The game Arsenal lost when the teamsheets were handed in
CHELSEA 2 ARSENAL 1
FROM GOODPLAYA AT WEMBLEY
IT HAD been the perfect day: a pre-game BBQ, the Invincibles on the DVD player, an easy tube ride, singing our way down Wembley Way, a very decent view for £28 and a pint in the ground.
And then the team news dropped.
What on earth was he thinking? What had he done?
The view from my seats
If you think I’m just saying this with hindsight, you’re wrong. On my pre-game post from the ground I said:
“Just seen arshavin is on the bench and song not starting either. Too clever by half. Why?”
Let’s start with Song. If he was so in need of a rest, why not take him off after 69 minutes of the Villareal game when RVP’s penalty made the tie safe? I’m sorry, but Alex Song was not tired.
Don’t get me wrong, for the first three years of his Arsenal career Alex Song appeared comatose.
But not for the past two months. He’s been bloody brilliant, better with every game.
A rest was the last thing he needed and what makes it all the more bizarre is that Arsene was on the radio only 10 days ago saying how tiredness is in the head and you can make players tired by telling them they’re tired and that sometimes you can bring in supposedly fresh players but they look more knackered than the people they have replaced.
I agreed with every word he said in that piece. Sadly he ignored his own advice.
The effect was not just that we didn’t have one of our most in form players on the pitch but that we were also missing our most defensively astute midfielder. Bizarre given the whole formation was meant to shore up the… defence.
As it was Denilson and Diaby came in, neither with any semblance of form behind them. He did exactly the same with Aliadiere in the semi five years ago and it was as stupid now as it was then.
It’s also the case that with Diaby there is no in between: it either works or it doesn’t.
And yet the odds of it working are around one in three, so however you look at it, it was a risk.
And fancy not playing Arshavin? Not just probably the best attacker in either squad, but the freshest one too. But Wenger blinked, panicked about Chelsea’s midfield and left his star asset on the bench.
We were never going to dominate midfield. He could have played Diaby, Denilson, Song, Cesc and Ramsey and we’d still have toiled against the power of Lampard, Essien and Ballack. Where we could worry Chelsea was with our abundance of attacking riches. And yet we left our riches sat on the bench.
Ask yourself this: in the pubs of west London, in the Chelsea dressing room and in the directors suite, do you think they shat themselves when they realised we were playing both Denilson AND Diaby to try to swamp their midfield? I think not.
Or were they laughing at the absence of Arshavin? I think they may have been.
Yes, the goals that beat us were the product of poor defending. But with our first choice defence decimated I’d expected no less and as far as I saw it we had to go for it, assume they’d score two but make sure we got three. I don’t think we can say we deserved three.
Things were so good at this stage, despite the Chelsea guy getting in the photo
I know I’ve harped on for quite a while and had quite a go at the boss, but there are games such as Villareal where you look at the team and say to yourself that he has made the best of his resources. And then there are times like yesterday when you look at the team and realise he’s thought far too hard about it, spooked himself and set out to stop Chelsea instead of do what’s best for Arsenal.
And you wonder what the players make of it, in an unfamiliar system that everyone knows is not accommodating our best players.
My brother made the good point that in addition to Cesc Wenger’s 4-5-1s (and he adds any of his teams for that matter) have always contained skilful little attacking midfielders (such as Hleb, Pires, Rosicky, Arshavin, Nasri) who have oiled the team and made our passing game work. But on Saturday we had none of that.
So what of the game? The early Gibbs clearance off the line exposed Silvestre’s inability to deal with the simplest long balls and Fabianski’s insane belief that his head is some kind of an asset.
Our goal was nicely worked and just reward for the near faultless Gibbs who set it up and the excellent Walcott. I read one tedious bore brand it lucky because it deflected off Cole past Cech. Had the shoe been on the other foot he’d have slammed every defender in sight, so enjoy it for what it was.
Their equaliser was pretty dreadful. Whether or not Malouda was offside, Eboue allowed him far, far too much space, as did Fabianski. It was not defending to befit a cup semi and with Sagna and Almunia it was never going in.
Then Chelsea dominated until the break. Nobody seemed to know, least of all the players, whether it was Cesc or Diaby who were meant to be the attacking one of the trio of midfielders. They both stunk somewhat.
The game became more even after the break and like against Villareal, it was RVP who flew into the tackles and took us forward. I wasn’t convinced by where he was being played but there could be little faulting his contribution.
It felt like Cardiff two years ago and you always feared Chelsea could punish poor defending at any minute. So I wanted us to go for it, throw on Arshavin for Diaby and Song for Denilson to balance things and try to win it there and then instead of playing a misguided game of chess.
