Andrei the Giant

By: Martin | April 22nd, 2009

Well, that was exciting. I think Travis hit it on the head–a draw at Anfield isn’t a bad result, but blowing a lead in the 92nd minute is terrible. It’s the third time this year we’ve given up a goal in injury time to turn a win into a draw (the first one was against Spurs, the second against Villa)–if we had just held on in those games, we’d be sitting on 68 points instead of 62. So that’s crushing. On the other hand, we were clearly outplayed in the game, and when you get outplayed away from home you’re generally very fortunate to be taking any points at all from the game. In a way, it reminded me of the 2-2 draw with Aston Villa–there, if you recall, we got outplayed for the entire first half, but miraculously found ourselves up 2-0, only to give up a bad penalty and an extra-time equalizer to Zat Knight for the draw. Should I have been happy that we got a point when we got outplayed, or upset that we gave up a soft goal in injury time that cost us 2 points? Well, I’m on record as being a glass half-empty guy, so you can probably guess where I stand.

I don’t know that I buy into it, but there’s an argument to be made that yesterday’s result was the worst thing that could have happened for us. If we had won, we’d have only been 3 points behind Chelsea, but picking up a single point doesn’t help us that much. If Liverpool had won, we’d still have been far clear of Villa for 4th, but Liverpool’s 3 points would have applied the pressure on United, forcing them to balance between league games and the Champions League. As it is, Liverpool’s 2 dropped points basically means that United wins its third consecutive title, and now can focus on the Champions League semifinal matches. Again, I’d still rather have drawn than lost, but it’s something to think about. Anyway, on to the good and the bad from last night:

The Good:
1. Well, it was a tough debate as to who should win our man of the match, but after much thinking, I think it’s got to go to Andrei Arshavin. The little Russian single-handedly snatched a point for us yesterday, and if anyone was questioning whether or not he was a good signing for us, they’re not anymore. He’s so versatile and can do so many different things well (shoot, finish, run, dribble, pass), as well as play in a number of different positions, that he may well be our single most dangerous attacking threat. Which given the talent and skill in the club is saying something. (Begin bitter sarcasm) It’s just too bad he was unavailable for the FA Cup match, because if he had been he surely would have played and probably would have made the difference. (End bitter sarcasm) In all seriousness, he has definitely established himself as a player who should always be starting in every big match. The cruel irony, of course, is that he established this fact three days after being left on the bench in what was likely the last big match he would be eligible to play in this year.

2. Kieran Gibbs. Was it really only a week and a half ago that the young left-back looked overwhelmed and out of his element against Wigan? Since then it seems like he’s grown up before our eyes. He’s athletic and technical, with a lot of pace and skill. He may very well be Cashley’s heir apparent as England’s left-back. If he keeps it up, he’ll also give Wenger a lineup dilemma next season, with 3 very good full-backs for 2 positions. But if this season has taught us anything, it’s that it’s much better to have too many decent defenders than too few.

3. Fabianski in the first half–as I said, we got outplayed badly in the first half, and it really was miraculous that we hadn’t conceded several goals by that point. That was largely due to Fabianski, who really showed his worth by making a number of good saves that kept us in the game. He’s got his faults, but mercy, he’s a good shot-stopper. He looked well on his way to reestablishing his confidence and proving why Wenger has so much faith in him. Until…

The Bad:

1. Fabianski in the second half–Look, he was let down by poor defensive play all day, but really could have done better with several of the Liverpool goals. There was nothing he could do on the first or fourth goals. But on the second, he inexplicably lost awareness of where he was on the field and ran into the goal–by the time he realized where he was and tried to jump forward to knock the ball away, it had already drifted across the line–if he had stopped running when he got back to his line, I think it would have been a fairly easy save. A keeper has to know where he is in relation to the goal at all times, and he lost track of it in a key moment. And the third was more difficult–football’s a game of inches, and if Fabianski had gotten another fraction of an inch of his hand on the shot, he would have turned it around the post–as it was, he only turned it into the side netting. This can’t have been the best thing for the young man’s confidence, so here’s hoping for a good game against Middlesbrough to get his head straight. Because if Almunia’s not healthy by next week, Fabianski is going to be tested by United and we need two good games out of him.

2. Bacary Sagna–I like Sagna a lot, but he was putrid all game. The “clearance” that led to the first goal is as bad a play as you’ll ever see on a football field. If somebody did that in a 7-year old girls’ rec-league game, they’d get yelled at by their coach. And all game he was defending poorly, giving the ball away badly, etc. I kept hoping Wenger would bring Eboue on for him. Sagna’s normally solid and reliable, so hopefully it was just that he’s not fully recovered from the nasty virus which sidelined him the last couple of games. I have every faith he’ll bounce back.

3. Mikael Silvestre–indescribably bad. A Senderos, a Senderos–my kingdom for a Senderos!

4. Denilson–I’ve defended the young Brazilian all year, but he’s making it harder and harder. In contrast to Gibbs, Song, and Arshavin, he seems to be getting worse and worse every time he plays. He’s played a lot of minutes for us this year, maybe he’s just fatigued. Or maybe the purchase of Arshavin, the return of Cesc, and the rise of Song have left him unsure of what his role is. Whatever the reason, he’s hurting us every time he plays at the moment. Wenger either needs to give him some time off or relegate him to bench status for the rest of the year. If Walcott or Eboue had started on the right yesterday, we definitely would have played better, and may very well be talking about a win instead of a draw.

5. Samir Nasri–really looks like a different player at the moment than the sparkplug who was so confident and crafty on the ball at the beginning of the year. Maybe I’m forgetting something, but it seems like ages since he’s done much anything of consequence for us. It’s not that he’s making mistakes that stick out, he’s just completely anonymous. He’s still just 21, and I think he’ll be a very good player for Arsenal for many years, but he’s not doing us any favors at the moment.

Maybe the best news is that we’ve actually got some time off before the next game. There’s four days off before we play Boro on Sunday–hopefully the players can just get some time off to rest and get geared up for the run-in and the semifinal with United. It’s going to be a hell of a month, with 3 games against the reigning European and English champions, plus a match against Chelsea, in the span of 3 weeks. But we do need to be careful about overlooking Boro–they’re fighting for their premier league lives, and they’ve shown they can trip up a big team that’s not completely focused on them. They put a nail in Liverpool’s coffin by beating them 2-0 a month ago, and beat Aston Villa at Villa Park. And they handed us our first defeat last season, 3 points dropped that proved very costly indeed in the final calculation. So while the Champions League semifinal against United is obviously huge, we’ve got to take care of business on Sunday, b/c if we don’t we’ll have a battle on our hands the rest of the season just to stay in fourth place.

There’s a bunch of injury stuff floating around, but I’ll wait until something concrete is issued by the club and post something within the next few days. The short version is that Almunia says he’s coming back very soon, Wenger says he’s not, and there’s a chance Djourou could be back soon. Djourou’s no world-beater, but he’s Cannavaro in his prime compared to Silvestre at the moment, so if he could be back by Wednesday it would be a huge boost for the squad. Rosicky and Gallas are both done for the season, I think Clichy may very well be done, but Adebayor and van Persie should both be back soon, if not by Sunday than almost certainly by Wednesday.

Until then.