Mr Arsenal Blog's Tactics Weekly. 

20/01/13 - Reviewing the Chelsea show.

Well yet again, it was a massively frustrating day yesterday for us Arsenal fans. The first half was really poor, but once again we were robbed by the referee who made two big SHOCKING decisions. I think we really need to find out why we keep starting games slowly, as we did again yesterday, and start playing for the 90 minutes like we have in the last two 45 minutes Vs Swansea and Vs Chelsea. It is so frustrating to see us start the game so slowly, and then dominate the next half when we are already behind, and have a mountain to climb. So what went wrong in the first half. Let's break this down here, and I aim to discuss this with this article.

This really was the definition of the cliche of a "game of two halves". In the first half we were second to every ball, played very deep, played with no penetration and once again did not press the ball. We allowed them far to much space to work, because we sat too deep and effectively just watched them play football. We have to start coming out of the blocks fast, pressing high up the pitch as a team and stop allowing teams to just play out, and get around us so easily. That is exactly what happened. Arsenal needed to play higher up, by doing so they would have pushed Chelsea back towards their own goal, and would have made it a lot lot harder for them to just play the ball around us with such ease, as they did in the first half. This has been a real problem this season, we do not push high up the pitch and work hard enough of the ball, especially in the first half of games. You look back across the season so far and you will see that in most games we have played quite well in the 2nd half but in the 1st half we are just so slow and are not fighting enough off the ball, with the tenacity to get it back, and hold on to it.

Linked to this problem of holding on to the ball is the result of real sloppiness in my opinion. Yesterday we did not take care of the ball at all in the first half, we seemed happy to just stroke the ball around without any real conviction. This meant that we gave it away too cheaply, and this cost us directly for the 2nd goal. Other than the fact that the 2nd goal (the penalty) should have been a goal, because Ramires CLEARLY dived, however Diaby faffed around on the ball and was robbed of it, which led to a Chelsea break, and ultimately the goal. The whole team was guilty on this front, there is no conviction in our passing. This has to change. However in the second half this changed, we started trying to get higher up the pitch, we passed the ball forward quickly and efficiently and funnily enough we looked far more dangerous, and Chelsea could hardly get out of their own half. It was exactly the same against Swansea in the FA Cup on Wednesday. If we actually start doing this in the first half, I can absolutely GUARANTEE you that we will win most games, because we have great quality, but in the first half for most games this season we have not imposed ourselves enough on the opposition and been just too sloppy and lethargic, it was the same yesterday!


Furthermore I think our players have been guilty in the last two premier league goals, of being "sucked in" far too easily. You look at the first goal yesterday, you had Mertescaker too close to Vermalean, leaving space behind for Mata (who of course then scored), and you had Sagna who was FAR to high up the field, and did not track back quick enough at all. The players have to be more disciplined in their shape, and not allow space to open up. It is simple thing that I am sure all of you that play football will have been told many times, do not get sucked into the ball. You have to keep your shape. And that is something that they didn't do effectively in the 1st half, and that cost us. YES both goals should not have been given because the referee made a disgraceful decision not to give the foul on Coquelin, and was clearly guessing for the penalty because it was a clear dive. However having said this, the players have to help themselves more by keeping their shape, and tracking back much quicker than Sagna did for example yesterday.

In terms of the criticism that this Arsenal team has been getting in recent days I would like to outline what I think about this. My basic opinion is that this team has a lot of quality and a lot of talent. You look right through it, we have the likes of Podolski, Cazorla, Walcott, Arteta, Wilshere, Gibbs, Vermalean, Mertesacker to name a few, these are ALL international players. And in the case of Wilshere and Gibbs especially have massive talent to fulfil. So I will not accept that they are not a good team, there is a lot of quality there that needs to be fulfilled. And as I have outlined in this piece, I think it is an application issue that is holding them back. We do not press the ball enough, do not work hard enough of the ball, and do not look to impose ourselves on the opposition from the start enough. I almost think that the players do not realise how good they actually are, and maybe you could point the finger at the boss for that, in the sense that maybe he needs to give them more confidence to go out and play to their potential, I don't know. But all I do know is that this quality is not being shown enough for a whole 90 minutes.

We do need add players to this squad, and I am confident that we will. What I have noticed in recent weeks is that Arsene has been a lot more open in his frustration during interviews, than we've ever seen before really. So I do think that he acknowledges that we need a few faces, and he has said this in the media, that he wants 1/2 quality introductions. But as always we are going to just have to wait and see what materialises.

For now we do have quality in the team, and we need to start showing it from the off. There is NO point showing after half time, because often the game will have passed them by at that point, so we have to start IMPOSING our own quality on the opposition from the start. That for me is the key point from this, the word imposing. We need to impose ourselves, both offensively and defensively from the off. Press the team hard and high up the pitch and look to attack with more urgency, more tempo and drive as we have been doing in the 2nd half in the last week, but for the FULL 90 minutes of the match.

UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!

@Mr_arsenal_blog