Arsenal v Wolves or The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Let’s be honest shall we? Arsenal have improved. We have more grit and desire and that soft underbelly we are always accused of having seems to have jettisoned off to Manchester City or Barcelona depending on your perspective. But while we look better defensively and in other areas there is one thing that remains constant – the Arsenal inability to take advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself.

For all the team has accomplished in turning itself around from the horrid start to the season, it looks like they haven’t erradicated every last thing from the previous Arsenal incarnation. Arsenal went into Tuesday’s match with the prospect of overtaking Chelsea for a spot in the top four and keeping pace on our rivals in North London.

What they walked away with was a point, still locked in 5th place and that other team from North London opening up a slight advantage over us. Now before we progress, I will say this about that other team, I will be concerned about them when its the last day of the season, there is one game left to play and they hold a 4 point lead over us. Until then, they have to play every big team save one away and the season she is long.

Okay so now back to my rant. What is it about Arsenal squads that they fail to do anything with these “opportunity” matches? In the past I would say it was leadership or no plan B. But I don’t see that here. In the end what it came down to was the fact that on this day Arsenal faced a keeper who looked like he had the match of his career.

In the pre-game run up I mentioned that Hennessy had been the league’s busiest keeper. Well, this match did very little to dispel that. Arsenal had 73% possession with 27 shots, 11 of which were on goal. And the shots on goal weren’t the garden variety shots into the chest, they were decent, get the keeper working kind of shots. And he worked. There were a few moments where I seriously had to wonder how he stopped the shot – like Mertesacker’s rifle shot header which hit the keeper’s feet or Van Persie coming in from the right, nutmegging Hennessy only to have his folded leg stop the ball.

I have to give props where it’s due and frankly Hennessy deserves every bit of the plaudits he gets. He was a one man defence.

But (there is always a but) I had two primary issues with yesterday’s match. One I think had a lot to do with the draw and the other not so sure but it plays in to it. I absolutely think Wenger got it wrong on the subs. Maybe not so much with Aaron “Row Zed” Ramsey but with Andrei “I can’t be Arsed” Arshavin and Marouane “My hair has more skill than me” Chamakh. Those two continue to show  that they should be boxed up and sent out of Arsenal land at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

When I mentioned this to people yesterday they were defending Arshavin noting his shot that almost went in in the upper right corner. That shot was never going in.  I knew it the moment he took it because he just doesn’t look prepared to shoot and doesn’t present any desire when on the pitch. And if anyone can tell me what Chamakh contributed to yesterday’s match please point it out to me in the replay. It was as anonymous a performance from a player as I can remember.

I don’t know if Wenger is concerned about Yossi doing a full 90 but the man was on fire yesterday. His vision and momentum were driving us forward. Moreso than Rosicky who didn’t have a bad performance but not as good as Yossi. Why he was taken out is beyond me.

Wolves were having problems all night with Gervinho and Yossi’s speed. If anything I would’ve pulled either Song or Rosicky and brought on Chamberlain to give the opponents a third speedy option to think about. Now, I am not on the screaming for Oxlade Chamberlain to play band wagon. I think the team needs to take its time with him and bring him in when its warranted.  Yesterday it was warranted.

The other thing I noticed was everyone was hell bent on helping Robin Van Persie get a shot on goal. A few times players gave up their own clear cut chances to give it to Robin so that he can break the goal record. There should only be one record those players are concerned about – the one that has us 5th in the table.  As great as it would be for Van Persie to break the record, it shouldn’t be at the expense of our own position in the table and at times that is exactly what happened.

Additionally, we all know I have been singing the praises of Alex Song in his development as a DM. Well, I was ready to kill the lad yesterday. Yes its Wolves and yes, Arsenal are the better team but that does not mean you act like a cheeky ass and try every back-heel and flick pass on the planet. You are a defencive midfielder not some second coming of Lionel Messi. Direct passes please. Two weeks in a row I have seen Arsenal players – Alex Song this week and Aaron Ramsey last week – attempt a slew of back heel passes which in most case are intercepted  or break up play because they are either short or errant.  What has been good about this team has been the directness of its play recently. This kind of crap pisses me off to no end. In the end I figured they were doing it to practise ahead of our eventual Champion’s League date with Barcelona at which point either Song or Ramsey will execute a back heel to Cesc Fabregas setting him up for a goal past Szczesny. This will result in Xavi’s protestations to the press that either Alex Song or Aaron Ramsey have Barca DNA and they should come home.

Oh and lest I forget – Stuart Atwell, the esteemed (I use the term lightly) referee had an absolute ‘mare of a match. From the red card that was a yellow and a free kick at best to the missed, rather blatant hand ball.  The hand was discouraging because it wasn’t a case of where it was close to the chest or shoulder it was middle of the arm. And to top it off he calls a hand ball on Vermaelen immediately after that could’ve been questionable. This is now the third match (by my reckoning) we’re we’ve been hard done in by non-calls. In case you are wondering the other two were Van Der Vaart’s hand ball in the NLD and then Micah Richards in the airline derby a week ago.  If those and the call from yesterday had been called, at a minimum they were were worth 5 points at a maximum 9.

Still the ref is not why we drew this game. Much of what I mentioned previously did. The ref was just one contributing factor.

So as it is, we are still in fifth – bah – and we have a short week with QPR at the Emirates on Saturday.  A win is necessary.

Until the next time – Stay Goonerish.

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