On days like today i can't stop asking myself: How naive are we as a team? It's just mind blowing to me how we can take the lead at the end of a game and then all of a sudden start making bad mistakes and hope that we get lucky and don't get punish for them. Today we didn't, but your luck can go only so far. Instead of pressing the other team at the end of the game and make it hard for them to create chances, we panic and get 10 players in our own penalty area, in hope that we can somehow clear the ball. When you add to that a misplaced back pass, you have all the ingredients for a disastrous end to a game which we should be able to close out without having to hold on for dear life. We did keep possession for 5 or 6 min at the end but right after the RVP goal and the last few minutes of the game it was the same old story of "everyone stay back and let's hope for the best".
I am sorry if i sound so pessimistic after a win but i can't close my eyes for things that keep happening all the time. You just can't get away with stuff like that against good teams. If we are honest, we have to admit that Sunderland pressed the ball 100 times better than us. They made it hard for us to pass the ball throughout the whole game. I only wish they do that so well against other teams (which usually doesn't happen). The bottom line though, is that when we don't have the ball we should press high up the pitch the same way they pressed us. Instead we let them (and other teams) just pass the ball around and do whatever the fuck they want.
Even though we had most of the possession throughout the game i never felt that we are sharp enough up front. The first goal was great: Gervihno is finally starting to realize that he has to pass the ball when other players are in better position then him and Van Persie scored a great goal. We had a few other good chances, most notably when RVP made an unreal turn and hit the post. But overall i never felt we are dangerous: a lot of times there is too much hesitation about the final pass. Sometimes guys are not on the same page about what they are trying to do. The crosses we were sending in the penalty area for half of the game were awful. And this is a good time to mention Arteta. As good as he played against Bolton and some of the other games we had, today he was fucking horrible! He took at least 2 or 3 corners and free kicks and could not kick a normal cross to save his life. Didn't do anything meaningful the whole game. He also appeared to refuse to let Walcott try to take a free kick and i was glad the second time around Theo just took the ball and the free kick himself. I was shocked when Wenger took Rosicky out, Rosicky played a much better game than Arteta and probably ran twice as much. I don't have anything against Arteta but i feel that he thinks just because he was one of the best players at Everton, his place is guaranteed at Arsenal and it shouldn't be like that. He should earn it, so if he is having a shitty game he should be the one subbed, not Rosicky.
With the exception of the pass for the Van Persie goal and one or two more good runs on the left, Gervihno didn't do much. Especially in the second half he disappeared completely. Walcott wasn't very productive either, but he also didn't have too many chances. Which brings me to my next point. I think that Wenger should change the system we have upfront. He should put Walcott on top of the attack, pull RVP to play behind him and put Arshavin/ Benayoun or Oxlade - Chamberlain on the right side. You know RVP can score but he is also a great passer so he would be able to do both playing behind Walcott. Theo is also a much better finisher when he is in the center than when he plays on the side. RVP would create more chances for him and i think we would be much more dangerous and mobile if we change the system we have.
I am sorry if i sound so pessimistic after a win but i can't close my eyes for things that keep happening all the time. You just can't get away with stuff like that against good teams. If we are honest, we have to admit that Sunderland pressed the ball 100 times better than us. They made it hard for us to pass the ball throughout the whole game. I only wish they do that so well against other teams (which usually doesn't happen). The bottom line though, is that when we don't have the ball we should press high up the pitch the same way they pressed us. Instead we let them (and other teams) just pass the ball around and do whatever the fuck they want.
Even though we had most of the possession throughout the game i never felt that we are sharp enough up front. The first goal was great: Gervihno is finally starting to realize that he has to pass the ball when other players are in better position then him and Van Persie scored a great goal. We had a few other good chances, most notably when RVP made an unreal turn and hit the post. But overall i never felt we are dangerous: a lot of times there is too much hesitation about the final pass. Sometimes guys are not on the same page about what they are trying to do. The crosses we were sending in the penalty area for half of the game were awful. And this is a good time to mention Arteta. As good as he played against Bolton and some of the other games we had, today he was fucking horrible! He took at least 2 or 3 corners and free kicks and could not kick a normal cross to save his life. Didn't do anything meaningful the whole game. He also appeared to refuse to let Walcott try to take a free kick and i was glad the second time around Theo just took the ball and the free kick himself. I was shocked when Wenger took Rosicky out, Rosicky played a much better game than Arteta and probably ran twice as much. I don't have anything against Arteta but i feel that he thinks just because he was one of the best players at Everton, his place is guaranteed at Arsenal and it shouldn't be like that. He should earn it, so if he is having a shitty game he should be the one subbed, not Rosicky.
