Good Morning Positive Arsenal fans,
Or at least any of you with the energy to raise your head from the pillow and toward the internet after being kept awake by the squalling brat of defeat dumped on our collective footballing doorstep after 13 minutes last night. The nameless little bundle of noise and dribbling misery is quiet now, finally exhausted after bawling its lungs out all night. Inconsolable.
I have looked closely at the mite’s features and it reminds me of someone, but I cannot put my finger on the possible parentage ….. I am sure we all have ideas as to who is responsible ?
Of the game itself if I were structuring the match report like the action the first 300 words today would be random words and names, …. Curses, poor spelling, ……… Crossing out, Yelps of horror and groans of mighty despair,…………. culminating in my banging my head on the keyboard at Nacho’s insanely poor tumble. We all saw it and we know, and Arsene knows, and every player knows it was a bit of a shambles. Fair play to the Hornets though, they played their part with the custard pie that we ran into time after time.
Of the second half of the match review I am able to provide a smoother and organised writing performance, our players unrecognisable from just a few minutes before. I could even go so far as to say some of our players performed “well” in that second portion of the game. Alex Iwobi, in a 50th appearance I hope he forgets about very quickly, being the most obvious Arsenal player who showed us what he can do with the ball. Ultimately though the uplift of that improved effort, and the lifeline goal with MORE than half an hour to go, would lead to a fractured closing sentence of frustration. As occurred in the quarter final last season having allowed Watford a lead we just did not have the guile to get enough goals to retrieve the game. So near as Lucas’ late rocket hammered the bar, but so, so far. Lucas is another man whose late entry exonerates him from responsibility for the evening’s events. We were not, in my opinion, “unlucky” to lose. We were conceivably unlucky not to get a point, but that is as far as my footballing generosity will extend today.
Is it the midweek evening games, is it the rain, or the floodlights ? Whatever it is while last night did not finally torpedo our Premier League ambitions ( thanks to Liverpool and Sunlun) it put a further hole in the vessel, and the water is rising.
Of our visitors a hugely welcome result for under pressure manager Mazzarri whose touchline ranting suggests a man “on the edge”. Of their players Gomes had a good game. One of those large, hard-to-miss keepers who is either very good, or very, very bad and last night he shone. Janmaat also looks about five times the player who fled from Tyneside last season.
Right then, that is me just about done this morning. The little child is gently waking up and cooing happily in his or her cot (I have not looked yet but the smell suggests I should). I shall feed and nurture the little person over the next four days in order that by Saturday lunchtime my new charge will be fit and able to take the field at the Bridge of Stamford, and perform as they are required to from 12.30 onwards to 2.30, with no lapses.
Enjoy your Wednesday and chin up.
Positively Arsenal 
The old fart’s sad thoughts.
To start Andrew, your comment about the baby needing changing brought back even worse thoughts…being blessed with a gag factor second to none, it brought back memories of kids and grand kids and being told ‘It’s your turn” Oh I really needed that!
Perhaps we should start thinking of Watford as “Watthef**khappenedthere?” Yet again we had the core of the “do we really need to play against this lot in the first half?” on show and, yet again, we were woeful. Rambo’s injury was possibly in our favour as he had a night-mareish 15 minutes with a deflection, a miss control and several wayward passes. In fairness to him, we decided against having a wall of any substance against a free kick and Gabriel’s throw in to him which led to the second was appallingly bad. Equally though, his jogging back to defend the mistake did not help our cause. At least Petr was doing his job.
With the players we had on the ground, soaked though it was, Watford really should have been dead and buried by half time; instead there we are 2-0 down and looking very lost in the forest with no compass.
Quite what was said in the dressing room at half time is unknown. Theo replaced Olly and for sure it had one hell of an effect. Young Alex in particular was creating havoc and was well rewarded when Alexis, for about the only time last night, put a cross accurately into his path and we got one back. Here we go! Carry on like this and we’ll get 6.
