Arsene Wenger said last night that the 8 changes he made to the first team after the game at Chelski had no effect on the game against Wigan. Its a shame for all of his money and brains he's not got a decent optician.
Diaby and Denilson had a shocker. Everyone in the stand heaved a sigh of relief when Diaby went off and Wilshire came on. We immediately looked a better side as Wilshire and Rosicky were on the same page immediately.
It was a very disjointed performance last night. It lacked pace, power, tenacity - everything that was in abundance against Chelski. When we were 2:1 up and N'Zog got himself sent off Wenger should have immediately put on Walcott and Nasri. Instead he procrastinated and thought we'd just try and see the game out only to watch Wigan equalise. I said just before they scored that if we didn't make a change soon we'd lose momentum, they'd score and then stick 10 men behind the ball. Exactly what happened. Everyone could see it coming and its disappointing to lose two points like that.
I'm not generally a fan of cheering for a player who's not on the pitch, but we all felt the same. We needed the dynamism and pace of Nasri and Walcott, so the chants began.
In terms of performances, several things were apparent last night; 1) Squillaci doesn't talk to anyone. 2) Diaby and Denilson should be sold. - Denilson isn't a central midfielder, he needs space to work and you don't get that in central midfield. Diaby is a conundrum in himself, I don't know what to do with him. He's so far away from being match fit its ridiculous he started. He was so far off the pace of the game he was practically static. When fit, he's powerful going forwards, but last night he had a shocker. 3) Bendtner isn't a right midfielder, at all, ever.
Rosicky was one of our best players last night, Chamakh was tireless in his running and fighting for the ball, Koscielny did well at times, extremely well at others and then made simple mistakes, but generally the back line defended ok...Squillaci really disappointed me last night. He's capable of much better.
Its such a mixed bag of emotions, decisions should have gone our way that didn't, but we got decisions we shouldn't have too, so I cannot complain about it. It all evens out. I just hope we don't look back at this game and realise its cost us a lot more than two points.
For now gooners, i bid you adieu.
WG
Ridiculous comment given all the salivating over Arsenal's bench on Monday night. If Squillaci doesnt head the ball in the goals, or we are given the last minute penalty you would be writing it was a worthwhile gamble. Neither of these can be really put down to the rotation. I thought our midfield was very similar in performance to the Man U game - except we didnt score.
ReplyDeleteThe player from last night were obviously not watching from the bench on Monday or else they would have seen the value of high energy total commitment football. I will say defensively our midfield stocks are very weak without Song and January purchase of a DM also capable of playing at the back or a defender that would release Djourou or Kolcielny to switch to DM would help. Chris Samba could be valuable as he would bring leadership to our dysfunctional defense.
Hi Steve, thanks for commenting. I hope you get the opportunity to read more of my site as my posts are much more objective than you seem to think. My opinion, being based on watching the full 90mins from behind the goal is this; Denilson and Diaby were awful, they couldn't keep posession of the ball and were overrun by Wigan. Its an opinion shared by the 2000or so arsenal fans that surrounded me.
ReplyDeleteI like Squillaci, but last night he struggled and made a lot of mistakes. I didn't hear him shout once and I didn't see him tell Koscielny anything for 90mins.
Its just my opinions, I appreciate yours and I hope to spend some time reading my content.