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We had plenty of players missing from the line-up for this seriously annoying 5.15 evening kick off, especially as it followed a long and tediously crap journey to Manchester thanks to problems on the M25 & M6. There was no Clichy (foot), Lauren (knee), Senderos (shoulder), Diaby (ankle), Ljungberg was rested, Reyes was out with an alleged groin strain and Mr. Tweedy of course has a severe brain strain.
The match was in the main one where as a Gooner you sat there questioning what was going on. Why didn't we play in red and white against a team playing in all sky blue? Why did we play three short arses in midfield, why was there no one in midfield who could tackle. Why were we so lightweight? Why were we relying on a young kid to turn a game? Who on earth is going to inject some thunder into midfield? Where have all our left-footed players gone? Travelling up to Manchester to moan is a pointless exercise but it's mainly what we did.
We moaned about late tackles by Barton, we moaned about Richards hauling down Henry, we moaned at Dickov diving and wanting a penalty, we moaned when Jordan took out Hleb. But City were getting stuck in, we were not. Cesc to Van Persie wide right, a good cross but not close enough. Good pace from Eboue down the right. Henry got through but Weaver managed to block the shot with his feet. We moaned at Jens poor clearance that fell to Dickov. It was helter-skelter stuff with no one controlling the play. Henry to Van Persie, almost. Sinclair's cross to Barton was put just past our post.
Rosicky down the left in a good move, Cesc to Thierry who shot across the face of goal from the right. Gilberto conceded a corner and Dickov jumped all over Jens feet to predictably piss him off. Uriah Rennie intervened. Kolo half cleared the corner and Sinclair shot wide. Eboue went on a decent run, which allowed us to moan about his final ball. Gilberto to Henry with a great ball but Titi failed to out-pace his man. We moaned about him not being fully fit yet.
A City corner saw Richards get in a header that went wide, so we moaned about the marking. Another header this time from Corrode was placed low in the corner and Jens made his best save of the match. Corradi likes to roll around the floor a lot. Cesc to Henry on a counter attack which we totally overplayed, the first of many to be overplayed. More fine play from Tomas but Gilberto had his shot blocked. Another chance for Henry but Weaver saved with his feet again. We moaned about our luck. Dickov on Gilberto for a freekick. Hleb to Eboue with a peachy ball, Henry offside. A foul by Gilberto but Van Persie cleared the ball when it came in from the free kick.
A Van Persie rocket slammed against their post, we bemoaned our luck. At the other end Hoyte ran into Sinclair and they were given a penalty. A definite penalty but totally freaky, I've not seen a replay but there looked to be no intent. Some morons moaned about Hoyte, I say don't slag off Hoyte, it's not his fault he's playing at left back and it's not his fault we've got one left back injured and one who has lost touch with reality. It's not his fault either that Le Boss and the Club have yet to redress the situation. City targeted Hoyte, and why wouldn't they? Barton slammed home from the spot down the middle via the underside of the bar. 1-0 City. A bluemooning areswipe ran onto the pitch and was roughly manhandled from it in handcuffs. Good.
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Half time in the City of Manchester Stadium saw the usual scrum at the bar due mainly to a ‘Slowest service in the world competition' held by all the staff in food and drinks areas throughout the Premiership. The service was crap but I think we're still leading this one thanks to our lack of speedy service at Ashburton. Could be our only trophy this season. Needless to say I moaned about the lack of service.
The two most common phrases heard at Manchester on Saturday were ‘You **** Rennie' and ‘For ****s sake shoot Arsenal'. Both in equal measure summed up the match. The fact that we had no luck at all is irrelevant, because we didn't make any. To get a lucky deflected goal you need to shoot, in a crowded penalty area such shots can ricochet anywhere. Sometimes they can fall to your players sometimes that can cannon into a defender's arse and fly past the keeper. The key however is that you have to shoot. Someone has to take responsibility when in a good position and shoot rather than pass it on. Currently this appears to be an alien philosophy to the Arsenal team and pretty well everyone other than Eboue and Walcott, when he arrived, were guilty of passing the buck.
Corradi forced Jens to make a save. We moaned about Manchester ‘Manchester is full of sh*t' was the key line but I forget the words because they were rather uninspired as was the Gooner support in general.
Ten men back for City. Van Persie did well in yet another over-played move.
Barton to Dickov with an easy shot for Lehmann. Handball by Jordan for a yellow card followed by a wasted free kick. Corradi's elbow on Djourou was missed by Rennie. I moaned, but in a very intense offensive sort of manner. Cesc shot wide, Jordan chipped a shot over. Rosicky and Hleb disappeared off the radar at about this time. Henry tried an overhead effort that went over the bar. Henry shot over from a free kick. Henry shot over from every one of our free kicks. Henry wouldn't let anyone else take any of our free kicks. Henry was therefore both greedy and wasteful. He was not on song, far from it, Van Persie was, and a good captain would have passed the responsibility to Robin.
Fabulous play by Fab found Van Persie whose was not too far away, well actually it was because anything off target is too far away when you need a goal. A wild shot by Dabo. An almost-but-not-quite move from Henry to Fabregas. More Fabregas brilliance as Henry won a corner. 24 minutes to go and Theo replaced Tomas. Corradi dived again. Eboue had a crap shot from a narrow angle, but it was at least a shot so I didn't moan this time. We were still trying to walk the bloody thing into the net to the total exasperation of the travelling Gooners. Great run by Hleb and he should have gone down instead of trying for the pass when in the box, not that Rennie would have given it. Kolo ploughed through two tackles and a brief second who showed a bit of fire.
Theo was looking good, he's like a loveably little energetic puppy that wants to please and so jumps around and scampers about over the place. He also has pace, loves to go past people and, crucially, likes to shoot. I predict his first goal for us will be a rocket and his career with Arsenal will be a pleasure for us all. Meanwhile back at reality Henry fired over from a free kick. A poor clearance by Jens gave Dickov an opportunity while Jens was totally out of his goal but the wee Jock chipped it wide. Theo shot wide. A poor pass by Eboue ended a decent move as Psycho made the first of a series of substitutions.
Adebayor on for Hleb. Thinking about this substitution, we've got good players playing wide but none of them go down the line, except Eboue and his crosses sometimes lack something, like accuracy. Henry to Theo, who won another corner. Cesc to Van Persie whose shot just shaved the outside of the post, close but no cigar. Flamini came on for Eboue. Cesc did some brilliant defending at left back. Good play by Adebayor. Another City substitution, do you care who? No, neither did I. Barton and Adebayor were at it and City got the free kick. Henry, Van Persie and Flamini in another nearly but not quite move. Three minutes added time in which our attacks broke down in order for City to counter.
To summarise we needed anyone with a left foot, well almost anyone. City got a lucky break with a freak penalty but once again we fannied with it around their box whilst always looking for one more pass. Then in our next attack we'd fanny with it all around their box looking for one more pass after the one pass that was already three too many. In the following attack we looked to pass it around their box instead of shooting. And so it went on, and so we moaned about the lack of shooting. Not a fun afternoon.
No game I've ever seen (going back to the Jurassic era) has ever been won with a pass. At some point or other it's always been a cock-up, an own goal, a header or a shot that gets the goal. Try the shot Arsenal, it works for a lot of other teams.