What did Arsenal’s match against Birmingham yesterday reveal? Our comical defending, especially in the first half, seemed to be the most evident feature of the game. I use the word ‘comical’ because it was exactly that – I literally found myself laughing at scenes of red and blue players tumbling over each other in our penalty box, scrambling for the ball and looking like panicked children. Given the fact that we were missing Sagna, Koscielny and Vermaelen, exceptions can be made, but no matter which four of our defenders Arsčne fields, they should be able to play better than they did. While I don’t think Clichy was the worst culprit either – pressure is surely growing on our manager to give Gibbs some more first team action.
The only other thing as ridiculous as our defending was the commentary provided by a certain Trevor Francis. I think this matter has already been mentioned on a previous blog post, but his comments were so biased that they warrant another mention. Seeing Chamakh sandwiched between two Birmingham players and receiving an elbow to the head, Trevor chirped up with: “That was an excellent centre-half’s challenge! Absolutely nothing wrong with that!”. The two ‘commentators’ then chuckled that Chamakh must have “a low pain threshold”.
‘Low pain threshold’ or not though, the goal Chamakh scored to put us into the lead was truly classy. It started with Jack Wilshere chesting the ball to the feet of Alex Song, Song then flicked it back into the path of Wilshere who again slipped it through the Birmingham defence and onto the feet of Chamakh. A twist and hop later and Marouane had put us 2-1 up. It was the sort of goal where if one part of the move hadn’t come off correctly, fans would have been shouting about ‘being too fancy’, but luckily that wasn’t the case.
Chamakh also had a large part to play in our first goal too. He went down in the box to earn us a penalty under a questionable challenge. Obviously Trevor Francis was adamant that there was no contact and Chamakh had been “very cute” and dived. For what it’s worth, I think only half of what Trev’ said is correct. I do think that Chamakh dived, he knew the tackle was coming in and was already planning to go to ground. But I also think that there was contact on Chamakh. Could he have stayed on his feet? Probably. Was his foot hacked at in the box? Yes.
On a more positive side of yesterday’s game, I don’t think this match review can be fully completed without a mention of Jack Wilshere’s overall performance. He controlled the midfield from his slightly deeper position alongside Song, spraying balls all over the pitch and creating many chances. He still doesn’t have the ruthlessness and the end-product that our captain usually brings, but the youngster is certainly proving an adequate stand-in. Despite his red card in the dying minutes of the match, this seemed to be Wilshere’s best performance in an Arsenal shirt.
Another plus was the return of Nicklas Bendtner. Other than almost scoring with his first touch, he didn’t do much to light up the pitch but, after his lengthy lay-off, he can’t be blamed for being slightly sluggish. The very fact that he’s fit again is a massive boost to our team though. I used to be one of Bendtner’s cruellest critics, but I had to admit that he appeared to be progressing nicely as a solitary striker before he was blighted with injury. I dare say that I’m looking forward to seeing him play again (and yes, I do realise I might have to eat these words after his next match but I’ll take the risk).
Back to the matter of Birmingham though. We vitally needed three points yesterday and, while it wasn’t the beautiful displays we’re used to, we got them. Chamakh was sharp again and Song and Diaby played much better than they have done in previous matches this season. Wilshere continued his run of decent form but he’ll unfortunately be missing against Manchester City, Newcastle and West Ham. Until we took the lead yesterday, our defence was shambolic again, but I’m hoping this was just a blip by our second-string back-four and that they can’t help but play better when they face Shakhtar on Tuesday. After that, it’s a trip to the City of Manchester stadium – and fingers crossed we have a fully-fit Fabregas by then. I think we’ll need him.
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