Arsenal 0 Sunderland 0 - A Golden Chance Wasted

When Arshavin WASN'T offside and scored.

 
     So, as you may have noticed, Arsenal has once again dropped points at home to a side that we shouldn't have had too much trouble with, even with some important players injured.
     Of those players, Cesc, RvP, Theo, and Song. As a result, Bendtner was put up top with Nasri and     Arshavin.
     In defense, we were back to the normal line-up; it was good to see Koscielny back, and he will definitely be fit for Barcelona.
     In the midfield, Wilshere took up Cesc's spot and Denilson and Diaby were the two holding players. Personally, I was not happy with that. I can't remember the last time I've been happy with a Denilson performance. Defensively he is poor, and going forward he is nonexistent. At times I feel he just sits at the center circle and picks his nose. Just a theory, though. None the less, I was happy to see Wilshere in the central attacking midfield role. It's his future position, and I looked forward to seeing how he would do.

     I was disappointed. In the first 20 or so minutes, we didn't create much going forward, and I think that was down to Jack. He didn't check to the ball enough, he didn't drop back far enough to pick up the ball, and simply did not get involved with the play. Some say that this was down to the players around him. I think not. Wenger put him in his "natural" position, but I believe that Jack left his "comfort zone" and therefore wasn't exactly sure on how to play this position, believe it or not. I understand that his natural position is central attacking midfield, but he didn't really show it.

     For nearly the entire first half, we created little and never had tempo to our play. A Nasri shot here and a Bendtner shot there was all that we managed to muster, really. Late in the first half though, we finally seemed to find our feet. A nice ball from Wilshere sent Nik into the penalty area and his tight angled shot was saved by Mignelot. Lovely.

     So half time came and I was worried. It was poor on our part and we needed a goal fast to get rid of the nerves.
     One of the main reasons why I think we didn't attack well was a result of the partnership of Diaby and Denilson. Diaby can go forward well, but he didn't do so that often. When we have our regular midfield partnership of Cesc-Wilshere-Song, and we go forward, Song sits deepest, Wilshere joins the attack and Cesc does his thing. So, it kind of looks like this:

                         Cesc
Wilshere

                Song

     When we do defend, Song and Wilshere are square. Wilshere is good defensively, despite his physical stature.
     What we as Arsenal fans like most about Wilshere is how good he is at going forward. He effects our attack so much not only because of his creativity, but also because the timing of his runs forward. He knows when to join the attack and when to play the simple pass or to take a risk to play the defense splitting ball.
     Diaby meanwhile is a different story. Defensively, he is better than Wilshere solely because of his physicality, not because of his tactical awareness. But when Diaby goes forward, his runs are sporadic and his timing is off. I felt that against Sunderland he upset our attack and because of his runs forward we had trouble finding fluency. As a result, we didn't upset Sunderland's defense, and distort their shape. Poor decision from Wenger I feel.
     Anyway, onto the second half.

     We seemed to continue with the shit play we had from the opening minutes of the first half. Sloppy in possession, and unable to hold onto the ball to create an organized attack.

    Therefore, Wenger unsurprisingly replaced Denilson with Chamakh. Hence, Chamakh went up to the central striker role, Bendtner went to the wide right, and Nasri took up his most natural position as the central attacking midfielder.
     Immediately, we created a chance. Chamakh squared the ball into the box for Arshavin, and his shot was straight at Mignelot. Had Chamakh's pass been better (lighter and not bobbing off the ground like a fucking rabbit) Arshavin may have been able to get a better shot off and scored.

     Koscielny was then fouled by Sessegnon right outside their penalty box, Nasri took it and once again Mingelot was there with a fantastic save. Bollocks. To respond, Wilshere put a beautiful ball into the box which Chamakh headed onto the bar. In all honesty, he should have buried that. It was a somewhat simple chance and being a player with his heading ability, there aren't many excuses.

     Then was the first moment of real controversy. Nasri played Arshavin through, and the Russian was away. Bramble was holding Arshavin back, but he shrugged the challenge off. THEN, Bramble fell to the ground and in a last ditch effort pushed Arshavin in the back right when he took his shot. The shot went wide naturally, and the referee gave no penalty. Is that a fucking joke? How can you be a Premier League official and miss a straight push in the back? Absolute nonsense.

     As a sympathy gift, Arsenal went under real pressure. Welbeck had a brilliant volley that was miraculously turned behind for a corner by Szczesny. On the resulting corner, Henderson found himself completely unmarked and his volley was somehow saved again by Szczesny. It was very, very poor marking from Arsenal, and I don't think Szczesny knew much about Henderson's shot. It hit him square in the chest. If that had gone in, we would have been screwed.

     Immediately after that, we got fucked over AGAIN. The second moment of controversy. Bendtner played an brilliant ball to accompany a PERFECT run by Arshavin, which the Russian took past Mignolet and put in the back of the net. But the goal was never to be. Right from when the pass to Arshavin was made, the linesman put his damn flag up, and he put it up like a rocket. Why, I don't know, because Arshavin was clearly onside. For Christ's sake.

     We applied some late pressure still, with a free kick played in and Nik had a very, very tame header that he really should have done better with. Big Game Bendtner? The name lives in vein.
     After that, a last minute corner which came to Koscielny was headed wide, and the match ended. Two points dropped, and again Arsenal was unable to take advantage of United slipping up.

