Afternoon all,
Ugh... there really are some days when you just do not want to talk about football! Arsenal lost last night's match against Man United by one nil for those of you who don't know. If we had been outplayed, beaten off the park (ugh how that word annoys me at the moment!) then it would have been easier to accept. But to lose to a extremely lucky goal, one the Park couldn't score again in a hundred attempts back on the training ground is just painful. I'm not going to dwell on the negetives though, I shall try to mainly concentrate on the positives we can take from last night.
One of the upsides from last nights match however was the performance of young Szczesny. The Pole did very well in goal I thought, he certainly looked more composed and capable than Fabianski. I suppose this might give a headache for Arsene in the near future. Almunia seems out of favour and Fabianski's positioning is still suspect, maybe it is worth giving Szczesny a run of a few games. After all, Arsene is never afraid of giving youngsters a run if they're outfield players so why not give the young Pole a chance? If he can continue to perform like he did against Manure maybe we might have found our new keeper, only a run of games will answer this question.
Also I think Squillaci and Koscielny had a good game, for a pair that has been much maligned so far this season they seemed to be able to step up to the mark against United and performed well. I still think, however, that the addition of another centreback in the transfer window would be welcomed by all. TV5 is going to need a fortnight or so when/if he ever recovers from this Achilles injury and I just don't feel comfortable having only three centrebacks considering we're still in the hunt in four competitions.
On the down side our much vaunted midfield was suffocated by United. Ro-SICK-y has never looked like he has recovered his form before his long injury layoff, he surely must be approaching the end and an Eduardo style transfer cannot be far off in the future. Why Walcott was not starting, or at least brought on earlier, seems a mystery to me. Agreed that his final ball may not be the best but his sheer pace offers us something we otherwise lack, the ability to hit teams on the counter-attack. Arshavin had a night to forget, allegedly he is the first to put up his hands in training when he's had a bad game. I don't think he's got enough hands to hold up after last night's performance.
Arsene, as usual - for better or for worse, refuses to criticise his players in public. Hopefully he's given them an earful in training today. Sorry Arsene but you can't criticise the pitch for last night's loss. We gave the ball away far too many times, I'd love to see a comparison of our completed passing percentage of last night's match compared to our average, I can not think of a worse passing display from us this season.
But one match lost does not a lost season make. Especially the way this season is panning out. The main thing now is to get three points at Stoke this weekend and continue on and not look back. We do need to start picking up more points against the other top teams in the league That's all for today methinks, another shower and several whiskeys are needed for me to get shake off the shame of last night (in retrospect watching the match with three United supporting mates was not the best idea...). Til tomorrow all,
The Afterthought.
No comments:
Post a Comment