Kevin Whitcher
It was a home game for Arsenal against the defending champions, and ultimately, the need to start beating the teams that finish above them in the table continues to be unfulfilled, leaving questions about the club’s ambition. Scoring two high quality goals against a defence in which Vincent Kompany was immense was highly creditable. Arsenal did what they needed to do up front to win this match. However, in defence, man for man, City are a level above, right across the backline. I am not criticizing the Gunners’ defenders, I am merely stating that Manchester City have better ones. This meant that Arsenal conceded the two goals that cost them two points. For the second one, especially, the defending was simply not good enough. There may also be questions about Wojciech Szczesny’s place in the starting line-up. There weren’t too many outstanding saves from him.
Gibbs and Arteta may have returned to full training in the week, but the pair only made it onto the bench, presumably with the trip to Dortmund in mind. Back ups Monreal and Flamini are both players of a certain level, but not of the requisite quality to make the difference in games of this nature. Other clubs have better back up. Physically, Arsenal looked a bit lightweight in comparison with City, in spite of Yaya Toure not starting. Both Ramsey and Wilshere were selected, which meant the relegation of Santi Cazorla to the bench. Danny Welbeck made his debut for Arsenal, although one suspects there would have been a caustic atmosphere in the stadium if Yaya Sanogo had kept him out.
Arsenal did start well, and Welbeck had a couple of decent chances, the second of which he really should have converted. One suspects if Giroud had missed the three opportunities Welbeck did in this game, he would have been crucified, and the ‘can’t score against big sides’ mantra would have re-surfaced. Welbeck was forgiven, the crowd want him to succeed. City took the lead for the simple fact that Sergio Aguerro is more clinical. The visitors were given space and time by Arsenal and they exploited it. The Gunners were playing some much better football than we have seen so far this season (at least since the Community Shield), but Manuel Pellegrini’s team were generally able to cope with it. They closed down much quicker and marked tighter. At times, they slightly bullied their opponents. They were slightly more cynical, but even the greatest sides have that edge to them. Arsenal had it when they were winning titles. Nice guys win the fair play award.
The first half performance was certainly an improvement on that of this fixture last season, at the end of March, in which City ran the game. This one was a little more even, with Pellegrini’s side simply having the lead through slightly greater quality at the decisive moments. In midfield, the home side battled manfully, but could not establish any dominance. Arsenal needed a monster in front of their back four, but had to make do with the fading Flamini, who looks even more off the pace than Arteta has done. The game largely passed him by. City looked most dangerous when demonstrating pacy give and go football, which Arsenal should learn from.
The tide turned Arsenal’s way after the interval, and Jack Wilshere, who had played well in the first 45 minutes, improved further still. Aaron Ramsey has had an unspectacular season so far, and is still to recapture the form of a year ago. It should come, and it can’t come too soon for his team. Alexis played his socks off, and spent much of the game over on the left, presumably to occupy the more dangerous of the visitors’ full backs, Zabaleta. At times, certain players were guilty of holding on to the ball too long when the team were breaking and opportunities beckoned. Wilshere and Alexis come to mind, and at one point Ramsey berated the Chilean for not releasing the ball to him on a promising break, with the consequence that Alexis was dispossessed.
Yet, the spirit was strong, and at times, the home side fought like tigers, raising their game in response to the quality of the opposition, by far the best side they have faced so far. Arsenal became more threatening, and broke through with a wonderful run and finish by Wilshere. The pressure continued to produce the sublime second goal by Alexis. However, they were unable to see the game out, and their concentration levels may have dipped a little too much with the injury to Debuchy, and the attendant break as the player was stretchered off, amidst a general feeling amongst the fans that we might not see him again until much later in the season.
City’s equalizer was disappointing, but hardly surprising. Koscielny gets outjumped too easily and this weakness in his game has led to the concession of too many goals. Much as we may want to believe in the Mertesacker/Koscielny pairing, this is the same combination that were dismantled at Anfield and Stamford Bridge. Frankly, Terry/Cahill and Kompany/Demichelis are better combinations. It makes the difference over the course of the season. Those two pairs also enjoy greater protection in front of them by way of no-nonsense defensive midfielders who could swat the likes of Arteta away like a fly. In the first team squad list on the official website, Arsenal have six defenders to cover four positions, and 19 players for the six positions in front of them. A question of priorities? Significantly, of those 19, none are what you would really call a defensive midfielder. Arsene Wenger simply does not believe in them anymore, it was an idea relinquished when he stopped picking Gilberto. And to think, we used to bemoan Gilles Grimandi playing there. One wonders what might have happened if he had tried a bit harder to sign Xabi Alonso in 2008, instead of protecting the careers of Alex Song and Denilson. So the balance is wrong. It means we will see thrilling multi-goal matches when the top teams come to Arsenal. Some they might win, some they might lose. Certainly yesterday could have gone either way as City’s late effort that hit the post indicates. Away from home? No-one is licking their lips at the prospect of visiting Stamford Bridge soon, let’s just put it that way.
Mesut Ozil was tidy, and knitted play together when called upon to do so, but ultimately his effect on proceedings was marginal. He will need to be moved back to his favoured position before we see the best of him, and one suspects this might not happen until Walcott returns. Whether the current malaise is due to post World Cup fatigue, unhappiness at being played wide, or something more fundamental, the next couple of months will tell us. The fear is that the player is simply too lightweight for the English game, but at £42 million, the club can’t afford to give up on his until they are more certain. Ozil being scapegoated isn’t going to help matters. Let’s see what happens once he switches to his favoured number 10 role and has Alexis, Walcott and Welbeck to feed from deeper. In truth though, there was enough space on the pitch yesterday for him to have made more of an impact if he was willing to work as hard as Alexis, but that is not in his nature. Alexis is a battler, Ozil is more of a Glenn Hoddle type. Silky skills. Can disappear if he doesn’t fancy it. You know who you’d want in the trenches with you, and sadly, at times, the Premier League can be a bit of a battleground.
Debutant Danny Welbeck worked hard and showed plenty of promise. It’s early days and it will take four or five games before he is fully gelling with his team-mates. He is not quite as effective as Giroud in holding the ball up, as much as anything due to physical differences, but his greater pace is obvious and worried City at times. It was interesting to note that Yaya Sanogo was not even on the bench in spite of scoring three times while on under-21 international duty.
In the end though, it was a case of nearly. Not quite. Arsenal just a little light, a little short. Except at the bank that is. I remember they were once called The Bank of England club because of Herbert Chapman’s willingness to go out and spend big to secure the players he knew the club needed. How times have changed. Arsenal need defensive solidity, not only an increase in numbers but an increase in quality. Until that happens, you can forget those dreams of titles.
I am now on Twitter@KevinWhitcher01.
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Further Reading
A sequel to Arsènal – The Making of a Modern Superclub and entitled Arsène and Arsenal The Quest to Rediscover Past Glories has been written by myself and co-author Alex Fynn. It takes up the story of the club from the last update of the previous book, and can be bought online here. Use the promo code ‘Gooner’ to get 10% off the publisher’s price of £8.99.
