A pathetic display punctuates Arsenal’s problems
A mass exodus conformed the Emirates Stadium this afternoon as an injury-ridden Arsenal were brutally undone by the Villains in a 3-1 defeat.
As Amy Lawrence so rightfully said in her report for The Guardian, “If you are not prepared to pay the price, there’s a price to be paid.” Obviously, a testament to Arsenal having not spent a single penny so far this summer, and although there were some extremely questionable calls from Anthony Taylor, Arsenal’s demise was much to their own doing with lack of preperation and organisation.
Although it started positively for Arsenal, with some good phases of play and a great counter-attacking goal, attackingly, they were poor for the rest of the game.
Arsenal deployed in a 4-2-3-1 formation, often conforming to a 4-3-3 in transition plays, fielded Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs; Ramsey, Wilshere; Walcott, Rosicky, Chamberlain; Giroud — with Gibbs getting injured in the first half, replaced by Jenkinson, who then swapped flanks with Sagna.
Early on, Arsenal were fluid going forward in all fronts, spreading the ball across the pitch with composure. Rosicky, playing in the no.10 position, dropping deep and out-wide left to intertwine with Chamberlain, drawing the Villa defence apart for Giroud and Walcott to make the runs in behind. Arsenal’s only goal of the game came through a quick-fisted counter-attack down the left side with Rosicky dropping deep, drawing Lowton up, providing space for Chamberlain to run in behind. Rosicky then threading him through to bolt down to the byline, delivering a well weighted lay-off for Giroud to tuck away. For the next 10 minutes, Arsenal kept possession well and rotated with Rosicky, Wilshere and Ramsey in the centre of the pitch, with Chamberlain cutting across, drawing room for Gibbs to overlap to.
But, typically with Arsenal, nothing good lasts for very long. Aston Villa soon picked up on their pressing and began forcing Arsenal to lose composure in possession. The big fault in the lead up to the penalties and the subsequent goals, was the lack of organisation and discipline in the double-pivot.
Wilshere and Ramsey both set to play deeper-lying positions today in the absence of Arteta and the noticeable non-existance of a defensive-midfielder. Villa began to play with the initiative and with the glorified pace-mule that is Agbonlahor, his dramatic run through the centre to win the first penalty, left Wilshere and Ramsey trailing in his wake.
Both lacked conviction and were caught high up the field and all-in-all very unaware in position, allowing Agbonlahor to storm the defence and Szczesny to force the penalty that led to conceding the first goal.
Similarly, with the second, Arsenal were thrown about on the counter-attack — overloaded on their left-flank (with Sagna struggling at left-back), Aston Villa midfielders piled through the middle of the field, with Wilshere and Ramsey, again, nowhere to be seen. Agbonlahor broke through, and with a reckless, yet lawful, tackle from Koscielny, he was brought down and the penalty was given.
Then on, Arsenal being Arsenal, they started to regularly look somewhat uncomfortable in possession. Although there were some sublime phases of play leading to Rosicky missing two sitters, no other chances were amounted due to the lack of determination and faith by the players. The midfield was nervy, almost fearing that if they pushed too forward , they’d leave more gaps in the middle for Aston Villa to counter through. With injuries taking their toll, Arsenal slowly died out of the game. The final nail in the coffin was the goal by Villian new boy Tony Luna.
In a swift summary, all you need to know is Arsenal are in dire need of a defensive-midfielder — no two ways about it. The majority of Villa’s attacks today, came barraging through the middle, overloading the double-pivot of Ramsey and Wilshere, who were uncapable of breaking down those critical phases of play, let alone delaying it.
Arsenal lacked the composure and discipline to drive forward and were horrendous in phases of transition play, particularly defensive. In a nutshell, Arsenal got the knock (more say beatdown) they needed to realise (hopefully) how desperately they must dip into their bank and hit the transfer market for a defensive-midfielder.
Playing the Blame Game:
Lot of people want to blame the referee, Anthony Taylor for a lot of what went wrong. Surely, I’ve never seen a ref who had as appalling display as today. First, when was the last time you saw a ref who not once allowed play to continue due to an advantage. And with a purely biased eye affixed, it clearly looked like it happened to Arsenal more than Villa.
