Hangeland scored and Arsenal lost.
Brede Hangeland is a centreback from Norway who is 27 and six foot five.
He’s a big warrior whose job is to win high balls and tackles.A traditional player who has been doing a traditional job for Fulham since January 2008.
When Jimmy Bullard pinged in a short corner at waist height, the Arsenal defence allowed Hangeland to stab in the only goal of the game in 21 minutes.
Almunia does not command his area & Gallas and Toure are too similar. Gallas was at his best playing with a John Terry, a conventional No.5 who attacks the ball. If JT was beaten, Gallas would pounce and get the ball 99% of the time.
The problem is that big, nasty stoppers like Hangeland and Vidic are outside Arsene’s aesthetic. His vision of the game does not include what they do. He got Sol Campbell on a free and has never paid big money for a proper stopper.
Consider this : In 1974, Manchester United paired big Jim Holton, a very crude No.5, with the composed Martin Buchan at No.6. Holton won high balls and big tackles, while the brainy Buchan played the football. Today, in 2008, Vidic wins the headers and Rio Ferdinand plays the football. That is a partnership between defenders with different talents who complement each other. So Vidic is a linear descendant of his predecessors Holton, Gordon McQueen and Steve Bruce. The scary Big Jim Holton was a nineteenth century gladiator, while Vidic is a twenty-first century gladiator.
Instead of having a big, old-fashioned stopper, Arsene wants a whole squad of players who are quick and mobile and tidy and technically assured. He wants his team to push up and pass the ball quickly through each zone, and he relies a lot on tempo, skill and recovery pace.
When he had lots of world class players, Arsenal won seven trophies with a style that was thrilling, dynamic and penetrating.
Unfortunately, only Sagna, Fabregas, Gallas and Clichy are world class now.
Interestingly, today’s reports from Italy suggest that Senderos will be loaned to AC Milan for one season. So maybe Arsene WILL sign a proper stopper. Maybe he will finally own up and address a glaring problem. But does he have the money to do that? I don’t think so.
On Wednesday night, Arsenal v FC Twente is on BBC3, a Freeview channel. They lead 2-0 from the first leg, so the size of the crowd will be interesting.
Twente Coach Steve McClaren will have looked at Roy Hodgson’s tactics. Hodgson pushed up his strikers, and Bobby Zamora did very well for him. They chased Arsenal’s back four, pressed hard in midfield to crowd Denilson and Eboue, and stifled their rhythm and their overlappers.
Fulham played really well for 80 minutes and then their legs went, so they sat back in the last 10. A risky move but the home team got away with it. They deserved to win and Bullard admitted, “That’s the best we’ve played for a long, long time.”
Fulham fans will remember this game as the one where Arsenal were outplayed by Jimmy Bullard and Danny Murphy.
Arsenal fans will remember how it was lost and say, “How the hell did we concede a goal like that ?”
My best friend Doug phoned this morning from the south of France. He said, “All the Gooners went to the pub in Antibes to watch the game on Setanta and they all came back sobbing.”