By 1970’s Gooner
There have been a lot of words written as to how much Arsenal dominated the game against West Ham (the possession was something like 70%) but lacked that creativity that would have provided a goal.
Most have blamed the absence of Fabregas’s genius that would have created the openings for the forwards to score the goals.
But I don’t think so. Not on this occasion. There were a lot of other things that were just not right against West Ham and they have not been right all season.
The first was the disgraceful performances that Adebayor has been putting in.
His body language tells you that he doesn’t really want to be where he is. He is slow, out of position a lot of the times and lacks the sharpness that is required of a centre forward. Testimony to the latter is that goal he missed on the near post. He would have scored that goal last season.
He is so uninterested he is not even getting himself offside anymore. I don’t think he was flagged offside all game yesterday. Don’t laugh, this is very indicative as it shows that a forward is not even trying to get into an advantageous position.
The second major weakness that Arsene refuses to tackle is the so obvious inability of Eboue to add width to the team and to find his teammates when passing the ball.
Why oh why he insists on persisting with him is beyond me. Vela performed far better when he came on and with more games under his belt I am sure he will greatly improve.
The other and for the West Ham game, more viable option would have been to start with Bendtner on the wing who showed that he is far more penetrative than Eboue or Denilson or Diaby.
Arshavin, if he comes, will add real width and more creativity and hopefully Adebayor and the rest of the team will raise their game from now on.
But as much as Adebayor’s indifference and Eboue’s ineptness were factors that affected Arsenal’s performance it is Van Persie’s absence that was severely missed.
It’s all very well to rest players, as Wenger has said, in order to protect them from injury but why rest them in a league game when points are so vital in our pursuit of that Champions League place?
The next game is against Cardiff at home next Tuesday, for Christ’s sake. He could have been rested for that and then be ready for the Tottenham game next Sunday.
Sometimes Wenger baffles me.
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16 comments:
We lack both mate. Adebayor has gone off a bit and we lack creativity out wide and in the middle. Hopefully Arshavin would solve both.
Arshavin out wide and Nasri moved into the middle, but who plays right/left wing in his absence (depending on which wing Arshavin plays)?
Lets face it we are not going to sign Arshavin or anybody. Either we have not got any money or Wenger has lost the plot. Eboue, Denilson, Song and Diaby are all equally bad. Adebeyor is halp in Milan and at Arsenal.
We miss Flamini more than anything. How we let him go is absolutely bad management.
to anon... vela plays on the left fingers crossed ?
just take a few minutes to remind yourselves of Wright and Henry.Then you you realize how bad Adey is. Has he got a powerful shot, has he got a strong heading ablity, does he create his own goals, does he score in evey other game, can he quickly control the ball, has he any vision, can he convert 1 in every 2 chances. sadly for us the answer to all these is no. He got £80,000 last by smoke and mirrors not consistent perfomances, he cost us the league last year. pay him £25000 plus bonuses for every goal he scores,sadly he wil be no better
Anon how can u say flamster was bad management if you know your facts. the seasons previous he was shite and wenger told him to prove he was worth a new contract which he did and then thought now that i think i am world class i will go where the money is and good luck to him my only complaint is that i would have kept hold of Diarra until the end of the season and seeing as nasri has more than replaced hleb in my opinion we may have been at least 9 points better off so far this season.
Another reason for resting RvP, which I can understand given his past with injuries, is the fact if he'd have been booked he'd be banned for the spud game and now, apparantly he is back at 0 bookings now.
regarding Ade he has definetely gone off the boil and looks disinterested he seems to need an age to score the sooner Eddy comes back the better off we will be he is intelligent and can play with either rvp or bentner so hopefully come summer ac milan come and offer something in the region of 25 mill for ade then Arsene will promote Jay simpson into the squad
Ade is crap. He will never be the player that most of us would hope he couldv'e been. What made ade good in the first place was that even with all his lack of technical skills at least would graft,work heard. It was all for show. He got the big contract and he went all Billy Big Boots. He has no heart. He should be dropped for the good of the team. Hopefully this will start to happen once eduardo gets fit. Hopefully it wont be to late
Ade has been found out, the only goals he can convert have to be served on a plate, good for tap-ins and not much more. Last season's performance was more about our brilliant midfield, and even then he would infuriate due to constantly being offside. He's just not good enough for a club like Arsenal.
In my opinion its the creativity in the final 3rd. Why Wenger persists with playing Nasri out wide. He needs to play behind the front two. For the whole game. He can hold the ball and is very difficult to disposes. His creativity in middle in Fabs absense is what we need.
Also can anyone tell me why Toure isn't playing defensive midfield infront of Gallas and Djourou? He loves to go forward, is defensive minded and is good on the ball instead Wenger persists with Song??
Ok we are missing creative players, Rosicky (skill), Wallcott (speed), Fabregas (sublime) with long term injuries so lets hope Wenger buys the creative Arshavin.
I have steadfastly defended Arsene and the Board since the criticism started to build up, after the Invincibles year and when Vieira left. But it is getting harder and harder. I am so frustrated to see the same old mistakes week after week after week and nothing is done about them. AW just tells us that we have great spirit. It is looking ever more likely that Arshavin won't join us now, due to AW and the Board thinking they are clever by squeezing Zenit down to a price that they won't accept. That is exactly what happened to Alonso in summer. So, for a few £ million, the team slides a few steps further backwards and the Board praise themselves for their principles. I really hate to be so negative; I have resisted it for so long but it is getting harder to do so.
Incidentally, I think the previous posters have been very kind to Adebayor. He was utterly appalling yesterday. So often, he seems to be asleep and not ready for the ball, when it comes to him. That is unforgiveable. And I cannot see how anybody can choose to put out a team including Eboue, Adebayor, Diaby and Denilson. I have some time for Denilson but he needs to be alongside decent players, not that shower!
In the absence of Cesc, Nasri is the most creative player left in midfield and should be in the middle of the park dictating things. Yet Wenger has him out wide where he has little influence on the game because he plays with a donkey of a center foward in Adebayor.
Excellent article and great observation about the offside issue, something which clearly indicates his disinterest.
I don't have any patience becuz he had already here 4 seasons. Let's sell him about 20-25M, and buy 22M Tevez from MSI in the end of the season.
I don't have any patience becuz he had already here 4 seasons. Let's sell him about 20-25M, and buy 22M Tevez from MSI in the end of the season.
So funny when last season everyone was hailing Adelosedaballyor as the next best thing to slice bread.
I'm one of the few who got virtually murdered for slamming him every other match.
Guess people can see now that, wif a better striker last season, we would have got more goals. This season his luck ran out, no more balls going off his shin to the net, no more perfect pass from his knee or whichever useless part of his body.
Cheap Dogba wannabe. can't pass, can't control a ball, can't find a team mate.
But like AW said, u should watch the things he do in training. And dats why eboue and Song too are in the 1st team, coz of what they do in training.
Wilshere and Vela msut be really shit in training.
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