Ian Henry
(Ed’s note – As I am abroad at the moment, and there is no online editorial today, regular Gooner contributor Ian Henry offered to fill in with a piece on last night’s Capital One Cup game. My thanks to him)
Let’s start with the positives: no injuries (at least none that had been reported by the time I got home from the match) and we won’t have the extra game in December that Chelsea now have. Cazorla got 90 minutes under his belt, which I am sure he needed. However other than that, there’s not much to report.
Two mistakes by Carl Jenkinson (who I thought was positionally suspect all night and remarkably ponderous) led to two Chelsea goals. Game over. Apparently Arsene Wenger has never won a competitive game against Jose Mourinho. With Nicklas Bendtner doing a passable impression of the worst striker in the world, there was precious little chance of Wenger’s win-less status against Mourinho changing.
It was a something of a phoney war for early stages of the first half; Arsenal’s stronger than (I had) expected line-up featured three (Koscielny, Ramsey and Cazorla) from the starting line-up against Palace, with Sagna, Ozil and Giroud on the bench. Arsene was giving it a go or at least something of a go, with only Ryo of the starting eleven lacking in big game experience. And that inexperience showed as the Japanese youngster was clearly out of his depth against Ryan Bertrandt: Gnabry looks a much better prospect, more skilful and stronger too. Chelsea fielded just one player – Cahill – who had played at the weekend, and by the end it was clear who had the stronger squad. No surprise there.
It had been fairly even stuff, if unexciting, when a long, high and bouncing ball caused confusion in the Arsenal defence: Jenkinson tried to head the ball back to Fabianski, but his header went up in a loop, allowing the on-running Chelsea right back (yes the right back) with the unpronounceable name beginning Azpil to nip in and poke the ball passed Fabianksi. Could the keeper have got the ball? Possibly, but had he rushed out he would probably have taken the Chelsea man out and risked a red card. A few minutes before, a weak Jenkinson header failed to find touch and a Chelsea attack resulted in a shot on target. We had been warned.
Possession seemed to be fairly even but we barely troubled Schwarzer in the Chelsea goal; Monreal fizzed a shot past the post but I can’t recall the Australian being forced into action until a Giroud shot in the second half (almost his first touch after replacing the hapless Bendtner). But that shot came after the second Chelsea goal – Mata received the ball from a throw in (which came from a poor miscued clearance by Jenkinson) and was allowed to glide across the penalty area before being belatedly, but ineffectively, closed down by Monreal; his shot flew past Fabianksi and in reality that was always going to be it. To return to the shot by Giroud – as my friend Toby observed: Giroud did more with that shot than Bendtner had done in the previous hour.
Ozil was on by the time Mata scored and Giroud followed shortly; and while they, Wilshere and Cazorla kept going, Schwarzer was barely troubled and Mourinho’s typically well-drilled and organised side did what they needed to do get to 90 minutes.
In the course of the season going out of the League Cup (whatever its official name) doesn’t matter that much, or rather it shouldn’t; what matters is how the team (and remember much of the first team started or were involved against Chelsea) responds in the next week. Liverpool, Dortmund and ManU in succession will tell us all we need to know about the current Arsenal team’s prospects for the season. I’ll save my views on the team’s realistic prospects for the season until after 6pm on Sunday week.
I’ll finish with a couple of things; I was in the refined atmosphere of block 91 (that’s the one behind the TV cameras) and couldn’t believe how many people came in late after the start of both halves, or left during the game for “refreshments”. Can’t people survive 45 minutes without needing sustenance? Are they not interested in the match at all? And finally, why oh why does the stadium announcer have to say at the end of the first half that the first half had been brought to us by Capital One, the bank that looks after supporters? Is that in the sponsorship agreement? Ludicrous.
