Today's game against Aston Villa was for want of a better word
'strange', but largely stereotypical of The Arsenal from the last 5 years.
Statistically we
battered Villa on all accounts except the scoreline, a number of key players
had very good games and some of our lesser players didn't have complete 'mares,
however there is nothing about the game today that gave me confidence
looking ahead to Spurs & Everton.
Giroud looks shot
of confidence, Walcott was anonymous again, Diaby was at his static
meandering worst and despite boasting one of the best technically gifted
midfields in the league we really struggled to impose ourselves on a Championship
quality team.
Despite the unconvincing
performance, the 3 points were vital in our chase for the top 4, and
we should be guarded against making snap-judgements, but the lack of
'purpose' I see in this Arsenal team is alarming, and isn't limited to one or
two individuals. We've now got a team full of Denilsons.
The number of
goals we've conceded as a result of us having a corner or
a free-kick in the opposition's half is ridiculous for a professional
team. In the first half today Weimann took the ball from a Villa clearance
inside their own box and proceeded to run directly at our defence
till the edge of our area, where he eventually lost the ball, but
the precedent was set. When Guzan started a quick counter from a corner and
Benteke headed the ball to Weimann inside his own half, the only players
who started to bust a gut to get back were Vermaelen & Mertesaker. The
resulting goal wasn't a shock, neither was the fact our defenders refused
to challenge Weimann or the Szczesny should have done better with the
eventual shot.
To me, that's
unacceptable, but it happens pretty much every time we lose the ball.
Repeatedly our players have a mini-strop after losing possession, and spend
time complaining instead of staying switched on and trying to win the
ball back. Surely this can't have gone unnoticed by Arsene Wenger? Thinking
back to the Bayern game, their 3rd goal came from Cazorla losing the ball and
then not working back. What use does staring at the floor or throwing your
hands in the air have to getting the ball back, or help your teammates defend
against the resulting pressure?
This apparent lack
of will to do the 'dirty stuff' is why we find ourselves where we are, 5th and
out of all the cup competitions. Few of the goals we concede are wonderful
team goals or 'worldies' from the opposition, most originate from
basic errors on our part or are a result of a downright lack of effort. For all
the collective wanking over how good Bayern were, all 3 of their goals were
entirely preventable. Yes it didn't help having to play without a real
left-back, but I still don't understand how Vermaelen & Podolski managed to
fuck themselves royally for the Kroos goal last Tuesday, nor why none
of our midfield thought it would be a good idea to track back towards our goal
after the Belgian-German axis had royally fucked itself.
Ultimately when we
play against teams that can break quickly, namely 90% of the teams in the
Premier League, we will continue to struggle until these traits of our
performances are rectified or we change our system. Can this happen with the
current squad? In my opinion, no. There isn't enough ownership of our issues
within our squad, and very few players ever want to
take responsibility of digging us out of the shit-heaps we oft
find ourselves in. See the continual slow, drawn-out, purposeless,
meandering passing we conduct nearly every game as evidence of this. So many of
our players would rather make a simple 5 yard pass sideways or backwards than
try to play a more attacking incisive pass forward. Using Wilshere as an
example how often is his first movement forward, and burst of energy to take on
a man or to pass to our attackers? Today 63% of his attempted passes were
forward (58 from 92); now think about Diaby, today only 42% (26 from 61) of his
passes were forward.
Maybe this is down to a lack of confidence and the players
are petrified of making mistakes & becoming the next boo-boy, but
if the players can't handle the pressure or expectations associated with
representing The Arsenal then we must to be brutal and cut them adrift in the
summer.
Otherwise we'll
never move forward.
UTA
