Arsenal vs Liverpool 2-2

After watching the game yesterday, i am pretty sure every Arsenal fan is asking themselves: "How good can we be, if we could play well defensively"? I would say pretty fucking good! The way the team has played offensively for the past few games is very, very impressive. Quick one touch passing; moving the ball around from side to side; great runs on the wings; good through balls; we have basically done everything you could want from a team to do when they are attacking. There is one little problem: we keep playing absolute shit defensively and give away cheap goals ALL the time! This is extremely frustrating for me to watch because in the past we have struggled in attack, where we can't create chances and we just pass the ball around. We are finally playing very well moving forward and we can't take advantage of it, because we have guys making embarrassing defensive errors non stop.

There is no doubt in my mind that with the amount of chances we created we should have won yesterday's game. We started pretty good until we decided to give Liverpool a gift and go down 1-0. Suarez miss kicked a ball, Sagna slipped and fell, so Johnson crosses it, Vermaelen completely misses the ball and it goes to Sturridge who should have scored. Instead Szczesny made one of the few good saves of his night and the ball went to Suarez. If you read this blog last week, you will know that i mentioned Mertesacker being a complete pussy and being scared of the ball instead of trying to block it when West Ham scored against us a few days ago. Yesterday he did the same shit! This time i took a picture:

The guy is not even looking at the ball! He is too busy trying to turn his body so he doesn't get hit! That's fucking embarassing!

At least Sagna was looking at the ball and trying to block it. I have defended Mertesacker the whole of last year. I thought he needed time to adjust to the English style of playing and i also kept saying that we need a physical presence in our defense. The problem is that Mertesacker is anything but Physical! This guy is the SOFTEST big guy i have ever seen. Not to mention that he is slow! So i am going to have to admit that i was wrong, when i said that he is a good buy for us. I still think we need a big guy like him in defense but we need someone who is way more athletic and who can move!

Once we were down 0-1, we continued to be impressive going forward but we couldn't finish the chances we created. Meanwhile Szczesny and Mertesacker kept taking turns to see who he can fuck up worse than the other and we were lucky Liverpool didn't score more on us from our own mistakes. On top of everything, Gibbs got hurt and the genius Wenger put Santos in, instead of putting in Koscielny and moving Vermaelen to left back.

In the second half we kept pressing well and putting Liverpool under pressure but Henderson made both Mertesacker and Santos look like morons and then got a lucky bounce to make it 0-2. I give the team credit for not slowing down and  we got back into the game with two quick goals. First, Giroud scored with a good header from Wilshere's cross. Then he set up Theo with a little pass in the penalty area and Walcott blasted it past Reina for 2-2. Until the end of the game we had more chances to score, twice we caught Liverpool on counter attacks from their corner kicks but each time the finishing touch wasn't there. At the end, good old Santos decided to see if he can fuck us over single-handedly and gave away the ball to Suarez, who wasn't able to convert. 

After the game, Wenger said that we showed "tremendous spirit and that our team is top, top quality" - translation: we probably won't buy anyone even though we need a left back more than ever.

Besides his huge fuck up in the build up for Liverpool's first goal i thought Vermaelen was decent today. I can't say the same for Mertesacker. Besides the picture above, he passed the ball straight to a Liverpool player in the 26th min which led to a immediate counter. He was beat way too easily by Henderson for his goal. He is a liability, but i don't think Wenger will admit it and change him for Koscielny. Sagna also had fault for Liverpool's first goal, even though i am sure he didn't mean to slip. The rest of the game he was ok.

In midfield everyone was great today. Even Ramsey! He played further back than normal, kind of where Arteta plays for us and he did a good job. He was working hard, doing some defending and some attacking. He didn't make major mistakes, i give him credit for a good game! Cazorla was very, very good especially in the first half. Some of his through balls were amazing and Theo and co. should have capitalized better. In the second half he disappeared a bit but was also involved in most of the chances we created. Wilshere was good as usual. Always very active and always attacking with the ball. Gave a great cross for Giroud's goal.

