Chelsea 2 – 1 Arsenal: Burden too heavy for squad heavy on quality but light on quantity
Add comment March 24th, 2008
Arsenal have not won in their last six domestic games. Painful though it might be to admit it, that is not the kind of form potential Champions can afford. After our last league win, a 2-0 victory over Blackburn, we moved five points clear at the top of the table. Remarkably, we are now six points behind United, and even a point behind Chelsea. In the league at least, it has all gone wrong.
It’s not beyond retrieval. United still have to face us and Chelsea, and with the distraction of the Champions League to boot, I would be amazed if the sides above us did not drop points. But when you consider the lead we had, you have to say it does feel like we’ve had our chance, and have sadly let it slip.
In that respect, yesterday’s defeat is no disaster. Losing to a side who haven’t been beaten at that venue in four years is no shame. If indeed the league is lost, it was lost in the draws against the likes of Birmingham, Villa, Wigan and Boro. It was not lost at Stamford Bridge.
I don’t have a vast amount to say about yesterday’s game. For large portions of the match we were in control, but after taking the lead through Bacary Sagna’s header, but we simply couldn’t handle it when Chelsea introduced the fresh blood of Nicolas Anelka, who twice beat William Gallas to the ball to set up Didier Drogba for the goals that defeated us.
We do not have those kinds of options. Our first eleven are exhausted, simply because we do not possess the quality in reserve to rotate them. Consider the fact that Manchester United have been able to rest their star pair of Rooney and Ronaldo and bring in the likes of Scholes and Tevez to replace them. Consider also that when we last won the league, we had the firepower of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Robin van Persie, Jose Antonio Reyes, and Sylvain Wiltord to call upon – and Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires could play there too. Yesterday the paucity of options available to Arsene was evident, and the strain on Emmanuel Adebayor over the course of the season is taking its toll.
Adebayor was majorly responsible for forcing us into the five-point lead that’s since evaporated. Our real Championship form came in the first half of the season, but throughout the early part of 2008 a dip in our performances was partially masked by the goals of the Togolese striker. Now the chances and goals have ceased to come to the big man, and our defensive frailties are being exposed.
Cesc and Hleb have tired legs and tired minds. If they’d been allowed the occasional breather, like Rooney and Ronaldo, they might be able to find with more regularity the devastating form their United counterparts have managed.
I do not mean to blame individuals. The team is simply not functioning as it was. Strangely, in the games against Milan we seemed to find that extra gear, but it has escaped us domestically. We are not getting enough midfielders into the box to support Adebayor, and we are not getting enough crosses in to find those forward runners. Instead, we are returning to the eye-of-a-needle intricacies that are beautiful on the eye but seem to produce inferior results.
We need to get back to basics, and (as Arsene says), we need to start winning games. There’s still so much to play for, in this country and on the continent. The players are more than capable, it’s just about turning that corner and producing what we know they’re capable of. Let’s save the remonstrations for the Summer.
