View From The North Bank: Arsenal 3 Norwich 3
An awful first half – after making the perfect start – put paid to the three points we needed to keep our Champions League destiny in our own hands.
So often this season Arsenal have trudged through the first half of matches – like the talented, cocky boxer dropping his guard once too often. Yesterday it cost us dear.
To Norwich City’s credit they played out of their canary coats, despite being a goal down after a minute. They desperately wanted another scalp here and did whatever they could to disrupt and discourage – you can’t blame them for that, but yet again you can blame the referee – that sort of behaviour from away teams is not entertained at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge or the Etihad.
I’m all for referees keeping their cards in their pockets at times – and was grateful that Anthony Taylor did so after a rash second bookable by Ramsey was overlooked (although Hoolahan was also lucky not to receive two cards throughout his time on the pitch) – yet time and again, the same cynical challenges were overlooked.
I don’t though count the incident causing Bacary Sagna’s broken ankle (again, how is our luck?) as I felt that was innocuous, but childish antics like knocking the ball away from a players hand at a throw in, kicking the ball away from a free-kick, standing on defenders toes (Holt), pushing players into touch and continuous talking to the ref (Holt again – the new Kevin Davies?) should be nipped in the bud early. Mr. Taylor had absolutely no control of the game.
That said, we only have ourselves to blame for three more soft goals conceded. The first Szczesny could’ve thrown his cap on. That error played on the Pole’s mind for the rest of the game, with indecision a (negative) feature of his play and his kicking being even more woeful than normal. This kind of erratic ness, as we know too well, causes panic at the back. This was evident in abundance, minus the indefatigable Laurent Koscielny.
The second goal was not too dissimilar from the opening Sp*rs goal against us, whereby a break away left two on two and the block on the shot was not in our favour. And the third – despite being an emphatic finish, should’ve been defended had Song filled the gap vacated by the over-ambitious Gibbs.
Song had one of those games where he does the difficult things well (another fine assist for Van Persie) yet the simple facets of the game vacate his brain. Gibbs and Sagna get caught in behind so often as the midfield isn’t disciplined enough to provide cover – a main reason why Wenger is coveting the likes of Yann M’Vila and Javi Martinez.
To his credit, in the first half on a couple of occasions Gibbs waved Ramsey back when caught upfield and the Welshman had the nous to cover in: Far too often Song hunts the ball when covering is required.
The frailty of Arsenal’s midfield can be put down to the absence of Arteta (we still haven’t won a game without him) yet he too has been caught upfield on, albeit rare occasions (QPR to name one example). It’s an issue that Wenger realises is a big weakness.
Despite defensive lapses, again we had the chances to win comfortably. Poor finishing, great blocks and fine goalkeeping (Van Persie, Song and Gibbs all denied at point blank range by brave keeping) kept us at bay. Benayoun should’ve added to his excellent opener with a sitter of a header – and how we didn’t get one of the two clear cut penalty shouts I will never know.
The second, where Van Persie was shoved over by Naughton (on loan from Sp*rs which grates even more) I will never know. Inexplicable. A professional foul to boot.
Gervinho was a constant threat second half which was a positive – as was the performance of Coquelin.
I won’t bother to dissect the Twitter graveyard. You’re either good or shit on Twitter. Had we taken more of our chances and been given one of two stonewall pens, we’d all be looking forward to The Hawthorns with rose tinted glasses.
The truth is when we’re bad, we’re bad. But, we have shown time and agin this season the strength to get back into games. You can’t coach that. What you can do is strengthen on weaknesses which I believe Arsenal will do this summer. Dead wood out; solid, sturdy wood in. The problem is of course that to attract high calibre players, Champions League football is a must.
A deeply frustrating afternoon having clawed our way back into the lead from 2-1 down, and not the way that Pat Rice – a diligent defender in his day – would’ve wanted to bow out on on home turf. Oh the irony. But then, that’s Arsenal. Doing it the hard way.
We are now Aston Villa fans for the day. That in itself is thoroughly depressing. We need something that we’ve been missing all season: some luck. Let it be a lady!
agree most of you said but we cant always blame the ref even if we didnt have one at emirates this season. Third goal was a joke. What did Song think before loosing the ball. He is no DM. Hope you are right we could snatch Javi Martinez. do you really think there will be big changes even if we get the champ. league? I think its time for changing the manager. 7 years in transition are enough imo. Peter fukking Hillwood should retire. Get Dein back cause Gazidis is a joke.
How many years have we been saying this (dead wood out, 3 signings from challenging etc)????
As one blogger put it, it is almost now hard-wired into the players that we choke under pressure.
This has been happening for years and comes from the manager. I honestly feel that we need a fresh start and Wengers time has come. Even if we finish 3rd or would have won yesterday i would say the same.
Some players are actually going backwards under him. Ramsey being one of them. Ox came on yesterday and didn’t have one shot. Already its been coached out of him.
He should step down and admit he can no longer instil a strong winning mentality into this group
If Arsenal can keep VP then not qualifying for CL is not end of the world.But need to sign in 3-4 good players and offload 2-3. Current midflied needs 2 more arteta kind of players. Need another goal scoring wide player and a stirker
Thanks to Spurs, we have got away with again and still have our destiny in our own hands. Due to goal difference (Newcastle) and the gap between us and Chelsea a point will get a top four place. Match spurs result and we have top three simple calculation. We need to rebuild and splash the cash this summer and you miss guided if you think 3 signings will make us challenge. We need major surgery with 5/6 signings minimum.
^ ox came on and he was really good, vp’s two goals came when he was on and causing trouble. And he did have a shot, I would know it was heading for my face in the crowd! Anyway spurs choke as bad as we do
fully agree Gee. How many times did we say this is Wengers last chance to turn things around? Does we want to wait another 3 years before something changes?
Gee, as I’ve said for many months – who replaces Wenger? (And don’t say Guardiola – he’s burnt out). Think about it for a minute. Wenger has had to work with no money – despite what you hear from the club, this is PR to keep season ticket holders happy. We have been a selling club as we built a stadium that is the envy of europe that wasn’t funded by oil money. I agree to a certain extent about the fact that players continue to make costly errors, and that is something the club has been addressing by bringing in experience – Arteta, Mertesacker, Benayoun. Building the Emirates came at a time when Chelsea and City have come in with big money owners and blown the rest out the water. Here’s an example – Carlos Tevez spent three months in Argentina playing golf whilst earning £225k/week. Simply can’t compete and FFP will go some way at attempting to Police this. Wenger is here to stay, so why not try backing him for a change? Most clubs would give their left bollock to be where we are. Ask any Gooner that followed us during the early 80′s. Arsenal were by far the best team in Britain in the 30s, then post war didn’t win a thing between 1953 and 1970. After double of 70-71 didn’t win the League again until 88-89. It happens. Look at United. Won the League in 92-93 for first time in 26 years. Liverpool haven’t won it since 1991-92! The goalposts have moved. Think about it.
@Nonflyingdutchman:
Klopp, Favre would be good replacements. Dont get me wrong but Wenger had his chance for the last 7 years. Why can Juve win the title in the first season after building a new stadium? I think there is money as I know for a fact Wenger made an offer for Gotze last summer of 40 mill €. So they lied cause we were told moving to new stadium makes us competitive with the best. BTW according @youaremyarsenal we signed Mvila.