AZ Alkmaar 1-Arsenal 1

By: Martin | October 21st, 2009

AZ v Arsenal
by acidsaid10

Well, as Peevish said in the comments, that wasn’t much fun.

To start with, though, let me just say that this is not a bad result for Arsenal. Yes, we’re a much better club, but AZ are the defending Eredivisie champions, and has now played 35 home matches in European competition, and has lost just once. And Arsenal are still very much in control of the group. As for how we ended up with this result, however–well, I think that is something we should be upset about.

I didn’t think we played well at all. We just looked sluggish to me the entire match, and there didn’t seem to be a lot of passion or urgency out there. For the most part, the team seemed too content to keep possession with safe passes without making any real attempt to attack or score, which reminded me too much of how the squad played during the first half of last season. I think it was pretty clear how much we missed Eduardo’s touch, Rosicky’s imagination, Walcott’s pace, and Bendtner’s work rate, any of which I think would have helped open up AZ’s defense a bit more.

We had a couple of good chances early, one in particular where van Persie probably should have scored but shot directly at the keeper. Then, in the 36th minute, we scored on a brilliant move. Arshavin got the ball in space, drew the defenders to him, passed the ball off to van Persie on the left, and RvP, who had a decent scoring chance himself, instead opted to send a perfect pass back through the middle to Cesc, the Rudder of Arsenal, who was running towards the far post and buried the goal into a wide open net. We often talk about how strikers need to be selfish to a certain degree, and that’s true, but as Robbie showed, being unselfish has its virtues as well. It was the kind of beautiful goal that reminds us all why we love watching Arsenal, and it was a nice touch that after scoring Cesc, instead of wheeling away to celebrate, immediately acknowledged van Persie, who really did create the goal.

After that, we created a couple more chances but could finish none of them, and even though we seemed in control of the match, you just got the sense the players felt a little too comfortable with a 1-0 lead. Late in the game, we just started to look a little soft and undisciplined as AZ threw everything they had forward. We had a penalty shout turned down with substitute Vela was brought down in the box. I’ve read reaction on some of the blogs this morning that said it was a bad call, but for me, Vela didn’t actually have the ball and the AZ player did look like he was attempting to play the ball, so I think the no call was correct.

After missing a very good chance off a set piece late in the game, AZ was to equalize in the 92nd minute. Arshavin committed a mental mistake by getting an offside call right around midfield–in that situation, that is one thing you absolutely cannot do, because it gives them a chance to put ten men in the box and have the goalie take the free kick and put a long ball into the crowd. That’s exactly what they did, and Diaby failed to mark his man, who got up and headed the ball down to his man, whom Song had given way too much space, and he volleyed the ball well from point blank range.

It’s just worrying, because I think it showed a lot of the club’s weaknesses: the inability to kill off a game, poor defending of set pieces, and mental lapses in important moments. Aside from Diaby’s header own-goal against United, we had generally been much better about these things so far this season, but these were the issues we struggled with last season, and it came back to bite us yesterday.

At any rate, that’s behind us, and we’re still top of the group, with 7 points from 3 matches. Olympiakos is 2nd with 6 points, AZ has 2, and Standard just 1. If we beat AZ at home in 2 weeks, that esentially guarantees us a place in the group stages. This was likely just a speed bump, and will hopefully be a learning experience for the team–maybe this will be a wake up call for the players about what happens when you get too complacent and don’t finish games off. If it was going to happen, I would rather it happen now in the group stages, where we can recover, than in the league, where it would be 2 dropped points that we couldn’t get back.

Anyway, on to the ratings:

Mannone 6.5 Just didn’t have that much to do, really. Dealt well with a few balls into the box and his positioning was generally pretty good. Can’t be blamed for the goal–it was a hard shot at virtually point blank range.

Sagna 6.5. Solid, if unspectacular, performance.

Clichy 6.5.Didn’t really contribute much to the attack, but used his pace and made solid decisions. Showed no ill effects that I could see from the ankle injury.

Vermaelen 7.5. He didn’t score, but put in a strong performance. Shut down El Hamdaoui all night, and was one of the few Gunners who seemed to have a lot of energy and showed a real desire to win. Might have been motivated by a chance to beat his old rivals, since he’s played in the Eredivisie for the past few season.

Gallas 6.5. Not great, not bad. Meh. I know what you’re saying–”Martin, you’re just using what you’ve written about him the past two games again.” Not true. You see, last time, I write “not bad, not great.” Totally different, see?

Song 7.5. Worked hard, bossed the midfield, shielded the back four–in short, did everything he should have done.

Diaby 6. I was at the bar on Saturday watching the Birmingham game, talking to a fellow Gunner about Diaby, and this fellow fan yelled at the screen when Diaby made a mistake–”Use yo’ fuckin’ head, boy!” That sort of sums up Diaby perfectly, doesn’t it? The only thing is, it should be taken figuratively, not literally, because when he does actually use his head to play the ball, he seems confused about which goal he is defending and which goal he is attacking. An otherwise solid performance was marred for me by two plays: (1) he very nearly scored another own goal off a defensive header; and (2) as much as anyone, he was at fault for the goal, because he allowed his man to get an untroubled header on the free kick, putting it in perfect position for the volleyed goal. He has got to stop making so many stupid mistakes–use yo’ fuckin’ head, boy…

Cesc 7. Pretty quiet game for the rudder, notwithstanding the goal, and even there he created a golden chance that others created.

Eboue 6.5. Certainly not a bad performance, but pretty anonymous for most of the match.

Arshavin 8. Man of the Match. It was his instinct that started the first goal–watch it again. His presence caused the defender’s sloppy first touch, he took the ball away, kept it, and drew the defenders to him before playing it off to RvP. Was really the one guy who was consistently running around trying to trouble AZ’s backline all game.

van Persie 7.5. Inch perfect pass to Fabregas for the goal, and nearly scored off a free kick early in the second half. Could have done better with a great chance early in the game, though.

Vela 6.5. Picked up a yellow card after about a minute on the pitch. I’m not sure for what, it seemed to be for talking trash to the other side. But he generally looked up for it, and seemed to have a smile on his face the whole time he was on, which is refreshing. I kind of love this guy, and hope he continues to develop and plays for Arsenal for years to come. Very easily could have had a penalty in the 84th minute.

Ramsey 6. Decent cameo, but didn’t really have time to make an impact on the game.

Wenger’s Tie 6.5 Solid.

In other news, Fabianski and Nasri both played in the reserves match against Wolves yesterday, which means one or both of them will be back in action soon. Saturday might be a bit soon, but don’t be surprised if you see them get some action in the Carling Cup match against Liverpool next week, and then return to the first-team against Spurs the following weekend.

Have good weeks.