Mr Arsenal Blog's Tactics Weekly. 

13/01/2013 - reviewing the Manchester City game.

Well, what a shame that was. I was, as I am sure all of you were as well, so much looking forward to this game today, it was all shaping up to be a fantastic day of competitive football and really was an ACTUAL (for once) "Super Sunday". I was so excited to arrive at the ground again today, just thought it was going to be such a good game.

However, as we know, the game and the spectacle that we were hoping for, was absolutely ruined so early on by the sending off. Now at the time I was so furious at this, as was everyone else in the ground, a feeling of "shell-shockness" seemed to flow round the crowd as Laurent Koscielney made his way of the pitch and down the tunnel. I would like to make it clear that, despite my inevitable anger, it WAS in fact a penalty (link to the incident will be at the bottom of this piece), but I do not think that it was a red card because a) it was very early in the game and b) I think the ball was going to the goal keeper anyway. But regardless of this that was the situation that reared it's ugly head unfortunately. Therefore as soon as that happened, quite frankly we were never going to win the game, and a loss was inevitable! That's what the disappointing thing is for me, the fact the great spectacle we had hoped for was completely taken away. Because of the sending off I don't think you can read much into the performance of either team, because of these conditions. But regardless of this however, we did make a number of mistakes for both goals and I am now going to outline this, but also outline what I think we can take from this game, in a positive light!

Let's get the negatives over with first! As we know the fact we were down to ten men of course made it very very hard for us to defend efficiently, because naturally they would have the spare man over every time. But despite this both goals could have, and SHOULD have been avoided. The first one came as a result of Arsenal switching of, and loosing their shape at a quick free kick. When a foul is given by the officials, we need the leaders in the team, to make sure the players do not switch of and think they have a few seconds rest, because as we saw this is not the case. They took a quick one, caught as out played it wide brought into the box, and boom it's 1-0. Which of course gave us a HUGE mountain to climb. Going down 1-0 to the Champions is bad enough, but with 10 men, i'm afraid that was it, game over! But the fact is, that was poor from the team. As you will see, I do feel proud of the players for the way they fought considering we were up against the Champions, with a man down for effectively, the whole match. But, that should not happen, I remember at Under 8 sort of age, when playing football we would always be shouted at if we turned our back and switched off at a free kick, when they could take it quickly. You have to be alert, aware as to what is happening. And the players were not on this occasion, and they paid the penalty!

Moving on to the 2nd goal! This was also very avoidable, which of course is frustrating. We put too much "risk on the ball" in the wide areas, gave it away cheaply, Gibbs was then beaten to a loose ball, which City then dribbled down the side, played in, Mertesacker missed the clearance which left Silva to shoot which was blocked by Wojiech, only to be tapped home by Dzeko! This also should have been avoided. We should have cleared the ball in the wide areas, or at least distributed it quickly and efficiently out of the "danger zone" if you like, and then played it up field. We cannot afford, especially when down to 10 men against the English Champions, to be sloppy on the ball. I said at the time of sending off, "right, now we have to be super disciplined on the ball, and try and hold on to it as well as we can", however we didn't manage that, and this was exactly what we didn't do for the 2nd goal!

Final negative of the game I thought was the performance was the lack of anything really from Santi. I have seen that people were slagging of Theo for his performance, but to be fair we were playing with 10 men, and also Theo did not get ANY service throughout the match. I think he tried to move around, tried to make runs (I specifically watched him throughout for this), but was not given the through balls and passes that is required. And part of this, I believe, was as a result of lack of creative activity from Santi. Who of course has been a little magician at times this season, but I think in a few games he has been COMPLETELY invisible. And today, unfortunately, that was one of those moments for sure. He didn't probe the defence, in the sense that he didn't distribute the ball well at all, was too slow, and passed up the chance to shoot on a number of occasions, when in good areas of the field (around the box). We really needed a performance from him today, firstly because we were missing Mikel, so we needed Jack and Santi to really step up in a creative fashion, and secondly because we went down to 10 men and therefore needed him to create some chances for us to have a chance of coming back into the game, but this was not the case. Maybe he is in need of a rest, I don't know. But it sure is strange that we still havent seen Rosicky come on in the league, when it is clear that Santi is struggling at times to be fresh, so why not give Rosicky a go? I don't know.

But as I said before, there were positives we can take from this fixture. When a team goes down to 10 men after such a short time in the game, it would be VERY easy for the team to hide away, to feel sorry for themselves and to almost give up. But I think they did the opposite! They really fought for the ball, when City looked like scoring the players blocked they harried the ball around the box, and I don't think you can fault that. Of course you could say we didn't take the chances that we DID have, such as Giroud from a set piece, put a header wide, and of course Theo had a shot blocked of the line where I think he should have placed the ball better, but as I said, they fought hard for it, and they kept the scoreline reasonable if you can put it that way. Of course loosing a game at home is not satisfactory for a club like Arsenal, but in the circumstances, it could've ended up a "cricket score", but the players fought valiantly to make sure this wasn't the case, this is pleasing.

So on the whole it's been a very disappointing day. I was very optimistic going into this match that we could do well, however this didn't pan out that way. But moving forward we have an absolutely MASSIVE few weeks coming up. Those of you that know me, will know that I am a guy that is always reasonably optimistic about things, but the next few weeks could either make our season or kill it, that is the severity in my opinion of what is to come. We have Chelsea away next, and if we don't get anything there it is feasable that Liverpool could be level with us, and then of course we have that team (Liverpool) at home in the next Premier League. Therefore it is feasible we could end up around 8th, where Liverpool are now, after these games, IF we don't see a response from the lads. Throw the FA Cup replay Vs Swansea on Wednesday, into the equation as well, and I think you can start to see my point. This is an absolutely enourmous few weeks for our season. Firstly we have to find a reaction to this game, without Koscielney and Arteta for these upcoming weeks, and secondly we have to enter the market place as well for a few players. If we do these two things and some good results in the league, win the replay, and acquire 1 or 2 good players, our seasons should be okay! If we don't however, I really worry about what would happen especially when you consider the champions league knockout round 1st leg Vs Munich is also looming!

But let's stay optimistic, that is a good way to be, as the players and the staff need our support after a day like this, where everything really went against us, and lets give credit where it's due, the players did show application and fight today in difficult circumstances, but the manner of the goals we conceded was not good enough, and when you consider that had we not made 2 bad erros for the 2 goals, we could have managed to hold for a draw with 10 men! That is encouraging of course, BUT we did make these errors, so ultimately we very disappointed!

So we go now to Stamford Bridge hoping for a good win! And until then I wish you a good week!!

UP THE ARSENAL!!!!! 

@Mr_arsenal_blog 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdqwi4z0D40 - penalty and red card incident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09TpvqokJwU - the goals. See the errors!