A pathetic display punctuates Arsenal’s problems
A mass exodus conformed the Emirates Stadium this afternoon as an injury-ridden Arsenal were brutally undone by the Villains in a 3-1 defeat.
As Amy Lawrence so rightfully said in her report for The Guardian, “If you are not prepared to pay the price, there’s a price to be paid.” Obviously, a testament to Arsenal having not spent a single penny so far this summer, and although there were some extremely questionable calls from Anthony Taylor, Arsenal’s demise was much to their own doing with lack of preperation and organisation.
Although it started positively for Arsenal, with some good phases of play and a great counter-attacking goal, attackingly, they were poor for the rest of the game.
Arsenal deployed in a 4-2-3-1 formation, often conforming to a 4-3-3 in transition plays, fielded Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs; Ramsey, Wilshere; Walcott, Rosicky, Chamberlain; Giroud — with Gibbs getting injured in the first half, replaced by Jenkinson, who then swapped flanks with Sagna.
Early on, Arsenal were fluid going forward in all fronts, spreading the ball across the pitch with composure. Rosicky, playing in the no.10 position, dropping deep and out-wide left to intertwine with Chamberlain, drawing the Villa defence apart for Giroud and Walcott to make the runs in behind. Arsenal’s only goal of the game came through a quick-fisted counter-attack down the left side with Rosicky dropping deep, drawing Lowton up, providing space for Chamberlain to run in behind. Rosicky then threading him through to bolt down to the byline, delivering a well weighted lay-off for Giroud to tuck away. For the next 10 minutes, Arsenal kept possession well and rotated with Rosicky, Wilshere and Ramsey in the centre of the pitch, with Chamberlain cutting across, drawing room for Gibbs to overlap to.
But, typically with Arsenal, nothing good lasts for very long. Aston Villa soon picked up on their pressing and began forcing Arsenal to lose composure in possession. The big fault in the lead up to the penalties and the subsequent goals, was the lack of organisation and discipline in the double-pivot.
Wilshere and Ramsey both set to play deeper-lying positions today in the absence of Arteta and the noticeable non-existance of a defensive-midfielder. Villa began to play with the initiative and with the glorified pace-mule that is Agbonlahor, his dramatic run through the centre to win the first penalty, left Wilshere and Ramsey trailing in his wake.
Both lacked conviction and were caught high up the field and all-in-all very unaware in position, allowing Agbonlahor to storm the defence and Szczesny to force the penalty that led to conceding the first goal.
Similarly, with the second, Arsenal were thrown about on the counter-attack — overloaded on their left-flank (with Sagna struggling at left-back), Aston Villa midfielders piled through the middle of the field, with Wilshere and Ramsey, again, nowhere to be seen. Agbonlahor broke through, and with a reckless, yet lawful, tackle from Koscielny, he was brought down and the penalty was given.
Then on, Arsenal being Arsenal, they started to regularly look somewhat uncomfortable in possession. Although there were some sublime phases of play leading to Rosicky missing two sitters, no other chances were amounted due to the lack of determination and faith by the players. The midfield was nervy, almost fearing that if they pushed too forward , they’d leave more gaps in the middle for Aston Villa to counter through. With injuries taking their toll, Arsenal slowly died out of the game. The final nail in the coffin was the goal by Villian new boy Tony Luna.
In a swift summary, all you need to know is Arsenal are in dire need of a defensive-midfielder — no two ways about it. The majority of Villa’s attacks today, came barraging through the middle, overloading the double-pivot of Ramsey and Wilshere, who were uncapable of breaking down those critical phases of play, let alone delaying it.
Arsenal lacked the composure and discipline to drive forward and were horrendous in phases of transition play, particularly defensive. In a nutshell, Arsenal got the knock (more say beatdown) they needed to realise (hopefully) how desperately they must dip into their bank and hit the transfer market for a defensive-midfielder.
Playing the Blame Game:
Lot of people want to blame the referee, Anthony Taylor for a lot of what went wrong. Surely, I’ve never seen a ref who had as appalling display as today. First, when was the last time you saw a ref who not once allowed play to continue due to an advantage. And with a purely biased eye affixed, it clearly looked like it happened to Arsenal more than Villa.
Additionally, both calls on Koscielny were dubious. The first, that led to the eventual game winning penalty was poor. Just poor. When you review the replay, Kos’ whole cleat smothers the ball before Agbonlahor falls to the ground.
Secondly, the call that led to the second yellow was about as poor as I’ve seen, especially in light of the fact, that if Koscielny did actually touch Weimann than it’s a miracle. Weimann’s tumble actually occurs with Koscielny 3 ft behind him. Part me thought that he meant to call Mertesacker for his take out on Benteke that happened just after.
Sure, the non-penalty gave the impetus for the second goal and likely the match. The poor (or wrong) call that sent off Koscielny only sealed it. But to blame the ref refuses to look squarely at a team deficient in certain areas as mentioned above.
It doesn’t help and fighting a ref as poor as this is deflating, surely. It takes the wind out sails but it can’t and shouldn’t be the only excuse that Arsenal failed to win for the first time at home since losing to Coventry City 3-0 at Highbury to kick off the 1993-94 campaign.
It’s not going to get any easier especially as it looks like this squad took a heavy hit in this match.