Theo scored a great goal but also missed a lot of chances. One bad miss was after a great lob-pass by Santi, he wasn't able to control it quick enough and the danger was gone. Some of his crosses could also have been better but he plays with more confidence than before and doesn't allow the mistakes to bring him down. He is also starting to shoot with his left foot as well, and he was awfully close to scoring in the 69 min. Podolski had a good game as well. He created a lot of chances, and passed up some good opportunities to shoot to set up other people. Giroud was also very good. Scored a good goal and gave a smart assist for Theo's goal. He had a great chance to win the game for us in the 86min but couldn't get the contact needed after a great cross from the wing. He keeps scoring though and that's what we want.

I left Szczesny and Santos for last because they deserve special attention. Szczesny made some good saves but also had some horrible mistakes. He came out for a cross in the 27th min and was no where near the ball, luckily for him Podolski cleared off the line. Then he decided to dribble the ball after being pressured by Sturridge, lost it, and we should have been scored on again! I think that Wenger is making a big mistake by not giving Mannone any games (FA Cup is a good example) which doesn't create competition for Szczesny's starting job. Szczesny is getting sloppy and making bad decisions but there is no threat for him to get it together.

And finally our "top, top quality" left back: Andre Santos. I have written way too much for this clown and i am absolutely clueless how come journalists don't ask Wenger straight up "Why is this guy even on the pitch"? That's a legitimate question. Why is Santos playing for us when he is super slow? I am not talking average left back speed, i am talking every left back in the Premier League will outrun him easily. I know he can tackle but you need to be able to move. Not to mention his effort is rarely 100%. Look at the video below (make it full screen) and tell me if you think that this guy is running as hard as he can to prevent the Liverpool player from crossing....

Arsenal vs West Ham 5-1, Brighton vs Arsenal 2-3

 As you can tell i am a bit late with the West Ham post but the game was during the week, so i had to tape it and finished watching it today. I also saw the Brighton game for the FA Cup so i will combine both posts.

The good news is that we won both games. The bad news is: we won them in pretty different fashion. I thought the West Ham game was one of our better games this season, especially going forward. We had that fluidity to our attacking game; people were on the same page; playing great one-two's; attacking quickly using both wings; constantly creating opportunities to score and putting West Ham under pressure pretty much non stop. As i have said many times before, it all starts with pressing on the ball. I thought we did a much better job at pressing West Ham when they had the ball compared to the Chelsea game. On the other hand, they let us pass the ball around, which led to these constant threats that we created throughout the game starting in the 4th minute of the game when Ramsey gave a great pass to Theo and released him on the wing. The pattern continued throughout the whole game: great passes given by Wilshere, Cazorla to both wings, where Podolski and Theo were running riot and kept supplying good balls to Giroud and whoever else was willing to get into West Ham's penalty area.

I thought Giroud was very efficient today and i am glad he responded after the performance he had against Chelsea. Both goals that he scored were simple, yet not easy to pull off. In a way, the chance he missed against Chelsea was easier than both of the goals he scored today. Podolski was obviously one of our best players. He scored a great goal, and his assists for Giroud's, Theo's and Cazorla's goals were spot on!! Theo scored a good goal but with the amount of chances he had on the wing, i felt at times his crosses could have been much better. Then again, i have always said the wing is not his best position. Wilshere and Cazorla were great throughout the game. They were constantly going forward trying to open up space and create chances.

The negative part of the West Ham game was our defending at set pieces and crosses. Throughout the whole first half we looked shaky anytime West Ham was able to put the ball in our box. If you look at the goal they scored in slow motion, you will see Mertesacker turning his back and getting out of the way of Collison's shot like a big pussy who is scared to get hit. Last time i checked, defenders are supposed to block shots not hide from them. The good old German is incredibly soft for a man his size...

Defending aside, we had a great performance against West Ham and even our pressing was better. We just can't forget that the Hammers had a pretty poor showing, especially at making it hard for us to pass the ball. Any team that let's us pass the ball around at home will have a tough time.

