Its happened again but who didn't see that coming? We all saw it coming but at the same time, we had some hope that this would be the season where we managed to not crash out of all competitions in the space of a week. I will admit, i didn't see the drubbing in Milan coming, i thought we would at least score and still be in the tie for the home leg. We are all but out of the Champions League as even if we could manage to score 5 goals, we ain't going to be keeping a clean sheet.
We were always going to be in trouble when after the injuries during the Sunderland game, left us with Squillaci and Djourou in the center of defence. The main issue is that we lack any sort of creativity in the middle of the park, Ramsey is not at the correct level yet and needs to be learning from someone more senior and the inconsistent performances of Walcott, Gervinho and Chamberlain means that we struggle to create clear cut chances. In fairness, we can't be expecting Chamberlain to be the answer each week and it is easy to forget how young Walcott is, while Gervinho is in his first season and come back from an international tournament.
I think Wenger got the tactics wrong against Sunderland, especially in his substitutions even though he was forced to take off the injured players. I would have actually brought Chamakh on instead of Walcott. We were chasing the game and Sunderland were sitting back with a bank of 4 and then a bank of 5 in front of that. There was never going to be space for Walcott to make runs in behind the defence and as he was asked to play upfront, he doesn't have the physical presence to hold up the ball. In my opinion this meant he was fairly anonymous. If Chamakh had gone up front i think we could have at least someone who could be getting on the end of crosses, especially with Chamberlain out wide who has a great cross on him. In fairness though, i don't think any of this would have made a difference, i don't think we would have won the game.
One thing i can never understand is how every other team can hassle and harry Arsenal but we can't do it to other teams. Why can't we push high up the pitch and run after every player the same as Sunderland where doing against us. We have better players than Sunderland and if we had won the ball high up the pitch then we would have been straight on their back 4 and it would have been much easier to break them down. Instead we pass the ball slowly and let them form their bank of 4 and 5 and its impossible to break down without the creativity of a player like Fabregas. Then when we lose the ball, we drop back instead of getting at them and making them nervous. It is one of the main points that bugs me when watching Arsenal. It feels like they don't have the commitment and desire to win the game and that the opposition wants it more than us.
The question i find myself asking this morning is where do we actually go from here? We are in a massive rut and while it is clearly obvious what needs to be done in terms of buying players, i don't think it is obvious as to what can be done to get those players in. I just can't see Wenger spending the money in the summer and i have no idea if that is down to his own stubbornness or whether he doesn't have the money from the board. I find it staggering at how we have ended up in this position, we have so many players who need to be shipped out the club and a whole host of new players who need to come in. It was always said that we were 1 or 2 players away from being a top team and now i would say we are at least 3 if not 4. I would include a tough midfielder, winger and a world class striker and creative midfield player.
The disappointing thing is that we have missed out on top class players who were available during the summer for relatively little, namely Mata who would have thrived in the Ramsey role and provided another dimension to our team. We really miss a leader in the middle of the park who will take the game by the horns and i think that is where Wilshere would come in but the trouble is, we have missed him this season and we don't have a replacement. Arteta is good but he is not of the same quality and while he can do a job for the odd game, i don't think he can do it week in week out against the very top opposition.
We have such a tough run of fixtures coming up against all our rivals for the champions league spots apart from Chelsea, who are in their own free fall right now although with Drogba back they are bound to start picking up form again. I imagine Wenger will not even attempt to win the second leg of the Champions league against Milan and field a weakened team with some strong players on the bench just in case we were to get a couple of early goals. I don't think we can afford to risk players like Van Persie when the race for 4th is so close. Hopefully the injuries from the weekend aren't too bad and we can get a couple of players back in time for the Spurs game as we are woefully short right now.
I think the spurs game is a good game to be coming up next though, there is no way the players will not be up for the fight and we will need nothing less than a win if we are to have any realistic chance of catching spurs up this season. If we win, then the drama of this weeks football will feel more of a distant memory. If we lose then i am sure there will be more than booing ringing out around the Emirates stadium.
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