As it was Arsene didn’t know whether to stick or twist and took until 74 minutes to introduce Arshavin. But instead of Diaby going off, it was for the ostensibly injured RVP. Before long Adebayor had been replaced by Bendtner, who as we all know thrives in the lone front man role. Not.
We were now a Bendtner – Walcott – Arshavin – Diaby mishmash. Whatever your view on the rights of wrongs of it, ask yourself when Arsene last withdrew Adebayor and RVP with a game still in the balance. It was a mess.
When the winner came it was poor from Silvestre and poor from Fabianski. Nobody thought we were going to equalise and sure enough, we didn’t.
All in all, so so disappointing.
We need trophies, this was a great chance for a trophy and yet we fiddled around and threw it away.
Had we gone all out and lost 3-2 in a thrilling game then I’d have reluctantly accepted our fate. But Chelsea were solid rather than special and in my mouth lingered a bitter taste that told me we’d never really had a go.
That Wenger is not immune to messing around with his team (Fergie was as guilty this weekend) is no consolation. If we’re to avoid a fourth consecutive season without a trophy, we’ll have to win the Champions League.
Player ratings in a separate post.
19 April 2009 at 7:15 pm
first. anyway i think we should focus on the liverpool game. the cup might have been ours seeing the fact that manu lost everton but we lost and we have to get over this. lets hope we win our game against liverpool and manu.
19 April 2009 at 7:17 pm
comee on chelsea come on chelsea. Sorry but im so happy we get to face everton in the cup final its like a dream come true. i hope you lads have learned your lesson, chelsea will always be better than arsenal.
19 April 2009 at 7:29 pm
first? great. you’re cool. idiot!
nice post
19 April 2009 at 7:30 pm
If I rated Diaby as much as Wenger seems to, I might not have had a problem with the team (actually, not true–I don’t like Van Persie on our left either). Problem is, I don’t rate him. Someone yesterday said he’s a hole in one player, and I think that’s right. Occasionally he’ll do things that are totally amazing and totally belie his generally misguided, unintelligent play. I bet he looks great on youtube. Anyway, as long as Wenger trusts him I guess we just have to lump it.
19 April 2009 at 7:35 pm
the game was lost when wenger did not decide to sign a second choise g.k
it would have finished 1-0 to the arsenal
19 April 2009 at 7:36 pm
fabianski does not deserve to put on that arsenal shirt again.
if your looking for someone to blame, blame that dopey polish guy!!!
19 April 2009 at 7:37 pm
chelsea were also awful i think everton gonna win the cup, our team were poor but chelsea were even poorer considering the players we had out there and the players we were missing, as for the champions league it is highly unlikely we will win but id be happy enough to knock out manure
19 April 2009 at 7:40 pm
Great post and spot on in so many ways. We had to go for it because we were never going to keep a clean sheet, and with Chelsea’s defence more wobbly in recent times than I’ve seen it in years, we could’ve terrified them. But we were the timid ones in the end.
Gozza, I completely disagree about Fabianski. I’m guessing you’re one of those who wrote off Almunia years ago when he making the same mistakes?
Keepers at 24 do these sorts of things. And then they learn. It doesn’t make them useless, and so much else of what we’ve seen from Fabianski this season suggests that when he gets his decision making right, he could be an excellent keeper.
19 April 2009 at 7:46 pm
Haha, Chelsea will always be better than Arsenal? When did this happen? When we accumulated 13 titles and 10 FA Cups whilst you were on the verge of extinction before Abramovich saved your ass?
I don’t think much of this team to be honest, it is really hard work watching the likes of Adebayor, RVP, Denilson, Diaby, Eboue etc etc when we have seen really great players play for Arsenal in the recent past. I know this team has more skill etc than the George Graham 93-95 team and it was really hard work watching then but at least they knew how to keep clean sheets and nick wins in cup finals. Both this team and the 93-5 team are/were nowhere the league so sought salvation in the cups…well a great defence and only a sprinkle of talent (Smith, Merse and Wrighty) won trophies whereas this team with a weak defence, a moderate midfield and hit and miss attack hasn’t won anything. World class keepers make a difference of course too.
I’m a massive AW fan and love the man to bits but he got it so wrong. I’m not necessairly an advocate for experience, I DO agree that it is an overrated asset (cos I’m young, haha) but I do feel that the squad is unbalanced, especially power-wise. We used to have great power in midfield, not we resort to playing 5. With Vieira, Petit, Parlour, Gilberto and Edu we ALWAYS went 442. I think its time for Arsene to add some muscle to our midfield and ditch his skillful ball player obsession in midfield.
