Gunners flop in Zagreb

Dinamo Zagreb 2-1 Arsenal 

Arsenal started off their Champions League campaign in the worst possible fashion in Zagreb on Wednesday night, losing 2-1 and having Olivier Giroud sent off before half time.

This was a terrible performance from the Gunners. Coming off the back of a scintillating home win against Stoke in which they appeared to be getting back to their best with quick incisive passing and movement,

Arsene Wenger elected to make several changes to his starting line-up and was made to pay the price.

In goal, David Ospina replaced Petr Cech and couldn’t really be faulted for the performance or the defeat. The others who came into the starting line-up however, failed to convince the manager that they should remain there. Mathieu Debuchy’s career at Arsenal has been stunted by injuries and he is in a real battle with Hector Bellerin for the right back role, which the Frenchman does not seem destined to win. Although Debuchy did combine well with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain when going forward, defensively the duo were found wanting.

Both were culpable for Dinamo Zagreb’s opening goal. As the home side built up an attack, Debuchy unnecessarily shifted his position and moved towards the middle of the pitch, finding himself far too close to the centre backs. As a result, Debuchy had left a vast chasm of space on the right flank for Pivaric to exploit. Oxlade-Chamberlain, facing his own goal as the attack built up, failed to recognise this in time and attempted to cover for his full back far too late in the move. As a result, the ball was played through and when Ospina saved the initial shot, the ball bounced back off Oxlade-Chamberlain and into the net.

Up front Olivier Giroud compounded his poor form this season with a truly terrible display in which he offered absolutely nothing to his team, As the lone striker, Giroud’s only attribute is his ability to hold up the ball and lay it off to his team mates. In order to perform this role successfully, the lone striker needs to win the physical battle with the opposition defenders, outmuscling them to win and retain possession for his side. In his current run of form, Giroud is pushed off the ball far too easily. For a man of his size, it is absolutely ridiculous that he should fall to the ground almost every time he is touched by a defender. As the Frenchman offers barely any movement, it is therefore far too easy for the opposition to defend against and Arsenal struggled to build any attacks. Their only chance in the entire first half came from fine work by Oxlade-Chamberlain, running in behind the Zagreb back line before crossing into the box. Giroud got his head onto the ball, but his header was misdirected, deflected off a defender and hit the post. The rebound fell perfectly for the Frenchman but he failed to show the awareness to scoop the ball over the goalkeeper and merely shot straight at him.

Giroud compounded his woeful performance by getting himself needlessly sent off for two bookable offenses. First he launched a volley of verbal abuse at the referee following the incorrect award of a foul against Giroud. Then the Frenchman’s poor attempt at a tackle saw him receive his marching orders. It was a very silly foul to commit when already on a yellow card and Wenger should really have words with Giroud. His performances this season have largely been well below the standard required and simply highlights just how ridiculous it was for Wenger to decide against signing a striker in the summer. Ironically, with Giroud sent off and Arsenal down to ten men for the second half, the Gunners actually performed far better. Sanchez moved into the lone striker role and caused numerous problems with his constant movement and pace offering the midfield several options, instead of the static figure they had to aim at during the first period.

Another of Wenger’s changes to the starting line-up also highlighted the lack of squad depth in the defensive midfield role. Francis Coquelin cannot go through the entire season performing this role on his own and therefore Wenger was correct to rest him. Unfortunately as the manager also refused to add another defensive midfielder to his squad, there is no one at the club who can adequately replace Coquelin. Mikel Arteta came into the starting line up to perform this role, but Arsenal simply regressed to their former selves; as Zagreb found it far too easy to sit deep and hit the Gunners on the break, with Arteta failing to cover back and win back possession for his side, in the same vein as Coqulein. This appeared to finally dawn on the manager in the second half and he replaced Arteta with Coquelin. Unfortunately at that stage it was both far too late to dip into the transfer market and too late to save the game.

Although Arsenal had performed better in the second half, Zagreb managed to double their lead thanks to terrible defending from another player who had been given an opportunity to impress, Kieran Gibbs. The Englishman appears to have lost his battle against Monreal for the left back spot and also did very little on Wednesday night to convince the manager to change his view on the position. With Arsenal in the ascendancy it was imperative they didn’t concede a second. However as the Gunners faced a corner, woeful defending from Gibbs put paid to any hopes of salvaging anything from this game. Giroud is usually the player tasked with defending the near post from corners, but with the Frenchman sent off, the task fell to Gibbs. This role requires the player to do everything he can to get something on the corner delivery, to divert the ball away from danger. Unfortunately Gibbs did the exact opposite. His ludicrous attempt at a jump saw him barely clear the ground and then to make matters worse he also ducked his head. As a result, a ball which should have been easily cleared, was allowed to sail into the box for Junior Fernandes to head home.

Arsenal did pull a goal back through an excellent finish from Theo Walcott with 12 minutes left, but couldn’t create another goal scoring opportunity from that point on. Wenger will be extremely disappointed at the performance and the fact that those players who were given a chance to impress, failed to take their opportunity. Ultimately though the manager only has himself to blame. A whole summer transfer window was allowed to go by without him strengthening the squad in key areas and now he has to live with the consequences.