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April 23rd, 2009
It’ll be no surprise to you that just two days after our topsy-turvy clash with Liverpool, I’m still talking about that game. You might, however, expect me to talk about the stunning individual display of Andrey Arshavin, or the fact that the draw was yet another vital step towards Champions League qualification.
Sadly, I can’t. Instead, I find myself fixating on a gesture made by Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez after Arshavin’s second goal, which drew the game level at 2-2. Benitez clearly raised his hands in the air and clapped them together, as I hope the technology at my disposal (Sky+, an iPhone, and MS Paint) will demonstrate:
Now it could be argued that Benitez was clapping his hands in frustration at his own side’s poor defending. However, I believe it is in fact clear that the Liverpool manager is figuratively suggesting that the diminuitive Arshavin is a fly, whilst the ‘clap’ is instead a poorly concealed mime of squashing the tiny forward between his fat Spanish palms.
I hoped in his Sky interview after the game, Benitez would clarify these gestures. I think you’ll see them as pretty dismissive to Andrey and to Arsenal’s team as a whole. I think they are disrespectful and quite humiliating.
Apparently a devastated Arshavin waited to have a word with Rafa Benitez in his room after the game but as usual, and unfortunately, he didn’t turn up.
I was hugely disappointed by those gestures and having re-looked at them this morning I think I’m right and I think everyone will see why I’m complaining.
Arrogance is one thing. You cannot forgive contempt, which is what Benitez showed Arshavin on Tuesday night.
In my experience no Liverpool manager has ever done that. It was beyond the pale.
April 22nd, 2009
After pondering a way to somehow go about reporting one of the most extraordinary games in our recent history, I’ve elected to discuss it first on a goal-by-goal basis. You’ll notice a reocurring pattern; dissection of goals against will focus on our defensive ineptitude, whilst discussion of goals for us will be dominated by the footballing genius of one man: Andrey Arshavin.
36 mins Liverpool 0 – 1 Arsenal (Andrey Arshavin)
Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri bullied Mascherano off the ball on the edge of his own box, the latter taking the initiative and driving towards goal, before shifting the ball back outside to Cesc, who’d made an intelligent (and, crucially, onside) run to the byline. The Catalan looked up and pulled the ball back to Andrey Arshavin, who opened his body up and fired left-footed in off the bar from seven yards.
48 mins Liverpool 1 – 1 Arsenal (Fernando Torres)
Arbeloa’s cross from the right should have been cleared by Sagna, but his volley skewed across the penalty area to Dirk Kuyt. The Dutchman’s first attempt at a cross was blocked by Silvestre, but his second effort found a relatively unmarked Fernando Torres, who expertly planted home the header.
56 mins Liverpool 2 – 1 Arsenal (Yossi Benayoun)
Just as against Chelsea on Saturday, a simple ball over the top of Mikael Silvestre was the root of our problems. Neither the defender nor Fabianski assumed control of the situation, and the Pole was eventually forced into a hurried clearance which Gibbs could only turn into the path of Dirk Kuyt. Kuyt’s floated cross was a good one and Benayoun met it with a brave header, but the Israeli only scored due to shocking footwork from Fabianski, who first came to meet the cross, then decided to retreat, ending up four yards over his own line.
67 mins Liverpool 2 – 2 Arsenal (Andrey Arshavin)
A long ball by Fabianski was flicked on by Arshavin towards Bendtner, but Carragher beat the Dane to the ball. His clearance however, was intercepted by the Russian, who nicked in ahead of Alvaro Arbeloa. With space suddenly opening up before him, Arshavin bent a twenty-yard effort with the outside of his boot away from Pepe Reina and into the corner.  Such power with so little backlift – a stunning goal. Sky paid it the ultimate compliment of a replay from their main camera view.
70 mins Liverpool 2 – 3 Arsenal (Andrey Arshavin)
Samir Nasri dribbled from right to left across the pitch, playing a one-two with Arshavin along the way, before crossing left-footed into the box. There seemed to be no danger, but Fabio Aurelio inexplicably knocked the ball straight to Arshavin, who was lurking on the penalty spot. The Russian took one touch to bring the ball under control, and another to fire it under Pepe Reina and into the net for his hatrick.
