Tough one today. And this post will be a bit longer than usual because there are a lot of things that need to be discussed. Let's not kid ourselves: The Premier League has changed and that's a fact. You no longer have teams who are happy to come play the big teams and hope they go home without being embarrassed. With the amount of new coaches that are in the League, half of the teams in it, are playing the style of football once only Arsenal was known for: a lot of possession; quick one touch passing; always looking for open spaces and trying to be creative up front. To be successful with that type of football you need to do two very important things well: 1) be quick and decisive going forward ; 2) defend as a team and press the opposition EFFECTIVELY, so you can get the ball back or limit their chances. And as crazy as this sounds, i think we are not/haven't been good enough in both of these aspects of the modern game!
On point 1) I am curious to see, when you look at our possession numbers per game, how many of the successful passes we make are backwards to our defenders and goalkeeper; and side to side between the defenders. I bet you, that it's very high. Most teams that we play, allow us to have the ball, but as soon as we get into their half of the pitch, they press us hard and we end up passing the ball back between our defenders. By doing that, we create the illusion that we are controlling the game but in reality we are not creating any real chances. Our attacks take too long to develop and very often they finish with a cross in the box, which in a game like today when Giroud is on the bench, comes to the likes of Cazorla and Gervinho who are not good headers of the ball. When you combine this with the fact that a lot of teams are also getting better at keeping possession, our chances to score per game are very limited.
The picture bellow illustrates how well Swansea are putting us under pressure as soon as we get into their half of the pitch. Almost every Arsenal player is covered and being pressured by a Swansea player:
Now, on my second point that we don't defend as a team and press effectively, you can look at these pictures bellow:
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| We have three players around Yueng but everyone is looking at him and the ball and no one is closing him down... |
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| ...2 seconds later he in the middle of our own half and still there is no one close enough to him, to prevent him from passing... |
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| Here Michu is on the ball, deep in our half. We have 4 of our players standing in a semi circle and 2 Swansea players next to Michu with no one pressing him OR covering them.... |
Don't get me wrong, i am not saying we are not trying to press the opposition and win the ball back. A lot of times, we TRY. But we do it in an unorganized way: 1 person is running around, chasing the player with the ball while the rest are watching. The opposition passes the ball a few times, our player gets tired and says "fuck it, i am done running for now". We need to get better at pressing as a TEAM, where when one of our players is pressing on the player with the ball and the rest of our team has covered every opposition player who is nearby, thus forcing them to kick the ball away or pass it to the goalkeeper.
I really don't know if Wenger is the coach who will help us achieve that. For the past 10 years we have never, ever, pressed well as a team. We used to compensate for that by being good offensively. But now-days when teams are organized, they limit our chances and we become an average team that a lot of times runs out of ideas. The scary part is that i thought today, Wenger had the line up correct except for the fact that Gervinho was playing as a striker. He even made the changes early enough and brought in the correct players: Giroud and Oxlade. So, tactically he didn't fuck up the starting line up that much or his changes. That brings me back to the two points i made in the beginning: we are NOT good enough defending as a team; we are NOT good enough going forward. The last two games, both Everton and Swansea looked much sharper in their attacking style and the one touch passing, than we did.
The only solution that i see for us is to:
#1 Get better at defending in an organized way
#2 Start playing more decisive in attack by using quick passes and one touch football
#3 Stop signing and get rid off shitty players like: Squilaci, Fabianski; Denilson; Djourou, Santos and Chamakh and not to forget Gervinho! Ramsey needs to go too, UNLESS he stops being so sloppy and casual with the ball and starts taking accountability for what he is doing on the pitch. I like Diaby, but "i have played" more games for Arsenal than he has.
#4 BUY or bring back from loan, a few good players in important positions: (left back to cover for Gibbs; defensive midfield to give Arteta a breather once in a while (Frimpong); another striker to rotate with Giroud or move Walcott to striker; even another right back, if you don't re-sign Sagna).
#5 Get rid of Gazidis or slash his salary in half, maybe then he will start thinking about what's important for the team and not only about profits!
I really don't know if Wenger is the coach who will help us achieve that. For the past 10 years we have never, ever, pressed well as a team. We used to compensate for that by being good offensively. But now-days when teams are organized, they limit our chances and we become an average team that a lot of times runs out of ideas. The scary part is that i thought today, Wenger had the line up correct except for the fact that Gervinho was playing as a striker. He even made the changes early enough and brought in the correct players: Giroud and Oxlade. So, tactically he didn't fuck up the starting line up that much or his changes. That brings me back to the two points i made in the beginning: we are NOT good enough defending as a team; we are NOT good enough going forward. The last two games, both Everton and Swansea looked much sharper in their attacking style and the one touch passing, than we did.
The only solution that i see for us is to:
#1 Get better at defending in an organized way
#2 Start playing more decisive in attack by using quick passes and one touch football
#3 Stop signing and get rid off shitty players like: Squilaci, Fabianski; Denilson; Djourou, Santos and Chamakh and not to forget Gervinho! Ramsey needs to go too, UNLESS he stops being so sloppy and casual with the ball and starts taking accountability for what he is doing on the pitch. I like Diaby, but "i have played" more games for Arsenal than he has.
#4 BUY or bring back from loan, a few good players in important positions: (left back to cover for Gibbs; defensive midfield to give Arteta a breather once in a while (Frimpong); another striker to rotate with Giroud or move Walcott to striker; even another right back, if you don't re-sign Sagna).
#5 Get rid of Gazidis or slash his salary in half, maybe then he will start thinking about what's important for the team and not only about profits!
A few words about the game today. We started slow and didn't create anything for the first 20 minutes. Once Vermaelen and once Szczesny had to save us from being scored on. We woke up a bit after the 25th min and we had some good attacks until the end of the half, unfortunately all of them finishing with crosses in the box. Vermaelen saved us again in the 30th min after making a great tackle on Dyer during a counter by Swansea. It was a high ball, kicked by their keeper, Michu won the high ball and set up Dyer who is lightning quick. This is how i envision using Giroud and Theo together: long ball, Giroud wins the header, Theo outruns everyone and scores. Too bad we rarely used them that way.
The second half we started very well and put them under pressure for the first 20 minutes. But that was about it. After that, Swansea regained their composure and even though Szczesny saved us again in the 83rd min, eventually they got what they deserved and scored. I thought Vermaelen and Szczesny were our best players today. Jenkinson had a decent game but made a bad mistake for the second goal. Mertesacker was also decent but a bit slow to react for their first goal. Gibbs was solid and put a lot of effort going forward. Cazorla finally had a good game. He was very active and took some good shots at goal. Theo and Wilshere weren't very effective today. Gervinho was useless and wasted the only good chance he had. Podolski was also pretty ineffective.
Hoping for better times to come, but the future looks average. I don't think we will make top 4 this year if we don't improve drastically.
The second half we started very well and put them under pressure for the first 20 minutes. But that was about it. After that, Swansea regained their composure and even though Szczesny saved us again in the 83rd min, eventually they got what they deserved and scored. I thought Vermaelen and Szczesny were our best players today. Jenkinson had a decent game but made a bad mistake for the second goal. Mertesacker was also decent but a bit slow to react for their first goal. Gibbs was solid and put a lot of effort going forward. Cazorla finally had a good game. He was very active and took some good shots at goal. Theo and Wilshere weren't very effective today. Gervinho was useless and wasted the only good chance he had. Podolski was also pretty ineffective.
Hoping for better times to come, but the future looks average. I don't think we will make top 4 this year if we don't improve drastically.
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