Additionally, both calls on Koscielny were dubious. The first, that led to the eventual game winning penalty was poor. Just poor. When you review the replay, Kos’ whole cleat smothers the ball before Agbonlahor falls to the ground.
Secondly, the call that led to the second yellow was about as poor as I’ve seen, especially in light of the fact, that if Koscielny did actually touch Weimann than it’s a miracle. Weimann’s tumble actually occurs with Koscielny 3 ft behind him. Part me thought that he meant to call Mertesacker for his take out on Benteke that happened just after.
Sure, the non-penalty gave the impetus for the second goal and likely the match. The poor (or wrong) call that sent off Koscielny only sealed it. But to blame the ref refuses to look squarely at a team deficient in certain areas as mentioned above.
It doesn’t help and fighting a ref as poor as this is deflating, surely. It takes the wind out sails but it can’t and shouldn’t be the only excuse that Arsenal failed to win for the first time at home since losing to Coventry City 3-0 at Highbury to kick off the 1993-94 campaign.
It’s not going to get any easier especially as it looks like this squad took a heavy hit in this match.
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Oh, and just a reminder as to what we WILLINGLY gave up to our fierce rivals:
Since January 2011, Robin van Persie has scored a grand total of 75 Premier League goals… 26 more than any other player. Well done Arsenal.
An excerpt from an excellent article found here:
http://www.football365.com/john-nicholson/8878268/John-Nicholson
“He always wants to paint himself and his standards as the gold standard. This is a consequence of the bogus ‘Arsene Knows’ culture that has grown up over the last 15 years. He still benefits hugely from this but surely it’s becoming more and more clear that the emperor has no clothes.
Understandably he’s reluctant to buy anyone because so many of his signings turn out to be a waste of time, not quite up to standard, or are just downright okay. He gets things wrong and he wins nothing, so he’s been forced to try and sell bad back to us as though it’s good, making out that it’s amazing they finish in the top four when the world’s best players are not available to him.
Wenger has managed to persuade enough people that because it is him in charge then whatever he is doing must be the best thing that could be done and we are stupid to question this. In his world, Arsenal can’t compete with the big three above them. But that’s not true; they could. What he means is he can’t compete. He is merely trying to set his standards as THE standards.
A new man with a good vision and an ability to spot a player could take over the club and make them into league champions. It simply isn’t the impossible task that Wenger would claim it to be. They have huge resources available to them. The truth which he’s trying to obfuscate is that great players and great prospects mostly don’t want to play for Arsenal under Wenger. That’s why he can’t sign them. He’s not being educated and responsible; he’s just not being successful.
While other clubs repeatedly unearth and sign really good players in recent seasons, from Yohan Cabaye to Michu to Christian Benteke – the examples are numerous – Wenger seems to be insisting that these players would not have made Arsenal better and signs Chamakh, Gervinho and worse instead.”
My family sat on the couch watching with disbelief after every injury. I would laugh and say, “well, we lost the LB to injury, too bad the team doesn’t have another one of those.” Then I laughed in disbeliefe when AOC got injured because I couldn’t believe it. Then Kocielny got red carded (bad calls, but it’s always a risk with a last ditch attempt in the box) and I just couldn’t stop laughing. There is ONE CB for the next game. And our last ditch CB can’t play there because he’ll have to play LB again. Everyone knew going into this season – well, except for Wenger – that this team was WAY too thin to make it through the season, let alone the first month.
If I were an Arsenal player, I’d be handing in a transfer request as soon as I could. Why would anyone want to play for this mess, let alone come in as a new signing. On top of that, every team in the world knows that anyone Arsenal buy – and they have to buy at this point, don’t they because they can’t even count on the youth ranks at this point – so they are going to crank up the prices because they have the advantage.
As I watched this game, I felt like a man with a bad tooth that I couldn’t stop touching, and I watched to the bitter end. But no more. I just can’t do it anymore and it isn’t any fun, which is exactly what it should be. It’s entertainment. But this isn’t entertaining to anyone but Spurs fans. This team is going to lose badly in Turkey and they won’t be able to crawl out of that hole so there won’t be any more CL money this year. And they are going to be lucky to finish in the top 10 so there won’t be any CL next year either. As far as attracting new players, I don’t think the CL is the lure everyone thinks it is. Man City and Chelsea bought players without being in the CL, but the difference is most other teams willingness to actually spend the money.