But then that spark disappeared. Sure we were well on top but the zip that had been there went down a level. For certain, young Alex being moved inside to accommodate Lucas who came on straight after our goal, didn’t seem to help as he was half the threat that he had been. That’s no criticism of Lucas who has performed admirably and had the misfortune to hit the bar with a screamer, but it did seem odd for us to fix what wasn’t broke. By all means bring Lucas on but don’t change what was working so well.
But then my knowledge of managing a squad is 4/5th of F.A. so what do I know?
I’ll wager good money though that complacency plays no part against Chel$ki . Let’s just hope that we can do a repeat of the 3-0. Keep the faith.
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I know Ian – was it complacency ? I know I was complacent ( even at 0-2) but it is not as if we have not felt the barb of the hornet in our arses recently.
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I can offer nothing meaningful to this as neither saw nor heard the game and my only source of info has been catching up with the comments on here from last night.
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That metaphor of squalling babies is a masterstroke Andy. On twitter the uber managers are making an infantile racket deploring Bould’s substitutions. Like any witless, helpless baby they show a reckless disregard for common sense and logic.
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I only said that as didn’t want anyone to think I was a fair-weather supporter who avoided stuff when it was difficult. I suspect the problem with our midfield is that all of them are world class when playing alongside Santi Cazorla, and none of them are good enough when he can’t play. Which is kind of a big problem as I doubt whether he will ever turn out much for us again given his age and recent injuries. And I also suspect that whatever rub of the green is going with regard to decisions won’t be going our way for the rest of the season, so I am not too hopeful about the next several games.
But as always with these things there will be one or two players who seize the moment and emerge as real heroes, and I shall enjoy finding out which ones they are.
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I blame the rain.
We often play dismally when it rains.
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Didn’t see the game either, ploughed through the Liverpool/Chelsea one with ever-increasing concern; more than a little dismayed from reports of the match being more of a game of two halves for AFC than it was for Wathef**khappenedhere.
Out of everyone I know (and I’m including my two greyhounds in this) I’m the least qualified to offer up a critique of Arsenal FC or Anyone FC for that matter, in truth.
But it has not gone unnoticed to even my dull eye that the one thing last season’s Leicester and this season’s Chelsea have in common is the evident preference to chew their own arms off rather than make changes to their first team. This of course is so much easier to do without the inconvenience of the Champions’ League to worry about but I half wonder if this is where in part, we have come a cropper.
They say confidence is a fragile thing but it can also be a powerful force and the side that left Southampton on Saturday must have been brimful of the stuff. And what was so noticeable about Saturday’s game was how brightly we started compared to the reports I’ve read of last night. Hard to believe our ‘First Team’ lacks confidence but it appears to lack some kind of urgency – and this is by no means the first time we have started a game at half pace this season. .
We know that Arsene favours a calm dressing room – the room at the Emirates was designed along Feng Shui lines with curves, ambient lighting and clever acoustics to promote a state of measured well-being.
One can only wonder whether a little bit heavy metal, pre-game at least, might get the adrenaline pumping ahead of the kickoff.
And of course the most galling aspect of all this is that Chelsea, as expected against Liverpool, did drop points.
Sadly, even if we beat Chelsea at the weekend – which we have every chance of doing – we may look back to last night with more than a little regret.
Also have to say that Andrew’s write up is one of the best I’ve ever read after a defeat.
And not just the second half of it …
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Houston , we have a problem.
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I suffer like everyone after a defeat. But what I observe, particularly on twitter, is #FakeOutrage that the team lost to Watford. Fans were even more complacent and cocky pre-game. Moreover as I blogged in January in my two Open Letters, it would take perfection from Burnley onwards for Arsenal to win the title in the manner they did in 97/98. After studying the refereering via the penalty data I downgraded our chances to between 5%-10%. In other words it would take a virtual miracle. Nothing statistically has changed. We are in the top-3 and have a chance in 2 cups. I can live with that, not the rising crescendo of #FakeTears by these squalling babies.
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Trying to discern the ‘pattern’ is the thing AA – if I could see the pattern I could see the irregularity and phone Wenger.
