Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal
That was the worst defeat ever, but surprisingly it doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would. Going into the game, one look at the team sheet and I knew we were going to lose. The question was by how many.
Spare me the WE HAD NINE PLAYERS MISSING excuse. Our squad is not strong enough to compete for the Premier League. Yes, anybody would suffer with nine players out, but we didn't suffer. No. we were made to bend over, lift our collective skirt and open our legs for Manchester United to enter us from behind. That's how it feels. We were raped by United and yet they raped us legally or properly... if there is such a thing.
You know you are in the shits when Alex Ferguson sympathises with Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. But for me, it comes down to Wenger. We are where we are because of the Manager. What is even more frustrating is that the Arsenal Board are nowhere to be seen or heard in all of this. For the past few seasons we have been selling better players than we are buying. Forget the excuses about youth, United had a younger yet better team than ours yesterday. It comes down to quality of players and team organisation. And too often in the Premier League, we are finding that we are not good enough on both.
We started fairly well and after 10 minutes, I thought we were starting to settle down a bit. We started to get a bit more of the ball, but we lacked coherence in our passing, ball possession, off the ball movement and crucially defence.
I said before that Jenkinson is too one-footed and against better offensive players he would suffer. Yesterday, Evra and particularly Ashley Young exposed him by coming infield from the right. Eventually his inexperience let him down and he couldn’t cope and was being exposed too often for my liking. Theo exchanged some expletives with him but that's a good thing I think. I like them both and it’s good to finally have players who have some fire in their belly. We have always bemoaned our lack of leaders and screamers on the pitch. That Walcott can shout at Jenkinson for being out of position is a good sign.
Armand Traore was neither here nor there. Nani was tormenting him down our left flank, even smalling joined in on the fun fest and they ran amok down that wing. He was also slow in coming out for the offside trap. The first goal and Nani’s in particular he was the last man playing United onside. For me he just isn’t good enough for Arsenal.
At 1-0 we got a soft penalty which was, perhaps rightly, missed by Van Persie. I know a lot of Arsenal fans will say had that gone in, the game might have gone differently but for me, that is neither here nor there. We were just not good enough on the day and rightly got punished.
Coquelin made his debut, I thought he did ok overall but he is not ready to play at this level. Our midfield was very poor, we couldn’t keep the ball, our passing was poor and our movement off the ball was even worse. Ramsey isn’t ready to command the midfield yet. Rosicky I fear is past his best, he is a useful squad player but no more. I can’t remember anything of note that he did yesterday.
Van Persie was isolated and hardly saw the ball in the first half. But he has nothing more to prove in Arsenal Colours. He scored. I fear he will be the next high profile departure, like all our previous Captains.
Arshavin for me needs to play in a central role. He has lost that pace required to run on the outside of defenders and deliver crosses. Like Giggs, I think his career can be revived by playing as a number 10. He is tricky with his turning and running and can thread those killer passes. As a winger, a fear he is over the hill.
Djourou and Koscielny should not be a starting partnership at this level.
You have got to feel sorry for Chezny. Every shot on goal was placed in only the places he could not reach. I can’t remember the last time we had such a good deadball specialist in our team as Rooney.
That brings us back to where we started. Where is the Arsenal Board? Where is the investment and strengthening of the team that we were promised during the off season? You know, Nasri may have left for more money, but looking at the two teams, I can understand why he,Clichy and Toure went there. They got frustrated with our methods and decided to move on.
Hate him or not, Cashley Cole has won more trophies at Chelsea than most of this current Arsenal crop ever will unless the Board and Wenger get serious. Fabregas moved for the very same reason. That he was willing to take a pay cut just to join Barcelona was telling. He won’t come out and say, being the gracious person that he is, but he also figured this team isn’t good enough. He has already won 2 trophies since Joining Barcelona 3 weeks ago.
Now we have two days left and any deals done now will be costly because teams know that we are desperate. Why did we go all summer without signing players? And having our best players leaving the club in recent times, is Wenger still able to attract top players as a coach?
From what we saw yesterday, we need a defender, a midfielder, a left back and a striker. But I must also question our backroom staff... I think we need a new defensive coach.
Something has to change at Arsenal and fast. With 3 games played, we are already looking out of contention for the Premiership and that's the most disappointing thing.
