We did OK, but looked more reliant on RVP than ever
MAN CITY 1 ARSENAL 0
THIS GAME WAS SO DIFFERENT…
To recent ones between Man City and Arsenal. And that was mainly because City abandoned the ultra defensive approach of their last two league visits to the Emirates, neither of which suggested they were in any way likely to take over the world.
TODAY…
They were far more expansive and I think deserved their win. We had our chances but they always looked that little bit more dangerous. And well as we played in many senses, this was also an afternoon where more than ever we appeared over reliant on RVP.
I AM NO THEOIST…
But I actually thought he was a little unlucky to be taken off, principally because Gervinho – one very good run and pull back for RVP apart – had a stinker. His decision making was awful (sorry but when you’re one on one with Kolo Toure, you just go direct) and even when passes did go to team-mates, they were rarely played to the correct foot.
AND THE THING IS…
That our ammunition from the bench was Andrei and Chamakh, both of whom are woefully out of form. You do worry.
IN MIDFIELD…
Alex Song was heroic at times but for me he does get booked too often too early when we’re away from home. It means he is continually walking a tightrope and you can see it affects his willingness to go in for tackles (might Balotelli have been more abrasively dealt with for the goal had Song not been booked?)
TALKING OF BOOKINGS…
Hats off to Phil Dowd, who has clearly improved immeasurably since his abysmal performance in our 4-4 draw at Newcastle last season. Some Gooners will argue that when the ball struck Richards’ hand we should have had a penalty but frankly I think that would have been a very cheap way for us to equalise and we’d have been livid to concede a penalty like that. I also thought that Kolo just about got enough on the ball when he also crashed into Ramsey. It wouldn’t have been an outrageous decision to give it but I think it on balance probably wasn’t one. And as for the bookings, I thought they were all deserved yet no player deserved a second one and that particularly with the City crowd (and players at times) doing everything to draw a second yellow for the likes of Song, Dowd did well to stand firm.
SKY ARE FOCUSING…
On whether Arteta or Miquel were to blame for their goal but I can’t help questioning Song’s original decision to insist that he, rather than Koscielny (who was further back and not booked) was the man to go to Balotelli.
SZCZESNY…
Was excellent but must realise that one thing he doesn’t do well is quick, clever distribution of the ball. It invariably goes wrong, as was the case when City hit the post.
THE INJURY TO DJOUROU…
Didn’t just break up our very own Franco German Mer-Koscy partnership but was wretched luck too. We’ve got four full-backs all out at once with medium to long term injuries. That’s bad luck. Though it is also true that we’ve been lucky in central midfield and up front not to have injuries that could have really hurt us.
KOSCIELNY…
Was, perhaps with the exception of the goal, excellent. Again.
Amazing effort and performance from the lads, well played, you win some you lose some, but i thought we defo deserved something from that game. Hope they havent burnt themselves out for villa on wednesday because the players we hav got coming in, e.g. chamakh, arshavin are just not good enough for Arsenal!
Can’t agree with much of this. Two questions. How was Barry still on the pitch and why wasn’t the handball and penalty given? Hand to ball and the ball controlled with his arm. Arshavin really, really must be sold in January and Theo was unlucky to be subbed.
@Adam – the ball flew at him and hit his arm. It didn’t deny us anything. Incidents like that never worthy of a penalty for me.
Koscielny was out of position, so Song had to cover him. Fans always talk about how good our 3 midfielders are, I agree with that except Ramsey. Can you remember when was his last asist or goal in the Premier league? What was Walcott complaining when he was taken off? He was back to his orginal headless chicken again. He was dispossessed on so many occasions.
Walcott and Ramsey are not good enough. They are merely squad players. Against the weaker teams they seems ok. Technical ability can make a difference when stronger teams meet.
I miss Kole Toure. Fuk you Gallas.
Jeez guys, how many more chances does Walcott have to do something in a game when it matters? It’s all very well slaughtering the Norwich full back, but the man was non existent today. He can’t control the ball, his pass selection is poor. Yes he has worked on his defensive game and that’s great to see but you can’t select him on the basis of that. He’s trained with Henry, Pires, Bergkamp, Van Persie, Fabregas and yet none of it seems to have rubbed off. His game seems to revolve around knocking the ball past the ful back and running on to it. He just hasn’t developed since he was signed. He seems to live a charmed life with much of the crowd and Internet community yet for all his effort his output is little better than Arshavin. And that’s not something to shout from the rooftops.
I guarantee that Dowd would have awarded penalty against us
for a similar handball! Referee failed to give two
obvious penalties – yet Sky commentators do not say a word!
great game but i wonder why AW is still keeping Arshavin and Charmack?
