Reviews
It looked like Adebayor was playing against kids
Date: 29 Apr 2008By Mean Lean
Match Review - Derby 2 Arsenal 6 - Premier League
What kind of situation would we have been in if our fixtures had looked like this
Birmingham City (a) 2-2
Derby (a) 28.4.08
It could have changed our season completely but I suppose you could say that for alot of teams throughout the league.
I would have to agree with those who say that this Derby side are the worst team to play in the Premier League. They are truly woeful and are way way out of their depth.
I was kind of surprised when I saw the line up just before the match started. 'I thought players were being rested?' I said to my mate who was on the phone while Gallas was doing his usual public motivating.
The only player rested from the starting line up was Adebayor but I am pretty sure Togo are not in the European championships. Maybe that has something to do with them not in Europe but hey, what do I know?
Cesc, Van Persie, Gallas and Clichy all started the game. Eboue was drafted back on the right with Theo Walcott switching to the left. I thought Arsene would shuffle it around so he could keep Walcott on the right but I suppose we ran out of enough players to play in wide areas to do that.
The game started off very strange indeed, it felt like a pre season friendly. Arsenal passing the ball around half arsed not breaking a sweat and giving away possession to cheaply. Derby's passing was awful in alot of patches but at least they had a little heart and passion.
Derby had an early chance on the 7th minute when Villa (not that one) scuffed a shot wide of the post after a cross from Mears.
Alex Song almost put through his own net a few minutes later after he deflected a shot that wrong footed debutant Lukasz Fabianski, but the ball luckily spun outside the right post.
Kolo Toure was driving forward from right back and tried to get into the opposition box as often as he could.
I remember looking up at the clock and seeing 15 minutes, I thought to myself what a truly dull start to a game, I was bored and hopeful that something would change, it needed a spark. Theo Walcott kept coming inside on his right foot without beating his man so he couldn't inject that little bit extra that Arsenal needed at that point.
Derby's ball retention was quite poor, it was unbelievable how many times they just gave the ball straight to us. On 25 minutes Darren Moore played the ball backwards straight to Bendtner who should have played Van Persie in on goal but his pass had the wrong angle on it so Van Persie checked back and played it back into Bendtner's path who took a touch and slid it across the keeper into the far post. He seems to like that finish, it is not the first time that he has done that.
Darren Moore's pass was inexcusable. A player at that level should not be giving away possession like that.
Bendtner was hugged by Van Persie, Cesc and Walcott. Bendtner had a big smile on his face. Do the players really not like him? Is this all exaggerated?
Arsenal have missed alot of chances this season and we say that alot of that is down to Van Persie being out for so much of the season. Well you could have fooled me! On 28 minutes Walcott drove inside on his right side and ignored Bendtner's run with left alot of space for Van Persie in the penalty area. Walcott found him and the Dutchman took a touch opened up his body and should have slid the ball into the corner of the net, instead he curled it wide of the far post. Surly scoring would have been easier.
What is it with Arsenal and missing chances? It is not even this new team, the team previous had the same problem on occasions. ok, not as often but we have converted the percentage of chances that we should be.
In usual Arsenal fashion, we were punished for not taking our chances. And on 31 minutes Derby found an equaliser. Song gave away a needless freekick near the byline. Robbie Savage swung it in and McEveley taps it in after the second attempt. Truly awful Arsenal defending. No plan, no organisation just a mess. Three Arsenal players were to blame for that goal and unfortunately it has been like this all season long.
It wasn't very long until Arsenal got back infront once again and Van Persie made up for his earlier miss. On 39 minutes Kolo Toure played a wonderfully weighted pass to Van Persie who pulled off Moore to and took the ball down on his chest inside the penalty box he swivelled and crashed a right foot volley past Carroll. Could he have done that against Liverpool at home in the Champions league? Instead of hitting it first time over the bar from Flamini's long pass.
So half time, 2-1 Arsenal. The game had picked up after a dull first 15 minutes. Van Persie being Van Persie had to go off injured. It is getting a little silly now isn't it? Apparently it is nothing serious just a calf strain but why is it always him?
I thought to myself that Derby would have a terrible time controlling Adebayor. They looked a shambles at the back without the injection of pace and power.
Toure had two early strikes just after half time but couldn't find the net. As the game went on Fabregas' influence grew and he was on another level to the rest. He strolled around the pitch as if he owned it.
