Kevin Whitcher
At some point, Arsene Wenger is going to have to admit defeat on the issue of zonal marking. Man to man gives clear responsibility to each player regarding who they are marking at a set piece. However, Arsenal have conceded too many goals from corners in recent months, and have got away with several more. All because of zonal marking. Having got themselves into the lead against Swansea, they handed their opponents an equaliser through rank bad defending. It is the reason trophies are so hard to come by, because defence is key to winning matches. Bradford scored their League Cup goal from a corner.
It was the clichéd game of two halves from the Gunners. Very poor before the interval, with Aaron Ramsey fluffing a great chance and a couple of moments of excitement when Theo Walcott came in from the wing, but Swansea enjoyed the best chances. The second half saw significant improvement, although the home side took the lead when Koscielny failed to deal with a long ball and Michu made mincemeat of Per Mertesacker. It was interesting to see the German return to the side at the expense of Thomas Vermaelen. The manager can claim rotation, but the suspicion is the captain was dropped.
Arsenal rallied after going behind and continued the domination they had enjoyed at the start of the first half. When Podolski came on for Ramsey, they finally broke through with two goals of high quality. However, the idea of not being able to hold onto a lead is not a strange one these days. By the end, either team could have won the game and spared themselves a replay.
Arsenal’s advantage is obviously the decider being at home, although Swansea will have little to fear after their recent performance in the league fixture, one in which they enjoyed far more possession than Wenger’s team. It uses up another cup credit, which will please the board, although one suspects an actual attendance of about 40,000, especially if the game is picked out for television. It might though sell out if the club decide it is a grade C fixture, especially as Swansea are likely to take up a decent portion of the 15,000 non-season ticket seats. However, many, many season ticket holders won’t bother attending.
They pay for seven home European and FA Cup ties. There are a guaranteed five this season now. If all seven are not used up, then there is a discount on the 2013/14 season ticket renewals due to a refund for games paid for but not played. With money king at Arsenal these days, in spite of the manager’s laughable socialist line in the build up to this tie, the directors want as many home games as they can get. There have been calls for ‘lite’ season tickets which do not include the cup games. It would be a good way of deciding who gets cup final tickets (remember those?) if those who opted not to take home cup games were siphoned out. However, the club would lose guaranteed income, so that isn’t going to happen.
The line-up for this match was probably the first time since the late 1990s that Arsene Wenger has played a first choice starting eleven for an FA Cup 3rd round tie. I suspect Podolski was on the bench for fitness reasons as he has been carrying an ankle knock all season. Hence his regular early removal. That demonstrates that even though he has stated the domestic cups are low priority, the manager realises the importance of winning a trophy. Failure to land one this season will make is eight campaigns without one. Arsenal have had far longer gaps than that without silverware before, but not charging the astronomical prices to watch the team that fans endure now. What is especially galling is that £60 million of transfer funds sit unused in the bank. Maybe it would have been better to have £35 million in the bank and Robin van Persie this season? He doesn’t seem to have lost his scoring touch. It’s not as if the club is doing everything in their power to compete, because the manager wants to do it his way – without spending money.
So retaining Theo Walcott is his priority this month. Maybe he should think about doing something to improve the defence, such as buying a dominant holding midfielder and changing something in training. Because Arsenal are conceding too many soft goals, which makes silverware very difficult to win. The monkey on the manager’s back isn’t going away anytime soon until that particular issue is addressed.
The current issue of The Gooner, with a free 2013 calendar will be available at the home game against Manchester City next weekend and the replay v Swansea. It can be bought online here. There is also an e-version of the issue available to read on your ipad/tablet/iphone/android. The app is free and you can download the first few pages of each issue as a taster before deciding whether or not to purchase the whole thing.
