We want our Arsenal back!

Manchester United 2-1 Arsenal

Another game, another dire performance in which Arsenal failed to create significant chances thanks to Wenger’s frustrating stubbornness. Yet again the manager’s decision to stick with Andre Santos at left back, back fired spectacularly, as did his insistence on playing Aaron Ramsey on the right wing. In each of the last three league games, Wenger has decided to start the match with the very same tactics and each and every time Arsenal have looked lethargic, sloppy and desperately short of options and ideas in the final third.

 

With Ramsey and Podolski supporting Giroud up front, the Gunners did not possess any pace to frighten Man United with the prospect of getting in behind their defence. Had Theo Walcott started the game, United would have automatically been forced to sit deeper allowing more space in the midfield for Arsenal to play their neat intricate passing. However, as a result of Walcott occupying a seat on the bench, the home side were able to step up and apply pressure on the ball high up the pitch and congest the midfield. Consequently, although Arsenal enjoyed plenty of possession, they did absolutely nothing with it. With no out and out wide men, the Gunners were extremely narrow and every time the ball was played to an Arsenal midfielder, the opposition would simply swamp him and either win possession or see the ball passed back to the defence: a defence which did not contain the ability to pass the ball out from the back. Per Mertesacker simply does not possess the skill or composure to fulfil this highly important requirement of a modern central defender and Thomas Vermaelen is seriously lacking in confidence and form. Arsenal were therefore reduced to passing the ball along their back line, from one defender to another, not making any progress whatsoever.

Neither full back went forward with any conviction either, as both Santos and Sagna seemed to be more concerned with United’s pace on the flanks in the form of Valencia and Young. However the full backs’ lack of forward runs could also be explained through the fact that Podolski and Ramsey offered absolutely nothing in attack and Arsenal were unable to hold onto the ball higher up the field, far too often misplacing their passes. As a result, the full backs were hesitant in making a forward run and then being caught out of position once the Gunners had lost possession.

Of the three central midfielders, Jack Wilshere was the only one who tried to put himself about, making several tackles, which ultimately saw him receive a red card from the card happy Mike Dean. Mikel Arteta, who Wenger has asked to sit deeper than his midfield colleagues, is unfortunately not equipped to fulfil such a role against a top quality side. The Spaniard is not a defensive midfielder and so does not possess the qualities required to screen the back four. Alex Song was supposedly sold due to his tendency to surge forward and not sit back and protect the defence, yet Wenger decided against purchasing an out and out defensive midfielder and as a result there is no destructive force in the middle of the park and his side appears extremely fragile when faced with a superior attacking unit.

Santi Cazorla, who was meant to be playing just behind Giroud, ended up dropping deeper and deeper to receive the ball, which led to the French striker becoming isolated upfront. Having performed very well against Reading, Giroud’s first touch completely deserted him at Old Trafford and he was unable to hold onto the ball on the few occasions Arsenal were able to play it up to him. All in all, the Gunners were woeful on Saturday.

Unsurprisingly United’s first goal of the game, originated from the Arsenal left hand side. A clipped ball forward from Ferdinand, was cleverly flicked on by Valencia into the path of Rafael Da Silva, taking Santos completely out of the game as the Arsenal left back had gone too tight to Valencia and was never going to recover. With Podolski and Arteta failing to track his run, Da Silva surged forward but his cross into the box was poor, falling straight to Vermaelen for a simple clearance. However, the Belgian has endured a horrid time of late and his poor form continued on Saturday. His atrocious attempt to clear the ball fell straight to Robin Van Persie, for the Dutchman to clinically punish his former side.

From that moment on, the match was effectively over as United completely controlled the game. Both Rooney and Van Persie were presented with good opportunities to increase United’s lead, but were thwarted on both occasions by Mannone. Just before halftime, Cazorla was harshly punished for a handball in the area but Rooney missed the target from the resulting penalty and Arsenal fortunately went in at break only one goal behind.

Having conceded in only the third minute of the first half, Arsenal almost repeated the trick with the second half only a few minutes old. Vermaelen was at fault again as he slipped and presented the ball to Van Persie, whose low cross into the box should have been turned in by Valencia, but somehow the Ecuadorian miscued his effort. In the 66^th minute Van Persie was again at the centre of the action, when played in by Young’s chipped forward ball, only to be denied by another excellent save by Mannone. However, the reprieve was short lived as United took the resulting corner short and Rooney’s cross into box was met by one of the shortest players on the pitch, Patrice Evra, to head the ball into the bottom corner. Only four minutes later and Arsenal were reduced to ten men as Jack Wilshere was given his marching orders for a second bookable offence. The Gunners were able to see out the last 20 minutes of the game without conceding again but Santi Cazorla’s sumptuous curling effort to reduce the arrears with the last kick of the game was simply a case of too little too late.

In truth, the 2-1 result does not do justice to the complete control that United had over this game. Wenger’s tactics simply played into their hands and Arsenal could not get themselves into the match at all. The fact both Alex Ferguson and Rio Ferdinand were so disappointed in the post-match interviews at not converting their domination into more goals tells its own story. The sheer gulf in class between the two sides was epitomised perfectly when Santos was caught by the television cameras asking Van Persie for his shirt at half time.

There seems to be a desperate malaise around the club at the moment. Wenger has seen his tactics fail to deliver on three occasions in a row and still refuses to do anything about it. The Frenchman seems to be playing Ramsey on the right flank instead of Walcott as an act of punishment following the Englishman’s refusal to sign a new contract. However with this stubbornness, Wenger is simply cutting his nose to spite his face, as Arsenal look toothless upfront each and every time this tactic is employed. In the loss away to Norwich, the Gunners failed to have a single shot on target, while at home to QPR, Arsenal only began to create chances once the visitors had been reduced to 10 men. At Old Trafford on Saturday, Giroud had Arsenal’s first shot on target in the 91^st minute! It is difficult to understand how a man who has always taken great pleasure in watching his team create numerous goal scoring opportunities can now continue to sit back and send out a side which is not adequately set up to create chances and win the game. As Arsenal fans have recently been heard chanting; “We want our Arsenal back!!!”