I’M just back from watching the Burnley v Arsenal screening put on in Club Level at the Emirates and all in all, it’s hard not to be disappointed.
If you didn’t see it then in a nutshell: after a dodgy opening five minutes that saw Almunia tip a Vermaelen header onto the bar we went through a purple patch that saw Cesc score, Arshavin hit the post and a few other chances go begging (not necessarily through poor finishing). Burnley crept back into it and a silly Vermaelen challenge gave them a penalty, which they scored. The excellent Cesc went off just before the break and for a long, long time after it we were limited to half chances but not a lot more. At the other end they had what looked like an onside goal ruled offside and could have had another penalty for a handball, albeit an innocuous one, by Silvestre. They also hit the post.
Most disappointing was the failure of a number of our players to raise their games. Sure, Burnley are tough at Turf Moor. Five wins, three draws and one defeat is proof of that. But that makes it all the more vital that players really lift themselves.
Cesc Fabregas did. Until he went off he was excellent, winning everything driving forward, scoring and generally leading like a captain should. Andrei Arshavin was making a decent fist of it too. But around them Samir Nasri, Abou Diaby and Theo Walcott were passengers, joining the game when it came to them instead of showing initiative and making things happen.
Cesc was replaced by Ramsey, who failed to rise above the mediocrity around him and Theo was eventually replaced by Eduardo. Yes, Walcott was having a shocker. But the move robbed us of what little natural width we did have. We never made a third sub, which I found odd given Eboue, Wilshere and Vela could all have given us that width and it wasn’t as if there weren’t a couple of candidates to come off.
Does this result put us out of the title race? No, of course it doesn’t. For a start, if we win our game in hand, we’re five points behind, which in a normal season is nothing. In this season of hiccup after hiccup for everyone, it looks even less.
The fact is that after a set of back to back away fixtures for us and back to back home fixtures for United and Chelsea, we have ceded no points to Chelsea and gained one on United.
Sadly, that is not to say we look like potential Champions. Right now, we clearly don’t. We’ve a goalkeeper in dreadful form, a defence who don’t trust him, a decimated attack and a midfield that is not supporting as it should.
Ratings
Almunia 5
Hesitant, woeful kicking, not trusted by his defenders and down unbelievably slowly for the ruled out goal. One decent save in fairness.
Sagna 6.5
Usual self. Largely solid at the back barring one stray clearance and OK going forward.
Vermaelen 6
Guilty for the early back header and the penalty though in fairness didn't otherwise play badly and tried to get us going.
Gallas 6.5
Made some important interceptions.
Silvestre 6
Positionally got woefully caught up at times. But in other ways was not bad and can at least vaguely hit the ball over ten yards with his left foot.
Cesc 8
Actually lost possession in the run up to his goal, but won it back well and took it very neatly. Really drove us forward and unlike a few of his teammates looked desperate for the win.
Song 6.5
Probably not at his best going forward, but equally didn't have a lot of movement ahead of him. Defensively sound.
Diaby 5.5
I realised how below par he had been in the last minute when he burst past a couple of players and I realised that was the first time he'd done it all night. May not have been constantly losing the ball but was not driving us forward as he should have.
Walcott 5.5
His night was summed up when he sent the kind of chance he finished earlier in the season against Blackburn high into the stands. In fairness, the ball did seem to bobble. But perhaps should have bit his tongue before letting fly with his bullish comments after the Liverpool game.
Nasri 5.5
There are moments which are decent, runs here and there, forward surges, that kind of thing. But is too peripheral, too bitty and too nothingy at times. Needs to find a niche.
Arshavin 6.5
Very lively early on and was unlucky to strike a post and see another one on one chance saved. Faded later on.
Ramsey 6
Not his best game. Offered a little more drive than some of the others but not really enough.
Eduardo 5.5
Looked very short of confidence, fluffing a one on one with the keeper and generally completely lacking the close control he can excel with. Needs a bit of luck.
Yes, a disappointing result but a satisfactory point given the circumstances (back to back away games against a team playing back to back home games with a day longer to recover, injuries, Burnley’s excellent home form etc). We nearly lost the game.
I would have given Theo 3 in all honesty. I can’t remember a successful pass he made and his composure in front of goal was that of a defender. But everyone is allowd a shocker from time to time.
The amazing thing is, despite a madenning injury list practically all season and obvious room for improvement (against West Ham, Chelsea, Sunderland in particular) we’re still third and in with a shout.
It struck me at half time that this would have been a good time to play Wolves reserves.
…Or bottom of the league Portsmouth at home come to think of it.
Such a frustrating evening.
It seems clear that we are low on confidence, whatever may have been said after the Liverpool game. I think this stems from two key factors: the loss of Robin & the lack of trust in Almunia.
i’m a huge supporter of Wenger – he has built two fantastic teams, and it is clear there is a third on its way – but I would love to see him invest in a centre forward and a goalkeeper over the winter break.
