So a terrible 2012 continues for Arsenal Football Club with a loss to Manchester United. On the back of two successive defeats this really was a must win game and it has to be said for the majority of the first half we were completely outplayed and deserved to be a goal down.
The goal itself came from a pin point Ryan Giggs cross and was finished by Valencia at the back post. Our two make shift full backs were culpable for the goal, but more on that later. The second half was a different story, we looked a renewed team after the break and started to create a host of chances the most notable one being gifted to us by a Jonny Evans slip which allowed Rosicky to run in to the box and square the ball to RVP. Our top scorer then tried to smash the ball in to the net and got it horribly wrong. We slowly started to boss the game and get some momentum going which finally led to the equaliser. Koscielny made an excellent tackle and then had the calmness to pick out a great pass to Rosicky who then played a cross field ball to The Ox who’s first touch was sublime. After taking the ball forward he played a reverse pass into RVP who slotted the ball into the corner of the goal 1 – 1. At this point we had the momentum, we had the crowd behind us, the team were fired up and it looked like we were going to win it. Then in a way only Arsenal seem to be able to do, we shot ourselves in the foot. Arsene decided to make a substitution and take off The Ox and bring on Arshavin. The crowd and team reaction (RVP’s outburst) to this was hostile to say the least and echoed what nearly every fan around the world watching the game thought. The substitution and the reaction to it was like a sucker punch and we never really recovered from that point with not even a notable attack to speak of. Instead we started to feel the pressure from United and inevitably they scored after poor defending from Arshavin, Song and Vermaelen. 1 – 2 to United and that was the end of it.A lot has been said about the substitution but after having had a few days to mull it over this is my take. The Ox had been our best player throughout the game and the only player who looked like providing any attacking drive. He had just provided the assist for the goal and was looking dangerous everytime we got the ball. To take him off immediately after the goal was the wrong decision. Arsene has justified this by saying that he had a slight injury, but at this point in a must win game where you just equalised and all the momentum is with you there is no justification in taking off your best player who seemed fine upto that point. If he had taken him off 15 mins after the goal once we had an opportunity to press home the advantage that would have been more palatable. But to do it just after we had regained the upper hand in this match was an extremely regrettable decision.
Not only this but for Arshavin to be standing on the touchline waiting to come on and be exposed to 60,000 people booing him would have killed any last iota of confidence left in the little Russian. When he came on, he looked like he didn’t want the ball and as the match ended he could not have got back to the changing rooms any quicker! I know he hasn’t performed for us and he has been frustrating, but to see an Arsenal player treated like that by his own fans is sad. Yet Wenger should never have subjected him to this and could have avoided this situation in the first place so the final blame must lay with him. Whatever angle you look at the substitution it just doesn’t make sense, if managers take credit for substitutions when they work and end up in goals they should also take responsibility when they do not work and Sunday night was an extreme example of this not working.
A brief mention must be made of RVP’s reaction, he is our captain and his reaction was wrong. He has subsequently come out and said as much and has firmly out to rest any stories of rifts between him and Wenger. There is not much else to say about that!
Now that we have the substitution out the way we can talk about performance and tactics. It was clear from the set-up of United that they were going to attack our full backs. In Nani and Valencia they have two of the best wingers in the league and it should not have come as a surprise that they would target Djourou. It has to be said that Djourou was shocking in the first half, but I find it hard to blame him. He is a central defender playing out of position against two extremely fast and tricky wingers. He either shouldn’t have been playing or should have been given far more protection. The fact that continually our full backs were left exposed one on one or in some cases two on one when it was an obvious ploy from United shows a lack of tactics or a lack of application from the team. Either way its massively disappointing. People have mentioned that we have a makeshift back four at the moment but that is no excuse, not one mention has been made of the fact that neither Vidic or Ferdinand played last night. On top of that Phil Jones got injured and Rafael had to come on. United’s defense had issues of their own. They had 1 out of their first choice 4 playing the full game yesterday. We had 2 out of our first choice 4 playing. Big teams cope with injuries and win games, we don’t.
Apart from our defence, we just didn’t keep the ball well enough and therefore invited pressure. Arteta has been a big miss in the last few games and you can see how bad our possession is without him.
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