Norwich v. Arsenal Recap & Player Ratings

Preview and LiveBlog will be up a little later for the UCL game, Perry will be taking charge. I hope to be able to break away from my meetings and utilize my formidable stream to be able to watch the game and liveblog with you guys.
A third win in the group would set us up nicely, allowing us to ease off the rest of the group stage games. A nice option during a hectic schedule. Let's put Norwich behind us (somehow) and get back to winning ways.

After the bad result on Saturday we get the same old comments from
time to time on Untold and you can read them on other social network
sites about Arsenal.

People blame Wenger for losing the game, for not having bought enough, for playing with the handbrake one, for every thing.

Now if we look at buying first. If we look at who was not available
for this game we have Sczesny, Fabianski. Our numer 1 and 2
goalkeepers. We have Sagna our first choice right back for many seasons
now. We had Koscielny out, last season named as our best defender. We
had Gibbs out; one of this seasons revelations for me.

In midfield we didn’t have Diaby and Rosicky. Diaby has shown his
class earlier on in this season and his first injury came when playing
for France. And anyone who doubts Rosicky hasn’t seen football in the
past 10 years. I might remind you that Rosicky got a small injury at the
end of last season and then his national team turned him in to a
complete wreck. You can also count Frimpong in if you want.

And of course Jack Wilshere. But it was clear from the start of the
game that only if we would have a comfortable lead we would use him.

And in attack we didn’t have Walcott who was the victim of yet
another international injury. A bit the Robin Van Persie story one could
say. And according to the stats Walcott is the player with the most
goal/assists for Arsenal this season.

Now if I still can count correct these are 9 players(I
didn’t count Jack in and the link can give you some insight) who were
not available before the start of the game. And apart from Gibbs and
Frimpong all are full internationals for their country.

Ah but Wenger should have foreseen this and should have bought more
players. Okay what kind of players? Because they must be good so they
must be full internationals. If you know any names of full
internationals who want to join Arsenal to come and sit on the bench be
my guest but I don’t think you will find that many.

You cannot have 3 full teams of internationals at your disposal. Have
you heard of the 25 squad rule? So the players who were left had to
play. In fact the inclusion of Jack and Gnabry on the bench should have
made the alarm bells ringing. A player who is not match fit on the bench
is not a good sign. And a 17 year old on the bench who has never played
in the PL is a sign of two things. One: that we are short of players
(just look at the list and you understand). Two: that he must have some
talent and hopefully will be given a chance in the next weeks.

So the players on the field who all had been playing two games for
their country had to deliver the goods. And some looked tired. Is it a
wonder that the two players who looked best were Arteta and Jenkinson?
Both who had been at Arsenal in the past 2 weeks.

Another thing I read is that Wenger is responsible for us playing
with the handbrake on. Is there really anyone out there who thinks that
Wenger starts his game talk with saying: Now look guys today we will
play with the handbrake on. Those things just happen. I think that not
being fresh enough or running out of steam will have more to do with
playing with the handbrake on than the manager saying so. And I am
willing to bet a few £ on the fact that Wenger will not tell his players
to take it easy before the game.

And if you point at that they say: but he is the one that should
motivate the players more. You can motivate the players all you want but
if the players don’t have the legs to run there is nothing you can do.
Expect rotate the team. But then we come back to the missing players.
And to the 25 man squad. Take 9 men away from the 25 squad and you have
16 left. So the tired players have to play.

But this is typical Arsenal (and of course Arsène Wenger) for Arsenal
to play with the handbrake on they say. He can’t fix it so he has to
go. I say this is typical for ANY football club. Or do you really think
that it only happens at Arsenal?

Do you really think all other teams play for the full 100% in each
game? Let me tell you I really doubt it. Do you really think that when
we beat Southampton with 6-1 they played for the full 100%? Maybe they
did but it wasn’t good enough to stop us. But we can assume that they
had a bad day at the office that day. Just as we had last Saturday.

Except that we call it playing with the handbrake on. Maybe because
we know we can be better. Maybe because we expect Arsenal to play
better. Yes we have such days. But other teams also have those days. But
then we don’t notice it. And we don’t care. But believe me it happens
to all the teams every now and then. Even without injuries. Even without
having 9 players out.

It just can happen on any day and maybe most when you don’t expect it
to happen. That is why football is so popular. Because some things are
unpredictable.