19 April 2009 at 7:51 pm
I was so excited that we beat Arsenal that I went out and got bummed by giant black cock and pretended that he was Drogba. Then I let him cum on my face.
Did you know that I have the largest collection of gay porn in the western world.
Right I’m now to find some more cock
19 April 2009 at 7:56 pm
both teams were terrible, arshavin and song not playing will be a complete mystery forever im afraid, lets get on with it in the champions league coz that is a different kettle of fish and we will have players back and wenger wont rest anybody for that
19 April 2009 at 7:59 pm
Everyone knows that the team selection was shit, it doesn’t take a genius to work that out. Of course song should have been playing. Diaby was playing shit and hardily ever touched the ball, but fabregas was running around all over the pitch.
19 April 2009 at 8:09 pm
It’s dreadful that we were one win away from the finals. The line-up wasn’t what any of us predicted, maybe it was to play mind games with Hiddink or to simply rest players for our trip to Anfield, but it certainly wasn’t a time to experiment. The performance from both teams lacked conviction as they both played well below average, and Dogbreath and co. pounced on the two mistakes from Eboue and Silvestre, which cost us the match. Diaby, Denilson, Cesc, Eboue, and Silvestre all had bad games. Diaby and Denilson were losing possession, Cesc was invisible, Eboue was dribbling in no man’s land (and losing possession), and Silvestre couldn’t gauge and head the freaking ball (the one thing he’s good at besides sending long balls).
We all know that Wenger’s aim is to win the CL. It’s a win-win situation for him regardless, if we win silverware with his policy it will show that ‘Arsene Knows,’ if we don’t then he can use the youth policy card.
19 April 2009 at 8:12 pm
Well in the Cardiff game two years ago I seem to remember we largely bossed midfield with the exact same midfield players. They’ve played together at various stages in the season and have seldom been as ineffective as they were yesterday, especially since late January. It’s not the team I would’ve selected but I can see that there was method in his madness, but you’re probably right insofaras he overthought it. But I think he is concentrating intensely on the champions league and I think he’ll put out the right side for those games. He obviously believes we can win it far more than the majority of fans do, which is a bit sad, but there you go.
19 April 2009 at 8:19 pm
chelski impersonator i know who u are. i fucked you momma last night. shes got a dusty pussy
19 April 2009 at 8:21 pm
and a flat ass.
19 April 2009 at 8:26 pm
Классная статья, кстати автору хочу предложить установить от яндекс.денег фишку на сайт “Дай рубль”. Я бы дал, так сказать на поддержание.
19 April 2009 at 8:30 pm
WENGER AND FERUSON CONNED TRUE ARSENAL AND MAN U SUPPORTERS WITH THEIR SELECTIONS PROVING THEY DONT GIVE A FUK ABOUT PEOPLS SPENDING THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY WATCHIN RESERVES PLAYING IN AN FA CUP SEMI. THEY SHOULD HANG THEIR HEADS IN SHAME AND UTD SUPPORTERS SHOULD DEMAND THEIR MONEY BACK
19 April 2009 at 8:33 pm
Spot on mate .. nice post … we should have played to our strengths.. anyway …hope we will do that in mid week match against liverpool.
19 April 2009 at 8:39 pm
Arshavin was dropped to vindicate his policy of youth, he didn’t want a big money to steal all the glory from his beloved kids. His selection showed sentiments with newcomers Nasri and Arshavin dropped for our first trip to wembley
Wenger openly admitted his biggest regret in 2004 is not chucking the FA Cup. We only went for the FA Cup this season to raise confidence and to ease the pressure of the team and Wenger.
Wenger thinks he and this team have done enough this season to get another chance next time around, an unbeaten run with fourth place secured and two semis all with a young team is a big achievement but its a bigger one for Wenger than it is for Arsenal who need trophies
Its all about Wenger you know.
19 April 2009 at 8:40 pm
To all those saying that AW is just thinking of the CL Arshavin is not eligible so why not play him on Saturday? Would he have been so exhausted that he couldn’t play Tuesday? Bollocks to that. Cesc played the whole game, will play on Tuesday and also in the CL. If it was a case of resting tired players why not rest those that might play every game from here on in?
As for Diaby and Denilson, even my 7 year old was urging Arsene to replace them midway through the first half. They just weren’t working. Why the fuck spend £16m on a superstar and leave him out of the biggest game he could have played for Arsenal to that point? I’m fuming and I’d really like an explanation from Arsene. In over 30 years of watching Arsenal this is one of the worst team selections I can ever remember!!!!!!!!!!!