72 mins Liverpool 3 – 3 Arsenal (Fernando Torres)
Albert Riera’s cross from the left was beautifully brought under control by Torres, who swivelled, shifted it outside Mikael Silvestre, and fired past Fabianski. Silvestre (who resembled Philippe Senderos when Torres easily turned him in the Champions League last season), and Fabianski (who got a hand to Torres’ shot but could not keep it out) did not cover themselves in glory, but it ought to be said that this was a quite brilliant goal.
90 mins Liverpool 3 – 4 Arsenal (Andrey Arshavin)
A Liverpool corner was headed away by Kolo Toure, and substitute Theo Walcott took the ball on a fleet-footed dribble. The scene was eerily reminiscent of his stunning run at Anfield a year ago, and there was an audible intake of breath from the crowd as Theo accelerated into a fifty yard sprint down the pitch. With defenders closing in, he seemed to be alone, but then appeared Arshavin – in the ninetieth minute, making a lung-bursting charge up the field. Walcott passed, and the Russian took one touch, and blasted the ball with his left foot inside Reina’s near post.
92 mins Liverpool 4 – 4 Arsenal (Yossi Benayoun)
Samir Nasri’s stray pass found Xabi Alonso, who clipped a cross to the far post, where sub El Zhar rose above Gibbs to head back across goal. In the centre, the keeper seemed glued to his line, whilst both Toure and Silvestre challenged Ryan Babel for the ball. When none of the three made decent contact, Benayoun was left alone to score the final, and arguably scrappiest goal of the game.
—
Just reliving those goals again has been somewhat exhausting. And there could have been more: we twice cleared off the line; a Nicklas Bendtner goal appeared to be wrongly disallowed; Cesc Fabregas was ruled offside in similarly controversial circumstances; and Lukasz Fabianski made a string of good saves in the first half before imploding somewhat in the second. It was an extraoardinary game, and one on which I might not gain the neccessary perspective to summarise it accurately for a few days yet. A friend called it a game in which “we deserved to lose, and yet should have won”, and given that we led on three separate occasions, that’s perhaps accurate.
There’s no place to start really other than the remarkable Andrey Arshavin, who scored all four of our goals. Julio Baptista matched the feat on the same ground a couple of years back, but his goals came against a weakened side in the Carling Cup. Arshavin’s tally was achieved against one of the league’s best defences on a night when they needed to win to preserve their title ambitions.
Funnily enough, with the exception of his goal he barely got a kick in the first half. But a player of Arshavin’s quality does not need many opportunities to influence the game. Every time he receieved the ball, he tore at Liverpool’s Championship ambitions: four shots, four attempts on target, four goals.
Two with his left foot, two with his right. His second was arguably the most spectacular, but for me the truly remarkable goal was his fourth. After working hard throughout the ninety minutes, he found the reserves to sprint the length of the pitch – keeping pace with Theo Walcott, mind – and at the end of that was still able to finish expertly.
Whilst Arsenal fans have been enamoured with Arshavin’s performances since his arrival, this was his first real chance to strut his stuff on a grander stage – and what a way to announce yourself to English football. Everyone will sit up and take notice now – this isn’t just a good player we’ve got, it’s a special one.
There are those (myself included) who argue that Arshavin’s chance to show the nation what he’s made of ought to have come on Saturday in the FA Cup. He wasn’t the only one to make a case for their retrospective inclusion: Samir Nasri and Alex Song, who both came back into the side last night, were excellent. Song grew throughout the game in a performance which entirely overshadowed the diastrous showing of Denilson, whilst Nasri was everywhere, playing the last half-an-hour as an auxillary defensive midfielder, breaking up play and starting counter-attacks from deep.