Wenger still knows – be honest, who saw how good Song would become twelve months ago? – but a signing, just as it did last year, would make an enormous difference to this team.
And, to be frank, I would snatch your hand off for Carlton Cole, let alone a Dzeko…
arshavin was dire as against liverpool, except there he managed to pull out his 1/10 great goal. GALLAS was key today and without him we wud have conceeded more, vermaelen needs to learn from him that u dont need to try and win every first ball, patience and last ditch as last option. the entire side was sluggish and created near to no decent chances….. not a chance of a trophy, unless wenger can get some decent players in, but nowing wenger hell surprise us all by signing someone over the hill, like he did with silvestre, time will tell…. keep it gonnerish
or we could’ve played burnley, a team who (they do have a very good record at home yes) are basically relegation candidates having a better than average stab at life in the premier league, no point in moaning about who the other teams are playing, we should have been able to come here and get a result and that’s all there is to it… injuries or not, we had players on the pitch tonight who the manager believes are good enough to win us the league, so the fact that they cant take advantage when on top, is lamentable, as is, one (albeit very influential and massively important to us) player’s withdrawl from the game… when fabregas went off injured we coulda played for another 3 hours and we still wouldnt of scored such was the severe lack of quality coming from our midfield an any actual service the front men did get, they wasted
i think , Arsenal needs a goalkeeper more than a strieker , and W.cott and eduardo are zero
It’s time Fabianski gets a run. Theo is awful. We looked aimless going forward. Definitely need a striker in January.
fuck arsene asshole for playing his favorite shit, ramsey the shit in the burnley game… substituting fabregas
what the fuck, bloody stupid arsene youth policy, flying private jet to capture a piece of shit!
Probably worth noting that we’ve only played 7 home games so far this season. Other than Villa, who have played 8, the rest of the top 7 have already played 9 games at home. Still a long way to go and there really is no standout team this season, just a handful of standout players, Drogba, RvP.
Oh, and I fully agree with ramshit – the mental health care in this country is abysmal.
Lacklustre performance from some of the boys.
Diaby was very solid defnsively for us – deserves better than the points you gave him; I noticed he did not try to venture too far forward; He may have been instructed to sit back.
Nasri and Walcot (as optimistic as I may be about the future of this kid, he really does not deserve to be a starter at this stage in his career) lacked a cutting edge up-front.
Silvestre’s lack of pace was exposed with such regularity that he started sitting sooo far off their winger.
Ramsey was so lost in the middle that Song, late on in the game, had to play the role of creative midfielder along with his defensive role.
Arshavin worked as hard as his bad foot permitted.
Eduardo couldn’t have picked the worst possible moment to be out of form. Think he’s also been affected with all the hoopla at the start of the season.
….onto the next battle we go. Bring on Tigers. We’ll make a great breakfast out of ‘em.
c’mon Arsenal!
Striker in January or not, we’ve lacked ideas up-front. Nasri, Walcot, Eduardo, Vela…….
No real surprise there as these individuals missed pre-season.
It’ll take ‘em a while to adjust; here’s hoping they do so sooner than later.
@ Old Git
“It struck me at half time that this would have been a good time to play Wolves reserves.”
LoL….I was thinking the same thing.
are you using a scale of 1-10 or 5-10?
5.5 is average…Walcott was horrific. Not even a scant glimmer of promise.
Almunia scares the shit out of me regularly
Eduardo gets himself in fantastic positions behind the defense but he needs to start finishing.
You know this isn’t sour grapes an all but do you not think that it is mighty bad luck that we get Liverpool away then Burnley away during this busy period and Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool get two home games in a row. I mean come on the fixture computer give us a break, we had Sunderland away after the international break where as Man Utd and Chelsea get home games. Hmmm are we seeing a pattern here.
Great report overall. I thought Gallas and Song were better than a 6.5. Particularly Gallas who covered well for the other defenders who had a shocker. Didn’t like the fact that Wenger only made one sub. We needed a bit more energy last half hour, so Eboue would’ve been handy. Walcott had a shocker again, but he needs time to get his form back. Definitely agree with Sexton Blake’s comment about a signing or two in January. But that’s only cos of the injuries to Bendtner and RVP. I’d love to see Dzeko in Arsenal shirt, but don’t think we’ll get him as his price will be too high.
Mike, if you think that’s bad, look at our fixtures at the end of January/start of February:
27/01 Villa away
31/01 United home
07/02 Chelsea away
10/02 Liverpool home
Ouch!
Arsene has been moaning about the fixture computer too. Look, we’ve all got to play every team home and away so it probably balances out over a season, but it would be better if the sequence was h/a/h/a rather than h/h/a/a when the fixtures come every three days or so in December – as much for the fans as the players.