19 April 2009 at 8:49 pm
The first time through, I had the same reaction as you. Poor team selection led to the result. Watching the game a second time, I come away with a different response. While I’d have preferred Arshavin starting, I understand why Diaby and Denilson were selected. I think they both played well. The loss was a combination of three things:
1. Fabregas was poor; the worst I’ve seen him. Ever. All the write-ups, yours included, object to Denilson and Diaby in place of Song and Diaby. The better objection is to Fabregas and Adebayor in the place of Song and Bendtner. A better resting decision by Wenger would have been to rest Adebayor and Fabregas, both playing with heavy legs for the last two games (at least), for Bendtner and Song.
2. The pitch affected both teams. It was a scrappy game because none of the players could get a foothold and it affected their confidence in every facet of the game. It’s an absolute disgrace that they allow the pitch to be in this condition for an important game.
3. Fabianski and the rear-guard were shaky all game and directly responsible for the two goals. Not much choice here, but man, they were bad in a big game.
19 April 2009 at 8:50 pm
im zorry fans. but it wernt my fault it wuz de pitch.
19 April 2009 at 9:02 pm
Spot on Goodplaya. I almost spat out by mint when I saw the team’s announced in Wembley, I knew from that moment that we would be in trouble and so it proved.
I can think of no good logical explanation for the team selection and tactics, Wenger’s post match comments don’t cut it as well, he skirts around the issues.
Chelsea were poor as well, I really think they were there for the taking if we had played Song and Arshavin in an attacking 4-4-2 formation.
19 April 2009 at 9:42 pm
Excellent post, Goodplaya. Sadly, I agree with every word.
Unbelievable and inexcusable team selection cost us the chance to seriously contend this semi-final and the result was predictable and inevitable from before the teams kicked off.
What’s worse, Arsene failed to admit his error and did not make the obviously necessary substitutions. He is inexplicably tactically naieve at times and infuriatingly stubborn always; can you imagine Mourinho or Benitez or Hiddink or Capello watching his Plan A backfire so spectacularly and not address it at half time?
19 April 2009 at 10:10 pm
I think we’re learnt a valuable lesson here. Never let Walcott score against Chelsea because we will always lose if he does, lol. Seriously though, I was a bit surprised with Wenger’s selection, but maybe he already wrote off the FA Cup and whatever happened that day, happened.
Plus, none of us know anything about the team, Song may have had personal issues, etc. Same with Arshavin, or Sagna could’ve infected them all.
They could’ve even been carrying knocks, and Wenger just wanted to do some damage control.
Anyway, all I’m saying is, I’m sure Wenger has his reasons. And even though, we may end up silverware-less this season, I still have every faith in him.
19 April 2009 at 10:18 pm
The game was too important to us the fans. The team needed to get a trophy to assist in their development. It has been pretty obvious to most watchers that Cesc and Denilson together is not a good combination especially against a powerful midfield trio. It was folly to play it from the start and neglectful not to change it when it proved not to be working.
19 April 2009 at 10:20 pm
we deserved to lose.chelsea outplayed us totally. i watched highlights of it on itv and all i could see was arsenal losing possesion of the ball. it was practically men against boys. arsene needs to get his tactics right otherwise we aint winning anything. in arsene we trust in not winning trophies
19 April 2009 at 10:22 pm
AW put that team up as part of his master plan. He was willing to sacrifice this match to learn what he could about beating Chelsea without giving his cards away if Arsenal were to get through to the CL final against Chelsea where he would field a completely different team.
They won’t run over Song. Or Diaby if he plays in the middle.
They do not know Vela or Arshavin.
Nasri, Djourou and Sagna will be back. So too Almunia.
The team sheet was made to lose. No FA Cup, little pressure in the Premier League; AW has set his sights on Euro Glory. His gamble to put on a shadow team and lose will only backfire if we do not win the CL.
19 April 2009 at 11:20 pm
In the summer rvp can go …wow what a difference maker he is … infact any of the moaners can go ..the whole team plays negative…why you ask ? Because the team has no depth ..no strength …infact very little creativity at all !! Mr Wenger please realise that every season you opt out of spending to get decent players … and no i dont mean young africans …young french etc. I mean decent hard working gritty in your face lets av it now players !!! a goal machine !!! a right back would be nice too… a brickwall in defence .Arshavin is amazing , truelly world class . try bloody playing him !
Basically Arsene its costing arsenal dearlly . we are a laughing stock …the little teams actually believe they can beat us and its true , our miserible defence cannot cope .
19 April 2009 at 11:22 pm
pv4 arshavin cannot play cl this season .
