Kevin Whitcher
Ed’s Note. I was unable to catch the game against Manchester United yesterday, so my thanks to Gooner contributor and podcast regular David Oudôt for stepping into the breach with the following report. Normal service will be resumed for the remaining matches this season.
The immediate reaction to the lacklustre and underwhelming performance on Monday at home to Swansea was treated by everyone as just “one of those days” and with the team having been so brilliant for the preceding 10 weeks we were justified in expecting normal service to be resumed at Old Trafford. For Wenger's team to then do a Groundhog Day effort and produce exactly the same performance at Old Trafford was very worrying, and if it weren't for the deflected own goal to give them a completely underserved 1-1 draw against a very weak and penetrable ManYoo side, the last two games would be trickier to say the least.
The game kicked off with Arsenal travelling at a snail's pace and was sadly reminiscent of their games against United, Chelsea, and Citeh prior to the Etihad Stadium visit earlier this year as the Gunners had a “right, just don't f*** it up” sense of nervousness and simply didn't get going. Passes going astray, no movement off the ball by the other players, and this served only to encourage a United side who are weak and there for the taking without Rooney. After being so good since the turn of the year, Cazorla and Coquelin in particular were poor yesterday, failing to get the ball to any of the four attacking players and giving possession away in their own half.
However, with Arsenal being so poor, the home side stepped up and looked to get the first goal which didn't seem a surprise when it went in. The goal was similar to that conceded against Swansea as what is becoming clear is that if you stick a cross over in the air it will scare the defensive unit as a whole, and will leave a player open, who then has a simple chance. Herrera finished well, but questions must be raised as to how and why he was left in so much space as United's only form of attack from kick off was to send crosses into the far post in and around Fellaini.
After that very little happened for the remainder of the first half and as with the Swansea encounter Arsenal failed to register a shot on target until after the interval, when Giroud was thwarted by having to use his right foot and De Gea further proved that he is the best goalkeeper in the League. Whilst Wenger’s side obviously have room for improvement in the squad even though they have had a slight improvement on last season, van Gaal will have to rebuild his entire squad for the second summer in a row and replacing his goalkeeper with one of a similar quality will be impossible.
Arsenal did not change until substitutions were made which brought the best out of the side. In his worst game of the season so far, Cazorla was rightly replaced by Wilshere with Bellerin going off for Walcott. This saw Ramsey being moved from the right hand side into the middle and to give him credit it helped prove the point he wanted to make to Wenger, in that he is a far better player in the middle of the park. For the first hour he, like Ozil, was completely redundant as his team could not get the ball out of their own half towards him, but by putting the Welshman in there to do it himself, he showed what an engine and all-round, Gerrard-esque game he has. He went to seize the ball himself and look to move forward at pace and create a chance for the attackers, and his perfect 40 yard cross-field ball to Walcott led to the equaliser. After that both teams had gentle prods at each other but as per a lot of cricket Test Matches in the final session on the fifth day, if one captain offered the other a draw they would have taken it.
Despite it being a point the visitors didn't necessarily deserve after their woeful opening 60 minutes, the fact is that they got the point needed, and if Arsenal are to get one win from either of the Sunderland or WBA games then the job is done and they will have qualified for the Champions League without having to negotiate an August qualifier. It's still a massive shame that by dropping three points at home on Monday the Gunners will almost certainly have to settle for third place rather than second, although it's probably more appropriate for them to finish there as that is what they are at most. The third best team in the country. And hopefully that will make Wenger and the Board realise there is still a lot for them to do this summer and look to improve in every area that the side need to.
Twitter@DavidOudot.
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