The bad news? Well, we can’t defend at all. And with the Champions League semi-final with United looming on the horizon, it’s worth noting that on those occasions we won’t have Arshavin to bail us out. People will point to the fact that we fielded some reserve players, but this is not an isolated incident – it’s not even our first 4-4 draw this season! The way in which we twice allowed Liverpool to equalise within minutes of taking the lead is not acceptable from a team with trophy-winning aspirations, and despite the value of the point we gained, one can empthaise with the frustration captain Cesc Fabregas clearly felt at the end of the game.
Admittedly, Bacary Sagna looked only half-fit, whilst the promising but raw Kieran Gibbs’s performance seemed to be dragged down by the mire around him. Whilst Fabianski did pull off some decent saves, a lack of confidence and communication meant that chaos ruled at the heart of our defence. Ahead of him, Mikael Silvestre looks very vulnerable indeed against anyone with pace. I would be absolutely terrified fielding either of the latter pair against Silvestre’s old pals at United, and the quicker Manuel Almunia and Johan Djourou can return the better.
In midfield, Denilson was ostenisbly playing as a protecting midfielder, but was invisible for the hour he was on the pitch, appearing only intermittently to gift possession back to Liverpool. He looks like a spent force, and I think using him sparingly between now and the end of the season is the safest option available.
It was an epic encounter, and worth remembering at the end of it all that we came away from it with our unbeaten record intact, which not many people expected us to do. We were without Almunia, Gallas, Djourou, Clichy, Van Persie and Adebayor, and facing a Liverpool side for whom victory was paramount. Yet we’re now nineteen league games unbeaten – that’s half a Premiership season. That stat really does underline what a hash we made of the first half of the season.
After a series of patchy draws, the true turning point, I suppose, arrived on the 2nd of February.
When we signed Andrey Arshavin.
April 21st, 2009
Almost exactly two decades ago, Arsenal travelled to Anfield in a game that would become legend. In the last minute, Michael Thomas scored the goal that the ensured the title would return with The Gunners to London.
Tonight, as then, Arsenal will play in yellow and blue, making the evening all the more evocative of the memory. And tonight, as then, though admittedly with less immediacy, the title is on the line. For Liverpool, that is. We, on the other hand, have less to play for – with fourth place all but assured our main motivation tonight must be the preservation of our unbeaten run in the league and with that our forward momentum.
As much as anything, tonight is about putting right the wrongs of the weekend. Ten points from an available eighteen would absolutely guarantee fourth position, so winning every match is no longer essential. But these league matches against Liverpool, Chelsea and United ought to be viewed as an opportunity to make a statement ahead of next season, when we hope for a renewed and reinvigorated title challenge.
Injuries will again go a long way towards dictating Arsene’s selection. Despite Manuel Almunia’s claims he would be ready to face Middlesbrough, Arsene has suggested that Lukasz Fabianski may remain in goal for the Champions League ties against Man U. Whether or not this is simply an attempt to buffer the drop in confidence Fabianski would inevitably suffer at knowing he was one game away from losing his place remains to be seen. In better news, Bacary Sagna is in the squad. If he is fit enough to start, I suspect Emmanuel Eboue could be shunted forward into midfield, with Theo Walcott taking his turn on the substitutes bench. In the centre, Alex Song ought to return to parter Cesc Fabregas.
After missing out on Saturday, Samir Nasri and Andrey Arshavin seem likely to come back in, with one of the pair taking up a role behind Nicklas Bendtner: yesterday brought the news that both Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor will miss the game – the former’s problem more serious than the latter.
Liverpool aren’t without injury problems themselves, and Steven Gerrard will not be available. In spite of that, they’re still a threat, with Fernando Torres and Yossi Benayoun particularly liable to cause trouble. However, if we keep the ball on the ground and get Nasri, Fabregas and Arshavin in the game, we could create plenty of havoc ourselves.
A couple of bits of other business: I’m still assured that The Duke will be an Arsenal player come the Summer, and esteemed French journo Philippe Auclair has been in touch to indentify these quotes as originally coming from an interview by he and Bruno Constant of L’Equipe.
Let’s hope tonight is more reminiscent of 89 than our Champions League exit last season. Come On You Yellows.
