The League hasn’t gone. It’s just much harder.
Why did Arsenal play so badly in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough ?
Both goals should have been disallowed, the first for offside, the second for a foul by Eboue before the corner was taken. Apart from the goals, what did we make of it?
Aliadiere scored after 25, Boro defended very well with 11 men, Toure got a late goal that wasn’t enough.
Arsenal had a week to prepare for that game !
But they had four days to prepare for Wigan and drew that as well. Has the team imploded completely? Or is it just short of fit bodies?
Myself, I agree with Alan Hansen, who said that Arsenal lost momentum when they threw the FA Cup tie at Old Trafford.
They wanted to lose that game and they crashed 4-0 and I hated that. I was annoyed all day Friday before that game because I knew what was going to happen. Wasn’t annoyed on the Saturday because I can’t stay annoyed at anything for more than one day. For me, you can’t go and lose 5-1 to Spurs and lose 4-0 to Manchester United and think you can carry in as if those two disasters had not happened. It’s a game of sequences, it’s about confidence, momentum, continuity. Winners keep winning, losers keep losing, drawers keep drawing games.
Also, Arsenal is a moody French-African team that can’t shrug off a bad result as well as an ebullient, cynical Anglo-Saxon team could. Rooney scores for Everton, Arsenal lose four games. It’s the domino theory. One game knocks down the following game, which knocks down the game after, and so on. Loss of momentum is fear, doubt, failure. Continued momentum is confidence, energy, faith, success. When Schmeichel saved Bergkamp’s penalty in 1999, Manchester United gained the momentum to win the treble.
I can’t say where Arsenal lost it this season but I know for sure that I lost it on Friday, February 15. I knew he had decided to chuck the FA Cup tie at Manchester United. On that Friday I wondered whether I still cared and it seems to me that the Arsenal team has played rubbish ever since, except when beating some elderly Italians.
How can Arsenal get back on track after one win in six games?
Will they get back on track? How can a team that’s forgotten how to score, forgotten how to win a game, get back on track? I really can’t say whether Arsenal can get back on track. Indeed, I’ve begun to doubt whether there’s a track for them to get back on. Right now this team is miles and miles away from where it was three months ago.
Where’s the ideas? Where’s the leadership? Where’s the belief ? Who has the bottle? Who can get a grip of this team? Do I really think Arsenal can draw 0-0 with Liverpool in the first leg and go to Anfield and draw 1-1 and then knock out Chelsea or Fenerbahce?
Sure, the league’s not over. But it’s become much, much harder. However, United will drop points and Avram Grant is no Mourinho.
OK, lots of players had a bad game against Middlesbrough. But is there is something wrong, something we don’t know about? Are they exhausted? Do they depend far too much on a 20-year old No.4 ? Or do they just need a kick up the arse?
In the future, in 2009, will we look back on this meltdown and say : it was a small, young squad that gave us three-quarters of a great season ? It was preposterous to do as well as they did? A heroic failure where you have to admire the heroics and forget the failure?
Next weekend we have a Super Sunday with Manchester United v Liverpool, followed by Chelsea v Arsenal.
The first game will be spicy, as always, and sparks will fly when Mascherano, the combative Argentinian, tackles Anderson, the Brazilian Edgar Davids. That will be fun to watch.
Arsenal have a free week to contemplate how they drew four league games in a row and lost the lead they’ve held for so long.
Chelsea play their game in hand at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night. Spurs will want to win again to show the Carling Cup Final was no fluke and Juande Ramos knows enough about how Chelsea play to make it a hard night for the Blues. The harder the better, we say.
How can Arsenal get back on track?
By beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Kolo, my old mate, you’ll just have to score another goal.