Embarrassment of titches
ARSENAL 0 CHELSEA 3
FROM GOODPLAYA AT THE EMIRATES
I’M WRITING this just back from the game and without the benefit of any slow-motion replays, so apologies if I call anything wrong.
It was, undoubtedly, a sobering occasion.
In a nutshell, what little joy we did have early on came when we pressured them and snapped into tackles. Sadly, those moments were few and far between and for some reason we seemed reluctant to really fly in on them.
Of the uncertain starters, Denilson, Nasri and Eduardo got the nod. I’m not trying to pick on Denilson because almost everyone was below par, but right now I just can’t think of a single thing he does better than Song and Cesc. So instead of complementing them, he feels like a bit of them ‘lite’. I’d have plumped for Rosicky there, but equally I can see the counter argument that we’d have been even more exposed.
Chelsea had an early chance that Anelka almost scored. I thought Sagna’s defending robust but legal, though other reports suggest perhaps not.
They grew in confidence, didn’t create that much too concrete and then scored a very decent goal thanks to an excellent slide-rule pass from Terry, Cole’s neat cross and Drogba’s deft finish. Should Arshavin have been more alert to the pass? Maybe. Was Drogba a little too free? Probably. But good goal nonetheless.
The second was a shambles. Nasri got drawn to the ball, left Cole free and he crossed. Gallas missed it, Almunia was just kind of standing way out of his goal and Vermaelen shanked it in. None of them covered themselves in glory.
I don’t know why Song was withdrawn for Theo. If it was injury related, fair enough. If it was tactical, then I shake my head.
We started the second half well and as for the disallowed goal, I’ve yet to see a replay so all I can say is that looking at it quite close up in the flesh not even the smallest light went on in my head that there might have been a foul. That was a big moment.
But by then it was apparent that Andre Marriner was having a shocker.
I feel sorry for referees when they only have one chance to look at something that happens at lightening speed, but there are other times when they have no excuse. Take Mikel as just one example. He committed foul after foul today and yet Marriner did nothing for ages, seemingly ignoring even in his own final warning. I’m not saying it changed the game and that we’d have won otherwise, but if Mikel is booked after 30 minutes (as Traore was for his first foul) it means the next time we start passing the ball round him he can’t risk the kind of tackle that might warrant another yellow and so our life becomes that much more easier.
What really beggars belief is that with a record of 10 yellows last season, 9 yellows and 2 reds the season before and 8 red and 2 yellows the season before that, Marriner should have known exactly what kind of player Mikel was. But TV replays or no TV replays, too many of our refs are simply poor.
Anyway, I digress. With Song off, we were even more minute than usual and it made any kind of high ball into the box pointless. We’re hardly the tallest squad, but to have RVP, Bendtner and yes, Diaby all out at once seemed unfortunate, particularly given Chelsea’s apparent lack of injuries.
We also had a scenario where for quite different reasons, a number of our attackers are a little out of sorts. Arshavin, for example, seems to be suffering a World Cup hangover. It’s no excuse because we pay him enough, but equally I doubt any great sum of money acts as much consolation when you’ve probably seen your only ever chance to play in the World Cup vanish.
Equally, having amazed everyone with his initial recovery from injury, Eduardo’s going through a bit of a lull and lacking in fitness. No doubt not helped by his persecution by UEFA, which turned him into public enemy number one for a while. UEFA should hang their heads in shame over that one.
I know we struggled to create clear cut chances but I really thought we had some openings and failed to take them. Eduardo seemed to be in a few times, but his fitness and his radar seem a little off.
Theo, for his part, has yet to properly get going this season.
There followed a third, from Drogba’s excellent free-kick on the side Almunia had been covering.
It’s hard to think of too much positive, but a friend not normally known for being overly optimistic has just told me he didn’t think we were that bad, that the first goal changed it and that there has been too much that has been good this season to go overboard about things now.
He also makes the valid point that he’s less worried about our league position tonight than he is by what it could be by Christmas if we don’t pull ourselves together. It’s a fair point. In this season of all seasons, the current gap does not appear unreachable. But get any bigger soon and it will start to become so.
Player ratings tomorrow.
With thanks to duncanogleskan for the headline.
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