Arsenal 2 – 0 WBA: Divers are already retrospectively punished

704 comments December 9th, 2012

Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction

Divers are already retrospectively punished…
Yes, Santi dived.  Yes, it was ugly.  And no, I don’t want it happening again.  That said, you won’t hear me lambasting him for it.  There are two reasons: the first is that we’re so desperate for points at the moment that I’ll take them however we can get them.  The second is that, unlike the majority of pundits, I don’t find diving to be the great corrupting evil of our game.  In fact, I’d far sooner see a player dive than commit a dangerous two-footed tackle.  It seems an odd quirk of our culture and its latent obsession with a neanderthal interpretation of masculinity that we’re more accepting of physical violence than a bit of cunning.  Fundamentally, I believe players are entitled to leap out of the way of a tackle.  There is no obligation to take the hit and get hurt.

That, I suspect, is exactly what Cazorla was attempting: to anticipate contact and exaggerate it to guarantee the decision.  Rather embarrassingly for him, the contact never came, and his subsequent leap and tumble can only ever be called a dive.  In an ideal world, the ref spots it and hands Cazorla a yellow card.  Unfortunately, the referee in this case was having a ninety minutes littered with incompetence, and made a poor decision.  You have to feel for West Brom, but few clubs are whiter-than-white here.  The Baggies themselves tried to win a penalty after a laughable dive from Markus Rosenberg.

There is outcry about the lack of retrospective punishment for divers.  I’m not sure I agree.  One need only have watched the second half to see the FA’s unspoken judiciary system in place.  Cazorla dribbled between four tackles, before being clearly fouled on the edge of the box: no free-kick.  This punishment can last longer than just one game – simply ask Gareth Bale, who has been booked twice recently for ‘dives’ when any other player would have won a free-kick.  In this age of television replays, the reputation earned becomes the punishment.  Santi will be lucky to win another penalty this season.

This was a much better Arsenal display…
We ought to have scored at least four goals, and looked relatively comfortable at the back too.  The midfield of Cazorla, Wilshere and Arteta looked so much better for a rest, and the latter showed just what a ballsy character he is with two no-nonsense penalties.  The English pair of Wilshere and Oxlade-Chamberlain had their best games of the season.  I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping that Chamberlain can put together a run of form to allay some of the concerns about Theo Walcott’s inevitable departure.

I occasionally wonder just what the other players make of Gervinho…
The Ivorian had one of his better games on Saturday.  He was energetic, hard-working and covered huge areas of the pitch.  However, his decision-making, final ball and finishing will always leave a lot to be desired.  In fact, the most reliable thing about Gervinho is that I will be complaining about him after the game.  When he missed from six yards out, Lukas Podolski, who was warming up on the sidelines, held his face in his hands for a good five seconds.  Little did he know he’d trump Gervinho with an even more outrageous miss after coming on as a substitute.

Olivier Giroud needs a goal again…
The Frenchman was desperate to take the second penalty, and not at all happy about Mikel Arteta asserting his authority and taking the kick himself.  When Arteta scored, Giroud turned and trudged back to the centre-circle as the rest of the team celebrated.  It was a little stroppy, and the mark of a player who is starting to feel the pressure again after failing to score in his last five appearances.

Arsenal are now just two points off fourth spot…
…whilst Chelsea’s mini blip means we’re only five points off third.  We’re in the fortunate position of being in direct competition with teams which are as flawed as our own.  If we can get it together, Champions League qualification is still very much within our grasp.

That said, it was painful seeing RVP clinch the Manchester derby…
That’s what football ought to be about.  Those glorious moments when you pinch victory in a table-topping clash thanks to your star player.  We had a player like that.  We sold him.  Still, look at that bank balance.  Lovely.

Arsenal 3 – 3 Fulham: Giroud’s excellence clouded by defensive incompetence

1,129 comments November 10th, 2012

Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction

This game should have been all about Olivier Giroud.
I said before the game I fancied the Frenchman to score – I should have put some money on it.  He scored two fantastic headers, taking his tally to six goals from his last seven starts.  It’s worth remembering that this performance came against the titanic Brede Hangeland.  Giroud competed with the Norwegian tirelessly and this ought to have been the day that he announced himself to the Premier League with a brace in a vital Arsenal win.  Of course, as it was, the defence had other ideas and Giroud is relegated from the headlines.

Some will say he spurned a final chance to make it his day by not volunteering to take the stoppage-time penalty.  It was interesting to note his body language – as soon as the kick was awarded, he started doing a ‘calm down’ gesture with his hands.  Perhaps he sensed the game was far from won.  Having missed his last kick, perhaps he also felt the added pressure of a possible hatrick meant he wasn’t best placed to take it.  After all, he’d looked far more lethal in the air than with his feet, and he couldn’t exactly head a penalty.  Anyhow, Mikel Arteta seemed pretty keen, taking the ball of Santi Cazorla – the only man to initially volunteer.

Was this Mikel Arteta’s first bad game for Arsenal?
After the Spaniard conceded the penalty, I pondered whether that was the first major mistake he’d made in an Arsenal shirt.  He was obviously keen to amend matters with the spot-kick, but unfortunately didn’t manage it.  When you look at Arteta’s performances since signing for the club, it’s hard to hold him too responsible.  This wasn’t his best game, but you can never question his commitment.

