Kevin Whitcher
(Ed’s note – Many thanks to David Oudôt for stepping in and doing the write up on last night’s game, which I was unable to catch)
Whilst Groundhog Day is unarguably one of the greatest comedies ever produced, for our beloved football club to have lived their own version in real life for over a decade is painstaking rather than humorous. In a largely uneventful Wednesday evening game on the south coast against a team that have been on the beach themselves for a few weeks now, a 2-0 win was accomplished and as per every season for over a decade now, a last minute burst down the home straight may see us make the top four and retrieve the Holy Grail of a further £50m+ going towards Kroenke’s global sporting brand’s EBITDA during the course of next season. Job done as far as the majority owner and his lackeys are concerned.
In light of the 2-0 win against Wenger’s nemesis on Sunday, the common sense standard of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” was used, and the only change made to the match day squad saw Koscielny being replaced by Mustafi after picking up what hopefully is a minor injury against ManYoo and he was, essentially, rested. Whilst I’ve never been the biggest fan of LK6 (very much the best of a bad bunch in our Club’s defensive options) it was clear that we missed him in places last night in terms of ability to organise the defence and function as a unit rather than 3-5 individuals. Mustafi gave a good display as a centre back in terms of his performance against Gabbiadini and company man-to-man wise, but by playing as the centre of three defenders, a crucial part of his role is to organise the defence and that was a lot poorer than as we saw on Sunday with questions over positioning at times and Southampton players exploiting the space often left.
True, Koscielny was Captain that day so it can be argued that more is expected of him in that role, but fingers cannot be pointed at the replacement skipper, Cech, as it is impossible for him to organise a side that is generally many yards in front of him on the pitch. Further proof that captaincy at our football club has not meant anything since the days of Fabregas (and briefly Van Persie) when there was a skipper who actually seemed to speak to the other players on the park. Since his departure the club’s official captaincy has, for some mindboggling reason, been given to an injury prone reserve (Vermaelen, Arteta, Mertesacker) whose job at the Club is to have their photograph posted above an article in the home game programmes that has been written by one of Mark Gonnella’s office juniors, whilst the on-pitch armband is tossed to whoever’s nearest. If any of you do actually see BFG anywhere could you please ask him to phone us and let us know he’s safe?
Anyway – back to the game. The opening 20 minutes saw Southampton come out fighting with several shots at goal and in return Ramsey placed it just wide. But the most notable incident during the course of the first half was defensive disorganisation and a poorly played offside trap that gave Southampton a good chance which brought a great save out of Cech at his near post, spreading his body to deny Gabbiadini. Although there was some minor panic 20 minutes later when the Ox limped off with a hamstring pull, to have Barcelona’s next £35m signing from Arsenal on the bench in Bellerin we were more than covered and as a pacey right-back he fits into the 3-4-2-1 formation as well as AOC15 has.
In terms of the second half, the game was killed off with the beautiful opener from Sanchez. His dance through the defence, feigned shot to dupe the defenders, and clinical finish past Forster, showed that he is worth the £55m Citeh/Bayern/China will pay for him in the summer (despite his perfectly deployed tap of the heart/badge his agent instructed him to do I think it safe to say his time at the Club is ending. Enjoy him while you can, folks). Thereafter Saints offered nothing and applied suntan lotion, and a Wengerball perfect second goal drew a line under it all – great layback from Ozil, inch perfect chip over from Alexis, instant return header across the goal mouth from Ramsey, and a bullet Giroud down header. Bish bash bosh.
As a whole it was a solid, efficient, and decent team performance to get the needed result, but there were certain performances to point out in terms of looking forward to next season. The lesson the whole squad got at WHL has taught each of the players a few things, but Ramsey and Xhaka have been equally good in the last two games. Fans could spend decades wondering why an England midfield of Lampard and Gerrard never worked (spoiler alert – pretentious w***ers’ egos) but our two central midfielders share similar skills to that duo and hopefully more can be made out of them. Ramsey’s box-to-box engine and appearing in the right place at the right time for the killer assist paired with Xhaka’s Quarterback-esque passing (and vastly improved tackling) promises something. Also, Giroud’s new role as target supersub, the 21st century David Fairclough, acting as a relief to Welbeck for the last 15 minutes after a lot of Thierry Henry style tracking back to get more involved with the team and starting the build-up deeper quicker may also be a beneficial tool/duo. But if next season’s First Team Head Coach (whoever that may be…) plays us in a different way then maybe the whole thing is moot problem and/or a solution that was found six months too late.
Ahead of Saturday’s trip to everyone’s favourite stadium against another team with nothing to play for, if we look to get the first goal and tie the game up early then our last minute sneak into the 4th place may well be on as long as one of two teams drops points. And if that is somehow coupled with an FA Cup victory against the country’s best team by a mile the Board will only see it as a successful season. And there will be another Groundhog Day as Wenger re-signs, comments about Great Spirit and quality ensue, and we all begrudgingly renew our season tickets for another season of 4th place finish after a good Cup run, and being humiliated in the first knock-out round in the Champions League.
One point to note is that whilst a Champions League qualification may be worth more than anything to Clubs’ owners, the exposure last night’s game with Southampton got worldwide suggests a lot. The fact that an ever-reliable pub in Finsbury Park that shows every single Arsenal game via whatever broadcaster anywhere in the world is showing it couldn’t find a channel showing it until the 35th minute (many thanks to Canal+ 2 in France) says a lot. Every other broadcaster was showing the Madrid derby in the Champions League semi-final. If only that could be us one day…
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