Mark Vallis
Anyone remember that scene in ‘Fever Pitch’ where Colin Firth is trying to instill in his schoolkids the mysteries of the Arsenal offside trap? If you recall, he got them to stand in a straight line and step up as one with their arms in the air. I wonder if Mr Firth fancies a coaching job at the club in between acting work.
I've just finished watching the Ipswich game and was staggered at some of the defending. We don't play with a back four, we play with a back two. The full backs don't join in. Is it any wonder we let in soft goals?
In the good old days, when Arsenal had a reputation for knowing a thing or two about defending, should the ball ever get the other side of Bould and Adams you would always see this red blur appear from either side of the pitch. Winterburn or Dixon covering across. It worked like clockwork and made us almost impossible to score against.
For the Ipswich goal, my first instinct was to think, "Where the f**k is Eboue?" Watching the re-run, he was standing about 5-10 yards in front of the defence, putting himself totally out of the game. He then did what all stranded footballers do, he put his arm up, which is as convenient a cop out as exists. To compound the problem he then jogged (!) back goalwards. Inference being that this defending malarkey was nothing to do with him. Scandalous. In short he was doing a "Denilson", and for that he deserved to be taken outside and shot.
A short while later, we had exactly the same situation on the other side of the pitch. "Where the f**k is Gibbs?". Their right winger was in so much space it was almost embarrassing. To be fair to Keiran, he did at least have the good grace to make a recovery run of sorts, but being about 20 yards out of position meant it was left to Djourou to make the last ditch tackle. We were very lucky not to be out of this tie, even assuming we aren't already.
I'm sorry, but can you imagine that sort of negligence being tolerated, even in the local park? Incredible, that at a club like Arsenal it almost feels like it's condoned.
How did things fare at the other end of the pitch? The short and long of it was we never looked like scoring. How come we had most of the possession and yet still managed to have less attempts on goal? Bendtner and Arshavin offered nothing. Legends in their own lunchtime, and nothing else.
Good luck to Ipswich. I have to say I was quite impressed with them. They played with discipline, determination and no little flair. The return match is going to be 'interesting'. If you've got a skiing holiday booked for the end of Feb, I wouldn't look to cancel just yet.