The Brighton game today was much different. At first, i was really happy Wenger finally rotated the squad. Any day Wenger makes 5 changes to the team is a special day. If we count Vermaelen's injury, that's 6 changes compared to our West Ham line up. I have been asking for Jenkinson to get some playing time for the past few months. And then i saw, that Santos is playing! I would rather see a kid from our academy than that meatball on the pitch in Arsenal colors!! Even the half-time commentator on Fox Soccer Channel said that Santos is the WORST left back to EVER wear the Arsenal jersey. I agree 100%. If Wenger considers Santos part of the "we have 2 class players for every spot" statement that he gave for the papers over the weekend, he is fucking delusional.

Defensively we were fucking horrible today. Big part of that was the fact that Brighton were toying with Santos's side of the pitch. He was constantly outrun, out muscled, and crosses were coming into our box non stop. Our pressing was back to normal = non existent, so we had many uncomfortable moments in the game. Szczesny had a great save just before we scored our first goal. But then he was at fault for Brighton's equalizer, together with Giroud, Diaby and Mertesacker (our 3 tallest players!) which just stood there and watched  Barnes score easily from a cross. The second goal was very similar: Santos and Podolski stood on the side; gave plenty of space; and watched Barnes cross the ball and Ulloa had an easy header. Mertesacker had given Ulloa too much room and the Argentinian gratefully took his chance. Wenger finally realized that Santos had to be taken out and Gibbs came in. Once Gibbs came in, things settled a bit and we were able to close the game out.


Giroud had another good game. Both of his goals were top class. I hope he responds like this (4 goals in 2 games) every time he has a shitty game (vs Chelsea). His second goal was especially well taken. There is no doubt that Podolski is a great player going forward, but his defensive work is very questionable. He rarely closes players down, instead he prefers to stay 3,4 feet away from them and let them pass the ball. As i mentioned earlier, he allowed Barnes to cross the ball with no pressure on him, for Ulloa's goal. Taking two steps forward and putting the crossing player under pressure is not that much to ask for. I was so happy to see Rosicky back! I just wish he could stay healthy for longer periods of time. He plays with so much heart and passion, he makes it difficult to deal with him because he is always going forward and looks to be aggressive. Ramsey was OK, nothing special but at least he didn't suck. Same for Diaby, he wasn't great but his pass for Giroud's second goal was very well given. Oxlade didn't do much, i would like to see him be more effective on the wing. Mertesacker had a shitty game, especially at covering players on crosses. Santos doesn't even deserve to be written about. Jenkinson was very solid. Brighton were rarely trying to attack on his side, and even though he had a few bad passes here and there, overall he was great! Koscielny was solid and i want to see him and Vermaelen playing together and Mertesacker on the bench. I was also curious why Wenger didn't let Mannone get a game as well.

It feels good not to have to play an extra game for the FA Cup and get two wins in a row this week, but the problems are still there:

1) We are still vulnerable defensively.
2) We DON'T have 2 quality players for every position
3) Our pressing on the ball is up and down

The good news is that going forward, we look sharp and we can be very dangerous. The Liverpool game will be a good test for us. If Suarez gets the chance to play vs Mertesacker we will be in trouble! I hope Vermaelen is fit and Wenger is smart enough to realize that Suarez and Sturridge will rape the German. Koscielny and Vermaelen should be the center backs for this game.

Chelsea vs Arsenal 2-1

Word of the day: Ineffective. Description: "unable to effect or achieve the desired result with reasonable economy of means." Another description, this time by my words: running around cluelessly without any team organization or strategy. This is what we did for pretty much the whole first half of today's game!

Chelsea started brightly and put us under pressure from the get go. I have no idea what Diaby was thinking when he grabbed Ashley Cole in the first minute of the game, in the same manner as Koscielny grabbed Dzeko against Man City, but luckily for us, no penalty was given. Then out of nowhere, we put a great attack together, Theo gave a great pass to Giroud, and the Frenchman couldn't convert almost 1 on 1 vs Chech. 30 seconds later, Mata gets the same chance on the other end and we are down 1-0. I definitely think there should have been a foul against Coquelin in the build up for Chelsea's goal but if the referee doesn't give it, you have to get back in position. Sagna was nowhere to be seen when that ball was played to Mata.

