Sunday, February 7, 2010
Chelsea 2 - 0 Arsenal: Arsenal, Defined
Chelsea 2: Drogba 8, 23
Arsenal 0
ar-se-nal (AHR-suh-nl or AHRS-nuhl)
-verb
To set-up a situation with a flashy combination of panache, skill, and accuracy, only to have said situation fall through in the end.
Ex:
Guy 1: I totally Arsenalled this girl last night. Met her at the bar then sweet talked her back to my place.
Guy 2: And?
Guy 1: Well, then I couldn't get her bra off and nothing happened.
Doesn't it always feel like that, fellow Gooners? For all of the fancy possession Arsenal may keep, there is always something lacking at the finish. Maybe this would all be different if van Persie didn't have his ankle destroyed in a meaningless game in November. Maybe it's time to stop using that as an excuse, now that the transfer window has come and gone.
Let's start with a math problem. 1, 7, 8, 10. Which number is smallest?
These numbers are the height differences, in inches, between Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech and Arsenal's forwards. 7 (Nasri), 8 (Walcott), and 10 (Arshavin) started. 1 (Bendtner) played 25 minutes. There's a problem here. Arsenal won no aerial balls in the box today. Sure, maybe Bendtner isn't 100% fit yet. But his impending fitness was the reason Wenger used to make no personnel moves in January. No, none of this adds up at all.
Remember what I said about the counter-attack last time? If everybody has to keep coming forward to make-up for the height disadvantage, the Gunners will be continuously burned on the counterattack. Chelsea made today's game 2-0 at the tail end of a five minute period where Arsenal held possession over 70% of the time. That's not something a title winning team allows to happen.
Theo Walcott and Manuel Almunia have advanced from the level of frustrating to a level so strong that I don't have a word for it. Walcott did nothing today, except for briefly get hurt when he collided with Alex Song. Almunia got lost on Drogba's first goal, then didn't flinch on his second which passed approximately two inches away from his left hand. Move slightly to the left and get in the way! It's your fucking job!
Fabregas, Arshavin, Song, and a few others just look generally frustrated. They've got pieces to the puzzle but seem to have no idea how they fit together. Or, says Alan Davies, the Bronze Age continues.
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Really well thought out, John. It has gotten to a point of absurdity... it's almost as if Wenger/the team have lost respect for the game and their fans. If I feel like I'm more upset about a loss than our goalkeeper among other players, we have a massive problem that needed to be resolved last month. It doesn't matter how easy the run-in is going to be...at this point, it's inevitably going to be too little, too late.
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