20 April 2009 at 1:28 am
[...] Mänskliga möten! placed an interesting blog post on The game Arsenal lost when the teamsheets were handed inHere’s a brief overviewI’m sorry, but Alex Song was not tired. Don’t get me wrong, for the first three years of … his teams for that matter) have always contained [...]
20 April 2009 at 1:29 am
[...] Another fellow blogger put an intriguing blog post on Goodplaya.com » Blog Archive » The game Arsenal lost when the …Here’s a quick excerptI’m sorry, but Alex Song was not tired. Don’t get me wrong, for the first three years of his Arsenal career Alex Song appeared comatose. But not for the past two months. He’s been bloody brilliant, better with every game. … It felt like Cardiff two years ago and you always feared Chelsea could punish poor defending at any minute. So I wanted us to go for it, throw on Arshavin for Diaby and Song for Denilson to balance things and try to win it there and then instead of … [...]
20 April 2009 at 5:27 am
PV4 – I hope you are right. That would be sweet to give Chelsea a good tanking in Rome.
20 April 2009 at 7:47 am
Arshavin needed a rest idiots, anyone and there dog can see that.
Song didnt play cos he’s wank
20 April 2009 at 9:15 am
I agree with поздравления; Down with capitalism!
20 April 2009 at 12:50 pm
Goodplaya I agree with every word. It would be good to get an honest answer from Wenger as to his reasons for that selection. Truly baffling. I can only think that he must have feared being overrun in CM, so wanted 3 in the middle, and maybe Song was slightly injured/tired after Villareal. If he worried about height as well at set pieces eg Ivanovic then maybe that explains Diaby and Denilson. He needs a target man so that’s Adebayor, then he has a choice of 2 from Theo, Arshavin, Walcott, Nasri and RVP. RVP did well against Chelsea earlier in the season and maybe he saw Theo and Arshavin together as a luxury, and thought RVP could link to Adebayor better?
Who knows. The fact remains, there could not have been an Arsenal fan on the planet who would have preferred Arshavin on the bench with Denilson and Diaby starting.
Wenger is a great man but I don’t think these big games are his forte. He over-agonises. I agree with Old Git, he is stubborn and does not make changes quick enough during the game. I think his controlling personality would not allow for a strong number 2 who could occasionally set him straight.
One day there will be a manager with Wenger’s talent for spotting and developing players, Ferguson’s or Mourinho’s management and motivational skills and Benitez’s big match tactical skills. Or a management team without the egoes and control freakery that would prevent any of those men (except possibly Ferguson) from sharing power with anyone. Until then we’re stuck with Wenger, and have to take the rough with the smooth. That’s still a pretty good deal for us, although I think we are nearing the end-game.
20 April 2009 at 1:32 pm
spot on mate..we should have played to our strength and not worry about what chelski will do, if AW was worried of our defence then Song should have been the obvious choice since he’s grown from game to game..denilson and diaby were too lightweight, both can’t tackle, won’t harass the opponenets and gave the ball way too often..to those pricks who says that denilson is better than Song, this game proves how bad denilson really is and how under rated Song is..by leaving Arshavin on the bench it doesn’t make any sense except for Hiddink would have known how to contain him..however it’s the only silverware that Arshavin have realistically this season, the liverpool game on tuesday should have not been a priority since villa drew theirs and we’re more than comfortable with our league position..if we don’t win any silverware this season there will be a massive exodus, RvP, Cesc and even Nasri will start to question the club’s ambition..if we had won the game we would have met Everton in the final, and our chances are far greater against Everton..a silverware this season would have encouraged the players to stay as they will start to believe that this team has what it takes to challenge for major honours..
20 April 2009 at 3:53 pm
Do any of you know anything about football?
Chelsea is a tall team, powerful and extremely effective at set pieces.
Arshavin, Nasri and Song are not tall. Can you imagine any of them marking Ballack at a corner? Don’t make me laugh.
Song is a terrific player (but remember how many of you were telling him, as little as three months ago, that he is crap) but there will be times when he just isn’t tall enough, especially when the rest of the midfield is the relatively diminutive Walcott, Denilson and Fabregas.
It’s hardly the land of the giants, and that’s why Wenger picked the team he picked. Diaby is well over 6 feet, and can compete at set pieces. By the way, he’s also an excellent player.
20 April 2009 at 5:10 pm
Get your head out of Mr Wenger’s arse, Ken. We lost the game because Mr Wenger bottled it and kept two of our best players on the bench. He gave the Chavs to much respect and stuck two fingers up at the FA cup and to all the fans who paid good money to watch the game. Like the other guy said: Mr Wenger and Fergie have shown nothing but contempt this weekend for the FA cup and the fans. You might be happy about this but I along with many others are not.