On our defeats;
Good start against Citeh, goal up then a second half fade out.
We started well against Everton – went ahead but faded after half an hour – so it not entirely a starting slowly phenomenon
Against Saints in the LC we started poorly and, as last night, only got our boots on after half time.
Against Bournemouth we had a poor poor first half and a much better second.
Sighs loudly and contemplates navel.
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ludogorets, bournemouth, watford, – all started very poorly and then put in a very good second half,
if you notice that has a win, a draw and a defeat, there are several other games we won or drew this season that we started slowing, went behind and managed to draw or win with second half comebacks, for example PSG, Stoke,
we had the same sort of thing last season on many occasions, not least our defeat in the FAC to Watford, it was almost a carbon copy of last nights game, slow start, a buzzing waford go 2-0 up, we pull one back, and come very close to more, but no cigar. Our performance second half was like a different team.
we also have the tendency to concede a second goal or more once we let in one, its as if panic sets in for 15 to 20 minutes after we let in one. If I’m not mistaken we have only lost one game 1-0 in about 2 years, don’t think we have lost one this term 1-0, and we only lost one game last season 1-0(Chelsea at the Emirates). Once we let in a goal, we have a big old wobble, if we survive it without letting in that second, we still have a good chance,
we are also having a major problem this season keeping clean sheets, we are well down on last season, and will need a lot of clean sheets in our remaining games if we are to match last season
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Aaron Eyoma has also gone on loan for rest of the season.
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Andrew – what Eddie just said (12.19 pm); it’s not merely the defeats/draws where we seem to have started slowly.
An alternative explanation is that Arsene expressly wants them to coast early doors to conserve energy for that stage of the game when our opponents are tiring. This chimes with his general use of subs at the 70th minute mark.
But I’m speculating, somewhat hysterically here, I know.
And to come back to Eduardo on clean sheets – for a team expressly set up to score goals (as opposed to park the bus), clean sheets are, relatively, less of a concern.
And in this, Arsene and G Graham were poles apart. And though we all loved George’s teams, Arsene’s are usually the more watchable, on balance.
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Arseblog is very good today. Nailed it for me.
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Wenger has now said on four or five occasions this season, that our players were not “mentally prepared” for the fight, or that the players were “surprised” by the quick start of our opponents. You can see AW is preplexed by it, he has said, “we prepared” the same, the players “seemed prepared for the battle”, but that once the game started they just did not get going.
I think one of the most worrying aspects of so many of our poor peformances this season is that it has come in games where there was an advantage to be gained on rivals, or when we had a chance to go top or go up a position in the talbe.
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AA on the clean sheets, there is being set up to defend a la George Graham, and there is being set up to attack a la Ossie Ardiles. I think from Wenger’s comments he is not at all happy about a lot of the goals we are letting in. So many of them are almost self inflicted, major mistakes, silly defending, lazy defending. We don’t normally let in many of our goals from opponents scoring on break aways, that is how you would expect them if it was down to us pouring forward in too great a number or care free attitude. No the goals are going in by and large with lots of players back. Watford second goal last night, looked like we had a 6v2 on the watford players, but none of the 6 actually put in a tackle or good challenge. As I said earlier, Ramsey’s defending on that goal was a disgrace, had a bit of the “we have numbers back, I won’t be needed, them lot will stop him”, and this is something that seems to be running through our defending on a lot of the goals we let in. Bodies back, but bodies not put on the line.
I don’t have the stats, but I don’t think many league winners do not have a good clean sheet record, and its great to have the fight back late wins and draws, but you should not need many of them. I would say Winning 3-1 after being 3-0 up is more common for league title winners than winning 3-1 from 1-0 down.
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We are scratching about for positives like chickens on the floor of of an OCD cleaning lady
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Like all hens we have great mental strength
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Bit eggstreme George.
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Oh well. Good work on the review Anicoll.
Not sure what to make of the ‘mentally prepared’ talk. Is it just something to say when something has to be said, a sort of ‘least bad’ option, with an eye as always on what is best/least bad for confidence et al? Or could it actually be the truth and genuine perplexity?
