Where Do We Go From Here?

By: Martin | April 30th, 2009

Well, that wasn’t much fun to watch. I won’t bother with a recap, I assume everyone saw it. Frankly, the way we played, it could have been much, much worse, especially early, as Almunia made some key saves, especially the two point-blank saves on Tevez.

Okay, let’s get the usual caveats out of the way–Wenger is a great manager, and has done a good job with this team, and I’m certainly not claiming otherwise or that he should lose his job or anything dramatic like that. But, having said that, he got badly outmanaged last night–his lineup selection was absolutely woeful, and even though it was quickly apparent to everyone that what we had going on was not going to be anywhere near good enough to threaten United at all, he stubbornly refused to make any tactical or personnel changes.

When Wenger started making noise last week about keeping Cesc and Nasri in the roles they had played against Middlesbrough, I assumed, and said in this space, that this was merely a smokescreen to create some confusion for Fergie about what we were going to be doing. Because I’m so rarely right about anything, please allow me to quote what I wrote earlier this week:

For me, though, the main bad news may be that the team looked a little too good yesterday. Let me explain. Fabregas played forward yesterday, behind Bendtner. Since he played well and popped up and scored two goals, Wenger is apparently thinking about sticking with him in this position for Wednesday’s game. With the usual caveats about Wenger knowing way more than I’ll ever know, I’ll just say that I really think Cesc functions much better in a deep-lying playmaker role than playing behind the striker, and would have a lot of problems finding space to make plays if he’s called upon to go too far forward and deal with Giggs, Carrick, and/or Scholes.

Yesterday was also interesting because Wenger played Arshavin on the left and moved Nasri back to a holding/supporting center midfield role. He’s also gone on record as considering keeping Nasri there on Wednesday. Not that I don’t think Nasri could function in that role, but I think he’s shown himself to be an effective left winger all year and is best suited to stay there for the time being. He played well against Boro, but dealing with Ronaldo and Rooney would be an altogether different proposition.

Look out, Miss Clio, there’s a new sheriff in town! In all seriousness, I guess what’s really worrying about the whole thing is I think it was pretty clear to anyone following Arsenal that this was the case, and that just because something worked against a soon-to-be-Championship side didn’t mean it would have any effectiveness at all against the best team in Europe. And yet, apparently Wenger thought differently. Neither Cesc nor Nasri played particularly well yesterday, but I don’t think they can really be blamed–both are consummate pros and gave game efforts, but they were asked to do things that they are not well-suited to do against a world-class team.

Worse, however, was the decision to play Diaby on the left. Diaby is tall, not particularly fast, right-footed, and not good with the ball at his feet. So pretty much the exact opposite of what you are looking for in a left winger, which is someone who is quick, good with the ball, and effective at both putting balls into the box from the sideline and cutting it back into the middle. If only we had such a player, maybe last night would have been different. Oh wait, we did have exactly that kind of player, and he terrorized United for a brace earlier in the year, but for some reason was deployed as a holding midfielder last night.

I guess my problem isn’t with the players Wenger chose to play, although I still cannot fathom what he sees in Diaby, or with his decision to deploy a single striker. But does anyone doubt that the players on the field last night could have been moved around into a much more effective configuration? Had Diaby moved from the left to the supporting striker role, bumped Cesc back into the true midfield role (and into his partnership with Song, which has been great the last month or so), which would have moved Nasri out to the left, wouldn’t this have worked much better? So two questions linger–(1) why didn’t Wenger use this configuration at the outset? But (2), at the very least, why didn’t he change things up once he saw it clearly wasn’t working? I just don’t get it.

I’m sorry to bitch and moan so much. But I’m frustrated. We haven’t won a trophy in years, and this is the biggest match the club has played in in several years. I really think this team has the quality to beat United, which would be a famous victory for the club, but I feel the players were hamstrung last night by Wenger’s miscalculations.

In terms of the players themselves, Almunia was outstanding, and is the only reason we still have a chance of moving on. Song continues to impress–he’s an absolute pit bull out there. He was chasing the ball around midfield all night, and when he got the ball, he made the short, safe passes you want from someone in that role. And, although it may not show up on the stat sheets, I thought Kieran Gibbs very quietly had a very good night–every time Ronaldo got the ball on the right wing, Gibbs was in perfect position, and Ronaldo’s only opportunities came when he moved into the middle. And he did this despite being repeatedly hung out to dry by Diaby’s lazy/non-existent tracking back. For a 19 year-old to step onto one of the biggest stages in the world and play very well against the reigning world player of the year–what can you say? I love Clichy, and I would be kind of pissed because I just bought a Clichy jersey a couple of months ago, but he better watch his back, because at the moment I think Gibbs is playing better than what we saw out of Clichy for most of the year.

Cesc and Nasri, I discussed above–they worked hard, but couldn’t quite get it done. Walcott was invisible all night. He’s been our most consistent attacker the past month, and really needed to do better, although to be fair he wasn’t given that many opportunities. As Arseblog pointed out, given that Evra is fast and O’Shea is slow, it may have made sense to move Walcott to the left just to see if he could get past O’Shea a couple of times. Adebayor was also pretty invisible–for a guy who talked about how hungry he was and how much he wanted this, he sure looked pretty indifferent to me. The rest of the defense was also fairly poor–Sagna was pretty erratic, Toure was generally solid but made a few mistakes, and Silvestre was . . . well, Silvestre, although, to be fair, I’d say he was slightly less crappy last night than he had been the past couple of weeks.

BUT.

Here’s the thing. We’re not out of this. Not by a long shot. It’s easy to focus on the bad play, but losing 1-0 away to one of the best teams in the world is not the end of the world. We’ve beaten them once at the Emirates this year, and we did so without Adebayor or van Persie. I’m telling you, this United team’s reputation is bigger than its substance–they’re not as good as last year’s version, and we CAN beat them. I believe this with all my heart, and you should, too. This Arsenal squad has shown us this year they’ve got guts and they can come out swinging when their backs are up against the wall.

The lack of an away goal hurts us, to be sure. If United score, we’ve got to score 3 to move on. But 3 goals at home isn’t an impossible task for us–this United team got trucked for 4 at Old Trafford by Liverpool, who I don’t think has as much firepower as we do on our day, not long ago. Furthermore, there’s this–we haven’t conceded a goal at home all year in the Champions League. Look it up. So don’t be so sure we’re going to have to score 3. But really, would 3-1 be out of the question? 2-0? 1-0, which would force extra time, and potentially penalty kicks? I don’t think so.

Almunia says this isn’t over. Kolo has said we must do better. Wenger has promised that “you will see a different Arsenal next week.” And you know what? I believe him. I think this team’s going to come out and make us proud next week.

So this is where we are. Bloodied, but still standing. Down but not out. If you needed any more motivation, United are already scheduling a victory parade to show off the trophy they haven’t won. United fans were predicting a 3-0 scoreline for this one. When the draw was originally announced, some papers said United had a “bye” to the final.

I know it’s hard to swallow given the bad performance we all saw with our own eyes yesterday, but I still believe in this team. Let’s get behind our guys, and let’s go out on Tuesday and cancel their fucking parade, and make them sit at home in May and watch us lift the trophy in Rome.