Arsenal At A Crossroads After Chelsea Defeat

Match Review: Arsenal 0 Chelsea 1 - Premier League 24.01.16

At the end of Sunday’s game I could barely muster the energy to be angry. I’ve seen this script and this game many times before and to be honest, it just makes me sad. As the red card came out and Mertesacker trudged off I felt that familiar sinking feeling. As soon as Costa tumbled under the German’s challenge, we all knew what was coming. The inevitable goal followed by a valiant but fruitless struggle against odds followed and for me, it was depressing and a little boring. As ever, we dared to believe that things would be different, but Chelsea came over and took our lunch money again. It doesn't infuriate me in the way it used to now, I’m just tired of it.

For once, the injury news was good. Özil returned to the starting line up and Alexis was fit enough to make the bench. Chelsea started with two holding midfielders and Hazard was left on the bench, indicating that they would look to defend and play on the counter. I think they would probably have taken a 0-0 before the game, especially given their current situation. We were overwhelming favourites and I, like many, expected a fairly routine win.

The first ten minutes or so were fairly even and it was pretty nervy from both teams. The frustrating thing is that I felt we were just starting to settle into the game when the sending off happened, but that’s Arsenal for you. I have a number of gripes about the whole incident, but first of all I’d like to put out there that I think the referee made the right decision. Costa made it look at lot worse than it was, there wasn’t a huge amount of contact, but Mertesacker went to ground and stopped him having a clear shot on goal. The referee could have possibly given a yellow given he was a reasonable distance from the goal and Koscielny was quite close by, but in his view it was a clear goal scoring opportunity. I can't really argue with his decision.

The first frustration I have with this incident is how easily we got caught out by such a basic tactic. First of all we knew Chelsea were set up to play on the counter and, not for the first time, we fell straight into the trap. Not only that, but we also fell victim to one of Chelsea’s most obvious tactics, which is just a simple quick ball in behind to Costa against a team playing a high line. Costa isolated himself against Mertesacker as any striker with a reasonable amount of pace will do and played us for the fools we are. After the Everton game at Stamford Bridge, the pundits pointed out how Fabregas will regularly look to send a ball in behind to Costa immediately after a turnover in possession. On this occasion it was Willian, but the premise is the same and Chelsea look to do it every game. It shows a worrying lack of intelligence and planning to get caught out by this.

My second problem with the incident is Mertesacker making the tackle at all and there are a few different things to consider about it. Firstly, it was so early in the game that making such a tackle was just unnecessary. A player of his experience would know he was likely to be sent off for the foul and just over fifteen minutes into the game is not the time to be losing our captain and leader in the defence. He might have prevented a goal, but with so long to play in the game, it made it highly likely we’d concede anyway and not be able to recover. I’d have much rather gone one down and had the rest of the game to try to come back than risk playing the majority of the game a man down.

The next thing to consider is the likelihood of Costa scoring. It would have pretty much been a one on one, although Koscielny was not far from being able to get back, so it would have been a great chance for Costa. However, we have a world class keeper for once, one who’s rather good at one on ones. Surely it’d have been much better to give him a shot at saving it than take the red card? Couple that with Costa’s patchy form this season and there is absolutely no guarantee that he’d have converted the chance. In summary, back your keeper to bail you out, give Costa a chance to miss it and back your team’s ability to sort things out over the course of the game if he does score. Mertesacker didn’t, he panicked and it cost us dear.

There was a lot of consternation over Wenger’s decision to make Giroud the sacrifice for Gabriel too. I’m not sure why though, as taking any of the front four off presented a number of pros and cons. If you take Campbell off you lose his work rate, which is key in a situation when you’re a man light. You can’t take Özil off, as he’s the most creative player in the team and crucial if you want to break through against a resolute defence and losing Walcott would have taken most of the pace out of the team. Against a team with an extra man and defending deep, someone with pace is hugely important for counter attacking and for trying to get in behind. For all Giroud’s qualities, he was a pretty logical choice for the substitution and the booing was pretty ridiculous if I’m being honest.