It’s true, I can’t think of a better thing to say.
Anyway, on we go.
It looks like the weather Gods want to throw an extra challenge our way, with gale force winds and heavy rain for the weekend and a freezing spell later on to coincide with our trip to Sutton’s plastic pitch.
A positive of sorts is that a nasty setback leaves me with a thousand-yard football stare for the next game, or at least much more ready for any slings and arrows.
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I think the problem is that if the broadcasters thrust a microphone in front of the manager at the end of a game, especially a defeat, any amount of old nonsense is likely to come out Rich. I don’t think they are allowed to admit they have no more idea of exactly why some calamity has happened than anyone else. They are not really allowed to talk about referees unless they want to be heavily fined. They cant really lash into their own side because the players are probably feeling bad enough all ready. That leaves the weather or FATE .
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A good effort to rationalise the game, anicoll, in a reasoned and pragmatic way.
Wenger himself summed up the first half an hour or so in an honest and perfectly straight forward way without blaming anyone else.
In essence he said, “we were not ready mentally to win the physical duels. We knew it would be direct and physical.We were unlucky to lose.”
It has been one of my concerns, oft repeated over the last few seasons, that Arsenal of AW’s early era were physically imposing, leading Roy Keane to say that lining up alongside the Arsenal team in the tunnel was intimidating, and made you fear the worst.
Since those days, AW has slowly accumulated teams who were skilful but essentially smaller than their opponents, who having learned from the Arsenal Invincibles’ era have acquired players who were both physical – and skilful too.
There has been a distinct sense of ‘here we go again’ about Arsenal in the last few years, but in order to do better at anything, it is essential to recognise something is not right – and then fix it.
The above view may upset some, not that that was the intention, and it may cause some acrimony — but it does not mean I am wrong.
Anyway, anicoll, you managed to write a commendable report that in the circumstances was a credit to your levelheaded approach to footballing matters.
Personally I was, and still am, gutted by the performance and the result as well as the ramifications for the remainder of the season – and if I sound despondent — then colour me blue!
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On the size of our central midfielders a few years back H I would have agreed with you with all of them under 5 foot 8 inches other than Diaby who was never fit. Rosicky, Denilson, Hleb, Nasri, Cesc were all short arses and other than Alex Song we had no one of any bulk to put the boot in.
Recent recruits like Elneny, Xhaka and as Ramsey and Le Coq have filled out have given us a lot more weight in the pack. WE need to get that muscle working more in games where we are facing a physical battle.
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BOLLOCKS!
I was hoping to get a lift as my Eurostar to Brussels has been delayed by 25 mins.
I listened to the game on Arsenal Player. The first half was horrible. Trying to reconstruct the game in my mind suggests our team were absent. How can this happen?
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Hey fellas Giroud and Debuchy are sitting opposite me!
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They are following us !
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Giroud is not very happy, though generous toward me in asking for his pic. Debuchy was also really accommodating. Wow, that has made my day.
I’ve posted pics on twitter
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What are you saying, Georgaki? Brussels – not Gay Paree? Are they doing a runner? – Debuch was not even playing last night – perhaps an assignation? [lol]
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I’ve seen ’em GP
Your are famous;
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Georgaki,
Make sure you tell them it was anicoll who said Giro was crap!! [lol]
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Look at the hair, the fit of the shirt, the whole damn package!
Olivier in pretty good nick as well.
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Both Olivier and Matthieu on the Eurostar to Brussels
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Henry
I pondered the midfield change plenty in my time. It was odd, on the face of it, to move away from what was such a feature of those successful years- Petit, Viera, Edu, Gilberto and Ray Parlour,too (apparently an absolute beast in the gym and a very strong guy)- to something else.
My best efforts to explain it all centre around our financial situation, plus the savage bad luck of Diaby’s injury troubles, plus Song not quite becoming the player he could have been.
