tapped it in. We desperately needed this goal not only because we weren't creating anything, but because it would force Fulham to open themselves up.
In the second half things didn't change much. We had a lot of possession with very few chances created. Wenger didn't make any adjustments even though it was obvious we were struggling in a game which we should have been winning easily. When he did make his substitutions, he took out our best player of the day: Rosicky and Walcott (who didn't have a great game but was way better than Giroud). In came Podolski and Wilshere. Believe it or not, the closer we got to the end of the game the more threatening Fulham looked. We were panicking and giving up the ball too easy and Fulham kept attacking. We had a good chance in the 82nd min when Wilshere set up Cazorla, but he took too long and his shot was blocked. And since Wenger didn't sub him, Giroud did the whole team a favor and got himself a red card. I am not going to lie, i am happy he got a straight red card because that means Wenger will be forced to put someone else upfront for the next few games - something he was never going to do if Giroud was available. Fulham made one last push and had a few corner kicks that had us scrambling for our lives. Luckily, we survived and Ramsey should have made it 0-2 with the last kick of the game but he missed a good chance on the counter.
The defense today was shaky all day long. Our defenders kept getting caught out of position on Fulham's counters; we never seemed poised and organized at the back; towards the end of the game there were too many scrappy situations in our penalty area. Monreal had a bad first half. He missed an important tackle in the second minute which could have led to a Fulham goal, then in the 39th he got out muscled and lost the ball right outside of our penalty area. He did have a much better second half and made some very important tackles on a couple of occasions. Between him and Gibbs, i definitely think Gibbs is the better player: more physical, a bit faster and a bit stronger, he is also a bigger threat going forward. But i am glad we have Monreal too, because we all know Gibbs gets injured a lot and Monreal is a good cover for left back. Mertesacker scored a very important goal but many times today he looked a bit slow to react and out of position. He did win a lot of high balls though, but that should be a given with his size. Average performance from him. Koscielny also wasn't at his sharpest, during their counters, at times he got confused as to who is he supposed to cover. He did set up Mertesacker's goal and had some good tackles as well, but all around average performance from him as well. Sagna, just like the rest of our defenders, was average. He had 0 successful crosses until the 63rd minute when he made one! I still don't understand why Jenkinson doesn't get any games, oh wait, i do: Wenger is our coach.
The midfield wasn't much better than the defense today: average. After all my praises for him on the last post, Ramsey had a shitty game. Missed a lot of passes, wasn't sharp going forward and missed a great chance to score at the end of the game. Cazorla was not very good either. He started on the wing again but was drifting to midfield much more. Still, his passes were a bit off today and he wasn't his usual precise self. Arteta also wasn't great, he didn't do much to help us create more openings going forward. Rosicky was by far our best player! He was constantly looking to run at defenders and create space for his teammates. His passes were spot on for the most part and unless his leg was hurting, i thought taking him out of the game was the dumbest thing Arsene could have done. Wilshere came in and had some good passes, most notably setting up Cazorla in the 82nd min. Too bad we were defending a lot when he came on, so he couldn't have that big of an impact on the game.
Giroud, as i mentioned earlier was fucking useless. Every time he gets bumped in the back, he falls as if someone hit him with an axe. For a big guy, he acts like a pussy. He did hit the post in the 34th minute but that was about it. The rest of the game he was taking up space. Walcott didn't have a great game but he was crossing the ball well and if he was put on top of our attack so we can use his pace when we counter maybe we would have had a goal or two more. Podolski had zero impact after he came on, but then again, by that time were trying not to lose the game instead of trying to score more goals.
So, today was a big fucking disappointment. I feel that the whole team was flat, didn't play with enough energy and concentration. Wenger should have taken Giroud off at half time and put Podolski on the left and Walcott on top of the attack, this way we could have used his pace to open Fulham up considering they were a man down for 75 minutes. He should have made changes earlier than the 71st minute and this game should have been won with more than one goal. The fact that we had to bite our nails until the 94th minute is pathetic. The only good thing about today's game was the result.
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