Monday, 27 September 2010

Arsenal 2-3 West Brom - A Comedy of Errors

Not much to say about this defeat really, for 70 mins Arsenal put on a textbook display of how to lose a football match in a game that they were really expected to win quite comfortably.

Some grim stats:

-Eboue completed 8/15 passes in 56 minutes

-3/10 of Arshavin's corners found a teammate

-Nasri completed 1 pass into the box (a corner)

-Song won 5/11 tackles

-Eboue and Rosicky attempt 0 tackles; Koscielny and Diaby lost the 2 tackles they each attempted

-Clichy lost 6/7 aerial duels

-Nasri attempted 10 shots; the next highest was Sagna with 4; Chamakh and Arshavin managed 3 apiece in 90 minutes

-West Brom had 5 shots on target during the match, they scored from 3 of them; Arsenal had 6 shots on target despite having 30% more possession

-Arsenal conceded 2 goals within the space of 3 minutes
_____________

Sit back and admire the incompetence on display:

Comments (4)

Loading... Logging you in...
Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout
  • Logged in as
+2 Vote up Vote down
Ario's avatar

Ario · 757 weeks ago

Painful, but very enlightening.I remember Song saying in summer that he wanted to improve his play going forward...no thanks Alex, just stay where you are supposed to be please. Jesus, he scores one good goal and thinks he's Cesc Fabregas! (Just as an aside, I love alex song, but he's been a pleb in our last 2 games).
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
Loading...
+2 Vote up Vote down
BackwardsGooner's avatar - Go to profile

BackwardsGooner 61p · 757 weeks ago

I don't actually have a problem with Song getting forward, it can add a different dimension and a little bit of unpredictability to our game ... BUT, it can only be done if the other deep midfielder is aware of this tactic and covers for him accordingly. Against West Brom, Diaby didn't do that (unlike the Blackburn game for instance, in which he was excellent).
+1 Vote up Vote down
igooner's avatar - Go to profile

igooner · 756 weeks ago

I think that even in their better performances, Song & Clichy have a natural tendency to go for the tackle rather than hold position. It looks great when it works, but we are brutally exposed when it doesn't.
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
Loading...
+2 Vote up Vote down
BackwardsGooner's avatar - Go to profile

BackwardsGooner 61p · 756 weeks ago

Song is usually more reserved, you don't see him go to ground too often. I think Clichy's quick dashes to intercept the ball high up the pitch are great and along with Vermaelen, it makes our left side a good source of counterattacks. But as you point out, on this occasion he left the defence exposed and should have held position. Fine if your team is in formation and you have Wilshere/Diaby to cover for you, but against a swift counterattack you can't afford to be a man down.

If I remember correctly, he did the exact same thing in the 4-2 defeat to Man City last season.

Post a new comment

Comments by

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)