Watching the UEFA Champions League fixture, quite a few business epistles spring to mind. If you don’t go forward, you will fall behind. If you do the same thing over and over again, why would you expect a different outcome?
Let us start with the good things that we did. For almost the entire game, with the key word being “almost”, we stuck to the (perfect) game plan. Keep the defensive shape, press high when possible, spring quickly on the counter.
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We even created chances, some of them great ones. The first one came in the opening minutes, but three at the top of the box and still nothing came of it. Oxlade-Chamberlain being unable to sort out his feet meant the best chance went a begging.
There were other good chances, most of them when the score was still tied. Giroud had a chance to set up Walcott but expected him to zig rather than zag. In the dying moments, Ramsey had only the goalkeeper to beat and muffed the chance.
No one expected Arsenal to dominate the game, but for the most part, Barcelona didn’t either. Most of their possession was tiki-taka. Messi, Neymar, Suarez and Iniesta – none of them was really making any breathtaking runs through the Arsenal defense, particularly in the first half.
Scoring an issue for Arsenal
On offence, it seemed like the Gunners could do everything except put the ball in the back of the net, a failing that has been plaguing them since the start of the year. If it isn’t a tame shot, it is an errant pass. If it isn’t an errant pass, it is a smoking-hot goalkeeper in the way – the Hull City keeper literally blew on his fingers after watching his fingertip save of Joel Campbell’s free-kick.
Having watched the weekend’s loss against Manchester United, I may finally be getting a read on why the goals have dried up. It is down to our desire to string together breathtakingly pretty passes that end with us walking the ball into the net. Players are passing up open shots from six yards out, trying to set someone up three yards out, which doesn’t work when defenders are gladly flinging their bodies in the way.
Opposing defences are simply clogging up the middle, daring the Gunners to go down the flanks. When we do, through one of the strikers pulling wide, or through Bellerin or Monreal, the problem is that they usually have only a lone target (typically Giroud) to shoot for amidst multiple defenders. If you don’t draw it up on the practice field, it won’t happen during the game.
In sharp contrast, we saw Man United’s Rashford rip us apart with moves right off the neighborhood playground. Running into the box when someone else takes a shot, believing that a rebound might come his way. Positioning himself between the two center backs and pointing to where he wanted the cross. Drawing the defence and sending the ball back into the space that opened up behind for a simple strike by Herrera.
The commentator pointed out that Rashford had scored his first Premier League goal for Man United at exactly the same age, to the day, as Wayne Rooney. I remember Rooney scoring against us while he was still at Everton, a goal that cost us dearly in the title race that year and a goal that prompted Fergie to acquire him and have him torment Gunner fans for years to come. God forbid Rashford is cut from the same cloth!
Players costing Arsenal
It was reported that Wenger had a go at the players for making the same mistakes again. Very heartening that the Gaffer, at least, acknowledges this problem. Taking a cue from him, let me take a few shots at assorted players who seem to repeat the same mistakes.
I had already commented about Jack Wilshere letting the ball get too far ahead of him and then lunging in dangerously to retrieve, leaving himself vulnerable to injury – a prophecy he fulfilled shortly thereafter, exactly as I had described.
Aaron Ramsey has gone one up on Jack, losing the ball two different ways – trying to spin his way out of a two-man press instead of making a simple pass and, worse, criminally careless passes directly to the opponent. Wenger has got to bench Ramsey to make him learn and he might want to check if the source of the problem is the training at the Arsenal academy.
Swinging back to the way the first goal came against Barcelona, it was literally deja-vu from the last goal in the home game against Monaco. The Gunners are all in the opponent’s half, create some chances but fail to score, then lose the ball. A quick break past the Arsenal defence and an easy goal was given up.
The commentators made a meal of how Barcelona lured them in, how one cannot afford to give a club like Barcelona a chance like that, how deadly Barcelona are on the break. Give me a break! It has nothing to do with the brilliance of Barcelona. We have done exactly the same thing over and over again – against Monaco last year; go back a few more years and it wasn’t the brilliance of Barcelona, but that of Roberto Martinez’s Wigan Athletic!
Will we ever learn?