The only way the board/manager/owner is going to change things is if their bottom line is affected. This means people need to stop going to games and buying merchandise or things won’t change in the least. I haven’t bought a damn thing from that team in three years and I don’t see that changing.
Letter to Arsenal (GazMan) from the Black Scarf Movement:
(doesn’t seem like the club are fooling everybody!!)
——————-
Announcement:
The BSM write to Ivan Gazidis, expressing “deep concern”
18 August 2013
Having closely monitored activity at Arsenal over the course of this summer, we have today written to Arsenal Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis. The letter expresses our concerns as a group, and those of Arsenal fans in general. Below is a copy of our letter.
Dear Ivan,
We write to you as Arsenal’s largest and fastest growing supporters’ group, to convey our deep concern at the current state of our team going into the new season.
In early June, around season ticket renewal time, you were widely quoted following your Q&A event where you spoke about the club’s new financial firepower and ambition moving forward. Many fans saw this as the club finally about to break free from the shackles of moving stadium; new commercial deals were coming into place, we had a vast amount of cash available in the bank, profit from the Queensland Road property project was secured, the vast increase in TV revenue was about to land on our doorstep, and after treading water since moving from Highbury it seemed as if we were finally going to push on.
What has happened since then is nothing short of a disgrace.
There have been noises coming out of the club over the summer that the market was slow, that other clubs weren’t doing much, and that things take time if you’re after top quality players. We feel all of these were poor excuses, designed to deflect focus away from our shortcomings.
The only positive of the summer has been the release of many players who were generally considered ‘dead wood’ – and naturally this frees up more cash for investment in the team. But with the departure of these players, virtually no movement has come in the opposite direction and we’re now left with a squad severely lacking in depth and experience. Indeed, the squad registered for the Champions League in the last week had to be padded out with kids.
As a group we have been concerned for some time that the Board running our club has lost sight of the raison d’être i.e. we are Arsenal Football Club; not a business purely focused on posting profits year after year.
You will have seen the results of our end of season survey, which came out in favour of Arsene Wenger but with 70% stating that he has too much control over transfer negotiations and setting of wage levels at the club. The same survey revealed that 87% of fans feel the current Board of Arsenal is out of touch with the feeling among fans, and that 73% feel less valued by the club since we moved stadium.
It is our view as a group that the Board of Arsenal is too relaxed about the competitiveness of our team, and that as long as a top four place is secured, it is a case of ‘job done’. This should never be the case but despite hearing you say you’re not happy every time we end a season with nothing to really cheer about, nothing changes.
So in June following your statement of intent, fans were rightly hopeful but what has happened since then? Yet again we’ve spent the summer dithering while others around us have strengthened, and once more we start the season playing catch-up. With five competitive matches due before the transfer window closes, there is every chance that our season could be dealt a hammer blow before we’ve had a chance to take stock, and this weekend’s defeat at home to Aston Villa should act as a huge wake-up call.
We are now in a situation where we’re faced with a carbon copy of 2011, where it took an 8-2 humiliation at Manchester United to force a ‘trolley dash’ on the final day of the transfer window. Of course by then it was too late. For Arsenal to be in that situation once is unacceptable; for it to happen twice in three years will be unforgivable.
It is imperative that the Board of Arsenal does its job and manages the Manager – an employee of the club you are supposed to be running. What are Arsene Wenger’s targets / KPIs set by the Board every year? Is the he not even answerable to the Board, with free rein to do as he pleases as long as he helps the business achieve a profit? Is he having to do all the running himself when it comes to transfers or if support is there, is he taking it? Clarity is required here because something clearly isn’t right at the club when it comes to the acquisition of new players.
You put all the focus on the Arsene Wenger yourself at that Q&A session in June, but to fans there is little evidence of questions being asked of him; this despite approaching the end of the transfer window with no sign of needed, established quality coming in. Does the Board feel that it’s been a good summer? Because we’ve now lost our opening game of the season, our squad is already blitzed by injury, once more today there were fans coming to blows in the stands. As a Board member, does this even bother you?
