moving forward

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