That was not an off-day. Season after season, the complacency remains. Wenger sell players and replace them but the problem persists. The conclusion ? It's totally the manager's fault. Under Wenger, we could have 11 world class players on the pitch and we would still see them jogging around with their lackadaisical attitude. And things will get worse when Wenger runs Cazorla to the ground. We all know Wenger doesn't like rotation because he doesn't know how to rotate his squad properly. Hence, Wenger's over-reliance on certain players will continue to cost us dearly.

In last year’s fixture, Norwich went ahead in the 16th minute after
Arsenal’s defense switched off and Morrison pounced on a hopeful long
ball to put them ahead 1-0. It was Norwich’s first shot and while
Arsenal felt aggrieved that Mertesacker was tossed aside by Morrison,
the reality is that the German was of two minds as to whether to clear
the ball or find a teammate and seemed to dawdle on the ball as Morrison
clawed at him. When in doubt, kick it out.

After they went ahead, The Canaries then sat back and tied to defend
the lead. This allowed Arsenal to pound their box for the next 80
minutes and before long they conceded, first in the 27th minute and then
again in the 59th to a resolute Arsenal attack.

In Saturday’s fixture, Norwich scored first again. This time Tettey
had a speculative shot, rather than last season’s hopeful punt, and
Mannone spilled the catch. Grant Holt isn’t the fastest footballer in
the world but he was first to recognize the threat and got the jump on
Mertesacker who looked to have switched off.

After the goal, Norwich sat back again in a similar way to the
previous encounter. But this time Arsenal lacked that incisive final
ball and seemed content to pass the ball around the outside, patiently
waiting for their chance. Consensus is that it took Arsenal until the
80th minute to wake up and start trying to get a goal and if 7 shots in
the first 80 minutes and 7 in the last 15 is any measure, consensus is
correct.

The difference many will say was that Arsenal had Robin van Persie in
last season’s fixture and perhaps in this is somewhat true. Robin’s
drive forward is what makes him one of the best forwards in the world
right now. But Arsenal do have the best player in the Premier League in
Santi Cazorla and he was, unfortunately, somewhat stifled by the play of
his teammates, particularly Andre Santos.

Santos lined up at left back yet spent the majority of the game in
the opposition half. More than once, Cazorla was forced to track back
and cover for Santos as the Brazilian caught his breath in the
opposition end. In the first half, Santos actually had more passes in
the Norwich final third than any other Arsenal player, usually that is
the domain of Cazorla.

Santos also had an annoying tendency to drift centrally when
Arsenal’s fullbacks are required to provide width. Santos only tried one
cross, Jenkinson (who got forward a lot less) tried 6. Consequently,
there was no width down the left side of the pitch and more than once
you could see Arteta covering on the left as Santos went forward and to
the middle. But the problem is that despite his positional dominance,
Santos only created one goal-scoring chance. And not a very good one at
that.

In the second half, Santos sat back more and this gave Cazorla and
Arteta more freedom. So much so that by the end of the match, Cazorla
had created five chances and Arteta had the best shot of the game.
Unfortunately it was a case of too little, too late and as the game wore
on, with Arsenal crowding 9 men into the Norwich box (including Per
Mertesacker) it looked like Norwich would put Arsenal to the sword with
incisive counter attacks. Grant Holt had at least three chances to score
and but for his profligacy Norwich should have won the game three or
four to nil.

The season is far from over for Arsenal but there is a worrying
tendency for the Gunners to take games like these for granted. Looking
back since 2008, the Gunners have lost 28 times (in all competitions) to
“lesser” competition: teams like Bolton, Blackburn, Braga, Birmingham,
Norwich, and Hull. Chelsea have lost to the same types of teams only 19
times and Man U a stingy 17. Clearly losses like Saturday’s to Norwich
are a big problem and one has to start wondering at what point losses
like this one to Norwich pass from unusual to norm?

While I agree with a lot of what you are saying about Santos I have to take issue with your dismissal of not having RvP because we have Cazorla; "the best player in the premier league". I can't agree that he is the best player in the league, probably far from it as he still needs to prove himself over a more extended period of time.
Not having an out and out goal scorer (like an RvP) killed us against Norwich, no matter how good Cazorla is. When someone like RvP, or Rooney, or Aguero, or Messi, or Ronaldo, or Falcao is on the pitch--the team is always on threat to score a goal. We saw RvP create goals from next to nothing in the past. We no longer have that threat and we saw that on Saturday. Lack of attacking options has been a worry since day one this season, being held scoreless against Norwich displays this glaringly...