Arshavin should not be slated so much as he has not had much games to get any form of sharpness..Gervinho was so annoying today as he got basic things wrong and was playing like he was there to sabotage us (harsh but he really let me down) the so so simple pass in the second half he could hav made when 3 teamates were in fantastic positions was shocking as he passed it late and poorly. Walcott to was bad bad bad he can’t complain
Amen, amen, a thousand times, amen to you, Clockendrider
The wing play was total shite on both sides. You’d have thought that we we would attack wide, with pace, with Theo v Zabaleta. Didn’t happen.
Gerv kept moving inside into traffic. Ramsay, for me, is simply not good enough for regular run-outs with Arsenal FC. The decision making going forward is consistently inconsistent and his giveaways are numerous and often costly. What was up with all those back-heels today?
All this “they knew we were there” talk sounds like coach-speak
from a lesser team about a better team.
Really feel like we should have gotten more.
you are nt a gooner, yu spud,get off our blog site
theo didnt play well today,kept losing the ball and for rambo, i dont know why he keeps on doing back heels when he has a chance to give a simple pass i would like to see rosicky given a chance
Extremely generous to Dowd: completely bottled sending off Barry for a horrible, studs up tackle and generally inconsistent with yellow cards today. The handball was also a clear penalty, the ball travelled 15 yards and Richards blatantly handled it. Doesn’t matter that he saw it late, doesn’t matter that it would’ve been soft – it’s just a penalty. Ultimately though, the draw we deserved today would only have been one more point. The most important thing is winning our next three games. COYG !
we did really well considering we missed our fullbacks + the injury to djourou which unsettled our already unfamiliar back line.
chesney was excelent, so was vermaelean and arteta.
for me the problem is that ramsey isn’t really that good. i mean he is ok but not super good, i don’t think this advanced position is suiting him, i liked him more in the arteta role, coming deep to take the ball and delivering to it to the wings.
i hardly can wait for wilshere to be back, i miss his drive and those little 1-2′s he uses at the edge of the box.
poor play from walcott today but i blame it on the lack of support from his fullback which allowed zabaleta to get close to him.
still gutted he was subbed for arshavin who really doesn’t look good at all. i know chamberlain is really young but surely he deserve those minutes arshavin gets now and does absolutely nothing
I love arsenal fc to the bone. Some of the comments fans make really give me a benefit of doubt whether they are arsenal supporters as they claim or maybe they are just pretending. Walcott had bad game i understand i am a sports man. I wonder how many of bastards play any sport. Its not everyday that players will always be at their best. Truth be told arsenal gave city a run for their money. The boys really did well even exceeding my expectations. So please if you are true arsenal supporter give the boys a break. You win some you lose some thats how the games goes. 1true gunner 4life. . . .
Nice piece as per!
1.We played like a team who won’t win the league but are surely now deserving of a top 4 place. Given the way we started I feel immensely pleased by that.
2. City’s fans sounded like spoilt kids today!
3. We all love Arshavin’s moments of brilliance, but his wages are too high to sustain this. He will definitely be on his way soon.
good game, but city probably deserved it. they penetrated a little more, especially with silva pulling the strings. i agree with goodplaya on the ref, i wouldn’t have given either of the penalty shouts having looked at replays. imagine how many more penalties would be in the game if all the accidental handballs were given. after city pushing us around for the 1st 15 minutes, we settled and played fairly well. on the theo to be subbed debate, gervinho, while not great, played better than theo imo. i thought we had a chance when i saw the city lineup, seeing both zabaleta and toure in there. but we didn’t get to see theo take on zabaleta and the latter played really really well. kolo also surprised me, he’s been poor I’ve thought since moving to city, continuing the poor form of his final season at arsenal. but he played well today.
the good news on the injury front is that at least gibbs is on the mend and should be back this week. i thought miquel did ok, but should have been picking up silva for the goal.
one last comment: i really like szczesny, but he tends to look for quick passes out when maybe he should old the ball: the zabaleta shot being the prime example. hopefully he calms down with age.
Disagree with some of GP’s points which is unusual.
I thought Gervinho did OK, Walcott was anonymous today.
Dowd was too free with the yellow cards which could have spoiled the game.
Agree with haha’s point about Arshavin, he should be nowhere the first team on current form and Chamberlain would have been a much better option.
