Same Old Story Just a
Different Day
The stage was set on what
many had described as the title deciding match and it couldn’t have been
anywhere better than the plush Emirates stadium. The struggling champions
against the inform soon to be champions. Going into this match history was
against Arsenal but the form was in their favour and to add to that they had
the likes of Alexis Sanchez and the in-form Mesut Ozil returning after some
time on the side-lines. Having lost just once and winning the rest out of three
to their top 4 opposition this season, as opposed to previous seasons, Arsenal
were for once proving to be the real deal. But as usual this was a derby and form
is no decider as history teaches us.
Arsenal kicked off with Ozil
and Giroud and straight away made their intentions clear of going for the kill
but unlike in the games against Man City and Man United the aggression was
missing and soon Chelsea begun to grow into the game and the rest is as what we
know has been happening for the past five or six years depending on which stat
you are interested in but, the main point is Arsenal lost the game again to
their London rivals again, and failing to score a goal for a record sixth
consecutive time.
Also what is important to
note is out of the four London derbies Arsenal have played this season prior to
this match Arsenal had won only one, lost two and drew the rest thus collecting
a total of 4 out of a possible 12 points.
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| The Picture Says It All |
Arsenal Playing with a Man Less; Per Metersacker’s
Red Card
Per Metersacker
became the 48th player to be sent off in a match involving these two sides. He
got his marching orders in the 18 minute after being adjudged the last man when
he brought down Diego Costa. This all surfaced when Willian played in a through
ball to Diego Costa which the Arsenal back line, Koscielny in particular did
nothing to cut it out leaving Per one on one with Diego Costa and struggling
for pace to catch up with the Chelsea striker. Per took the best decision in my
opinion for the team since Diego Costa would have been through on goal and
besides it wasn’t in the 18-yard box. A critical look at the incident raises a
lot of questions on the decision of ref and the positioning of Laurent
Koscielny. But I will like to dwell on Laurent Koscielny in this case.
Laurent Koscielny
was clueless to begin with, he had no idea of what to do when Willian was
racing down on the Arsenal goal and instead of stepping up to close down
Willian, he rather decided to fall back giving Willian time and space to make a
good decision, and as the pass was played in Koscielny again did absolutely
nothing to cut out the pass. He could have slide in to try and stop the pass
before it got to Diego Costa and as much I put the majority of the blame at the
doorstep of Laurent, Metersacker should also take a share of the blame for not
been able to read the situation really well, as it happens to be his best
asset, to salvage the situation.
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| Diego Costa Goes Down After Metersacker's Challenge |
Going A Goal Behind After Being a Man Down
Five minutes after letting
Arsenal play with a man less, as if he hadn’t caused Arsenal enough trouble
Diego Costa pops up at the near post of Arsenal’s goal to slot home the only
goal of the game from Branislav Ivanovic’s cross. The question again is what
were the Arsenal defenders doing. This was a three versus one situation, three
Arsenal defenders against Diego Costa, but somehow someway Diego was the first
to the ball. Not to put any special pressure on Koscielny but here again he was
at fault gravely. For one I know for a fact a defender’s primary duty when
dealing with a cross into the box is first and foremost to block or prevent the
opponent from playing the ball across the face of the goal, this is so because,
such balls are difficult to defend once the travel across the face of goal. All
it needs is a touch to result in a (own) goal. But with all the praises of
Arsene Wenger and all years of experience Koscielny didn’t choose any day but
this very one to let his team mates and manager down. Koscielny positioning here
again was suspicious leaving yards of space between him and the bar line for
Ivanovic to whip in a cross. Again he fails to make any attempt to block the
cross before it reaches Costa. To sum up
he was “caught ball watching” as its popularly called.
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| Koscielny And Co. look On As Costa Scores |
Moving Forward; Ozil
and Walcott Failed to Impress
On the attacking front Arsenal created enough to at least
salvage a draw but for either one reason or the other they failed to make
anything good out of the decent chances. Ozil was left upfront on his own and I
must admit he did a pretty good job playing upfront for majority of the game
after Giroud was taken off to make way for Gabriel. Having missed the goalless
draw away to Stoke it was obvious his services were going to be needed. But Ozil
struggled to impress as his early touches were a little bit uncharacteristic of
him this meant, Arsenal struggled trying to play through their coveted
playmaker. Ozil and Walcott were the leaders after Giroud’s departure, as the
former struggled the story for the latter wasn’t any different. Lacking
composure when on the ball and giving it away so easily on many occasions, not
timing his few runs well and lacking confidence in front of goal was the story
of Walcott. He was given the captains armband for his loyalty (a decade of playing
for Arsenal) but that wasn’t enough bring out the best in Theo.
The Positives;
Arsenals Fighting Spirit
It wasn’t all bad if that’s the picture I’ve painted so far,
on the encouraging side Arsenal stayed in the game till the end. They didn’t
give up despite the huge and seemingly impossible task. Created a few chances
of their own including a goal mouth scrabble towards the end of the game which
in my opinion they should have scored from since chances were hard to carve
out. The assurance provided by Cech, solidarity and fighting spirit of the team
as already highlighted by Arsene Wenger was impressive.
Conclusion
Arsenal suffered yet another defeat at the hands of their
London rivals and it was down to same old problem that has plagued them for
years and that’s “naivety”, committing basic defensive errors. But the desire
to come out of the match with something was commendable but not enough. And for
the rest of the season Arsenal will have to avoid these mistakes against even
difficult opponents with the likes of Spurs at White Hart Lane, Man City at the
Etihad and United at Old Trafford still to come.