Finally agree about Almunia. I have given him the benefit of the doubt for three years now but we really do need a top class international goalkeeper at a club of our stature. We need something from Harrod’s and we’ve got cast offs from Lidl.
Ramshit’s in good form. Welcome back!!
Whilst I was’nt ecstatic about last nights result, on reflection it may not turn out to be such a bad point after all. We would all agree that last night and the Liverpool game were not great performances, but we have not lost and have gained 4 points that we probably would not have had last season. From the starting team last night neither Wallcott, Diaby, or Nasri had pre season’s and they were also all recently injured.Burnley also had an extra day’s rest without having to travel. These players will take time to get up to full speed and we are still in touching distance
I agree with ADIIII83 at 2:31am, Song was better than a 6.5. It was one of those nights when you had to thank God he was playing after Cesc went off because he was literally carrying the midfield by himself, defensively and offensively. He gave the ball away more than normal, largely because he was the only one trying to thread or chip passes through to the front men, but as Anon says at 1:09am, he was by far our most creative player in the second half. Is there no end to his talents!
On the other hand, I thought Sagna was nowhere near a 6.5: Eagles gave him the runaround defensively, and his distribution was very poor. Famous last words, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Eboue get the start at right back against Hull.
Despite the doom and gloom today at 2 points dropped, it is really pretty remarkable that – given the injuries we’ve got, the keeper situation, the lack of goals, and the fact that only Cesc, Gallas and Song are consistenly playing well at the moment – we’re managing to stay in the Top 4, let alone challenge for the title. If we can get through this patch, get Bendtner, Rosicky and Clichy back, and reinforce the midfield and defence in January, this period of staying up there and grinding out lucky points could look vital come May.
By the way, I agree with Playa it was very odd not to see a final sub come on. Now Wenger might argue he only had more of the same on the bench in Vela and Wilshire and that it wasn’t their sort of game. But that couldn’t really be said of Eboue, and it definitely couldn’t be said of Jay Emmanuel Thomas, who would have offered something very different up front towards the end.
Finally, did anyone else have their heart in their mouth when Wenger said the guy who’d drawn up the fixture list must have been to “a special school”!! I was very relieved when he added “because he’s more intelligent than I am”. I thought we were going to be in a Glenn Hoddle-Matt Dickinson situation for a moment.
Eduardo, Walcott and Vela are a waste of space but they all get new contracts … from another site but oh how true , Walcott ? Can anyone tell me what he brim=ngs to the team , and same for Eduardo , both hugely overrated by Wenger ….. Sell them both…….
With the odd fairly glaring exception, some great comments on the board today. Thanks all.
I was at the screening at the ground and saw the whole match.
Unfortunately we effectively played with 10 men for most of the game as Walcott was on the field. As usual he was absolutely dire, he is without doubt the worst player I’ve ever seen playing for Arsenal.
If its true that he’s been given another contract god help us. He will never make it, he’s not a kid any more but is still running around the field like a headless chicken.
Again from another site …Walcott…….Made 9 passes in 64 minutes, intercepted once and didn’t make a single tackle, which is completely and utterly unacceptable. Chris Eagles put him to shame; that’s the type of young player Arsenal need – full of fire and passion, not to mention skill.
They rated him 2.5 , which i think is a fairer reflection of his game or lack of ………..
THAT’S why we need Denilson.
Seems like a lack of confidence, match fitness and some poor decision-making is hampering those who find themselves as our key players just now.
Just going on radio commentary, which seems to reflect what people are saying here.
Hopefully, a few more games will bring some of them to life.
I worry for Almunia, much as I like him. When he was chasing Lehmann he raised his game. Seems like he’s let it drop with only youngsters below him.
did you read on arsenal truth blog. walcott didnt make a single tackle in 64 minutes. i wonder what mr wenger, king of stats, thinks of that!!
5 is too good for Almunia. He’s a total disaster this season and what’s worrying is the obvious effect he’s having on the defense. Total lack of understanding and communication. And it’s obvious the defenders (and all our other players) have NO confidence in him.
RAMSHIT. Many people would say you’re a simple,wanky piece of shit. But i wont swoop that low. You are tho however a complete FANNY!. Where were you last week after ramsey scored a beauty, and then was man of the match away in greece,bossing the midfield aged 18.
Fabregas was injured you thick tosser
WAS WAITING FOR YOU TO ADMIT THAT YOU ARE A BELLEND.
WE NEED A TOP GOALKEEPER! SOON
January we need to sign a top goalkeeper,another top defender with height and strength, and it looks like we need a striker who packs a punch aswell. Missing bendtner ,and R.V.P ,badly. Why are we getting so many injuries. Its killing our season!