The theory of Ruud Gullitt, Ancelotti to a degree and no doubt many others is that Wenger was transfixed by Barca and wanted to emulate them. I don’t buy that. He knows what league we play in and that we can’t buy virtually any player in the world
As Anicoll says, we now have a number of stronger players in there, with the last two-Elneny and Xhaka- both being guys who, I’m pretty sure, and not coincidentally, came with good injury records to go with decent power.
The luck of Xhaka being out while Elneny is away (plus Cazorla out long-term and Ramsey and Coq with some injury problems) is of course flat out awful. I think five is a very reasonable number of central midfielders, all good players, to have.
Aside from those injury woes, a bigger issue might be us finding ourselves quite often with a 2 against 3 situation in the midfield battle stakes. That asks for the near perfection of the Cazorla Coq combination operating at its best.
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I see Mo is missing the AFCON semi final with Burkina Faso with his calf injury still not resolved tonight
ffs !!
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Pretty cool, and mysterious, Georgaki.
Probably neither in best of moods so good of them to do their bit with photos.
Suppose it means Giroud a bit less likely to play on weekend but maybe it’s a flying visit someplace. As for Debuchy, goodness knows. Feel for him over how his career has gone recently.
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Seriously, well done A5, and to those who’ve responded.
I’d advised on the last thread that peeps could watch the first 30 mins on ArsPlaya in order to see those “little” fouls from Watford and how (IMO) they shape unfolding of the match. It would be foolish/hypocritical of me to not do the same, right?
Well, I’ve tried twice and haven’t gotten past 3 minutes!
Within 20 seconds a Watford player has his hands in the air (presumably to show innocence of the follow through) a second prior to leaving something on Ramsey.
At about 2:20 mins. Capoue smashes onto the top of Coqs ankle. Marriner waves for a Watford throw. Capoue runs past the ref exchanging a few words and they both smile.
I wanted to carry on. After all, my point was to justify the suggestion that you watch the first 30 mins. By watching closely and pausing, etc, you’d see why Ramsey and Coq had to leave the game injured.
However, at least for the moment, I can’t carry on. I can’t take it. Indeed, I’ve still got 3 or 4 matches to pass post ref-judgement on, inc. the 3-4 against Liverpool on this season’s opener, where I thought I saw the scousers kicking us to bits.
It’s just too painful for me to watch though. My bad. And I shouldn’t ask you to look if I can’t handle it myself, innit! So, I apologise.
However, if you’re still wondering about slow starts, etc, take a look…
I slipped seamlessly into some sort of denial at the end of the game last night. It was the kind of denial that involves a lot of chocolate and any other crapfood trays lying around. I apologise to myself.
I haven’t seen MOTD & I won’t be picking up an Evening Standard for some time.
I’ll re-watch the 2nd half of the Soton game when I can once again “football”.
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Without the unbiased data you are a whinger Ranty. The solution is to give as much as you get. Soon the refs will get the message and start handing out the 1st and 2nd yellows to Arsenal players at about the same frequency as the rest of the top-4. By the way, even if you do the research over 20 years showing that Arsenal is penalized more than similarly placed teams many your own fans will condemn you as a whinger.
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As I have said before Shotta, we used to regularly finish the game with 10 men, occasionally less. But were we any less effective ? Not a bit of it.
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Yes, Ranty the whinger has a ring about it. IBSF (Ta fins).
Strangely, (for me), I can’t remember if/how Watford fouled Arsenal during the FkCup loss. Maybe Watford played clean, gorgeous footy and just beat Arsenal with superior football? But you know I like to talk about patterns. (Not necessarily as good as data, granted).
So the two patterns I whinge from this fixture inc:
1) The same ref who oversaw a rare Arsenal loss at the Ems – reffed the same teams next time around.
2) I’d proffered: Marriner at his 6-nil best.
This referred to that Chelski match, where the oilers kicked the shit out of Arsenal (KTSOOA), during the 1st half, (unpunished) and dear Andre wrongly sent off Ox (or Gibbsy) – all to celebrate Arsene’s 1000th game?
