I am sure every Arsenal fan out there is furious right now. Not because we played terrible game or had an awful performance. Because we (the fans) have been dissapointed so many years in a row, that at some point you start losing faith that you will get over that hump. Games like today's game at Stoke, are the games you have to scrap out a result and do whatever you need to do, to get the three points.
We obviously weren't able to do that. The performance wasn't all bad. We were pressing well for most of the game (which is usually one of our problems), but we were lacking speed and burst up front. This is why i was so surprised that Oxlade-Chamberlain did not start today. You know Stoke's defense is very organized and you need some mobility and speed to break them down. Not only Oxlade didn't start, but Wenger waited until the 74th minute to put him in. For the 20 minutes he played, he created more chances than the whole team did for the first 75 mins!
We obviously weren't able to do that. The performance wasn't all bad. We were pressing well for most of the game (which is usually one of our problems), but we were lacking speed and burst up front. This is why i was so surprised that Oxlade-Chamberlain did not start today. You know Stoke's defense is very organized and you need some mobility and speed to break them down. Not only Oxlade didn't start, but Wenger waited until the 74th minute to put him in. For the 20 minutes he played, he created more chances than the whole team did for the first 75 mins!
This is where i feel we are a little short in having a chance to win the title this year: our coach does not have that "it" factor when it comes to picking the right players to win some tricky games.That douche bag Mourinho starts Schurrle today for the first time in forever and the guy scores a hat-trick. I am not saying that he is a genius or knew Schurrle will score 3 goals today, but it seems that he always chooses the right line ups to get him crucial wins. In our case, it was obvious that we will need some speed up front today, but Wenger leaves both Gnarby and Oxlade on the bench which are two of our faster players going forward.
The team made some bad decisions on the field as well. Cazorla blew our only meaningful chance in the first half by being greedy and taking a shot when he should have passed to Podolski who was in a much better position to score. Too many times we would isolate Sagna on the right and he would just cross the ball and Stoke's defense would deal with it easily. Only when Oxlade came in, did our attacks become more dangerous. Giroud was isolated for large periods up front and when he did get his feet on the ball, he didn't do much. Wilshere and Rosicky were trying hard but weren't very sharp in their passing. Cazorla was dissapointing.
The team made some bad decisions on the field as well. Cazorla blew our only meaningful chance in the first half by being greedy and taking a shot when he should have passed to Podolski who was in a much better position to score. Too many times we would isolate Sagna on the right and he would just cross the ball and Stoke's defense would deal with it easily. Only when Oxlade came in, did our attacks become more dangerous. Giroud was isolated for large periods up front and when he did get his feet on the ball, he didn't do much. Wilshere and Rosicky were trying hard but weren't very sharp in their passing. Cazorla was dissapointing.
I do think the penalty decision was complete bullshit and Koscielny was unlucky to get a penalty for that, but you have to be able to deal with that and come back and win the game. Unfortunately for us, we couldn't and it really didn't seem that we had enough belief that we can score 2 goals in 15 minutes. Even a draw would have been a decent result considering the situation, but Sanogo missed a golden chance at the end created by - guess who- Oxlade.
On a side note: Charlie Adam is a piece of shit! He is a good player, but he consistently goes studs in at players and i have no clue how he always gets away with it! He stomped on Giroud today, he destroyed Bale's ankle a few years ago and recently he did the same to Paulinho (i know these tools are Spurs players but that's not the point). Someone should punish that fucker on video review or something.
Anyway, considering the games we have coming up, this is was a devastating result for us and i am afraid that we can easily go on a downward spiral and fall apart. We will definitely need all the mental strength and belief that we can muster. I am hoping this team will stay strong but i do feel that if we don't win anything this year, Wenger needs to go.
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