April 20th, 2009
Hello all. Not much time to blog today, and not all that much to blog about. The morning’s headlines are dominated by Man U’s exit from the FA Cup, and whilst there are undoubtedly questions to be asked our semi-final line-up it was infinitely more strong than the team Alex Ferguson chose to field. What really hurts, with the greatest of respect to the Merseysiders, is that had we won on Saturday we could be looking at an FA Cup Final against Everton, and our best chance of silverware in a long, long time.
The man who was most controversially left out, Andrey Arshavin, has spoken to his personal website with his thoughts on the game:
“I think two very strong teams played at Wembley today. I think in the beginning we had some territorial advantage, dictated the game and managed to score the goal. The game got more even following that. Soon it was Chelsea who had the advantage, which lead to their goal. Summing up the performance in the first half, I think the result was fair. In the second half, Chelsea had more of the posession, more of the game was taking place in our half, although we tried to organise quick counter-attacks. Unfortunately, we conceded and had little time to really put pressure on Cech’s goal. Our opponents did not give us opportunities to create something. We are disappointed that our fans left the stadium deflated. That’s football, you lose sometimes. I guess you can’t win everything. Now we have to concentrate our efforts on the Champions’ League and the Premiership.”
Fair play to him for not even mentioning the fact he was on the bench in the biggest game of his Arsenal career so far.
One piece of good news around this morning is that Manuel Almunia could return for Sunday’s game against Middlesbrough. Despite Arsene’s best attempts to boost the lad, Lukasz Fabianski’s confidence is going to be shot, so the quicker the Spaniard can come back into the side the better.
I may add some more bloggery later if some team news emerges. If not, I’ll see you tomorrow for a Liverpudlian Preview. Till then.
April 19th, 2009
Chelsea 2 – 1 Arsenal (Walcott 18, Malouda 34, Drogba 84)
Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
I attended yesterday’s game with lasagnechef from The Cannon. As we left a raucous Arsenal pub and strolled down Wembley Way, he remarked to me upon how much the setting made it feel like a final. I agreed. Little did I know how much the game itself would resemble a final – and one specific final in particular: that of the Carling Cup, in 2007. For just as on that day, Arsenal took an early lead through Theo Walcott, and just as on that day, they were thwarted by a late goal from Didier Drogba.
Intriguingly, the Arsenal line-up bore remarkable similarity to that day too. As on that day, we had our second choice goalkeeper playing. As on that day, Kolo Toure provided the experience in defence, with an English teenager playing in one of the full-back roles. And, as on that day, in the most controversial aspect of yesterday’s selection, Walcott, Fabregas, Denilson and Diaby all started in midfield.
I may aswell begin by talking about the starting line-up, as I know many fans will arrive at this report feeling that is where the game was lost. Kieran Gibbs was passed fit, so the back four picked itself, with Eboue and Silvestre joining Gibbs and Toure ahead of Fabianski. In midfield, Alex Song was seemingly rested, with Denilson and Diaby joining Cesc Fabregas in a central three. The real surprise came with the decision not to include not only Samir Nasri but also Andrey Arshavin, with Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott flanking Emmanuel Adebayor.
If I was picking my Arsenal team, Andrey Arshavin would be the second only to the captain on my list. He has been nothing short of a revelation since joining in January, and yesterday seemed made for him: a big stage against one of our major rivals, coached by his national manager. What more incentive could he have to impress? And yet Arsene left him on the bench. My Chelsea-supporting brother awoke yesterday gripped with fear that this would be “The Arshavin semi-final”, and confessed his relief to me at what he saw as a remarkably strange decision by our manager.
There are, as I see it, only two possible explanations for Arsene’s decision. The first is that he wished to hold Arshavin back for the league game at Anfield, which seems peverse: another Aston Villa draw yesterday brought qualification for the Champions League ever closer, whilst our chance of domestic silverware is now gone. When you crave a trophy as badly as we as a club do, you have to put all your available resources into that pursuit. And anyway, the argument for this reasoning falls down when you consider that the Russian has had a week off – he could have played today and at Anfield with no problems whatsoever.
