As it turns out, we can't complain or point fingers. Skrtel had a bloody head wound, and it seems only fitting that the man beaten by Debuchy for one headed goal should find himself free and clear to head home the second in the stoppage earned through his own injury. Call it karma or poetic justice; one thing we'll have to agree on calling it was shoddy, shoddy defending.
Per literally ducked out of the way, cringing as well. Montreal looked shocked that Skrtel was unmarked, as well he should look. Skrtel had a running start at it, with Chambers trailing him feebly, and no one else rose up to challenge Skrtel on the air. Gibbs had wandered from the near-post, right where Skrtrl sent the ball. Szczesny was helpless, and that's was essentially all there was to it.
Sometimes you look at a scoreline and say, "I can live with that." After all, it is Anfiels, even if the Scousers haven't really impressed so far. For some of us, that 5-1 scoreline still lurks in the memory like a painful hemorrhoid. A 2-2 draw, separated from the details that led to it, might feel like a point taken rather than two dropped, all the more so when we see just how thoroughly Liverpool outplayed us. Since 2003, according to Opta we have never faced so many shots (27) or held so little possession as we did on Sunday (35%). That makes it feel like we did in fact escape with a vital point.
Then, we look back to how we concede son a set-piece against an opponent that had gone down to ten men almost ten minutes earlier, and instead of feeling relief or satisfaction, we are left feeling disgusted and disappointed. We had a chance to slam shut the door on a key rival and finish the weekend just three points behind Man U. Instead, we stranded ourselves five points back--level now with none other than Tottenham. Tottenham. Let that sink in for a moment.
We'd better get heads and hearts on it and quick if we expect to get ourselves in order. There is still some lots of football to be played, and it's not like we lost. It just feels an awful lot like we did...
Why is it that every time Arsenal concede a goal via a set piece, we have to hear the same two words from the commentators during or after the match: "zonal marking"?
ReplyDeleteIt's all to clue less subs made by the clueless manager, our mdfld was over run and we still played short passes instead of long balls which would have made their mdfd redundant welbec oxlade wereabsent chambers was more concerned of his hair than deffending re visit stoke's first goal and watch chambers bending his head to avoid heading that soft cross that landed on the legs of peter crouch to register stoke's first goal.we need 2 dm in january to take us to 4th and a cb if cos comes back merter is NOT anywhere near a defender
ReplyDeleteMost commentators are just waiting for arsenal to lose or concede goals for them to tell us how much they know about tactics
ReplyDeleteIt's deflating to concede a goal that late in the game. The guys couldn't just defend for a few more minutes. The keeper goal keeper was being exposed time and again, when that happens, it's only a matter of time before the goal goes in. They couldn't even protect the box-18.
ReplyDeleteWhy was Giroud subbed off? He might be our best aerial defender. His height and physicality would have been useful. Throwing on Coq might sound like a defensive sub but he's too raw to rise to the occasion-literally.
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