     As I said previously, we cannot continuously rely on United to drop points. WE need to be in control of this league for once. If we are to win the title this year, I don't want it to be in the fashion where I sit with a radio next to me while I watch Arsenal play and bank on United dropping points. That just shows Arsenal won the title via a last minute Manchester United slip up, not a prestigious Arsenal-underdog-comeback-win.

     The refereeing today was horrendous. I didn't mention it in the second half review, but Anthony Taylor made a lot of poor calls other than the two Arshavin incidents. He handed out a yellow card to Nasri for a nonexistent challenge, while Sunderland continued to make late tackles and on some occasions they got away without a booking. For example: There was an incident where Djourou was up-field and sandwiched between two Sunderland players, one of them Silly Muntari. Muntari challenged for the ball but lead with his elbow. You can't do that! Whether there was any intent or not, as a match official you cannot allow players on "your" pitch to go around elbowing the opposition and getting away with it! God bless me.

     But even with the poor officiating and our poor first half midfield trifecta, you'd have to say we've blown another chance to make up real ground on United. When United lost at Molineux, the "Newcastle Incident" occurred. When they lose to Chelsea, we come up short against Blunderland.
     We CANNOT make a stupid slip up like we did today to side that we should've taken three points off of easily.
     But Dirk Kuyt has given us another bite of the apple. United lost at Anfield earlier today to give us hope. The goal difference between us and the Mancs is just three goals now, and just three points divide us, with a game in hand to the Arsenal.
     Our next match in the league is against West Brom, a side you would expect us to take the three points. This time we have to, and if not, I'm afraid to say it will be much, much more difficult to win this league.
     But we never do things the easy way, do we?

     Anywho, on to player ratings:

• Szczesny - 8.5 - He had a very good game. Although he wasn't called upon often at all, when he was late in the match he made two brilliant saves to keep us in the match, and you could say the title race as well.

• Sagna - 6.5 -  Defensively, he did alright. Early in the match he had some very good chances to put a good cross in, but they were shit. He didn't go forward very well.

• Djourou - 8 - What a rock he was. He too saved us from defeat, and quite simply had a very good match.

• Koscielny - 7.5 - It seems he shrugged off all the nerves we expected him to have from the cup final. Defensively he was slightly above par, but he went forward on many occasions and it seemed very effective because it distorted Sunderland's defensive shape.

• Clichy - 7.5 - I thought he had a good and bad game. Defensively, I thought he was very poor. He let Sessegnon get the better of him on a few occasions, but when he went forward he looked very confident.

• Denilson - 6 - I want him out this summer, and I think he will be once Benik Afobe, Henri Lansbury, and others come back. Defensively he was poor and he didn't go forward enough. He just slows us down I feel. He gave the ball away in our own half far too many times to be an Arsenal player.

• Diaby - 6.5 - He too was poor. I was expecting a good performance based on what he did on Wednesday night, but he let me down. His runs forward weren't productive, and he took too long to get rid of the ball.

• Wilshere - 7.5 - A good but slightly disappointing performance. I expected more from him when he played in Cesc's position, but he looked uncomfortable and confused. However, when he dropped back to his normal position once Denilson went off, we really applied pressure on Sunderland. Hardly a coincidence.

• Nasri - 8 - What a waste to have him play wide. When he drifted inside he was deadly, and looked our most likely to score. When he played in the central role we were dangerous.

• Bendtner - 7 - Big Game Bendtner? Not as I hoped. He had some half chances, and didn't take them.

• Arshavin - 7.5 - In the first half he was very quiet, credit to Anton Ferdinand. In the second period he was pushed in the penalty area which should have resulted in a penalty. Not only that but he scored a legitimate goal that was wrongly ruled offside.

• Chamakh - 7.5 - When he came off the bench he had an immediate impact. We were a different side when he came on, but he really should have scored his chance instead of hitting the woodwork. If he scored, he would be a hero.

• Rosicky - 7 - Hard to judge. When he came on our passing was better, but you could say that was due to Wilshere and Nasri.

• Wenger - 7 - Dissapointing. His side failed to win the match, and his half time team talk seemed to have little effect. He shouldn't have started Denilson and Diaby together, but his substitutions were smart and we immediately pressed Sunderland for a goal. But in Arsene We Trust.

     Speaking of Wenger, after the match he was interviewed by BBC and asked about the two controversial calls. He said that he was too disgusted to speak about them. He didn't say anything offensive towards the FA or the match officials, unlike "Sir" Alex. That just shows the class of Wenger and Arsenal as a whole once again.

     Also, those of you that were worried about Jack, he is fine, and will be fit to play against Barcelona. on the other side of the pond, Puyol is injured and will miss the match. Why? Because they rushed him back into the fray. We took an extra precaution with Cesc, and now he's fit to play. Stupid Barca.

     In other news, Kyle Bartley scored for Rangers to earn them three points. He starts and has played in the Old Firm derby and against Sporting Lisbon. It looks like his development is coming along nicely. I can't wait to have him back next year.

     That's that I think. We now have Barcelona on Tuesday, which I feel may be why we dropped points. Perhaps the players had one eye on Camp Nou, when both of their eyes needed to be on defeating Sunderland. All the same, let's put the game behind us, move on, and prepare for Barca.
     Be sure to check back for a preview of that match, and don't forget to comment and tell me your thoughts on the match, or the post. Or both! Your choice.
     'Till then.