With the exception of the pass for the Van Persie goal and one or two more good runs on the left, Gervihno didn't do much. Especially in the second half he disappeared completely. Walcott wasn't very productive either, but he also didn't have too many chances. Which brings me to my next point. I think that Wenger should change the system we have upfront. He should put Walcott on top of the attack, pull RVP to play behind him and put Arshavin/ Benayoun or Oxlade - Chamberlain on the right side. You know RVP can score but he is also a great passer so he would be able to do both playing behind Walcott. Theo is also a much better finisher when he is in the center than when he plays on the side. RVP would create more chances for him and i think we would be much more dangerous and mobile if we change the system we have.
Rosicky had a great game. He started slow and made some bad passes the first 20 min, but after that and especially in the second half he was great. Made some great runs through the middle; he was all over the pitch (one of the few guys pressing the ball); and didn't deserve to be substituted unless his groin was bothering him. Song was also great today, he covered so much ground. Got a bit lucky not get a second yellow at the end of the game but he contributed significantly both offensively and defensively. Jenkinson made a big mistake that could have cost us dearly if it wasn't for Szczechny but other than that i thought he was very good. He ran non stop the whole game. His crosses were way better than Arteta's and Sagna's for that matter. Even though he is not at the same level as Sagna yet, his crosses are definitely better than Sagna's. And besides that early mistake, he was solid defensively. Special note to Koscielny: this is the first time in a long time when i can't say anything negative about his play today. He was mistake free the whole game; looked confident and decisive; basically this was the first time i saw him play good enough football to start for Arsenal. When credit is due i give it. I hope he can keep it up. Mertesacker was also solid. There is no question he is slow but he gives us that size that we need, and he didn't make mistakes today either. I hope Gibbs is not injured again, because he was having a good game. Santos looks like he is very overweight. I pray that i am wrong and he is just tick but he didn't look like a fast guy out there. To his credit, he played solid and won a lot of balls one vs one, i am just worried about his speed because we can't afford more than 1 player (Mertesacker) to be slow in the back.
Arshavin and Benayoun both had an impact. They brought some life and mobility to the offense. I really feel Benayoun should be a starter. Every time that guy touches the ball, he looks dangerous with it. Arshavin also had some good touches, almost scored what would have been a phenomenal goal. I really think Wenger should shuffle the starting line up more than he does. I understand that he does that for Champions League games and Cup games but he should be doing more of it for the Premier League matches as well. Guys like Benayoun, Frimpong, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Miyachi, Park should be getting starts. I am not saying they should all be starting at the same time but our starting 11 always looks the same unless someone is injured. One of the things that Alex Ferguson (who i hate) does so well, is team rotation. Example: yesterday's game vs Liverpool which is a big game: Rooney, Nani, Hernandez, Anderson, Valencia which all started against Norwich, they were all on the bench against Liverpool. That's 5 players! When was the last time Wenger changed more than 2 or 3 of the starting players unless there was an injury crisis or too many games in a week? Not recently. I love Wenger and i think he is the right guy for us but it drives me nuts when he doesn't adopt things that can make him better as a manager! We all need to improve constantly regardless of the field of work that you are in. He should keep doing the things that brought him success but also keep looking to improve as a manager.
I almost forgot to mention Van Persie. He is the only reason why we got a win today. We didn't create enough chances; made mistakes defensively; didn't press the ball well; we were running out of ideas. So if it wasn't for RVP we don't win this game today and go into a deeper hole. Every team needs shitty wins like today but we need to improve our game if we want to keep winning. Because RVP can't carry the team every single game and he shouldn't. Bottom line: good result; important win for us; we still need to improve BIG TIME! Go Gunners!
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