Arsenal 3-2 Birmingham Villa: Keep the Faith

By Tim, January 30th, 2012 | Tags: , | Category: Arsenal, FA Cup Campaign | 57 comments - (Comments are closed)

Darren Bent broke free from Koscielny, gaining just enough space to fire a rocket that was parried by Fabianski. The ensuing rebound fell right to Bent and since he was faced with the tightest of angles and he wasn’t all alone in front of goal, naturally he scored. Seconds later, the half-time whistle blew and the Arsenal trudged off the field with their heads low while a chorus of boos rained down upon them.

I felt bad for the players. They had played their hearts out and yet here they were losing both the game and their home support.

This isn’t the article you already think it is. I’m not going to lecture you on what you should or shouldn’t do if you are one of those people who have the tremendous fortune to be able to attend games. If you feel like spending £125 to go to a game and vent your anger about the team, then by all means, have at it. Especially if the team play like a one-footed orc.

What I don’t get though is how for years and years I’ve sat and read comment after comment in which Arsenal supporters said “As long as the team give 100% I don’t care what the result is” and yet here was a half in which they had given 100%, the result was not quite there, and yet both in the stadium and online the vitriol was at unprecedented levels.

“Because they didn’t give 100%.” Easy to say, impossible to disprove. The perfect sport’s fan’s argument.

Villa’s first goal was an absolutely brilliant piece of work off the corner. That’s the type of thing that I think Arsenal need to work on in practice because the corners that they take are predictable and easy to defend. Chaos in the six yard box is always good for the offense.

But still Arsenal could have closed down on the second player on that corner and therein lies the rub: the person who wants to say that Arsenal didn’t give 100% will say that they “switched off” there on that goal while I would say that they were confused and didn’t quite know what to do. And while it’s easy to say that they should do better bathed in the dull glow of your LCD screen what you want them to do is much more difficult to actually execute in the harsh light of the game.

But it’s not just a matter of effort.

And if the first was because Arsenal arguably lacked effort, for the second goal you can see the ball just get past Alex Song as he goes sliding into the netting in a gut busting effort to stop the goal. That’s giving 100%. Does he deserved to be booed after that?

The boo boys will then say that Arsenal lacked attacking effort. So, how do we explain the 9 shots in the first half, six of which are on goal?

“Stats don’t prove anything.” Right.

Sure, there was a tame effort from Ramsey after Song played him in and he tried to toe poke but it’s not for lack of effort, but rather lack of creativity and class finishing.

If the boos betrayed anything it’s that there’s a deep lack of faith in this team. I used to joke about how the Emirates crowd were funny in the way they groan  after every misplaced pass. Passes which happen once every 5 minutes. But they have now upped the ante and folks in the stadium reported to me that Arshavin was booed when his name was announced before the match.

Clearly, the pillars upon which Pat Rice and Arsene Wenger have stood for so long aren’t so much starting to crumble as they are being kicked over. Every loss, draw, and even win is picked clean in a forensic analysis of every detail of the match. Where should Ramsey have been standing for that corner? Why didn’t Arteta close down space late in the game when Villa tried the same corner over again? How lucky was Theo for Arsenal’s second goal? Why didn’t he stick out a leg?

Even every other aspect of the Arsenal is analyzed to death. How many years left on Diaby’s contract? What salary is the Ox™ pulling down? What’s Robin van Persie’s pre-match meal? Is he a Muslim? Seriously…

What’s Joey Barton’s?

Twitter, wiki, haircut, Morrissey vs. rape, twitter, Muslim, jersey. I just have to say, some of you are looking for some weird shit about Robin when a convicted criminal like Joey Barton has tamer search history than the in form striker of the Premier League.

Ironically, the boos at half time were drown out by the screams of joy during the second half. Two Arsenal penalties and a fluke goal were enough to convince people that somehow the second half was better. The second half wasn’t that much better in terms of effort from Arsenal, Villa simply lost their minds.

I would say that Dunne’s tackle on Ramsey was as dumb as you’ll ever see but then we saw Darren Bent’s tackle on Koscielny a few minutes later and that was one of the worst pieces of defending I’ve seen in a long time. Did Arsenal drive into the box more in the second half than the first? No. Remember in the first half that Ox had several drives, Theo did as well, Ramsey had the toe poke, and so on.

I can only surmise that for many of us our faith in Arsenal is based on results but that’s not how faith is supposed to work. Faith is keeping a player under contract for nine years as he struggled through injury hell; always showing signs of a miracle, but never quite fulfilling his promise. Faith is giving that guy chance after chance because you see something special in him. You see that he’s a leader, you see that he scores special goals, you see that if he could get a run together and get over his injuries he could be something special.