And after we conceded this first goal, everything went to shit in that first half. We were so disorganized in our pressing on the ball that Chelsea were passing it around freely. We tried to put some attacks together but people were getting dispossessed of the ball and we were super vulnerable on the counter attack. First Vermaelen gave the ball away in the 12th min but good old Torres found a way to fuck it up. Then Diaby was too busy complaining and yelling at people where they should be standing according to him, instead of taking care of the ball, result: quick counter for Chelsea = penalty against Ramires = 2-0 Chelsea, courtesy of Lampard. 

The next 20 minutes we were (insert word of the day here) "ineffective". Even Wilshere was yelling at guys to press on the ball together but some people were pressing, others were watching, so we were simply running around chasing the ball. The picture below shows you how 4 players are standing and none of them is closing the Chelsea player down, he can take his time before deciding to who to pass the ball next.

Coquelin was one of the few guys who was running his socks off, trying to be everywhere. When we have no idea what to do, we simply pass the ball on the right to Sagna who delivers a shitty cross (70% of the time) and if the other team gets the ball, we are in trouble. That happened in the 35th minute and Ramires should have made it 3-0 instead of hitting it out of the stadium. Towards the end of the half we mustered a few chances but Walcott got caught in offsides at least 3 times. You would think, he would make an adjustment with his runs after the first two.

In the second half we started much better, played with some purpose and put some great attacks together. Mertesacker had a great chance after a corner, but he kicked the ball right at Cech, as hard as my sister (who is 100 lbs) would kick it. Then Wilshere gave a great pass to Theo who shot straight at Cech. Diaby continued to be sloppy with the football and Giroud continued to be useless up front. Finally in the 58th min, Theo was able to score after a great pass by Cazorla. Not surprising that he scored from the striker's position, running behind the centre backs, instead of coming from the wing. Right after that, Coquelin, who i thought was our best player had to subbed off and Ramsey came in. Once we scored, we kept putting Chelsea under pressure for 10 more minutes and that was about it. Starting around the 68th min, Torres had 2 great chances on the counter and missed them both. Unfortunately for us, we couldn't put a decent attack together until the end of the game, except for a bunch of corners which led to nothing.

I thought Sagna didn't have a good game; he got beat badly for the first goal, and in the second half, all of the chances Chelsea created were through his side of the pitch. Gibbs did a bit better and for the most part was able to come back quick enough after his runs forward. Vermaelen was up and down, gave away some balls at bad positions, but also saved us a few times, once denying Ba a sure goal towards the end. Mertesacker didn't make any major mistakes but he wasn't a dominant force in the back either.

I thought Diaby was awful today. Conceding the penalty for the second goal was largely his fault, because he lost the ball in the middle of the field, right after he was bitching at his teammates. His passes were off for most of the day and a lot of times he took too long on the ball. Ramsey who came in for him, did pretty much the same: gave away the ball a couple of times which led to counters for Chelsea. Wilshere was very active and was the guy who was always trying to press on the ball, without much help from the rest. He gave some great passes and created some of our best chances. Cazorla was poor in the first half but he was also forced to play further back than normal. In the second half, he was much better and gave Theo a great assist for his goal. As i mentioned earlier, i thought Coquelin was great today. Very active, very feisty, he was everywhere. I would definitely love to see him play more often.

Giroud was fucking horrible. I might be over-reacting a bit but i never felt he was a real threat today. In the 4th minute he blew the best chance we had for the whole game, and had he scored, it would have been a much different game. He was pretty much useless the rest of the match. Won a few headers here and there, but if you are going to sacrifice Theo and put him on the wing, Giroud has to show up and play much, much better than what he did today! Theo didn't play his best, but scored a great goal and was very active for most of the game. He also gave a great pass to Giroud to create that good chance in the beginning. If he had done a better job timing his runs in the first half, we might have had a few more scoring chances.

