Getting home from the Emirates late on Saturday to my roots in East London, the talk from West Ham to Barking was how the Cockney boys had apparently frustrated Arsenal for 88 minutes. The truth was Arsenal had been a little lazy in their ways. For a team who sat everybody behind the ball, large enough gaps could still be found in West Ham’s defence. All Arsenal needed to do was up their game and north London could have been raving about another 6-0. Instead Wenger’s men meandered through the game.
Last night in Ukraine the same happened. A lightening start from Theo Walcott was followed by something horrible and indolent from the visitors. All night Emmanuel Eboue was seen running backwards in a tippy-toe fashion. He has become a squad player for Wenger but you always feel he can at least give the team some energy, even if most of his crosses and shots hit the side netting. Marouane Chamakh was a useless substitute since chasing a game probably needs somebody much more mobile. It was a night of dreary miss-placed passes and erratic football in front of goal.
Laziness comes in different forms, one being the casual outing where a player barely breaks a sweat, barely goes to ground in the tackle and never leaps in the challenge for a header. The other accounts for all that but it is let down by a lazy end-product, lazy touch or lack of concentration when it matters. Both have crept into Arsenal’s game at some stage in the past two games.
There was also a reminder how Jack Wilshere has many years ahead of him before is the rounded star. Chelsea and Liverpool brought out impressive displays from the youngster, but dropped into more unfamiliar eastern European territories, mid-week in the milieu of flares and misty pitches, Jack struggled to get a foothold as we would have liked in the absence of Cesc Fabregas. A learning curve no doubt but one he will need to memorize quickly for future hostile Champions League encounters.
Arsenal are by no means in a crisis and overall we are not badly positioned both domestically and on the continent. Still, the last week is a souvenir of how Wenger’s Arsenal teams to like to ease off the gas, particularly in the wake of a fantastic win at Manchester City. Chelsea were at it again, as were Manchester United. Players like Ivanovic, the brute at Chelsea’s defence, are a good example to Arsenal, that if you want to win big, then every week you have to play big.
It’s poor having to to talk about a Chelsea player on an Arsenal blog. Ivanovic though never shys from the tackle, always leaps highest for the ball (and I’m sure he would even if he was below 6ft). He takes on the form of a wild horse and plays like a crazy one too. Like something from the Grand National he just keeps going and it’s soul destroying to see him smash down the walls of whoever stands in his and Chelsea’s way knowing that Arsenal could use some. You’d think the Balkans war was ongoing.
In a funny twist, Arsenal’s own ray of light was Lukas Fabianski who kept Arsenal in the game, always giving his team the possibilty of getting the crucial draw. It looks like his foot is firmly pressed down on the throttle right now. Likewise the rest of the team can do the same and get back to the pace of a few weeks back. Easing off in the past two weeks makes for bad habits, none Arsenal can afford to get used to with Chelsea so dominant. Let’s get back on the highway, foot to the floor and win this bloody league !!
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