Kevin Whitcher
I’ll start with an email received from contributor Fozzy at 11.45 last night, which will save me having to haul over the coals of last night’s home defeat too extensively…
The worst first half of football since… er… the Burnley game
I have just walked in through the front door following tonight’s dreadful performance. I am soaking wet and freezing cold, but that’s not going to stop me from putting in writing what I witnessed from half way down Block 5. I have made a point of not looking at my mobile or listening to any reports. I just want this piece to be all mine and not influenced by anybody else.
Yet again, the match started at snail’s pace. Our arrogance was there for all to see. In front of us were a bunch of journeymen and good honest pros so clearly we didn’t need to try very hard. Ramsey was having a field day with his Denilson-esque sideways and backwards passes, and then when we tried to break quickly, he was there again to halt any break by slowing down the move. Still, at least Ramsey was looking for the ball. Unlike Ozil. What is the matter with this man? He was so off the pace and disinterested throughout the whole match, he might just as well gone and sat next to Steve Bould. Here was a good chance for Bould to influence the game, but he sat on his arse throughout the first half.
Unlike Burnley, Watford had a bit of spirit about them and that made the difference. We found ourselves 2-0 down after 15 minutes as we just stood off and let them have it. Ramsey continued to be Aaron Clumsey until going off injured to be replaced by The Ox, who at least had a bit more zip about him.
The service to Giroud was appalling with nothing happening down our right flank. Gabriel had another stinker at right back and I have no idea who should have been helping him out in front. Why was Bellerin not involved?
The sight of Walcott warming up before the halftime whistle sent a shiver down my spine. Surely, Wenger isn’t going to play both of our luxury players (Ozil and Walcott) when we needed to come out of the traps a bit swiftly at the start of the second half.
But he did. To my horror, Walnutt was on for Giroud, our proven goal scorer. Surely we were never going to play as badly as we had done in the first half, so the hope was that there would be a load of balls flying into their penalty box just waiting for Giroud to latch on to. And that’s exactly what happened. The big man had been replaced and chances went a-begging.
Walnutt was the first offender when he had the whole goal to aim at, he dithered and shot tamely at their keeper. Ozil carried on from where he left off in the first half with a complete lack of energy or commitment, putting in what must go down to one of his most abject performances of his career.
Sanchez was doing his best, scurrying around and trying to make things happen. He was so incensed at not being given a penalty for being kicked up in the air in the box, next time he received the ball you could tell something was going to happen. Iwobi, who was doing some good stuff on the left wing, came to meet Sanchez’s cross to reduce the deficit. It then seemed to be a ridiculous decision to bring Perez on for The Coq and dropping Iwobi back into central midfield, where just like Walnutt and Ozil, he completely disappeared. The thing is, at Ashburton Grove on full view, there is no hiding place.
Of course, Watford loved all this, and they were helped by another incompetent display of refereeing, on this occasion it was Andre Marriner. Why is it that refs totally lose the plot when they step out on to the Ashburton Grove pitch? Petty fouls, time wasting at goal kicks and thrown ins, and ages taken with each substitution went unpunished. He never clocked that when the sub’s board went up, the Watford player in question chose to be on the far side of the pitch to allow them to slowly walk off. This behaviour so enraged Sanchez, he ended up being booked for complaining about time wasting. Work that one out.
At least we were granted five minutes to try to pull something out of the fire. Perez smashing one against the crossbar was our best chance. But the night was summed up by Ozil, yet again, with one of the last pieces of action in the match, with the ball at his feet on the edge of their box, chose to stroke an inept pass to nobody rather than just banging one into the mix.
What a shame. We could have gone to Fulham Dog Track on Saturday on a roll. Instead, we were badly let down. At the end, it appeared that the players in question did not seem to care. Which brings me to the whole point of wanting to write this piece. Because I bloody well care.
Ends….
And so to my own thoughts.
Ten changes from the FA Cup display were perhaps no great surprise, but two turned out to be simply wrong. After the Ox’s impressive display, Ramsey returned to central midfield. But far worse, Bellerin was dropped for Gabriel, which, at home to Watford, seemed like a nonsense. Yes, he was injured, but he’s been fit for selection for a while now and got through a full game on Saturday without too many problems.
As it turned out, both Ramsey and Gabriel were heavily involved in Watford’s two goals. The Brazilian conceded the free kick from which Etienne Capoue scored via a deflection off Ramsey. And worse, Gabriel took a lame throw which Ramsey could not control to give possession to the visitors, allowing Capoue to waltz through Arsenal’s backline unchallenged, setting up Troy Deeney to double Watford’s lead.
Arsene Wenger said after the game that “It looked more mentally that we were not ready for the challenges”. So, that brings me to the question as to whose job it is to ensure the players are indeed mentally ready? And more to the point, why do we see this lack of mental preparation for the early stages of Arsenal games on a repeated basis? Wenger added, “We prepared well. We were warned Watford would make it very physical. I have no basic regret in the way we prepared. Did we think subconsciously we could turn up and it would be OK, I don’t know?” I wonder how the work with All Blacks psychologist Ceri Evans is going…
How is it that Antonio Conte needed less than two months of Premier League experience to work out how to convert a team that finished tenth the previous season into probably title winners, and yet Arsene Wenger has spent over 12 years trying to crack this particular nut? It’s because football has moved on and left him behind. He has good enough players to achieve the consistency of a top four finish year after year, but his management skills are no longer good enough to deliver titles, which should certainly have been achieved more than once with some of the teams he has had since the Unbeatables season. But mentally, they have never been up to it, because the manager does not prepare his team properly.
It was turned into a horrible dank pit of an evening about half an hour before kick off and remained that way until long after the supporters had departed the scene of Watford’s unlikely triumph, their first at Arsenal since the early days of George Graham’s era. This, a team that has not been able to win a Premier League game since 10th December, in theory on the edge of freefall. In that time, they have failed to beat the might of Sunderland, Palace and Middlesbrough. And lost 4-1 at home to Spurs.
