Kevin Whitcher
Wenger’s Invincibles team had games like this – beating Middlesbrough 5-3 at home and Spurs away 5-4 in the earlier part of the 2004-05 season. Matches where football logic goes out of the window along with the concept of defensive basics… but your team wins. It’s entertaining stuff even if at times you feel like covering your eyes. I am not convinced league titles are ever won without a solid defence, but on this day, no-one cares too much. A win at Chelsea is an achievement for any team, and it’s one that has propelled Arsenal into contention for the top four, something no-one was anticipating not so long ago.
Whether or not the result is a vindication of the manager’s methods I will leave others to debate at length. The short answer is that one swallow does not make a summer, and at some point, having full backs that cannot defend is going to find you out. Arsenal simply outscored their opposition in a fixture played between two sides that will have given Alan Hansen enough raw material for a six part series should the BBC wish to indulge him.
Still, let’s marvel in Arsenal’s attacking play. For once, the team gelled going forward. Even Theo had a blinder. There were signs that the front four of Van Persie, Gervinho, Walcott and Ramsey are starting to click. They were helped by Chelsea’s mystifying decision to play a high line and I could not believe I was watching a team coached by Andreas Villas-Boas. This was a guy whose Porto team conceded 16 goals in the whole of last season’s league campaign. I had him down as a results merchant, and a very effective one at that. Yet, he has evidently decided he can be more than that. If that’s the case, the baby has well and truly been thrown out with the bathwater, based on this display. It was as if he was trying to match Wenger at his own game, and to give credit where it is due, if it is attacking suicide without concern for what the opposition might do, Le Boss is the undisputed master and has been for a long time.
Andre Santos was effectively a member of Arsenal’s attack for much of the game, and Koscielny, who in spite of the team conceding three put in another very impressive performance, seemed to be playing two positions a lot of the time, one of them left back. Mertesacker’s display does have one wondering if it would be better to have Vermaelen and Koscielny start matches for the immediate future. The German was not as physically imposing as a man of his stature and experience should be.
Really, the game does not stand up to much analysis. It was a very open affair in which both sides were allowed to play their football. Ultimately, the moment John Terry fell over and allowed his opposition captain to make it 4-3 was the turning point. The result could have gone either way, but given some of the poor luck the Gunners have enjoyed at the Bridge over the years, it was about time the dice fell for them.
What is important is that the team push on from here. Grow in confidence and win more big matches, as well as the ones they would be expected to (which they have been doing at home since the Liverpool defeat). There is still much to play for, although even the manager admitted at the AGM on Thursday that fourth place is the realistic limit of the club’s ambitions this season after the start they made. However, it is just nice to beat one of the big three, and to do it away is extra special. A good day for Gunners everywhere. The club are playing on the motto ‘forward’ in this anniversary season. Well, it was never going to be ‘defend’!
The current issue of the Gooner is still available to buy online here
Kevin Whitcher’s newly updated version of the book co-written with Alex Fynn, ‘Arsènal: The Making of a Modern Superclub’ is available in paperback from publishers Vision Sports for a reduced price of £6.99 including postage if you use the promo code ‘Gooner’ on the page that appears after you click ‘buy now’. Click here to order.