Arsene Wenger had faith in Robin van Persie through that injury nightmare and Robin has repaid us all with 120 goals in those nine years, tying Dennis Bergkamp’s Arsenal haul. Not only that but Robin has shown what a good run of games from him can do, scoring 46 of his goals since January 2011.

Faith doesn’t always work and sometimes blindly believing in a cause is stupid. It’s slippery that way, if it wasn’t it would be called something else like “fact” or “Truth.” But you have to admit that Wenger showed tremendous faith in Robin. When many of you were calling for Robin to be “cut loose” and for Wenger to “get rid of the dead weight” he stayed his course.

This is the same faith Wenger has in Diaby. Faith Wenger has in Theo. Faith Wenger has in Ramsey. And faith Wenger has in Andrei Arshavin.

It’s up to you whether you choose to follow. I, for one, am just trying to enjoy the ride.

Qq

Arsenal v. Birmingham Villa: Man Up

By Tim, January 28th, 2012 | Tags: | Category: Arsenal, FA Cup Campaign | 69 comments - (Comments are closed)

Villa are the third worst team in the League in shots per game. Third worst in keeping possession. Fourth worst in pass percentage. And second in tackles per game. They are also just 9 points lower than Arsenal on the League table and have allowed 4 fewer goals than Arsenal. All of which simply confirms what you probably already know: Aston Villa are addition by subtraction, a team set up to negate play, in short a team managed by Alex McLeish.

But not all teams can or should play the same way. I watched the Liverpool win over Man U in the FA Cup and they look like a team transformed. Gone are the slick passing midfielders, replaced by long balls, and two-footed lunges. But if you know that a team is going to close down space, rotationally foul the midfield, crowd the keeper on corners, and lump balls forward for their two wingers to run under then you damn well better have a plan to counter that. Arsenal need to keep possession, play solid at the back, keep calm, and be brave — Man Up as some might say in the States. And with McLeish already saying that Villa have no fear of Arsenal, Man Up might be the only way to get a result.

To say that Arsenal have previous with McLeish is an understatement. This is the manager who admitted that he probably sent out his Birmingham side too riled up on the fateful night that Taylor broke Eduardo’s leg.

And, of course, this is also the same manager who beat Arsenal to the League Cup with Birmingham. Arsenal supporters don’t want to hear this but McLeish knows how to play against Arsenal and get a result. His record against Wenger is P8 W2 D3 L3 and while two wins doesn’t look that spectacular you have to remember that his teams were/are relegation fodder so averaging a point a game while winning a cup final over a top four side is a pretty impressive record.

And in the last three games, McLeish actually has an advantage and has gotten two wins. Worse, Arsenal’s form is in the toilet at the moment. Since beating Villa in December Arsenal have P7 W3 D1 L3. Arsenal need a win to get the season back on track.

That terrible run of form is almost entirely down to injuries. Arsene revealed yesterday that Jack Wilshere suffered a setback in his recovery from a broken bone earlier this season and it’s been a pretty big blow to the psyche of nearly every supporter I’ve spoken with. If it’s that big of a deal to the supporters I can only imagine how much it’s rocked the team and the player himself.

Jack is a bit of a mythical creature. Part human, part football animal, he does add a little extra bite to the Arsenal midfield. The idea that Arsenal haven’t been rotating enough over the last few years and that is leading to injuries is still an open question from my perspective. What isn’t an open question is whether Wilshere would add quality to that rotation.

But if Jack’s injury setback has the team and supporters feeling low, the possible inclusion of Bacary Sagna in tomorrow’s team must have the opposite effect. I always had a suspicion that fullback play was the lynchpin of the Arsene system but couldn’t confirm the effect they had on the team by simply looking at charts. I guess I needed all four first choice fullbacks to go down injured to get the full picture of how they work both offensively and defensively.

I don’t know what team Wenger will name tomorrow but I’d be surprised to see Sagna on the starters sheet. That said, the dot com lists Sagna, Henry, and Arteta as all having tests today and for some irrational reason I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Thierry Henry start and play 60 minutes. So maybe we will see all three return?

For Villa’s part, Charles N’Zogbia is not expected to play tomorrow which should take pressure off the referee trying to get the calls right, what with him diving all over the place constantly. The player that none of you will be happy to see included in the team sheet tomorrow is former MLS all-star and Tottenham/Liverpool reject Robbie Keane. Maybe they have some other characters that you despise but Keane is one of those guys with his flat, moon face, who I just can’t stand.

