West Brom 2 – Arsenal 2: Comeback Not Enough to Overcome Comical Defending
By: Martin | March 19th, 2011
Will you, Arsene? I'm not so sure.
That flushing sound you just heard may have been Arsenal’s title hopes going down the pipes.
Some of you will remember that I was a guest on the Arsenal Review USA Podcast last week, and was asked how realistic Arsenal’s title hopes were. I replied that I had a tough time seeing Arsenal win the title when the “unholy trio” of Almunia, Koscielny, and Squillaci were prominently involved. And they certainly showed today why my concerns were well-founded.
Going into this match, we had 10 matches remaining, and they broke down neatly into 3 discrete categories — we started off with three matches against relegation candidates (at West Brom, Blackburn, at Blackpool), then we had four consecutive matches against top-half teams jockeying for at least European qualification (Liverpool, at Tottenham, at Bolton, Manchester United), and then finish up with three tricky matches against mid-table opposition (at Stoke, Aston Villa, at Fulham). I think if you were looking at those 10 matches and trying to figure out what Arsenal needed to do to win the title, you certainly would have said we needed to take the maximum 9 points from the 3 matches against relegation zone teams. We’re not off to a good start.
West Brom hit us right at the very beginning of the game, and you’d have to say it was textbook Arsenal for all the wrong reasons. All our fears about the “unholy trio” of Koscielny, Squillaci, and Almunia seemed to be coming true. Koscielny conceded a corner that he really didn’t need to concede — could have controlled it or at least kicked it out for a throw-in. and West Brom made us pay. Brunt’s corner was a perfectly-placed effort on the edge of the six-yard box, and Reid ran onto it and had an open header that he just needed to get some pace on to score. And so he did. 1-0 West Brom.
Koscielny and Squillaci were nowhere to be seen on the corner. Aaron Ramsey, who was ostensibly tracking Reid’s run, made a, shall we say, interesting tactical decision — instead of jumping up and contesting the header, he decided to just run under the ball and let Reid have a free header from 6 yards away. Not sure what Rambo was thinking was going to happen there. And Almunia, although he was blocked a bit, still probably should have fought his way through and punched the ball clear. Let’s put it this way: if Wojo, Flaps, or Mad Jens had been in goal, I’m pretty sure they all would have come out for that one. Instead, Manuel stayed on his line and was helpless as the ball was powered behind him for a goal.
I think it was Alan Davies on the Tuesday Club podcast last week who was talking about the accolades Almunia had received from his brilliant performance in the Camp Nou and his decent showing at Old Trafford. Davies’s point was that this wasn’t surprising — that Almunia is at his best when he’s just reacting to shots, making himself big and making saves. He’s at his worst when he has to defend set-pieces and crosses and has to make decisions about when to come out, when to punch vs. grab, etc. And that was certainly proven correct on the goal.
We were going to have to come from behind, then. Our task looked to be made easier in the 20th minute when West Brom midfielder James Morrison had a head-to-head collision with Koscielny that opened up a pretty big gash in his head. Instead of substituting him, Roy Hodgson opted to send him to the locker room for an extended period of time to get stitched up and bandaged up, which meant they played about 10 minutes down to 10 men.
But we couldn’t take advantage. A few minutes later we had a golden opportunity. Clichy sent in a great cross from the left, which reached van Persie on the edge of the box. van Persie put in a great, looping header over goalkeeper Scott Carson, but it rattled off the crossbar. But the rebound fell straight to Aaron Ramsey right on the edge of the six-yard box. He chested it down to his feet well, and all he had to do was put it either side of Scott Carson, but instead he sent it straight into the keeper’s chest — it should have been the leveler, and he won’t have that kind of time and space on the ball in that position too many times in his career. Morrison came back on the pitch with a Terry Butcher bandage on his head shortly thereafter, and it was the end of Arsenal’s numerical advantage.
That was just about it for the first-half. We had the lion’s share of the possession, but couldn’t turn it into chances, and went into the break down 1-0.
