Leeds thoughts: Booing won’t help Arshavin
188 comments January 10th, 2011
Arsenal 1 – 1 Leeds (Snodgrass 54, Fabregas (pen) 90)
Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
The understudies failed to state their case…
Arsene made nine changes from the team that faced Manchester City on Wednesday, giving an opportunity to squad members to give him one of those pleasurably painful selection headaches. In short, they didn’t. The only outfield starter who can look back on this performance with pride was Johan Djourou, who continues to look our best central defender – until Thomas Vermaelen returns, of course.
Denilson showed why he’s not a defensive midfielder…
…by giving away the penalty so cheaply. It was interesting to see Cesc Fabregas condemning the silly challenge after the game – hopefully Denilson takes note. Any half-decent holding midfielder needs to have either the awareness not to stick out a leg in the box, or the ability to be certain of making a clean tackle. Denilson, as things stand, has neither. I’m not dismissing his value to the squad, but I’m not yet convinced he should be playing an anchoring role.
Wojciech Szczesny kept us in the game…
Having almost kept out the penalty, he then made an outstanding reaction save to deny Luciano Becchio a headed goal which would have left us 2-0 down and almost certainly out of the cup. His distribution needs work, but there’s no doubting his talent.
Tomas Rosicky has not scored in 24 appearances this season…
That is a quite extraordinary statistic for a player who has started 14 games, many of them in a position just off the striker. It’s fantastic to see Rosicky playing regularly and seemingly free of the hamstring problems that dogged him for two years, but it’s hard to justify using him as the advanced midfielder when he’s so consistently unproductive. Aside from one beautiful pass to release Arshavin early on, he contributed little. He has some fantastic qualities: a superb first-touch, good movement, and an undeniable work ethic. But is that enough to justify the thirty-year old beyond this season? Especially with younger options on the market? We shall see.
Andrey Arshavin needs backing, not booing…
I doubt this will be a popular part of the post, but here we go.
As I have already pointed out, there was barely an outfield player who put in a good performance on Saturday. Despite this, sat in the stands, you would’ve thought the entire thing was Andrey Arshavin’s fault. When a Bendtner pass to him was overhit, it was the Russian’s fault. When he missed a one-on-one in the first half, the wannabe pundit behind me suggested:
“He must’ve got into drugs or hookers or something.”
Fans love a scapegoat. In the past it’s been Eboue, it’s been Bendtner, and it’s been Adebayor. At the moment, it’s Arshavin.
I’m not defending his performances. But neither is he. When you listen to Arshavin talk about his performances, there’s no attempt to avoid responsibility or shift blame. He knows when he’s not playing well.
One of the reasons he is being castigated is for running over to the subs bench when the board instead went up for ’29’, and then later expecting to be withdrawn for Vela. I assume people believe this to be due to a willingness to get off ASAP and collect his pay-cheque.
I have to say, I sincerely doubt that is true of a man who has been a top level professional athlete for more than a decade. He rightfully expects to be substituted: no player has been taken off more in the Premier League this season. And, as I have already made clear, he knows he’s not playing well. This isn’t Adebayor, threatening to leave and then blaming the fans for turning against him. This is a guy who is way, way off his game. And who, despite that, scored and created two vital goals in the game at Wigan just a week or so ago.
Yes, he is a bit lazy. He was lazy at Zenit, lazy for Russia, and lazy when he was playing well at Arsenal. He always has been, always will be. If that is your problem with him, I cannot help you. It was there before this dip in form.
What wasn’t there before was the poor first-touch and bowed head. Arshavin’s game is based on confidence: on instinct and the willingness to try the spectacular and predictable. The poorer his form, the lower his confidence. The lower is confidence, the more erratic his game becomes. Saturday, we can only hope, was he nadir from which recovery begins.
Arsene left Arshavin on the pitch because he knew he might produce the moment of magic that we needed – and he almost did, playing in Walcott with a lovely pass over the top. Had he been substituted, taking in to account he mood in the crowd, I can say with some sadness that he would have been roundly booed.
No other set of fans sees fit to boo their players. Had ours done so, again, I would have felt very disappointed. Arshavin is a great talent, and one we want to be in form. There’s no doubt we’re stronger when he’s on his game. As well as Theo and Nasri are playing at the moment, there will come a time when we can’t rely on them. Discarding Arshavin would be a mistake. Arsene knows that. And the fans should too.
Chamakh is a better footballer than Bendtner…
And deserves the more game time of the two. I was amazed when the Moroccan was withdrawn, leaving the Dane on the pitch. Perhaps Bendtner’s bleating means Arsene feels obliged to give him game-time. But that shouldn’t be allowed disrupt the pecking order: Chamakh has already shown this season that he is arguably our most effective centre-forward.
Cesc made a captain’s contribution…
He came on for Alex Song, and played in a deeper position than usual. This allowed him to increase the team’s tempo, creating the pressure that resulted in the equaliser. And how about that for a cool spot-kick in the 90th minute?
Theo is right to admit his dive…
He claims it’s the one and only time he’s dived in his career, and I doubt he has any intention of doing so again. I for one feel referees are more likely to admire his integrity than punish him retrospectively. As it was, the referee got the decision right and didn’t award a penalty for the alleged ‘dive’, so there was no harm done.
Huddersfield at home is a great draw…
…if, and based on last night it’s a reasonably-sized ‘if’, we can overcome Leeds at Elland Road.
Arsene may have to buy after all…
Apparently Sebastien Squillaci picked up a hamstring problem on Saturday. If it’s serious, he might have to move quickly for some cover at centre-half.
Next up Ipswich…
…who were battered 7-0 at Stamford Bridge this weekend. It’ll be interesting to see what sort of team we field: you’d imagine it to be a similar line-up to last night, with perhaps one or two more senior personnel coming in. Two games from Wembley…