As soon as the sending off happened, I could just tell we would lose the game. Chelsea duly obliged by scoring very quickly after the incident and from that point on we were climbing a mountain. Now I can’t fault the effort from the players and most teams are difficult to break down when you’re a man light, but even with ten we played the better football and looked the better team. That counts for nothing though, as we squandered the few openings we made. Flamini hooked the best one over the bar just before half-time when he should have probably tried to head the ball in, we failed two or three times to convert from a goal-mouth scramble that came from a corner and Flamini passed up another opportunity attempting some strange back heel flick.

The situation is simple in my eyes; the Premier League is there for the taking for any team that fancies putting together a reasonable run of form. It may sound crazy, but after thinking Leicester would start fading, I can’t help but feel they’re in with a real shout of doing the ridiculous. Equally I’m growing increasingly worried about Sp*rs. We simply can’t dismiss the fact that they have a talented team that has gelled and is getting results and at the moment they’re well in the title race. City are an obvious threat, a squad full of fantastic players and in the sort of patchy form that suggests that a good run may not be far off.

Arsenal are now at a crossroads. We can either reach out and grab this opportunity with both hands or we can continue to stumble on test after test and fail to capitalise on City’s slip ups and keep other teams like Sp*rs at arm’s length and let the title slip away. This game against Chelsea shouldn’t have even been a big test, I don’t think we’ll face a Chelsea team in more chaos and disarray than this one for a very long time. It should have been a routine win based simply on the fact that they’re a poor team at the moment and in the bottom half on merit.

I said before this run of three games (Liverpool, Stoke, Chelsea) that they would give us a good indication of whether we have the bottle to last in the title race. Two points from nine leaves with huge doubts. I’m absolutely not ruling us out of the race, but my confidence has been shaken big time. At the moment the only thing we’re consistent at is being inconsistent and it’s horrible to have to say, but I simply do not trust this Arsenal team to come through when it matters. It hurts to admit, but right now I more hope than believe that this is our year.

Teams

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Mertesacker (R), Monreal, Flamini, Ramsey, Özil, Campbell (Alexis 57’), Walcott (Chamberlain 75’), Giroud (Gabriel 22’)
Subs
Ospina, Gabriel, Gibbs, Chambers, Elneny, Alexis, Chamberlain

Chelsea (4-5-1)
Courtois, Ivanovic, Terry, Zouma, Azpillicueta, Mikel (Y), Matic (Y), Willian, Fabregas, Oscar (Y) (Hazard 77’), Costa (Remy 68’)
Subs
Begovic, Baba, Hazard, Traore, Remy, Loftus-Cheek

Player Ratings

Cech - 7/10 - Did everything asked of him
Bellerin - 6/10 - Thought he might have recognised the danger quicker for the red card
Koscielny - 6/10 - Had a fairly reasonable game, but maybe should have cut out the cross
Mertesacker - 1/10 - Really rash decision, it cost us hugely
Monreal - 6/10 - Again, we needed to stop the cross for their goal and he didn’t manage to
Flamini - 5/10 - Not the man for a crisis, positionally suspect and missed two great chances
Ramsey - 6/10 - Gave his all, but at the same time, left Flamini exposed for the red card incident
Campbell - 6/10 - Worked hard as usual, but didn’t provide much penetration
Özil - 6/10 - Ended up as a false nine for most of the game, which is not his forte
Walcott - 4/10 - Given armband for the day, it did nothing to inspire him, very poor
Giroud - N/A - Disappointed to be taken off, but had to be sacrificed
Subs
Gabriel - 7/10 - Did a very good job once on, might get a run in the team now
Alexis - 6/10 - Flashes of brilliance, but also signs of rust after the injury
Chamberlain - 6/10 - Wasn’t bad at all, but couldn’t provide the spark we needed

http://twitter.com/sambangsdrums Tell us what you think! If you agree, or have a different view, please leave a comment in the comments section or why not write a response or your own article on YouWrite?

Think you know Arsenal? Test your Arsenal knowledge on our trivia page and see if you can beat the top score.

Don't forget to like us on Facebook, add us to your G+ circle and follow us on Twitter.