Huge result for us today! This was a must win game and i am very happy we got the result we needed because we almost threw it away, as we have done so many times in the past. The game itself was nothing to write home about. The first half was pretty boring with a few good chances here and there. Rosicky saved us from going a goal down with a goal line clearance and then put us in front with a great header. Towards the end of the half we took more control of the game and Ramsey missed a great chance to make it 2-0.
We started the second half pretty well and after Rosicky scored his second, it looked like it will be smooth sailing and an impressive away victory. Unfortunately Mertesacker had other plans. He gave away a very stupid penalty and earned himself a red card which put us in a horrible position. I would have rather seen him let the guy score than give away a penalty and a red card. What followed was complete tactical incompetence on our part. I swear to god, i have no clue why we are so naive and stupid when defending a lead, or playing with 10 men. We could not keep the ball on the ground to save our lives! As soon as an Arsenal player got the ball, he would kick the fuck out of it and then everyone will sit back and defend a cross after cross and pray for the best. Fabianski must have had 6 or 7 goal kicks in those last 20 minutes and not even on one of them did he pass the ball to a defender. Each goal kick was kicked straight back to West Brom so they can start another attack and put us under pressure. We do such a good job of keeping possession of the ball when we are going forward, or when trying to break teams down. As soon as we are under pressure to keep a lead, our passing game magically disappears. For those last 25 minutes of the game, we did not try to get a player with the ball close to the touchline, or close the their goal line and keep it there, waiting to get fouled or waste some time. Not even ONCE! I mean, which other team is dumb enough not to waste some time by passing the ball around, or trying to get a corner or a throw in? Fucking Giroud wins a ball, deep in West Brom's half in the 94th minute and what does he do? Take it to the corner flag and run the clock out? Noooo. He has to mother fucking shoot it at goal, so West Brom can get ANOTHER attack our way and make me bite my nails for 2 extra minutes! I am making such a big deal out of this because if Lukaku hadn't missed the sitter of the season we would have lost 2 points today. Long, also had a great chance to tie the game. I am not saying it's easy to play with 10 men, but i still don't understand how we can be so tactically incompetent when we get in those situations...
Anyway, i am still giving us big props for winning. This is probably the third or fourth game this season that we have gotten a very scrappy win and we never used to be able to do that! So that's a massive step forward, let's just hope it's not pure luck, but we are actually getting mentally tougher when we need a result. Debatable which one it is.
The defense looked pretty good today until about the 66th minute. That was when we first got opened up by a long ball and three minutes later was there was a second long ball pass that forced Mertesacker into a dumb decision and turned the game on its head. Mertesacker had been playing really well the past 4,5 games and on days like today you wonder what was he thinking? I know everything happens very fast and sometimes you just react instinctively, but there was no need for him to foul and get sent off. The worst that could have happened was for West Brom to score but we still would have been 11 vs 11 for the rest of the game. So i guess Per's streak of good games had to come to an end sometime. Sagna was decent most of the game, he got beat a few times on his side and his crossing was awful today. I thought Koscielny was good throughout the game. He had a few questionable tackles (one could have been a penalty) but overall he was pretty solid. Monreal was probably our best defender today. Last few games he was getting caught out of position, but i thought today he was spot on. Fabianski did good for his abilities. I don't think he is a keeper for the big stage and i think he is prone to mistakes but today he was pretty good. He should have saved the penalty and he also had a few shaky moments when he was trying to clear balls and didn't make good contact, but he also had some good saves. I still think Szczesny is way better than him, and had Wenger given Mannone some cup games maybe Szczesny's form wouldn't have dropped as much because he would have had some competition. Our goal keeping situation is not great mainly because Wenger didn't handle it correctly this season. But i really hope all these rumors about bringing in Reina or Valdes (please god, don't punish us like this) are false, because that would be the dumbest thing we could do. Szczesny should be our starter, Mannone and Fabianski should be given games so they can push him and make sure he is performing. And if he is not, i do think Mannone is a good enough keeper to be our #1.
There is no question who the man of the midfield and the game was: Rosicky! He had a great game and i love watching this guy play: so much energy; a constant desire to push forward, create chances, look for openings, or shooting opportunities. His problem has always been his fitness, and i feel we should keep him as long as we can with an year to year contracts. Arteta was solid today, he gave a great long pass to set up Gervinho who then assisted Rosicky for the first goal. Cazorla was good, not at the level he has been the past few games, but still very involved in everything we did. I thought Ramsey had a good game. The fact that he didn't piss me off even once with a stupid ball giveaway is impressive. He also assisted Rosicky for his second goal.
Gervinho was surprisingly effective today. He didn't have too many fuck ups and wasted opportunities, he gave a great ball to Rosicky for his first goal (although it looked like he shot at goal, but we will give him the benefit of the doubt) and as long as he doesn't waste chances for us, i don't mind him playing if there are no other options (which is not the case because both Podolski and Oxlade are better than him). Giroud continues NOT to impress me. The only memorable involvement he had in the first half was the back heel pass he gave to Ramsey which should have been a goal. Other than that, not much else. In the second half he was a bit more active, but still nothing impressive.
So, great win for us and that's about it. We continue with the good old pattern that Wenger has: if we win a game, we DON'T change anything at any cost, unless someone gets injured. So Vermaelen doesn't get any games, Podolski doesn't get any games, Oxlade doesn't get any games and Jenkinson as sure as hell doesn't get any games, UNLESS we get an injury or a suspension. I really believe that you have to have a core group of players that play the majority of the games, but as long as there is no huge drop in quality, everyone else has to be constantly rotated so you have a team that can compete on two or three different fronts and all these players get enough games to be sharp when they are needed.
Let's hope Everton can get a draw at Tottenham tomorrow and we can control our own destiny as far as the top 4 race!
No comments:
Post a Comment