I thought the boys put in a tremendous shift today but agree City edged it…
GP, I think you are probably correct on the penalty, probably right that shitty JUST ABOUT deserved to win. Before the game the fact that we had zero fullbacks to call upon was a big worry and in the end that did play a part in their goal but we played well. Compare today with early season games when he resembled an incoherent shambles? I hate shitty so much, anyone but them to win the league, but they are a very good team. And we stood toe to toe with them away from home and were unlucky to lose really. I thought Arteta was excellent and TV5 too, both so calm and assured for so much of the time. And, although you are critical of Gervinho, he was a far greater threat than Theo which was a bit of a surprise given how well Theo has done in recent weeks. Gervinho was very good in many aspects of his game, linking play and retaining possesion. But he could be sensational if he could just learn a bit of the Bobby Pires decision making….. Frustrating to say the least.
Theo was anonymous in the first half but I thought he was getting into the game during the second and if anyone were to make the equalizer I’d put my money on him. Bad call taking him off for AA23.
The micah richards handball would have been extremely harsh to be given as a penalty and toure got enough of the ball for the challenge to be merited as a fair tackle. I don’t really remember Barry’s challenge but i dont think there was a point in the game where a player deserved a red card. Some of u fans are sore losers tbh, Man city deserved the win they for me had the better chances and seemed to have more spirit. For me chamakh and Arshavin have to be sold or loaned in january, they have completely lost form and confident. With the African Nations Cup coming along we also need the money to replace Song and Gerviniho. I do still feel we can make 4th place this year tho……
Shocking to me your analysis of Phil Dowd. He did not give them the game, our failure with the final ball in the final third meant we could not change the game by scoring ourselves. However, he did change the game with his decisions. Sure, it was not a laugher the way it was v Newcastle last year, but his decisions did change the game and were definitely easy to question from an Arsenal perspective. The two offside decisions (which were not his, but the linesman) were correct. His two cards to Arteta and to Song are laughable decisions. They are not even tackles as you can see by replay to both of them that Song and Arteta simply stand their ground having already planted as Man City players barrel into them. Fouls fine-not cards. The Micah Richards arm handling is certainly less of an objection. However, the phrase “we’ve seen them given” is not even enough to summarize that like the offside rule, FIFA does not have a handle on how to get referees to consistently call this or not call this. Let us be honest. Micah Richards knows exactly what he is doing. His head follows the ball and Dowd’s head follows the ball in perfect line of sight. Bottom line there-like past performances Dowd fails to make the big call when it is necessary and succeeds in making the unnecessary call when it is not necessary.
On to better things, The Arsenal did themselves no shame fighting with a make shift back 4 and a front line with no real reinforcements in Chamakh and Arshavin. We looked dangerous and can say that our chances were not taken and our final ball was not good enough. It shows how close this team is but it also shows that fine tuning in the window for proper help to RVP up front is a must. If we do that I think the FA Cup is in our reach. Champions League too, although that is a much tougher scalp since it will mean going through Real Madrid and Barcelona eventually (even when the European game will suit us more) Go Gunners!
for Clockender (005) who posted “…how many more chances does Walcott have to do something in a game when it matters?”
Did you miss the October 29 fixture at Stamford Bridge?
Just one thought on the Gervinho/Theo debate….if Gervinho’s decision-making/quality of passing had been better, Theo could have had at least 2 goals in the 1st half.Would anyone be calling him anonymous then? What worries me with Gervinho is not his decision-making (which is poor but hopefully will improve) but his awful technique when shooting/crossing. He mishits nearly every time.How come so many players these days (especially at AFC – note Hleb,Eboue before him) are so technically good in terms of close control but so awful when it comes to simply striking the ball?
The biggest worry though is there is zero cover for our front three.Arshavin is a disgrace.Chamakh is just awful.Wenger clearly thinks Park isn’t up to it (he can talk him up all he wants but with Chamakh’s form, if he was anywhere near good enough he’d be on the bench) & Ox is not ready. (similarly to Park,actions speak louder than words)
We have to buy two in Jan – one central,one wide – or this season is over.End of.
Yesterday wasn’t bad.We just have to pick up & get at least 10 points from the remaining 4 Christmas games. If we do that, yesterday won’t be a big deal.
Chelsea’s form means we’re in a 4-way scrap for 2 CL places instead of a 3-way scrap for 1 so let’s stay positive…..
So Cal Gunner…..or the two Udinese games. The games that mattered more than any others this season…..
Well, it was better than the last time we were in Mancheter. We’ve made decent progress since August and should finish in the top four.
Good points, PD (number 024).
I’m so happy, I can not wait for the big day, I hope it is not to drunkNice blog you are using WordPress as their main platform? I ask because your blog is a little different.