Referee Michael Jones has been the head ref of Arsenal matches seven times, six times at home, five wins, one draw and one loss. The one loss was away to Bolton last April which ended any hope of Arsenal finishing in the top two. And the draw was a 0-0 at home to Man City where both Zabaleta and Sagna were sent off. Inauspiciously for Arsenal supporters, Jones has been in charge of nine Villa matches, and they have never lost.

But in the end we know that the referees aren’t giving Arsenal any breaks. We know that in cup ties the referees tend to swallow their whistle and let play go on. We know that McLeish will be playing safety first, or perhaps kicking first and safety second. But it’s Arsenal’s job to show their quality and “mental strength” in front of the home supporters and Man the Fuck Up. The team and the manager were booed off the pitch just a few days ago and people on twitter are selling tickets below face value for the first time since I can remember.

This is a real test tomorrow.

What is this team made of?

Qq

Jack Wilshere not like a new signing at all

By Tim, January 27th, 2012 | Tags: | Category: Arsenal, Injuries, transfers | 26 comments - (Comments are closed)

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

We pick our way through carefully crafted arguments about substitutions. We model Arsenal’s accounts and check sums. We stare at squad sheets late into the night looking for blame. And we turn to graphs and charts of performances to reveal ultimate truths. But in the end, it’s just a foot that derails an entire season.

Or does it?

As we’ve seen nearly every year as far back as I can remember an Arsenal player always has some kind of injury to start the season. Then the boss talks about how his recovery is going well. Then he starts light running or training. And just when the butterflies are settled in my stomach and the transfer window is closing, the boss announces a setback.

This time it’s Jack Wilshere who has had a setback and could be out for the remainder of the season. I won’t bore you with the details of his injury or what the setback is because, frankly, I don’t care. Maybe you need to know if it’s an inflamed bone or a tendon in his calf that rubs against another tendon and causes him discomfort. Maybe you’d like to know the course of treatment. Maybe it will be horse placenta, which seemed to work wonders for van Persie.

I’m also not someone who is going to blame the medical staff at Arsenal because from what I can tell this team doesn’t just suffer from some fluid in the muscle, this team has had an unusual number of broken bones. Cesc, Nasri, Clichy, Frimpong, Robin, Gibbs, Diaby, Eduardo, and Ramsey all had their bones broken before this season and have spent/will spend time in the recovery table for those injuries. And this year alone we’ve had Wilshere, Jenkinson, and Sagna all out with broken bones.

If you want to complain about the fact that “they” rested Wilshere’s “inflamed bone” at the start of the season instead of going straight into surgery then you’re missing a major plot point in that story. “They” includes Jack Wilshere who, in consultation with his doctor, chose to rest his leg rather than go under the knife. Jack Wilshere is under contract at Arsenal, but last time I checked, he is still allowed to make medical decisions for himself without first consulting us.

Or perhaps you want to blame Capello, Psycho, or Arsene for playing him too much? Sure, go right ahead. They did play him too much and do deserve some of the blame. Along with Jack, who took way too long to take a stand against playing in the U-21 team.

Maybe it’s squad size? Wenger perhaps shouldn’t be carrying dead weight in the squad and should be buying players who can compete and in a perfect world I would totally agree. But then again last season was a year in which I recall lauding the depth in midfield at the start of the season as the Arsenal midfield was Nasri, Cesc, Song, Wilshere, Rosicky, and Denilson. Again, it was injuries to players like Cesc that forced Wilshere to play so much.

Sure, burnout of Ramsey is a very real threat but Arsene has tried Benayoun and Rosicky there and Rosicky actually had a great game for Arsenal against Man U. Probably the best performer in midfield. So, rotation there is an option.

I don’t know. I do know that Wilshere was seen by many as the existential-crisis- slayer at Arsenal. The player who was going to come back fit and right all the wrongs. And there is no doubting his talent, spirit or love for the club. He would be a huge addition to the squad and will be sorely missed, no doubt.

But the position that Wilshere plays in is actually doing OK as far as numbers. If there’s a crisis requiring a rash purchase, it’s fullbacks that Arsenal need at the moment. Djourou is a decent player but his passing numbers are unsurprisingly much lower than Sagna. Also, Djourou’s pace is suspect and you saw that against Man U and will see it again against any team that has a speedy left wing player (read, “all of them”). And as on cue, the team news this morning is the surprise announcement that Bacary Sagna is back in contention for Sunday’s match.

Ahhh the mysteries of the universe. I think I need some night air.

Qq

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