The bottom line is that we can't play shit for 45 minutes against Chelsea and expect a result. If Wilshere has to yell at his teammates to press forward, so we can press as a team, that means the coach hasn't done his job on the practice pitch and pre-game. Wenger needs to go, and the only problem i see is that guy we should have hired to replace him, just signed a contract with Bayern Munich. I think Pep Guardiola could have been great for us, but now it's too late. We are stuck with Wenger and the usual "we showed tremendous spirit and fought back; i can't fault the effort of the guys; we were a bit unlucky; blah, blah, blah". How about you teach them how to press properly, so we don't look like we are being toyed with? Oh wait, you have been doing this for 16 years and you know what you are doing. Sorry, i forgot. 6th place it is then, let's see if we can at least stay there.

Arsenal vs Manchester City 0-2

A bit tough to write a post about today's game simply because anytime you have 10 vs 11 for a long period of time like 60 minutes, the game is basically over. Which should not be an excuse for sloppy defending. If anything, when you go down to 10 men you should try to be super organized; play a bit more in your own half but still press the other team and look for any chance for a counter. That wasn't the case with us today. Obviously the game started horribly with Koscielny being sent off so early:

But luckily for us, Dzeko took a shitty penalty kick and we were still in the game at 0-0. Unfortunately, the following 10-15mins after the sending off, we looked panicked and sloppy with the ball. Milner scored a great goal after a brilliant pass by Tevez for 0-1, but City's second goal came after a bad mistake in the middle of the field and a quick counter attack. I feel that at 0-0 or 0-1 we still had a shot of staying in the game, but the first half we definitely weren't organized enough to cope with City effectively.

The second half wasn't much better, we looked really vulnerable at the counter-attack and if it wasn't for Vermaelen and Szczesny it could have been way worse than 0-2. When we finally got the chance to play 10 vs 10 after Kompany was sent off, i think everyone was too tired to do much. We still had some chances to at least score one goal but it wasn't to be.

Defensively, it was obviously not a great day. Koscielny should know better than to try to get intimate with Dzeko at our own penalty area. It was an obvious foul and the red card that followed put us in a pretty shitty situation. Everyone makes mistakes but i feel he should be smarter than that. Mertesacker came in for Oxlade but he looked a liability the whole game. I know he is slow but today he seemed super slow. Vermaelen had to mop after him the whole game. Maybe that's why Wenger send him forward the last 12 minutes of the game but let's be honest: it's not like Mertesacker will dominate as a forward either. Vermaelen was our best defender today and saved us from more goals. Gibbs and Sagna were better than Koscielny and Mertesacker but because of the amount of running they had to do throughout the game, there were gaps on both of our sides that City was running through.

The midfield was so so. I know it's hard when you are down to 10 men but we made too many mistakes with the ball. Diaby looked rusty but at least he managed 60 minutes without getting injured! Let's see how long that will last. Cazorla didn't have a good day: missed a lot of passes and more than once he was too busy holding his head and wondering why he missed the pass instead of running back and try to win the ball back. Wilshere was our best midfielder, he was everywhere and tried to carry the team on his back. I still feel sometimes he is too reckless with his body, but i guess that's the only way he knows how to play. Podolski wasn't great but he was trying to make some runs and cross the ball. Ramsey did ok, took too long on the ball at times but that's nothing new for him.

Theo missed the best chance we had to score at the end of the game. He shot the ball well, but Lescott blocked it at the goal line. He didn't have many other chances which was not surprising since we were down a man for most of the game. Giroud was disappointing. It took him too long to get settled into the game. He couldn't control his first touch and missed the best chance we got from a cross.  

As i said in the beginning, it's tough to judge how well we played since we were down to 10 men for most of the game. But i do feel we could have been more organized in defense and sharper going forward. The lack of impact players we have on the bench is obvious. We need some quality players to come in and we need Wenger to go. The sooner, the better.

