Woeful Arsenal lose again

Swansea 3-2 Arsenal

Arsenal lost their second Premiership game in a row thanks to another utterly woeful display from the Gunners. When the fulltime whistle sounded, not one of the players in red and white could hold their heads up high as each and every one of them had disgraced themselves and the shirt.

And yet it had all started so well, when with only four minutes on the clock, Arshavin slid Van Persie through for the Dutchman to apply an excellent finish to give the Gunners the lead. Arsenal were actually playing rather well in this early period, pressing the opposition high up the field and restricting Swansea’s passing game. However this would all change with the award of a penalty for a phantom foul by Aaron Ramsey on Nathan Dyer. Up stepped Scott Sinclair to guide the ball past Szczesny and restore parity. From this point on, Swansea never looked back. They simply wrestled control of the game from Arsenal and refused to relinquish it. Having said this, Arsenal still created the best chances of the first half and could even have re-taken the lead immediately from the restart as Ramsey rounded Vorm but saw his shot cleared off the line, bounce off a Swansea defender and straight into the arms of the Swansea goalkeeper. A few minutes later Van Persie was sent through on goal but on this occasion could only direct his shot straight at the goalkeeper.

Wenger sent his players out early for the second half, which is usually an indication of the desire and hunger within the team to take control and win the game. On this occasion however, the Gunners’ second half display was atrocious as Swansea dominated from start to finish. The Arsenal players stood off their opponents allowing them to assert their exquisite passing game and with every attack Swansea looked more and more dangerous. The Gunners on the other hand could not string two passes together as Swansea rushed and harried their opponents into mistakes, easily winning back possession. It was one such example which led to the home side taking the lead for the first time. As Arsenal tried to play the ball out, Arshavin passed to Ramsey who lost possession far too easily. The ball then went forward to Dyer who had acres of space and time to steer the ball past Szczesny.

Yet there was no visible response from the Arsenal players to going a goal down, no urgency in their play, just inauspicious lethargy. The Gunners were shorn of ideas and appeared shocked at their own ineptitude. Not once did I see anyone of them screaming and shouting to the others in an attempt to wake them from their listless state. In the circumstance, it was to great surprise that completely against the run of play Arsenal somehow found themselves back on equal terms as a wonderful through ball from Djourou allowed Walcott to calmly dink the ball over the onrushing Vorm and into the back of the net. But within the space of a few seconds Swansea re-took the lead, as Danny Graham raced clear of Koscielny, Szczesny at first rushed out of goal, hesitated and then back tracked. Graham took advantage of this indecision to fire the ball into the bottom left hand corner and deservedly win the game for Swansea. The Arsenal goalkeeper’s error for the second Premiership game in a row, proving costly. The Gunners passed up several chances to score an equaliser, but in truth they did not deserve anything from this game.

Unfortunately Arsenal have become a mere shadow of the team they once were. Long gone are the days of our wonderfully attractive passing game. When was the last time we played like Swansea did yesterday? Of course the absence of Jack Wilshere has been keenly felt but should a club of our stature really be so reliant on a 20 year old? The defence is also clearly suffering from a lack of stability, with constant changes forced upon the manager through the perpetual injuries to our fullbacks. However it is the attacking side of our game which worries me the most as our attacking players seem to seriously lack ideas when in possession. At times, watching Arsenal this season has simply been painful; fitting then that the next match is against Manchester United!