The true reason Arsene left Arshavin out, as far as I can tell, is that he was worried about conceding a height advantage to Chelsea. Having made a decision to rest Song, he felt he had to start with some taller players to combat Chelsea’s threat from set pieces, so in came Abou Diaby. Even so, I still don’t understand it. Arsene talked in the week of the advantage of Arshavin’s European cup-tie being that he would be fresh for the weekend. To then not play him seems entirely nonsensical.
I would always pick at least one of Arshavin or Nasri in my side. They are, as Arsene once called to Robert Pires, the oil in our engine. Without them we were desperately lacking in creativity.
It wasn’t only the personnel that gave us problems, but the way they were deployed. We played five across the middle, with the far from nippy Van Persie doing a manful but ultimately flawed impression of a winger. None of Fabregas, Diaby and Denilson seemed to have much interest in getting forward to support Adebayor, which left him isolated and ineffective. He actually won a fair amount of ball against Alex and Terry, but his flick-ons drifted through to… well, no-one.
Our lack of attacking impetus probably wasn’t helped by the fact we took an early lead. The goal itself was well-worked, with Adebayor slipping in Gibbs to cross to the far post, where Theo Walcott arrived and volleyed home his third goal in three games, his shot clipping the hand of Ashley Cole and so deceiving Petr Cech.
From that point on, we seemed to sit back, didn’t create a chance in the first half. In fact, we started to look very vulnerable defensively. The warning signs had been there when Lukasz Fabianski charged out of his goal and was beaten to the ball by Drogba, with Kieran Gibbs forced to clear off the line, just as against Wigan a week ago.
When the equaliser came, it was from Florent Malouda, which given his form since signing for Chelsea was somewhat humiliating. Frank Lampard launched a long cross-field pass, and Emmanuel Eboue granted Malouda time to bring it down, come inside, and fire a shot inside Fabianski’s near-post. I am convinced that goal would never have been scored with Bacary Sagna in the side, who probably would have cut the pass out with a towering header.
It almost got worse very quickly: Diaby dithered on the edge of his own box (something we were unsurprisingly guilty of all day), and Anelka stole the ball and fired against the post.
In the second half, we seemed to have recovered from the mental blow of losing our lead, and Theo Walcott set about terrorising Ashley Cole again. If we were ever going to score it was going to be due to the young winger’s dribbling and delivery, but all too often no-one apart from Adebayor was even in the box.
Arshavin was eventually introduced with about fifteen minutes to play, seemingly only because Robin van Persie had picked up an injury. Soon after, Arsene made the decision to withdraw Adebayor, with Bendtner replacing him. This sub said to me, and more importantly Chelsea: we can’t win it in the ninety. It was a change that pre-empted extra-time, and it handed Hiddink the initiative. Almost immediately, Chelsea scored: another lofted Lampard pass saw Drogba tearing on to the ball from deep. Mikael Silvestre tried yet failed to stay with him. Against Villarreal a ball over the top of Silvestre had twice given us problems, but on that day Lukasz Fabianski’s timing of his interceptions was perfect. Today, however, he got it all wrong, charging out into no-man’s-land to allow Drogba to expertly round him and finish with his left-foot. It was a terrible goal to concede, and blame is equal between the centre-back and the ‘keeper. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to replace either for a couple of weeks yet.
With both our top two strikers off the field, we were always going to struggle to equalise. An Arshavin volley went close, and a couple of his set-pieces caused them problems, but the game and time were soon both up.
So, out of the FA Cup and our most realistic chance of silverware gone. No complaints from me: principally because I feel it’s worth remembering that winning anything at all this season would be somewhat hilarious considering how disastrous much of it has been. We didn’t play well, we defend poorly, and we were punished. It happens. A fit Gallas and Sagna would have made a difference, but that’s football.
I’m more upset about the selection. I mentioned the Carling Cup Final earlier, and part of me can’t help but feel that in selecting the same midfield as played that day, featuring the trio he seems to hold most pride in (Diaby, Denilson, and Fabregas), Arsene was hoping to make a point: to beat Chelsea with his young discoveries rather than his £15m superstar signing.
It didn’t work. Lesson learned.
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