Episode:10
By Steve Kessel
It is very hard to know how to feel after
Saturday’s game against Man U. I know
that for the rest of the day I felt thoroughly depressed. An emotion I saw mirrored on of the face of
my fellow Gooners as we tried to forget about the game by drinking and playing
pool in a dive bar in Detroit. Didn’t
work. I awoke the next day still
thoroughly pissed off and wondering how the hell we managed to lose that game!
It still seems inconceivable to me, Man U
had only two shots on target, one of which was saved and we lose 1 – 2. That’s
crazy, though not completely unexpected the way that results have been going
for us of late. Every stat was in our
favour, except for the one that really matters, the score at the end of the
game. At that is the main stat that has
not been in our favour this season. It
doesn’t seem to matter what we try, we just can’t build any momentum.
Let’s look at the game. We started very brightly and there is not
much to criticize about our first half performance. The one failing we did have was not
converting our chances, a problem we had throughout most of the game. Welbeck started brightly and definitely
looked like he had a point to prove.
Maybe he was trying a little too hard and thus lacked a little
composure. But as always he was
everywhere and showing great energy.
Jacks game was not right all day.
I can’t figure out what was going on with him in this game. After two great performances for England I
thought he would have a calm head and a wealth of confidence. It seemed that the mistakes he was making
were really getting to him, which built and built until he massively
over-reacted and tried to head butt Fellaini.
Fortunately, he was not tall enough and it just looked like he was
having an argument with Fellaini’s tits.
He was lucky to stay on the pitch, and still could face retrospective
action, but it looks like he will like be injured for the duration of any
ban. Despite his less than perfect
performance in this game, he will be a big miss. No matter how he is playing, he is always
passionate, always wants the ball and always wants to push the play
forward. Something only two other
players on the team seem to be doing well.
Ramsey was still out of sorts and although
we managed to get nine shots on target, all but one were right at De Gea, and
we never forced him into a spectacular save.
Their first goal came very much against the run of play. It was a combination of mistakes from our
defensive unit and mistakes from the reffing unit. Firstly, Fellaini was offside, only just, but
offside none the less. Without the
benefit of replay however, you cannot really fault the linesman too much for
this as it was very tight. Gibbo and
Szczesny have been given a lot of criticism for not communicating effectively,
resulting in the collision. Now I could
be wrong, but I have watch the highlights many times now, I am almost certain
that Fellani (always a dirty player) gave Gibbs a shove and pushed him into Szczesny. What makes me doubt myself is that not too
many people have been talking about this, but take a look for yourself and see
what you think. If so, it is another foul
the refs have missed that resulted in a goal against us. The more I watch it the more I am sure. Certainly does not improve my opinion of the
afro’d one. The goal itself is just bad
luck, could have gone anywhere.
Either way, we were a goal down. I am finding it hard to comprehend our
response. On one hand I like the spirit
we showed in going for it, on the other we pushed way too many forward and got burnt. It’s not like this is the first time it has
happened this season, in fact, just last game we showed the same naivety. Who is picking this up and addressing
this? If Wenger wants the players to
think for themselves, they need to recognise this, the BFG and Arteta should be
keeping an eye on this, instead the BFG spent WAY too much time in their half
and Capt. Arteta did nothing to advise him otherwise. What happens….we get embarrassingly caught on
the break. It almost happened before the
second goal when Rooney was wrongly ruled offside (thank god). We HAVE to address this weakness else it will
keep happening. The definition of
insanity………………
There were a few positives to take from the
game. Was great to see Giroud come back
from injury early and mark the occasion with a cracking goal! By far the best goal of the game, and a great
ball from Arteta for the assist. Arteta
look great and was my man of the match.
We really need him in the team to stand any chance. We were cruising against Anderlecht until he
came off injured and it all went to crap.
He does need to be more assertive as captain in organising the team on
the field and making sure others are doing their defensive duties. The Ox had a good game again terrorising
their defence and, unlike against Swansea, also helping Chambers out with some
defensive duties.
We need to stem this dark tide of poor
results. Let’s start with Dortmund on
Wednesday. Let’s do the basics right and
build on that. They are banged up too
and doing terrible in the league, we need to make a statement to ourselves that
we are worthy of our place in the Champions League and worthy of a label as a
‘Top Team’.
Come on Arsenal!!!
