Arsenal prepare for pivotal match in their season but their poor start gives them no fighting chance as they crash towards an embarrassing defeat. Haven't we seen this before?
The answer to that is an affirmative yes. The big-game team that Arsenal used to possess is now long gone. The manner of Saturday's capitulation at Stamford Bridge hit new humiliating lows in yet another big game that followed an all too familiar story for The Gunners. To Arsenal and their poor fans, this is nothing new.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly where this started, but you could argue that the 2006 Champions League Final, the biggest game in the club's history, set an untimely and plaguing precedent that has haunted the club ever since.
Arsenal were not favourites, by any means, but not rank outsiders all the same. Though Jens Lehmann's 18th-minute red card meant the game was always an uphill struggle from early on - and even harder once they had gone ahead, ironically.
It is a nasty habit that has grew and grew on Arsenal over the years, and you wonder how and why Arsene Wenger, hit the hardest by the 6-0 rout, has not learned from mistakes made in previous crunch games.
The Champions League Semi-Final against Manchester United at the Emirates in 2009 springs immediately to mind. Arsenal are a goal down from the first leg. All to play for. Eight minutes in, one Kieran Gibbs slip. Bang. 1-0 United. Arsenal need three. Three minutes later, a Cristiano Ronaldo 40-yarder. Game over.
I cannot begin to think how many games Didier Drogba had single-handedly settled before half-time against his favourite opponents. The Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich last year was a classic example of the team not turning up at all.
And after no less than 17 goals (50% of goals conceded!) were shipped against other sides vying for the title, it just goes to show that not only are these not one-offs, but they are merely additions to a catalogue of matches that brought a hell of a lot of false hope, double the amount of disappointment, and at times, such as Saturday, of disgrace.
There's more than enough there to complete a DVD box set.
The real tragedy is, however, that this team is arguably only a killer striker away from finding that proverbial missing piece of the jigsaw. And killer strikers win you games like Saturday's. Look at Samuel Eto'o - he only played 10 minutes and he had won his team the game. Luis Suarez buries that Olivier Giroud chance in a heartbeat. Instead, he was chasing down Chelsea with his own team, which, man-for-man, is not that much better than Arsenal's - if at all.
So where does the blame lie? It is always easy to blame the manager, though there may be a case for that. It seems to me that Wenger is playing with a tried, tested and failed game plan when we play our biggest rivals. Whatever it is, it does not suit us - we do not look like ourselves at all.
But the players are just as culpable. Perhaps Wenger's plan never gets the chance to be executed because the players muck it up so badly, it goes straight out the window almost immediately. And where is the bloody desire? Only poor Tomas Rosicky was having a go, once it was dead and buried. Why? Because he wants to win a title with Arsenal, bless him, and he knows he has not got long left to do so.
Now for the positivity. It was always going to be a big ask going to Chelsea and winning - but that would have created the Bayern-esque spark I talked about a few weeks ago and sent us to the title. But after losing a game that most were not expecting Arsenal to get anything from, it was the manner of the defeat that angers me the most, not the fact our title hopes are in tatters.
But there is still the chance - a good one, at that - for progression. Fourth, at the very least, was and is still the minimum requirement - nobody would have expected us to be in the title mix this late on. And the FA Cup is ours to lose by a long way.
Champions League football and that trophy - which may turn out more important than it looks - constitutes a successful season. Any Gooner who is disappointed with that needs to look at the big picture - and not least, themselves. That would all be down to the manager and most of the players (i.e. no taxi-humping lunatics. Or Kim Kallstrom).
Calling for Wenger's head on Saturday, of all days, had its shade of irony, but a hugely moronic idea nonetheless. This season is still salvageable as a success. It may have been the same old story for the team, but the club is still moving forwards. Keep The Faith.
Come On You Reds!
The answer to that is an affirmative yes. The big-game team that Arsenal used to possess is now long gone. The manner of Saturday's capitulation at Stamford Bridge hit new humiliating lows in yet another big game that followed an all too familiar story for The Gunners. To Arsenal and their poor fans, this is nothing new.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly where this started, but you could argue that the 2006 Champions League Final, the biggest game in the club's history, set an untimely and plaguing precedent that has haunted the club ever since.
Arsenal were not favourites, by any means, but not rank outsiders all the same. Though Jens Lehmann's 18th-minute red card meant the game was always an uphill struggle from early on - and even harder once they had gone ahead, ironically.
It is a nasty habit that has grew and grew on Arsenal over the years, and you wonder how and why Arsene Wenger, hit the hardest by the 6-0 rout, has not learned from mistakes made in previous crunch games.
The Champions League Semi-Final against Manchester United at the Emirates in 2009 springs immediately to mind. Arsenal are a goal down from the first leg. All to play for. Eight minutes in, one Kieran Gibbs slip. Bang. 1-0 United. Arsenal need three. Three minutes later, a Cristiano Ronaldo 40-yarder. Game over.
I cannot begin to think how many games Didier Drogba had single-handedly settled before half-time against his favourite opponents. The Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich last year was a classic example of the team not turning up at all.
And after no less than 17 goals (50% of goals conceded!) were shipped against other sides vying for the title, it just goes to show that not only are these not one-offs, but they are merely additions to a catalogue of matches that brought a hell of a lot of false hope, double the amount of disappointment, and at times, such as Saturday, of disgrace.
There's more than enough there to complete a DVD box set.
The real tragedy is, however, that this team is arguably only a killer striker away from finding that proverbial missing piece of the jigsaw. And killer strikers win you games like Saturday's. Look at Samuel Eto'o - he only played 10 minutes and he had won his team the game. Luis Suarez buries that Olivier Giroud chance in a heartbeat. Instead, he was chasing down Chelsea with his own team, which, man-for-man, is not that much better than Arsenal's - if at all.
So where does the blame lie? It is always easy to blame the manager, though there may be a case for that. It seems to me that Wenger is playing with a tried, tested and failed game plan when we play our biggest rivals. Whatever it is, it does not suit us - we do not look like ourselves at all.
But the players are just as culpable. Perhaps Wenger's plan never gets the chance to be executed because the players muck it up so badly, it goes straight out the window almost immediately. And where is the bloody desire? Only poor Tomas Rosicky was having a go, once it was dead and buried. Why? Because he wants to win a title with Arsenal, bless him, and he knows he has not got long left to do so.
Now for the positivity. It was always going to be a big ask going to Chelsea and winning - but that would have created the Bayern-esque spark I talked about a few weeks ago and sent us to the title. But after losing a game that most were not expecting Arsenal to get anything from, it was the manner of the defeat that angers me the most, not the fact our title hopes are in tatters.
But there is still the chance - a good one, at that - for progression. Fourth, at the very least, was and is still the minimum requirement - nobody would have expected us to be in the title mix this late on. And the FA Cup is ours to lose by a long way.
Champions League football and that trophy - which may turn out more important than it looks - constitutes a successful season. Any Gooner who is disappointed with that needs to look at the big picture - and not least, themselves. That would all be down to the manager and most of the players (i.e. no taxi-humping lunatics. Or Kim Kallstrom).
Calling for Wenger's head on Saturday, of all days, had its shade of irony, but a hugely moronic idea nonetheless. This season is still salvageable as a success. It may have been the same old story for the team, but the club is still moving forwards. Keep The Faith.
Come On You Reds!
Comments
Post a Comment