Arsenal
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Wenger made two very poor decisions today:
1. Starting Djourou at right back. Yennaris played well once he came on.
2. Subbing Arshavin on for Oxlade-Chamberlain. We lost energy and attacking intent, Arshavin gave the ball away, and was just utterly poor defending the second United goal.
The Homey Train probably has more than a few new passengers after today’s loss.
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Guh. Read Martin’s preview to be cheered up. (He almost completely ignores our big loss. Glosses over, I guess you could say.)
Last season Ramsey scored a late goal to win this for us 1-0. Here’s a picture of that goal for some inspiration:
Could history repeat itself?
Could do.
The game kicks off at 4pm UK time, 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific, 6pm in Istanbul. As usual we’ll be here maybe half an hour before. See you then, for some friendly banter about Diaby and your mom.
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Manchester United
Position 2nd, 15-3-3 (48 points, +32 goal differential)
Away Record: 7-2-1, +13 goal differential
Recent Form: WWLLW
Last Meeting: I don’t think there was a last meeting, was there? I certainly can’t remember one. Yup, no recent past to worry about . . . Move along, nothing to see here.
Back in action tomorrow in as we square off against our old rivals. Read the rest of this entry »
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A bit too melodramatic? No, this is Arsenal!
Can we get back in the game?
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Cause for concern? We got it. Right here in River City. And it’s a much bigger problem than a pool table, I fear. Read the rest of this entry »
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Swansea: 61% possession in the first half.
I almost feel like I should just leave it at that. Not often do we have less of the ball than opposing teams. This is what it felt like:
We got to celebrate early, then not so much after that.
I’m not sure I can recap this game. I’ll try.
We scored very early, then decided that we weren’t really very good and played like it. We were really quite bad.
With just 4 minutes gone Arshavin sent RvP through to the right of goal, and with the angles seemingly covered, he still managed to bang it in near-side past Vorm. Swansea had allowed just 4 goals in 10 games at home, so this felt like a breakthrough. The game was quite open, considering how stingy the Swans’ defence has been so far.
Swansea got one back in the 16th on a dubious penalty call, though I didn’t see it at the time as I was making tea. Nathan Dyer spun in the penalty area and landed on Ramsey’s awkwardly kicked-out leg. The referee was perfectly positioned to see it, and from the tv angle it did look like Ramsey kicked Dyer’s foot out from under him, but it was an unlucky call. Wojo guessed right but didn’t get to it.
It could have been 2-1 on 30 minutes had RvP taken just a tad more time on a nearly identical run, but Vorm stayed big and got a hand to it.
We were pretty crap for most of the half; I can’t even be bothered to go over the rest of it.
We tied it up on a really nice goal from Theo. Djourou sent a beautiful ball through and Theo, in the only good play he made, sent a low, fast, chip over Vorm to tie it up.
However, less than one minute later Swansea were back in front. Substitute (and best passer of the second half) Sigurdsson threaded a lovely ball through to Danny Graham, who made the most of an easy situation to bang one in.
Wojo should have done better, Miquel should have done better, Koscielny should have done better… Ugh.
And that was it for goals. We sent Henry, AOC and Rosicky on, and carved out a couple chances, but never really threatened to win. Swansea passed better, pressed better and played like we wish we could. They deserved to win, and we really didn’t.
We’re now 4 points behind Chelsea, level with Newcastle and one up on Liverpool. Most importantly, we’re 10 points behind Tottenham. Fuck that. The Homey Train will have a few new passengers after this one.
Player ratings
Ramsey was shit, Song was shit, Walcott was shit except for his goal, Arshavin wasn’t great, Mertesacker was poor, and Szczesny wasn’t very good, Djourou is quite clearly not a right back, Miquel looks like he’ll make a strong leader one day but is no natural left back, Benayoun didn’t look like he could cope with his position, van Persie was isolated, Henry hasn’t gelled, Rosicky didn’t change much, and Oxlade-Chamberlain is very young. Koscielny tried.
I’m loathe to give out a Man of the Match award; here’s what Darren had to say:
Just finished watching that crap. Too bad I’m not earlier because I wouldn’t mind writing how bad they all freaking were. Brenton, give Miquel the man of the match please, he at least looked like he cared. Could you imagine having to travel to Wales to watch that lack of effort?
Guh.
Here’s hoping next game is easier…
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It’s true, there are a lot of Brentons in Swansea. Third most dense concentration of Brentons in the UK after southwest England (Plymouth) and Southampton. Fascinating stuff, this.
Read Martin’s preview because you should and because he paints a bleak picture of our backline, a picture we all need to come to terms with.
Then watch this and marvel at this: Wenger beat Swansea 2-1 20 years ago as manager of Monaco on their run to the European Cup Winners Cup Final in 1992. His team included Lilian Thuram, Emmanuel Petit, Youri Djorkeaff and George Weah.
Then look at this:
Will we see these two playing together today?
and dream.
Kick-off is at 4pm UK, 11 Eastern, 8am Pacific, and 9pm in Islamabad. We’ll be here a half-hour early to talk line-up and the value of an accurate census.
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