Kevin Whitcher
Two years ago, in the 4th Round of the FA Cup, Brighton 2 Arsenal 3. And so it was yesterday, although on this occasion, the visitors were ahead for all but the opening couple of minutes of the tie.
It was a very changed Arsenal side from that which had triumphed at the Etihad the previous weekend. This observer was interested to see if the mindset in Manchester was continued, in terms of the team’s focus, and certainly for the first half hour, this looked to be the case. Brighton were nullified completely as quality build-up play and finishing led to a 2-0 comfort zone.
The team seemed to relax a little at that stage, and Brighton had a couple of half decent opportunities before the interval. This momentum continued after the interval and some pretty poor defensive work, especially from Flamini, gave them a sniff of hope.
Arsenal woke up and re-established the two goal cushion, before letting Chris Hughton’s team back into the game with another questionable bit of defending, failing to get tight to their opponents, allowing them the time and space to score a goal similar to Arsenal’s second by Ozil.
The conclusion would be that a midfield of Flamini, Ramsey and Rosicky would not have achieved the same result as last Sunday’s triangle of Coquelin, Cazorla and Ramsey against Manchester City. Mentally, they either switched off at the key times or simply weren’t good enough in certain situations as a unit. That last weekend’s midfield were assisted by Alexis and Oxlade-Chamberlain rather than Ozil and Walcott is almost certainly another factor in keeping this match alive until the final whistle when it should have been done and dusted long before.
Still, it’s horses for courses. The players given game time yesterday were in need of a run out, and were good enough to get the club into the fifth round draw, so on that level objective achieved. It’s certainly one that the weakened teams of the top two in the Premier League could not manage, in spite of being at home. However, there is a feeling, comparing the last two performances, that in the top games, Arsenal cannot afford passengers. And sad to say, in terms of being switched on and disciplined, playing both Ozil and Walcott is probably one unfocussed player too many, whilst Flamini patently isn’t up to the job any more. The same surely applies to Arteta, who does not seem to have the necessary anticipation to cut out danger. The run of matches to come will hopefully see Coquelin restored to the starting line-up, with the visit to Tottenham telling us whether Arsene Wenger has seen the light and is prepared to sacrifice the beautiful game for a winning one by selecting the same eleven that started at the Etihad, assuming Oxlade-Chamberlain is fit again by then.
There were some bright spots yesterday. The three goals were all well-fashioned and delightfully finished. Tomas Rosicky put in a real captain’s performance and was key in a lot of the good things the team did. He performed in the fashion of Santi Cazorla last week. Calum Chambers had a better game at right back than a few of his shaky outings of late.
So a mixed performance, although changing the side to the extent the manager did, this was always likely to be the case. Wojciech Szczesny would now seem to be the domestic cup keeper, and the defence did not look quite as assured in the air yesterday as they did at Manchester City when high balls came flying into the box. Ospina will presumably be given the chance to fail rather than Szczesny returning to first team favour so soon.
So Arsenal continue to progress on three fronts, and the results on Saturday will certainly have given the club plenty of encouragement that retaining the FA Cup might be a less demanding task than it might have been. And what’s this? Almost a full week before the close of the transfer window, a defender has been signed? Who is fit to play immediately? Who’d have thought it? Perhaps there is some hope after all. Although then again, there is always that pesky little matter of a work permit…
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.