The missed penalty is a red herring.
Like Jack Wilshere’s sending off last week, or indeed Santi Cazorla’s goal, the penalty miss should not detract from the true story of the game: that Arsenal squandered a 2-0 lead for the second time in five days.  Scoring three goals at home should be enough to win any game – especially one in which you’ve led by two clear goals.  As it was, we allowed Fulham time to play, and they duly punished us.

Dimitar Berbatov and Bryan Ruiz were excellent.
Clubs like Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, and indeed Arsenal should be asking themselves how this pair managed to end up at Fulham.  I don’t mean any disrespect to the Cottagers, but both plainly have the talent to be playing at a much higher level.

Our midfield were a mess.
Forgive me, but I don’t understand why a holding midfielder, Francis Coquelin, frequently found himself in a more advanced position than the more creative Mikel Arteta.   Also, I am conscious this may be heresy, but I’m not sure about the validity of keeping Santi Cazorla in the central three.  He drops in to wide areas to look for space, which means that the two left behind occasionally look a little isolated.  In the unlikely instance that everyone is fit and available, I’d like to see Arteta, Diaby and Wilshere in the middle with Cazorla drifting in from one of the wide positions.

The ‘Steve Bould effect’ myth has been destroyed.
After Arsenal kept a clean sheet in the first three games of the season, I said this:

“I’d like to go on record and say I think our defensive excellence has been somewhat overstated in the early part of this season.  Just as us conceding ten in the first three games of last season was anomalous, the three clean sheets could be a similar statistical oddity.  It will take a longer run of consistency before I declare that Steve Bould has replaced the current back four with clones of our well-drilled mid-90s heroes.”

I wish I had been wrong.   After today’s game, Arsenal no longer hold the statistic title of meanest defence in the league, and it’s easy to see why.

The “Steve Bould has fixed everything” narrative was a myth created by people who wanted to use it as stick to beat Arsene Wenger with.  And as for the ‘zonal marking’ on the corner from which Berbatov scored, I have to confess I simply can’t see the logic in leaving opposition players to make untracked, unmarked runs and attack the ball.

With Spurs at City tomorrow, this weekend ought to have been a time to put us in a powerful position ahead of next week’s North London derby.  Instead, that game is looking very crunchy indeed.

A strange day: Arsenal win a trophy & Gervinho scores

455 comments July 14th, 2012

Markus Liebherr Memorial Cup

ARSENAL 1 – 0 ANDERLECHT
Video highlights: Henri Lansbury ’34

ARSENAL 1 – 1 SOUTHAMPTON
Video highlights: Jay Rodriguez ’31; Gervinho ’35

I suspect in your head, when you pictured the next man to raise a cup aloft and end our trophy drought, you never for a moment believed that man would be Johan Djourou.  However, Arsenal are Markus Liebherr Memorial Cup Champions.  Perhaps we should take that, and our Emirates Cup victories of 2007, 2009 and 2010 and use it to plug the gaping void after ‘FA Cup 2005’ in the roll-call of silverware that lines the interior of the Emirates Stadium.

Obviously, in real terms, our victory in a friendly competition where we didn’t even play a full ninety minutes against a single opponent doesn’t mean all that much.  But if winning is a habit, then this could one day prove to be a helpful step in the right direction for the many kids involved yesterday.

The side that took to the field in the first 45 against Anderlecht was:

Martinez – Jenkinson Boateng Miquel Gibbs (c) – Yennaris Eastmond Lansbury – Eisfeld Chamakh Watt

Arsenal won the game thanks to a solitary goal, which showed off the qualities of both Carl Jenkinson and Henri Lansbury.  Jenkinson showed good tenacity to drive to the byline, and then demonstrated why I’ve long insisted he’s the best crosser at the club with a devilish ball which Lansbury arrived to thump home.  Whenever he’s played for the first team, Henri has shown a knack for arriving in the box at the crucial point, and this was no different.  Personally, I hope he gets a long overdue chance in the first-team this season.  His loan spell at West Ham was something of a disappoint, but a player with his style was never going to be the first name on the teamsheet in a Sam Allardyce side.  We could do a lot worse than to keep him involved in 2012/13.

In the second game we had a more experienced side on the field:

Mannone – Eastmond Djourou (c) Bartley Meade – Coquelin Lansbury Ebicilio – Santos Gervinho Aneke

Arsenal fell behind as Jay Rodriguez made himself an instant hero with the Saints fans by nodding home on his first appearance at St. Mary’s.  It was a good cross but new assistant Steve Bould won’t be happy about how easily Rodriguez rose between our two centre-backs.  With the games lasting only 45 minutes, there wasn’t much time to level, but Gervinho managed it with a corker.  He sprinted to the byline and cut back inside before firing past the keeper.  The confidence with which he took his goal was almost as surreal a sight as Djourou raising a trophy.  Gervinho has duped us with these pre-season antics before, netting twice on his first appearance in a friendly last season, but hopefully this is an early sign that he may have a more successful second season than his first.  A quick glance at the video reveals that our supposed left-back, Andre Santos, was in the six yard box.  A poacher’s instinct from the tubby Brazilian.

The game went to penalties, and Southampton emerged victorious, but it didn’t matter: the trophy was already ours.

So, Arsenal are back.  Next week the remainder of the squad will return to training before we fly to Malaysia in around a week’s time.  Something tells me the coming days will tell us a lot about the make-up of our squad for next season.


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