Why did Arsenal win 1-0?
Because Man City were so mediocre. Because Arsenal defended well. Because Yaya Toure was injured when Song fouled him. Song is Wenger’s hatchet-man. When he’s way up the field and beaten, Song tugs and trips and obstructs and kicks almost every time.
If you play a high line, you can get killed by counter-attacks if you don’t do that. When Yaya went past him, Song stuck out his knee which hit Yaya’s knee and hurt him. The big man had treatment, went off, came on again, couldn’t recover, and was replaced by David Pizarro, a tidy passer with no pace, who joined Barry and Milner.
So Man City had no pace in midfield?
Exactly. Because Yaya can accelerate into threatening positions and take his rolling sprint beyond Arsenal’s high back four. But Yaya takes about 20 minutes to get going and Song whacked him before he could get into gear. So City’s pedestrian midfield was dominated by Song and Rosicky.
If they’d had eleven men, Barry would have hit it long for a striker in 87 minutes, rather than play a risky ball infield to Pizarro, who lost the ball to Arteta, who scored the winning goal.
The other thing was : City had no width! Micah Richards had been dropped by Mancini because Bendtner scored a far post header for Sunderland last week.In a hundred different ways, Mancini cuts off his nose to spite his face. He is hopeless.
Why does Wenger’s 4-3-3 system still lack penetration?
Because RVP and Theo are limited in what they do individually. And extremely limited in the ways that they can combine.
As my friend Doug said at half-time, “You know Arsenal have run out of ideas when Sagna starts crossing the ball to Walcott in the box.”
These players can’t make 4-3-3 system look exciting.Van Persie is too static, Walcott too stupid, Benayoun too old, and Ramsey can no longer score goals.
Gervinho can sometimes link with RVP and run beyond him. But Gervinho’s a flaky bantamweight who’ll never be good enough to play for Arsenal.
So Arsenal’s creativity has declined. What’s the good news?
The solidity has improved. They have more steel and character at the back. Szczesny is a bold shouter who can come roaring out of his box and put his boot through a long ball over the top. If you have a decent keeper, you have a chance.
Koscielny and Vermaelen can tackle and use the ball and win headers. Very determined, as defenders should be. Sagna is very good in the air for his size, has a great attitude, and is still fast.
If your strong characters are mainly at the back, and Arteta is experienced, you can tighten up, play a compact game, and get points in every match. Arsenal have turned themselves into Everton in red shirts and it’s worked. If your attack is unreliable and not prolific, doing that makes sense.
The team is now compact and tough enough to get third place. That’s how it looks with six games to play.