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Your Vision
Written by Subir Kumar Roy on Monday, 04 October 2010 05:08
I want to look at the positives first, despite the massive disappointment, of losing to Chelsea. The football pundits on the ESPN panel claimed it was “boys” against “men”. Jack Wilshere, all of 18 years, gave a lion hearted performance in midfield. If this sort of performance could be extracted week in, week out, our rivals should shudder at the prospect of such “boys” turning into “men” eventually. He has made the most of first team opportunities available to him, grabbing them with both hands.
Diaby playing behind the lone striker was a revelation. This was a novelty in the sense that it gave the Chelsea midfield/defence something to think out. This almost paid dividends, almost. However that meant Nasri was shifted to out right, away from the centre of the pitch, the position he should be playing when Fab4 is out of action. Lukasz Fabianski was tremendous in goal. Almost all crosses from the corners were collected, except for once when Michael Essien had a free header, which went wide. The defending on the corners also was magnificient. He can hardly be blamed for the two goals, the first a freakish freakish effort with oodles of good luck and the second, a swerving missile, as I would call it.
Had the chances that came Arsenal’s way been taken, the scoreline would have been different, same with the chances that came Chelsea’s way. We have the benefit of hindsight, as opposed to that of the manager and hence can comment to death. Notwithstanding the same, a flexible approach in terms of our playing might have at least ensured we got something at the bridge.
With our full backs pushing forward to fire crosses into the box, it was clear that Chelsea would try to catch us on the counter, especially on the flanks. A clear pattern had emerged with Ramires and Cole, doubling up on Bacary Sagna. One cannot help wonder what has suddenly become of Song. Either he considers himself an auxiliary striker or is being asked to push forward. Come on for God’s sake, he is a defensive midfielder. We cannot expect Song to adapt, to this threat, however, our Manager could have, by sending a clear message to Song, just to sit in front of the back four, or back two, I should say. Speed is not his forte and if the ball gets robbed in the midfield or final third, Song is horribly out of position and our defence is left exposed.
Passing play, trying to find the eye of the needle, is not effective against teams that do not afford time and space on the ball, the likes of Chelsea, ManU, Liverpool etc. It allows the opposition to regroup, get numbers behind the ball. One pass too many and the chance to even test the keeper is gone. I have stated earlier and state again, three points off your direct rivals is magnificient, a draw against them is equally great.
We had the personnel, the skill and tactics to cope with Chelsea, we did it for most of the game, the only time we didn’t, made the difference. The other commonalities were present, important players missing, dodgy refereeing decisions, lack of finishing ability and rotten luck.
I will not dwell any more on “coulda, woulda, shoulda”…….on the part of Arsenal manager and their players. They get paid well enough money to lose sleep on what needs to and should be done, all in the Arsenal way…….
My folks, who don’t follow football, as much as I do, could sense my disappointment and were in a consolatory mood. At the end, I couldn’t but help think, its got to turn around sometime for us ardent Arsenal fans, for better…….. That’s the least we can expect, till such time,
Cheers.
Fancy writing your own articles for fellow Gooners to read? Click Your Vision section.
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04-Oct-2010 19:18 | | TrueGoonerI just had to do that I have never been first. Lean, ur sentence "our Manager could have, by sending a clear message to Song, just to sit in front of the back four, or back two, I should say" echos my problem with Arsenal. It seems every thing that these players do is what they are being told. If we can see the issues that caused us the games, how cant wenger and his staff see it. We are the best team in the EPL. The teams that beat us, including Chelsea, are that better than us. If we had that hunger, confidence, and fighting spirit from start to finish with players adopting based on the situation, we would have beaten chelsea, and teams would have feared us. Look at how Sunderland was not that aggressive against united like they do us even though united wasn't that threatening. Arsenal players needs to learn to understand the basic fundamental of the game. Play your position release the ball on time, have confidence, keep fighting even when the chips are down, move into space when team mates have the ball (Nasri holds the ball everyone stands no wonder he dribbles a lot), and take the shot when the opportunity arises without hesitation unless you have read something and planed a dummy move. Barca played the passing game but they do take shots from outside the box when open, Bojan and messi yesterday. Do these thing and people will fear you.
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04-Oct-2010 20:31 | | MeanLean
Good article,
Apologies to you for not putting up a response. To be honest I totally forgot that I started to add responses to Your Vision articles. The Chelsea defeat is still messing with my brain me thinks.
TG, the not shooting from outside the box is actually a myth, one that is perpetuated by the pundits.
I am pretty sure that we scored the most goals from long range last season. But that does not fit Alan Hansen and co's 'Arsenal try to walk the ball into the net' agenda.
I enjoyed how we played the game at Stamford Bridge but am still very hurt and disappointed that we could not make it count.
I have my fingers and toes crossed that we can get everyone (apart from the longer termers) back after yet another annoying but perhaps quite helpful international set of matches.
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05-Oct-2010 02:14 | | Gigi - More cir***spection in our play please
The fact is that in the past few years we have lost umpteen number of matches to Chelsea and Man U in more or less the same way. Despite that the manager has not deemed it necessary to make any tactical changes. Tactics play an important role in modern football. If you have the ten best players in the world you may not need tactics (maybe you still need), but when you are playing Chelsea , tactics are crucial. For example, since we know that Chelsea are gleefully waiting for us to lose possession (and that inevitably happens to the best teams) before counterattacking us down the flanks, can we ask our fullbacks to resist the temptation of bombing forward recklessly ?
The priority when playing against teams like Chelsea and Man U should always be not to concede a goal first. If style prevails over results, then I suggest our goalkeeper should join in the attack, because that will indeed by flamboyant style at its best.
Young players like ours are like young car drivers; fit and skillful but ultimately reckless. It is the manager's job to instill a sense of balance in them, or else the result will usually be catastrophic.
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06-Oct-2010 04:47 | | Subir Kumar Roy
Well if Kos can miss a header from two yards out, i can be excused for the North London part, sitting a few thousand miles away in India 
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06-Oct-2010 04:48 | | Subir Kumar Roy if Kos can miss a header from two yards out, i may be excused for the North London part, sitting a few thousand miles away in India
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27-Feb-2011 20:05 | | tooncity , city 2-1, 2-1 ,2-1, your going to win naf all, your going to win naf all, and you cant blame the ref, city should of had a pen and your keeper sent off, who are all you sad lot going to blame now.
see your super fans did not stay around to see city lift the cup, come to think about it i didnt here any, yes poor support, your going to win naf all your going to win naf all, i can here all the crying here up north,
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27-Feb-2011 20:25 | | MeanLeanSeriously, do you not have anything better to do? Perhaps you have blogs on your own team that you can look around. Give it a go, you may have some fun.
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02-Mar-2011 17:29 | | Riccardo - link exchangeHi...best regards from Italy, i'm Richard, a soccer reporter in rome. First of all i would say that you have a nice site....really..then why don't we make an exchange of links? visit mine and let me know if you like it...you find me on Twitter and facebook...have a good day and thanks again STADIO GOAL (http://stadiogoal.com) p.s. I follow you on twitter, i hope you'll do the same for me...thanks mate
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