Coming out of the break, Wenger decided to make a tactical change. He took off Denilson, who had been largely ineffective, and brought on Chamakh to give us more physical presence up front. And it did help — Hodgson’s strategy (which worked very well) was to jam the middle of the field and let us have space out wide to send crosses in, knowing full well that his defenders, particularly Olsson, could deal with them when they came in. We had a number of crosses come to nothing in the first half. But Chamakh gave us another aerial threat, and it looked like it shook West Brom up a little bit.
But we still had some breakdowns. West Brom really should have scored in the 54th minute when they hit us on the counter. Odemwingie played a good ball out to an onrunning Cech, who got free down the flank and played a great low cross along the goalmouth to an onrunning Brunt, who should have buried the chance but instead pushed it wide.
And then they scored a goal because of some Arsenal defending that would have done Larry, Moe, and Curly proud. It was really nothing more than a long, desperate boot up the field. Almunia, again called upon to make a decision about whether to come out or stay in, again made the wrong decision. He inexplicably ran out to a ball that was well outside the box, which apparently confused Squillaci, who should have easily just put a foot through it. The two basically just stood there trying to figure out what to do, and Odemwingie, who had been chasing the ball simply took it wide of Almunia and sent in a slow shot that trickled across the goal. 2-0 West Brom, and it was some of what Clay Davis would call “shameful shit.”
But that’s when we started to turn it up. We were having a lot of the ball deep in West Brom territory, winning free kicks around the box, and generally looking dangerous when we finally broke through in the 70th minute. The ball was played to Chamakh on the edge of the box on the left, and he played a very nice little touch pass into an onrunning Arshavin, who took a brilliant touch to control it and then unleashed a cannon shot with his left foot into the far corner. Carson didn’t stand a chance, it was a brilliant finish, and it was 2-1, Arsenal. We were back in it. Game on.
And we tied it up 8 minutes later. Arshavin sent in a high cross across the six-yard box — Bendtner was on the far post, and did well to head it back across the goal-mouth, where there was a bit of a scramble but van Persie got just enough of a toe on it to poke it over the goal line. 2-2, Arsenal and you really hoped we were going to push on and win it.
But alas, it wasn’t to be. van Persie sent a header wide, Wilshere sent a hard shot from outside the box over the bar, Clichy of all people had a pretty good chance that Carson saved, and West Brom managed to hold on for the point. Credit to them for playing well, but the bottom line is that champions don’t fail to win must-win games against teams like West Brom.
This might be a familiar sight the next few months...
The contrast with Manchester United was stark. For 88 minutes, they were tied at 0-0 with Bolton. Jonny Evans was sent off the in 76th minute, so they were down to 10 men at the end. But I have to say, I kept checking the score and I never really had any doubt that they were going to lose. For as much as they’ve been knocked this year for looking like ass much of the time (and make no mistake, they really have been awful for much of the time), they have the mental strength and confidence to get a goal when they need it. They’re the masters of playing possum for 85 minutes and then being able to basically will themselves to a win. That’s what they’ve done multiple times this year, that’s what they did today, and that’s what we seem completely unable to do. And I hate to be too negative, but I really do think that in 2 months’ time, when we’re looking back on the season, we’ll say that was the difference between the two teams, and why they won the League and we fell short again.
I hate to be too negative, and the comeback was encouraging. But the bottom line is that we’ve seen that type of defensive error too many times in too many key situations to feel confident — all too often, we don’t make teams earn victories against us, we help them do it. So we now sit 5 points behind Manchester United, albeit with a match in hand. We’re not out of it, though. If we were to win our game in hand and beat Manchester United at the Emirates, we’d be ahead of them. So despite everything, there’s still hope.
I think now the name of the game is to get guys rested and healthy over the two-week international break, try to clear our heads of the past few weeks, and come back ready to band together and fight on. A lot of questions have been asked about this squad’s resilience and mental toughness. And they haven’t provided any answers yet. At least not any answers we want to hear. Are they capable of showing over the next 9 matches that they have what it takes to be champions? I honestly have no idea, but that’s why we watch, right?
Player ratings to follow at some point, but I’ve got some stuff I have to do this afternoon, so it may not be until this evening or tomorrow morning. Until then.
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