Southampton vs Arsenal 1-1

Aaaaaaaaand things are back to normal. After we finally played a really good game against Newcastle, where for the most part all aspects of our team looked really good, today we were back to playing shit football and we deservedly got a shitty result. Except for the first 10 minutes of the game in which we started pretty brightly and our passing looked sharp, the rest of the game our performance was chaotic. The link in the middle of the pitch that our midfielders were supposed to create between our offense and our defense was non existent. The result was a constant loss of possession; very few chances for our forwards; and a lot of pressure on our defense.

The defense today was all over the place. We could have easily leaked more than one goal. Because of our inability to keep possession for long periods of the game, our defense was constantly under pressure. The first goal we conceded was an absolute joke in the sense that the ball should have been cleared long before Ramirez put it in the back of our net. Instead, all of our defenders looked panicked and the result was Southampton's first goal. Things didn't improve defensively in the second half either. We were continuously breached on the left side of our defense, and Puncheon was toying with our defenders. He missed a great opportunity midway through the second half when i thought he would score for sure, instead he  kicked the ball right at Szczesny. Regardless of the fact that we didn't concede a second goal in the game, our defense looked anything but solid. There was a sense of nervousness every time we had to clear the ball, none of our defenders played with enough confidence. I thought Southampton were running rampant on Gibbs's side especially in the second half. He was unnoticeable for large periods of the game and blew one of the few chances we created offensively in the second half. Sagna also got beat more than once throughout the game, same goes for Koscielny and Vermaelen. I can't say that any of our defenders played anything close to a good game.

Our midfield was also horrendous. As good as we played against Newcastle, today nothing was working for us in the middle of the pitch. You can count on one hand the chances we created for the whole game. We never controlled the game like we normally do. We constantly lost the ball in the middle of the field. At times the game was super boring today. Cazorla wasn't nearly as active as he was 3 days ago. A lot of his passes were a bit off. Same goes for Podolski: after a great game against the Magpies, today he was invincible. I can't remember even one moment where he was threatening to either score or put someone in a goalscoring position. Wilshere put a lot of effort, but was also largely ineffective throughout the game. He got a bit bruised with some tough challenges on him, but he never got into a rhythm as far as his passing. Arteta was doing his normal dirty defensive work, he had a chance to shoot at goal in the second half, but he was way off target. 

Oxlade- Chamberlain started brightly in the first half and was very active on the wing. He had a lot of runs on Southampton left side but his final pass was lacking. He slowly faded away in the second half and struggled with creating anything threatening. Theo also had a tough game. He didn't have a lot of service but the few chances he got, he didn't do much with. A telling sign about his and the team's performance, was a cross he attempted in the second half, where his cross went all the way into the crowd.

Uncharacteristically for Wenger, he actually made an early change and put Giroud in at the 58th minute. Too bad the Frenchman was super inneffective and barely made any impact. The game was as good as over, as soon as we put our "super subs" Gervinho and Ramsey. Gervinho's first job was to fall twice in succession with no one even close to him, he will be remembered with one shot at goal and that was about it. Ramsey didn't have any impact either which is not surprise for anyone. The fact that we count on Gervinho and Ramsey to turn around a game for us is straight up sad. Gervinho was hopeless and Ramsey has been really far from his best pretty much the whole season.

When you consider that we have pretty much no squad rotation, it is not surprising that this team is struggling for consistency. Unless someone gets injured, our back four stays the same every game. Even fucking Tottenham rotates their back four almost every game. When you look at our bench today, the only guy who i feel could have made a difference and give us a spark, was Rosicky. Apparently Wenger felt Gervinho gives us a better chance which is laughable. I have written about this before: every team in the top four rotates their squad constantly, thus ensuring that there are more than 11 guys who can contribute effectively throughout the season. Wenger is the only coach that if he could, he would play the same eleven the whole fucking season. The result is: a few wins here and there that give the fans some hope that we can compete with the top teams, but the reality is: constant  mediocrity as far as competing for a league title or any other trophy for that matter.