Welbeck To Boost Out Foxed Gunners' Deficient Attack?

Leicester City 1 Arsenal 1 Match Review - Premier League - 31.08.14

After the joy of scraping through to the Champions League group stages, Arsenal were brought down to earth with a bump at newly promoted Leicester City. I expected a win from this game, having seen a few improvements in our performance against Besiktas, but after five competitive games, we still don’t look any closer to coming together as a team. The draw away at Everton was a good result really, one that I’d have taken before the game, but the result against Leicester has to be seen as points dropped. The basis of our good start to last season was getting the job done against the teams we’d expect to beat and you can’t afford many slip ups like this.

Wenger made two changes to the side that beat Besiktas, with Wilshere and Chamberlain dropping to the bench and being replaced by Ramsey and Sanogo. I was hoping that the selection meant that Özil would play behind Sanogo with Alexis and Cazorla either side, but it was evident as the game kicked off that Özil would again be stuck out wide and Cazorla would be part of the midfield three.

To be fair, I thought we started quite well, we were on the front foot probing at Leicester’s defence and looked like we carried a genuine threat. However, Leicester looked a threat on the counter attack, with Schlupp in particular looking pacey. Leicester had a clear tactic of hammering it forward to Schlupp as soon as Arsenal attacks broke down. There were a few moments where Leicester got in dangerous crossing positions and the flanks seemed to be where most of their threat was going to come from. It was also down the left hand side that one of the key moments of the game occurred, as Schlupp and Koscielny contested a 50:50 header and clashed heads. Koscielny won the header but came off worse and was bleeding from his head. He seemed in a lot of discomfort and we appeared to be readying Chambers, but after leaving the field for a few minutes, Koscielny trotted back on. Although though this seemed good news, it would come back to haunt us.

It was not long after this incident that Arsenal made the breakthrough with a half well worked, half sloppy goal. Ramsey played the ball to Cazorla on the edge of the area and the midfielder flicked a glorious ball over the top for Sanogo. Sanogo watched the ball bounce and then sort of waved his foot his foot at the ball, luckily knocking it into the path of Alexis who drilled the ball home. I felt we deserved the goal as we had been the dominant team for most of the game so far and despite a little bit of fortune, it was quite a well worked goal.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to enjoy our lead for long. Almost straight after we’d scored, Leicester broke down our left hand side and the dangerous Schlupp delivered a great cross into the middle. Koscielny should have been able to head the ball away, but inexplicably let Ulloa peel off him and then misjudged the ball as it sailed over his head, allowing the Argentine to head home past a helpless Szczesny. A frustratingly soft goal to give away, especially with the way Schlupp got to the byline pretty much unopposed and the fact that a clearly unfit Koscielny had been left on and subsequently made a costly error. To compound it all, Koscielny was substituted four minutes later. Four minutes too late.

The second half became a pattern of Arsenal attacks building slowly and eventually breaking down. Leicester were less of a threat as they dropped off a bit, but they grouped most of their players in and around the penalty box and made it as difficult as possible for us to break through. By my count, we had two good chances. The first came when Cazorla clipped another beautiful ball over the top for Ramsey who could only head tamely at Schmeichel when he maybe could have headed across to Sanogo, who would have had a pretty much open goal. The second fell to the french striker after some wonderful work from Monreal. The left back broke down the flank after a Leicester attack broke down and he held onto the ball until the perfect moment, when he slid a ball through to Sanogo, but the striker smashed the ball straight at the keeper.

That was pretty much it for our chances, but when both Özil and then Chamberlain (on for Cazorla), went down with injuries, leaving us light for short periods, Leicester looked very dangerous and nearly capitalised. A mistake by Chambers allowed Vardy to break away and evade a mad Flamini challenge. He played a one two with Nugent and it took a fantastic save from Szczesny to prevent us falling to a late defeat. The game petered out and we showed no signs of breaking through bar a late chance for Podolski which came to nothing.

For me the most disappointing thing about the game was how lack lustre we were in the second half. There was no urgency, no drive, no passion, no sense that we desperately needed a goal. Everything seemed a bit like ‘oh well, we had a go, never mind’. Couple that with the fact that we look horribly disjointed and unable to find each other with basic ten metre passes and I’m starting to worry. Our next game is against City at home and a performance like that will lead to a hammering. As I write, transfer deadline day is winding to a close and after hours of reports that Arsenal won’t do any business, rumours are abounding that Danny Welbeck is having a not medical ahead of a permanent loan deal and the notoriously (un)reliable Guilleme Ballague is saying that a French DM/CB is definitely, possibly joining in the next few hours. Fun times, let’s hope it works out in our favour…

Teams

Leicester City (4-5-1)
Schmeichel, de Laet, Konchesky, Hammond (Y), Morgan, Moore (Y), Mahrez (Albrighton 64’ (Y)), King, Nugent, Ulloa (Drinkwater 77’), Schlupp (Vardy 70’)
Subs
Hamer, Albrighton, Cambiasso, Wasilewski, Wood, Vardy, Drinkwater

Arsenal (4-3-3)
Szczesny (Y), Debuchy, Koscielny (Chambers 26’), Mertesacker, Monreal, Flamini, Ramsey, Cazorla (Chamberlain 77’), Özil, Alexis, Sanogo (Podolski 77’)
Subs
Martinez, Chambers, Chamberlain, Rosicky, Podolski, Wilshere, Campbell

Player Ratings

Szczesny - 7/10 - Saved our skins with an awesome stop right at the end
Debuchy - 6/10 - Not as good as the other night and out of position for their goal
Mertesacker - 7/10 - Made some important interceptions and tackles
Koscielny - 5/10 - Ouch in so many ways
Monreal - 7/10 - Another great performance and nearly set up a winner
Flamini - 6/10 - Quiet performance and efficient until a reckless challenge that nearly led to a goal
Ramsey - 6/10 - Well off the pace and no goal to make up for it this time
Cazorla - 7/10 - Actually looking pretty good in the midfield three and played well
Özil - 6/10 - Out wide again, switched to the right and was more effective
Alexis - 7/10 - He’s going to be fantastic and seems to be settling in now
Sanogo - 6/10 - Looked like he could make something happen but he’s just not good enough yet
Subs
Chambers - 6/10 - Showed his inexperience a few times but did a good job
Chamberlain - 5/10 - Ineffectual
Podolski - N/A - Don’t go there

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