On 59 minutes Adebayor got his name on the scoresheet. Walcott moved across to the right for the first time in the game and beat the last defender and squared the ball to Eboue who sort of fell over and the ball made its way across to Adebayor to tap in at the back post.
Arsenal begun cutting through Derby as if they were not there. Adebayor and Bendtner were linking up very well which was nice to see. It seemed like Adebayor was playing from the left so they wouldn't get in each others spaces. Bendtner didn't provide much of a goal threat but what he did well was link the midfield and attack well.
Theo Walcott had a great chance on 64 minutes. Bendtner played him clean through, Carroll came out but Theo took it very early and placed it wide of the far post. He could have waltzed round the keeper and slotted it into an empty net.
Gilberto replaced Denilson who I thought had a decent game alongside Cesc. Maybe Arsene has shown us the future should Flamini leave.
Derby had a penalty claim turned down, then they grabbed a goal back. Robert Earnshaw raced through and placed a wonderful finish past Fabianski and into the inside sidenetting. That was followed by a flip and strange dance.
Two minutes later on 79 minutes Gilberto played a long pass to Walcott who was on the left wing he drove into the box and curled a delightful finish high past the Derby keeper. The best goal of the night.
The goals didn't stop there, on 81 Clichy crossed into the box for Adebayor to slide in and grab his second of the game and Arsenal's 5th. Cue Eboue and Ade's piss take dance. Funny stuff.
I was hoping that Ade would get another chance to grab the match ball and he did in injury time. Cesc played another great pass through to the big man who rounded Carroll and stuck the ball into the empty net with his left foot.
It looked like Adebayor was playing against kids, the gulf in class was massive.
I have never witnessed a game where we have missed so many chances, played most of the game in second gear and scored 6 goals. It will do Adebayor and Walcott's confidence some good though and that is a good thing to take into Everton at home.
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It looks like we still have problems at the back, how i wish we'd poach Adams from Portsmouth and get him to sort out our back four!
Also, anyone else notice how Spurs are just playing the same old tricks and buying players that Arsenal have shown a remote interest in just like they did with Jenas, Carrick, Woodgate etc...
And there were some good performances from Bendtner, Walcott, Denilson et al. Bendtner was probably smiling because - for a change - more than one team mate showed him some love after he scored!
However, it must surely be a serious concern - especially for Arsene - that one of the poorest teams ever to play in the Premier League, who have been struggling to score goals all season, managed to score two soft goals against us, a team with ambitions of winning silverware at home and abroad.
The other serious concern is the one that has been much discussed on this & other Arsenal blogs - our appalling inefficiency when it comes to converting scoring opportunies into actual goals.
We could definitely have scored at least ten goals last night - probably more - but, once again, we didn't take the art of scoring goals & being ruthless, sufficiently serious.
If & when we sort out our defending - both individually & collectively -
as well as improving our scoring efficiency, we'll be awesome, and blow opposition teams away.
But if there's no substantial, tangible improvement in those areas, then we'll continue to suffer, and silverware will elude us.
That first Derby goal was a complete and utter joke.
you sing your heart out but you get nothing back.
that win was great btw.
maybe its just derby being derbby and making everything look better than it is, bar our defence of course.
I wholly disagree with your theory that Arsene should go. Arsenal's period of dominance was preceded by 1999/2000/2001 of no trophies. United weren't dominant in 2004/2005/2006, and look how it's turned out now. Rooney, Ronaldo et al have grown together to become a dominant force. And there's every chance that Cesc, Theo, Ade et al can do the same. A bit of patience is what's required.
Arsenal need to produce the same levels of performance that they display when playing Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool & Milan, for example, against the lesser teams in the premier league, week in, week out.
That means that when facing Portsmouth, Middlesboro, Sunderland, etc, we treat them as if we're playing against Man Utd, and prepare & play accordingly.
Every league game is a big game, in terms of the points available, and we should reflect that in our performances throughout the season.
In short, we need to take the so called lesser teams seriously, as they can and indeed have, cost us points, bigtime.
Our central midfield is not a major worry even if Flamini decides to jump ship and go to a club who will not be in the Champions League next season! Denilson looked good and Diaby is a centre mid player who we've not seen in his favoured position once all season!
Our defence is almost perfect. Sagna and Clichy were rightly picked for team of the season. They have been brilliant. Toure and Gallas have had flashes of brilliance but have not been consistent and neither are truely comanding in the air! How good would our defence have been if we'd had Sol in place of either Gallas or Toure!!!
