First and foremost, i would like to give my apologies for not writing for a couple of days. I had a hectic weekend which carried on till the Monday. I was at the Man Utd game and found it an interesting game to watch and did not feel Man Utd were that good. Lots of pundits said they could have been 4 or 5 up by half time but i don't really think that was the case. It was not like there were 4 or 5 clear cut opportunities, but they were having a lot of joy attacking our full backs.
I actually found it quick amazing how we would not cover the full backs who were playing out of position. We somehow were not covering the full backs while also not supporting Van Persie. I do not quite know how both of those were not possible, because surely if Walcott and Chamberlain weren't supporting the full backs for defending, they should be up the pitch near Van Persie waiting to break. This lack of doing either meant Man Utd slowly imposed themselves on the game and took over and i said to my friend at about 40 minutes that i would take half time now. So that we could re group and get our tactics straightened up, but as well all know we got to within a minute of that but fell short as once again Djourou didn't attempt to stop the cross. If there is one thing you don't allow Gigg's to do, it is time to cross the ball. He is never going to lose that ability when he has ample time. He however might find it harder to put a pinpoint cross in, if you have forced him to get past you and cross it in while running. Vermaelen also did not cover himself it too much glory at the back post.
Chamberlain was having a solid game and i was very glad the manager picked him to start. He was always willing to take on the full back and as mentioned on MOTD, that changes how Man Utd played to accommodate the threat of the teenager. It sucks more players over in case he is going to get past the full back, thus providing more space for our other players. This is actually what i loved about Hleb, when he was at the club. His amazing close control meant 2 or 3 players would have to come over to tackle him, which would open up the pitch for the likes of Fabregas and co. Sorry i am getting distracted.
I though Yenarris did really well at full back but then he was never going to do worse than Djourou. I know he was playing out of position but the lack of spatial awareness and other simple things such as pushing out of defence after a corner has been taken is what frustrates me most. I was sitting in line with the Arsenal offside trap while pushing out from a corner and everyone was in a neat line apart from Djourou who was ambling 2 yards behind. He should be sprinting to get back in that line, but it more looked like he was thinking about what he was going to have for dinner, while playing 3 Man Utd players onside. Luckily nothing came of it, but it is something that will cost us in future games.
Now onto that substitution. I will happily admit that i was part of the stadium booing the decision. I thought it was an awful decision in so many ways. We had just scored of which Chamberlain has played a crucial part in making, so his confidence would have been running high along with the teams morale. If Wenger really had wanted to make that change then at least leave it another 5 minutes and see if the momentum we had gathered could result in another goal, rather than disrupting the teams balance 2 minutes after scoring. What manager makes a substitution 2 minutes after your team has got back to 1-1. It truly is mind boggling. His reasoning was that Chamberlain had been sick during the week and had a slight calf injury. I do not buy that at all, if he was sick during the week, it certainly was not showing on the pitch as he was our best player without a shadow of a doubt. If he had a slight calf injury, then why didn't he receive any treatment when substituted. Surely an ice pack or something would have been put on it, if there was any sort of injury. What annoys me most about it all, is that it was so predictable, yet so clearly the wrong decision. No matter how well Chamberlain was playing, he was always going to get substituted before Walcott and it was always going to be around 70 minute mark. It is one of the first times that i have really doubted Wenger as a manager.
Once again, not having full backs has cost us points. I do find it amazing that it was obvious that no full backs were going to return in January and yet we have not brought anyone in. We have now dropped 9 points in January. Just getting 5 points which would have been seen as a poor return at the start of the month would have seen us at least equal points with Chelsea. I just find it amazing that Wenger didn't bring in at least one full back on a month loan. The player would never take up a place in the 25 man squad quota because that can chop and change during the January transfer window. So it makes absolutely no sense and it would have provided the perfect stability to the defence before Sanga and Gibbs return in early February. Instead we face Villa on the weekend without full backs again.
Some other points that i wanted to make are that Man Utd is the first time that i have been able to comprehend how slow Mertesacker truly is. He normally would get caught out once in a game for pace but the other times be tactically and positionally adept enough to deal with the situation. On Sunday however, Welbeck had the beating of him, time and time again. There was one point where Welbeck started a good 3 yards behind him and had nearly got a full yard in front of him over the space of 30 yards. Luckily that never actually cost us but i am surprised it didn't.
I think i will leave it at that for now.
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