Of course if we used the funds we do have available, brought in top quality players and competed for prizes, in would come better commercial deals, you wouldn’t have as much trouble trying to get corporate punters back into the stadium, and naturally the more successful we are it becomes easier to attract better players. Or is the Board too short-sighted to realise this?
A competitive team isn’t one which scrapes the position of 4th best team in the league on the final day of the season and gets dumped out of domestic cup competitions by lower league opposition; you need to realise that most fans are aware of this fact. They’re not duped by finishing in a position which may result in us playing in the Champions League. So what, if the cash from that competition is simply banked and never sees the light of day?
It should be noted that as long term fans of The Arsenal we’ve seen plenty of lean times and poor teams over the years. Silverware isn’t the be all and end all; we follow this club out of pure love and will always do so. However, loyal matchgoing fans continue to walk away from Emirates Stadium, unwilling to part with their hard-earned cash when they feel let down and lied to by our Board. We pay the highest ticket prices in football after being sold a dream, but it’s always a case of ‘jam tomorrow’ and many have seen through the spin.
Enough is enough.
If the Board is actually intent on making Arsenal a successful force in football once again, changes have to be made. Arsene Wenger should have experienced, qualified support to help bring in top quality players, and he needs to be managed effectively if the right business isn’t being done.
Or if the Board is simply intent on milking the Arsenal brand for all its worth to the detriment of the team (but to the benefit of our bank account), season ticket prices at Emirates Stadium should be reduced accordingly. Our loyal fans should no longer have to bear the burden after doing so for many years.
Make no mistake, if there is not significant improvement in our playing squad over the next couple of weeks, the rapidly growing anger in the stands will become difficult to overturn. There hasn’t been a poisonous atmosphere like this at Arsenal for over 30 years and the Board has simply stood by, while things have gone from bad to worse. I am sure you appreciate, this can no longer happen.
We look forward to your response in due course.
Yours faithfully,
Where Has Our Arsenal Gone (the Black Scarf Movement)
signings is a big deal but not for the sake of signings. arsenal have needed cover for arteta since before he came to arsenal. all summer long, cover at dm has been the most dire need. however, we’ve heard all other types of nonsense.
a few years ago, we all watched the galacticos, who had the best players money could buy, go years without winning a championship because they didn’t have a proper dm. it’s far from a glamour position but it is the most important position on the pitch. it was plain to see that they would fail when they turned their nose up at makelele. real madrid gave the world a perfect example of what not to do. we even saw how compromised the invincibles became when gilberto was injured.
why does a team with arsenal’s stature, and personal experience, go two years with no recognized cover at dm? it’s as negligent an approach as i’ve ever seen. arsenal have been lucky as arteta has remained relatively fit but his few absences should have highlighted that glaring need for cover. especially when arsenal were thrown out of domestic cups against bradford and blackburn (when arteta was rested).
there are numerous players who’ve been available all summer and i would take any of them over wilshere or ramsey trying to fit those round holes. to see wilshere’s movement and positioning on villa’s third goal makes me cringe that a talented player could do something so stupid. perhaps he was caught up in the emotion of trying to come back. i’m sure he’ll look at the replay of that goal and kick his own self. we’ll see.
yes… blame the ref, blame the media, blame the fans…
same old Arsenal, same old Wenger, same old Koscielny, same old defense, same Summer of non-business…
the team & club is lacking much, except for finances…
there should be a criminal investigation into how a handful of arrogant idiotic fools, took one of the greatest teams in the history of the sport, and DESTROYED it… for money.
New season. Same crap. I pray daily that this is Wenger’s final season.
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Koscielny was unlucky but on the other hand, Szczesny could have gone for first pen. Refs have an irritating habit of trying to balance up earlier ‘bad’ decisions with later ones.
Bottom line, once Arsenal went behind they looked unlikely to come back. No Henry, no Bergkamp, no Wright, no Van Persie – no goal threat. Big purchases should have been made 2 months ago to bed in during pre-season, instead you are buying with deadline approaching and that smack of panic. Things will get worse before they get better, I am afraid ,,,