We really need a big strong rock of a man to be able to deal with the likes of Drogba and Davies and Crouch. But if i was given the choice between buying a 6 4" eastern european bruiser of a man or bringning Adams in as a defence coach i'd chose Adams no question!
He could make Senderos world class i'm sure!
How can a team like arsenal concede 2 soft goals like they did yesterday? Wenger should look into it.
man u da bEST - You are the joker here and crap ass! Your team had cleansheets all the way againts poor teams? How about the team that kicked your ass out from FA Cup..?...errrr where were they from?...hahaha get a life man!
Bendtner was Bergkamp like as he floated around in the hole. Ok, he wasn't quite Bergkamp level but he produced some good link up. His pass to Clichy for Ade's goal was class.
I agree that our defence is the one area that we need to fix. It would be interesting to see what Wenger would have done had Sagna been available. It seems that he doesn't want to play Toure and Gallas together now.
I hear Pascal Cygan is a good defender who we should look at
Does this count as rotation?
Why didn't he do it earlier. Because we had fewer fit backup players in midfield and attack. Denilson played tonight but he's just back from injury. Song as well. Djourou as well. Not to mention of course Rosicky, Diaby and Eduardo who were missing at crucial times.
Sorry to bore you all. But I feel the conventional explanation of what happened to us this season is flawed. It was injuries that did us in. Not all that depth in strength or squad in depth or whatever it's called or means.
He needs a goalkeeper too, Fabianski is a baby, if Almunia (a player a don't rate) got injured for 3 months you can't seriously expect Fabianski to fill in.
I don't know what it is with Wenger but he refuses to compromise. He can't tell the difference between how a player plays in a relaxed situation or how a player performs in a pressurised situation.
The fact that Arsenal went into this season with only 3 centre-backs, one of which was a seasoned failure, consistently crumbling under pressure, proves that Wenger has major chinks in his mental armoury. I can't imagine any other top manager in Europe allowing this ridiculous state of affairs to continue.
You might have a chink in your mental armoury. United have three centre backs. If you count brown, then we also get to mention that United started the season without one single right back.
We started the season with 3 centre backs, one on loan, and 3 other players that could play centre backs.
I believe that injuries, bad luck with refereeing decisions, poor defending & a failure to be efficient when converting scoring chances into actual goals are the reasons why we are not going
to win any silverware this season.
There is, of course, still a slim mathematical chance that we could win the title this season, but I'll celebrate that if & when it happens.
GK Frey or Gomes (As I think Almunia is shit)
CB Mexes & Barzagli (Toure is clumsy & Gallas cant deal with stronger players)
WF Robhino & Ben Afra (Rosicky is injury prone & Hleb is scared 2 shoot)
CF Villa or Huntaalar ( As Van PersIe once again reminded us all)
Blackburn 1-1 should have won
Liverpool 1-1 Should have won
Newcastle 1-1 Couldn’t hold on 2 the lead
Birmingham 1-1 should have won
Birmingham 2-2 should have won
Aston Villa 1-1 Clumsy Senderos
Wigan 0-0 should have won
Middlesbrough 1-1 Poor Defending As Usual
Chelsea 2-1 Couldn’t hold on 2 the lead
Liverpool 1-1 should have won
Man U 2-1 did not take R chances gave away cheap set-pieces lost concentration and fucked up.
Arsenal R overrated why because they cant defend they cant kill off teams they have a average Keeper a winger who’s scared 2 shoot and another who rarely scores the first goal and injury prone on top of that. But what makes it worst is that because AW has done so much for the club he is now exempt from criticism simply because ‘’Arsene Knows’’ as they say just because he has done so much that does not mean U shouldn’t question his decisions if he know’s so much explain why he would persist with Senderos or Eboue why he did not sign Wodgate & Anelka (in January) and sent Bendtner on loan why he did not rest key player’s who were clearly getting tired why he did not let Diarra go on loan instead of letting him go completely and than excusing it by claming he had enough players in that position why did he allow such a key player in Flamini 2 run out his contract like that why does he continue 2 tell the world his players r young and still learning lets see shall we Almuina 30 Sagna 25 Gallas 30 Toure 27 Hleb 26 Rosicky 27
The rest R 24 apart from Clichy & Fabregas who R the only ones who U could call kids!!! why has he got inexperienced player’s who he clearly does not trust why does he builds teams that have almost no competition for places since the players on the bench R 2 young and still learning there trade