It would be fair to say Arsenal started the better of the two sides, maybe slightly bouyed by the injury to Phil Jones early on. The first chance came after Rosicky made an acrobatic tackle, then released Chamberlain, he cut inside his man like a classic winger, cut back to Theo who skewed his shot over. Pretty poor attempt really…
Chesney was called into action when Song fell over tracking Evra, the Frenchman cut back to Nani who drove a low shot at our near post, our keeper getting down quickly to keep it out. United ramped up the pressure and had a penalty shout ignored when Song tugged at Rooney’s arm in the box. It would have been a harsh penalty, but I’ve seen the given.
Djourrou was having a nightmare at right back, he flew at a loose ball out wide like a wild man, missed, which let Nani maraud into the box shooting wide. The warning signs were there.
Vermaelen made a hash of a clearance, Theo couldn’t deal with it, Ryan Giggs was found out wide, JD ran out and stood him up rather than challenge, Giggs took his time and picked out Valencia who flew in with a diving header and scored.
Half time came and the boss pulled off JD and brought on Yennaris. Good shout and a decision made early for once.
Our play picked up straight away, we had far more balance and the players looked interested. We didn’t take long to start eeking out chances, Smalling slipped and Rosicky was first to the loose ball, he found Chamberlain who played a perfect pass to Robin in the box, however, the Dutchman against all the odds shot wide. The equivalent of an open goal for him.
The pressure from us continued mostly because of the sharpness of Chamberlain. He gave us width, pace and creativity. He gave Ramsey a window of opportunity, but he fired over. Koscielny turned creator when he freed up the ball in the middle of the park for Chamberlain, the end product was a shot wide.
Down the other end, Wellbeck broke free of Per, he turned his shot past Szczezny, Per chased it down and just kept it out. Great effort!
We pulled level when Koscielny made a perfect tackle on one of the Brazil twins, he played out to Rosicky who picked out a wonderful pass to Chamberlain. He waited for the Robin run, weighted a lovely ball into the Dutchman and watched him finish with precision! Perfect we thought, keep up this pressure and we could nick it.
Well, Wenger had other thoughts. He brought on Andrey to replace our best player Chamberlain. The crowd erupted in boos at the decision, and I could understand why. You don’t need a questionable attitude and work rate when you’re chasing down a win against United. Wenger said it was due to Chamberlain cramp, people who were sitting by the bench refute that claim. Even Robin complained.
Well, it didn’t take long for the game to go the way the we all knew it would. Andrey failed to make proper attempt at tackling Valencia, he waltzed into the box, one two’d with Park, passed to Wellbeck who smashed home for their second of the day. Devastation.
We had a few half attempts after that but the damage was done, we had no threat on the pitch and we were spent.
The whistle went and with it, a crescendo of boo’s… Arsene had made his worst decision of the season and he’d cost us points in our race for top four.
Positives
Yennaris had a very good second half after coming on for Djourrou. The reason JD was so bad is that he’s built like a WWF wrestler and he’s being asked to run and run and run. He was destroyed by half time. Yennaris came on, passed well and more importantly crossed well. He looks a far better prospect that Jenkinson and I’ve only seen him play twice.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is clearly a star in waiting. He’s fast, he’s intelligent and he’s bold. He made a couple of naive mistakes, but going forward he was tremendous.
Koscielny also had another superb game, he’s been one of our star performers this year. He was first to most balls yesterday, he passed well, tried to get forward and deserved to be on the winning team. I also thought Rosicky had one of his better games, his end product is questionable, but no one can doubt his ability to keep the ball moving in midfield in a very efficient manner.
Negatives
Theo Walcott was complete dross again. He has no footballing intelligence and he really let himself down by not covering for the lumbering Johann Djourrou. I felt sorry for him but standing up a player who is 37 years old and quite good at crossing is completely ridiculous. I have no idea why he did that, but it cost us.
I’ve stood up for Aaron Ramsey over the past few weeks but after another duff performance, it’s becoming difficult to continue to do so. He’s playing like Theo at the moment, running into dead alleys and losing possession like it’s on trend. This is where video analysis and a good old fashion bollocking needs to come into play. Is someone sitting down with him and showing how often he loses possession by not passing it quick enough? Is he being coached? Because after watching him do similar things all season… you have to wonder. Alex Song wasn’t much better, he played like a clutz, falling over and knocking people down when it looked easier to make the tackle. Like a few of the others, he thinks he’s big time before he’s won anything.
Conclusion
That substitute decision made no sense at all. I hate to say this, but it’s like Arsene does things like that out of sheer petulance to spite the fans sometimes…. why else would you bring on a player who has been totally awful all season, in the dying minutes against the best team in the country, for a player who was having an absolute blinder. People say that Andrey isn’t a defender and I’d agree. That’s not the problem though, as soon as he was taken off, we lost the flow of our play. Barcelona’s best form of defence is attack, with Chamberlain on, we were unpredictable, we were stretching United and we had them on the back foot. Theo Walcott was diabolically awful as usual, yet the manager leaves him on? I’m baffled… but at least it speeds the realisation process among fans about Wenger… he’s losing the plot and he’s past his sell by date.
The fans booed the substitution, Robin can be included in that. I’ve never seen a decision booed like that before. Utterly amazing. What made it worse, is that the fans were right. I don’t know a Gooner in the land that didn’t know what was coming after that. If there is one thing fans hate, particularly in the UK, it’s a lazy player who doesn’t give a crap. To bring someone with that character on in an important game is utterly shambolic.
All the ingredients are there for a change. The manager has lost the trust of the fans, he’s lost the trust of his captain and he’s making terrible decisions with much more regularity these days. He looks a broken man, if we’re seeing that, what are the players seeing? This 3rd league loss on the bounce is frustrating, but it’s not like it wasn’t on the cards. To expect such a small squad of players to maintain winning ways from September was always going to be a big ask. The one ray of hope we have in the race for top four is that Chelsea are almost as bad as us. With our players coming back to fitness, and a favourable fixture run, I don’t see why we should give up hope. The problem Wenger has is that this type of rut happened last year and it took about 26 games to get through it. We can’t afford for that to happen this year… certain players need to up their performances and a certain manager need to have a long hard look at themselves and start thinking about the club over childish personal agendas.