Arsenal vs Liverpool

Well, when it rains it pours, right? I actually think today we played a really good game until the sending off of Frimpong. We were wayyyyyy better defensively than we were against Udinese. And just for the record, i am tired of hearing people talk about the Udinese game and how we kept a clean sheet so the defense must have played well. We got lucky not to get scored on in the Udinese game! We were very poor defensively, had huge gaps in the back and they missed tons of chances. So that clean sheet was more lucky than deserved. Today on the other hand i thought we looked really solid in the back regardless of the fact that we lost the game.

Now, just for the record: Frimpong is a stud!!! He was a little too pumped up (which is normal at 19) for the game and that's why he got two unnecessary yellow cards, but the kid can play. Showed so much desire; made some great runs through the middle; was all over the midfield for most of the game and he is not scared to take a shot. He also has good control over the ball and doesn't panic.

Miguel also had a good game. He was really unlucky for the own goal of Ramsey, other than that i think he looked great. Same goes for Jenkinson: he covers a lot of ground; definitely has a better cross than Sagna (who doesn't); and overall didn't make many mistakes. Gotta give props to Sagna for playing left back as well. He ran his usual mileage but did a great job considering the left side is not his favorite spot to be.

                                                          
Vermaelen was his usual great self! I can't say enough about him. He won almost every ball against Carroll and he is half his size. Made some great interceptions, went forward a few times and had a good shot a bit wide from the goal. I don't want to even think what our defense will look like without him. He is also one of the best leaders on the team.

The first 20 minutes we didn't look that good, Liverpool were all over the pitch, pressing and making us miss a lot of passes. After that i think we settled down, had a few good attacks, Nasri and Frimpong had good runs that finished with shots at goal. I thought between the 20th until the sending off of Frimpong we played better than Liverpool. The one thing that still bothers me and i have mentioned this millions of times, we still can't press properly. So many times today, either we are not pressing as a team and certain players are just pressing by themselves; or we will press but when we get to a few feet from the opposing players we will stop and wait for them to pass instead of closing them down and really put pressure on them.

Offensively we are still missing that final pass. Van Persie had only one good chance and that was after a foul by Arshavin that wasn't called. The rest of the game he didn't see the ball much. At least today players were shooting the ball more than usual and i like that. Much better than playing "1001 nights" (a.k.a passing the ball forever until we fuck it up). The two guys i was really disappointed with were Walcott and Arshavin. I am already used to Arshavin playing shit almost every game. He probably made around 88 mistakes today. Gave away the ball; missed his final pass; had one good cross for the whole game and that was it. Ran a lot at times (surprising for him) but ran with no purpose and usually after he lost another ball. Walcott on the other hand is usually playing well but today he was nowhere to be seen. Didn't have his usual  breakout runs on the right; almost had no chances and his crosses were not on target. Very poor performance by him. Ramsey didn't have a great game either. Was very unlucky on the own goal but overall didn't create much. The one thing he always has is effort though and i give him credit for that.

So, what's the verdict on Arsene? I think the one thing that we saw today was that the young guys have the quality that he is talking about. But that doesn't change the fact that they are all YOUNG! Great example is the red card of Frimpong today. If that was a more experienced player, he probably doesn't get sent off today. So even though i agree with Wenger that he has quality in his young guys, he HAS to realize that he needs to buy some players that can help those young guys and guide them instead of counting on 18,19,20 years old players to win important matches for him. To be a great team you have to have the mix between experience and youth. Jose Enrique is a guy we could have bought from Newcastle and he would have been a good fit for us. Instead, Liverpool bought him and not only he had a great game against us today, Wenger had to use Sagna as a left back. You still think we don't need to buy anyone Arsene? So, i am really hoping we somehow squeeze past Udinese on Wednesday and after that we buy some players!!!

GO GUNNERS!