Abject Gunners lose again

Arsenal 0-2 Schalke

Arsenal followed their abysmal performance against Norwich with an equally inept display in the Champions League against Schalke. The Gunners once again struggled to create chances with defensive errors gifting the visitors two goals to win the game and strange decisions from the dugout providing the Arsenal faithful with plenty to worry about.

 

With pacey wide men, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain side-lined through injury, it was a surprise to see Gervinho starting the game in the lone striker role. In Arsene Wenger’s preferred 4-3-3 formation, the Ivorian simply does not have the physical attributes to fulfil this role against top sides. The lone striker needs to have the ability to hold the ball up and lay it off to his teammates, providing the midfield an opportunity to join in the attack and thus allowing the team to gain a foothold in the final third. Unfortunately, although Gervinho does have the ability to get in behind the opposition’s last line of defence with his searing pace, he is not strong enough to be the fulcrum of Arsenal’s attacks. Olivier Giroud should have started in this role with Gervinho out wide to make Schalke’s wide men think twice about surging forward and leaving space in behind. Yet in another strange decision, Aaron Ramsey was employed on the right wing instead.

The Welshman does not possess the pace or the skill needed to worry the opposition’s full backs and consequently, naturally kept on cutting inside. With Lukas Podolski on the opposite wing, Arsenal’s attacks were invariably very narrow, lacking in imagination and very easy to defend against. As a result, the Gunners could not create enough space for their attacking talisman, Santi Cazorla, to influence the game and therefore it was no real surprise to see the home side fail to create any clear cut opportunities and have only one shot on target, in injury time.

Not only was Arsenal’s attacking play extremely disappointing however, the Gunners’ defending also left much to be desired.  While Per Mertesacker made several notable blocks to deny Schalke from taking the lead sooner than they did, Thomas Vermaelen continued his recent poor form with another display far below that which is expected from the Arsenal captain. Vermaelen seems to have lost his composure and when faced with a one on one situation, the Belgian international now appears to panic and lunges into rash, reckless and needless tackles, rather than staying on his feet. One such incident last night, in fact, led to him receiving a yellow card.

However the main problem for the defence, once again, was the absence of Kieran Gibbs at left back. As at Norwich, Andre Santos filled in for the young Englishman and had another game to forget. Schalke seemed to realise almost immediately that the Brazilian was the weak link in the Gunners defence and almost continually launched attacks down the Arsenal left. At times, up to three Schalke players attacked Santos at the same time, as the home crowd looked on in sheer horror with Santos appearing to be totally at sea. Yet although it was clearly obvious to any observer, that Arsenal needed to address this issue and stifle the Schalke attack, there was no such change forthcoming and inevitably the visitors took the lead in the 76^th minute through Klaas Huntelaar.

The Gunners failed to clear their lines and Afellay’s header fell to Huntelaar in acres of space, in front of goal, for the Dutchman to fire past Mannone. In a mirror image of the goal conceded against Norwich on Saturday, the Arsenal defence had pushed forward in an attempt to catch the striker off side, but that man Andre Santos hadn’t followed suit and consequently played Huntelaar on side. In truth, the goal had been a long time coming, with the visitor’s looking far more dangerous on the attack and having been extremely unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty in the first half after Mannone had felled Afellay in the box.

 Having already, inexplicably introduced Giroud in place of Gervinho and thus not addressing the clear lack of width in the side, the Arsenal bench then decided to bring on Gnabry and Arshavin in place of Podolski and Jenkinson, for the final eight minutes. Although Gnabry did provide moments of excitement as he managed to showcase some of his skill and had Arsenal’s only shot on target, Arshavin did what Arshavin does best; absolutely nothing.

The home side didn’t appear capable of snatching an undeserved point and Afellay made sure the three points were heading to Germany with a simple finish, after Farfan was afforded far too much space down the Arsenal left hand side (surprise, surprise) and picked the Dutchman out with a low cross.

Once again the Gunners produced a shambolic performance. The most worrying trait being their inability to create chances. When was the last time Arsenal only had one shot on goal in two games? That statistic alone is absolutely disgraceful and everyone associated with the club should be ashamed of themselves. The decisions being made by the coaching staff of late simply do not make any sense and the players seem to have lost their confidence, becoming extremely tentative and timid in possession.  Something needs to be done and quickly.