Interpretations:
When Arsene says “Physical”, he means ‘getting kicked’.
When Arsène says “Unlucky” (little bit), he means: We were Fkng cheated again.
🎶 Oh, for the whinge, of the whinge, of a dove.
Far away, far away would I roam…🎶
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Sutton V Arsenal is set for the Monday night live game on BBC, with a kick off at 19.55
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Sutton V Arsenal is set for the Monday night live game on the BBC, kick off 19.55
we don’t have a fixture the following weekend as Southampton are in the league cup final.
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on finishing with 10 men, its not the finishing with ten that is the key point, its when you go down to 10 men. Rarely does any side comeback if behind when they go down to ten, its not even that often that the 10 win if game level when they have the man sent off.
anyone able to tell us when was the last time we came from behind with a man less to win.
Also the amount of time the team must play with 10 is a big factor, first half sending off very hard to cope with, five or ten minutes at end of a game, not so hard.
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Kaveh Solhekol @SkyKaveh 4h4 hours ago
Top six Premier League clubs spent just £40,000 in January window – Arsenal on Cohen Bramall
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“anyone able to tell us when was the last time we came from behind with a man less to win.”
Feel free to work through the full 114 eddy;
https://www.sporcle.com/games/SHED/arsenals-100-red-cards-under-arsene-wenger
Why does it matter if we are behind though ? We beat Burnley with 10 men, Swansea with 10 men, Le Coq got sent off at WHL and then we went behind but earned a draw.
Our failure last night or at Everton or Citeh was nothing to do with the number of players we had on the pitch.
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An honest question: How do some find a circular firing squad entertaining? Are they captivated by the prospect that they’ll come out of it better than others? Because, not here but elsewhere, the sight of Arsenal fans rounding on each other again seems to defeat the whole purpose of sport for me.
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Unfortunately it wasn’t a game of two halves, we played well at the start of the second half but after we scored we were flat again. Lucas nearly equalised but considering the time we had left after the goal there was very little created and at one point we were even playing the ball in the air against a very large side. Alexis again was our most wasteful player during a time when we needed to keep the ball.
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anicol it was you who said going down to ten does not matter
“As I have said before Shotta, we used to regularly finish the game with 10 men, occasionally less. But were we any less effective ? Not a bit of it.”
I don’t think that actually bares out the facts, and that is why I asked if anyone knows when we last won coming from behind with 10 men, cos this demonstrates if the timing of going down to ten men has an effect. I would suggest that it is very rare for a team who are behind and then go a man down come back to win the game.
I’ve seen Arsenal, and others win a number of games, a man down, even from level pegging when going a man down, but I’m struggling to remember when we won from goal down and man down. Seen someone last week say we done it once in Wenger’s time here. I do remember a number of games we lost, some heavily, after going a man down, while a goal down.
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Don’t get me wrong. On the balance I don’t thing we were cheated out of yesterday’s game. Except for that foul on Alexis, for which I have seen the penalty given, I don’t think Marriner decided the game. He swallowed his whistle from early which I can live with. My view is that we had a few chances to score a 2nd but luck was against us. Theo straight at the keeper, Perez rebounding from the underside of the bar come to mind. Most football analysis is based the outcomes. If you score, you played well; don’t score or lose most of us emotionally decide it was a bad game. I was proud of our effort in the 2nd half. Failing to score a 2nd cannot change the fact we totally dominated Watford with the exception of minor patches.
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Ian I’d agree with you on that, there was not the usual full court press on for a leveling goal last night, we had a head of steam for about 20 minutes, got a goal, but we could not maintain the intensity. Of course we were a tad unlucky that Lucas’s piledriver was not a couple of inches lower or we would have got the draw. but the truth is we only had I think a total of 6 shots on target, and a few of them were a kin to a backpass. Gabriel, Monreal and Koscielny all let fly from distance, none of the 3 on target, Alexis was at his infuriating worst last night where he was just that tad off, as was others, Theo had 2 great chances early in second half, and Gomes made a great save from Iwobi.
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