Arsenal to bounce back against Milan

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
16 Feb	5:15 PM	FA	Manchester United (A)	0	4	Lost

Obviously after the drubbing at White Hart Lane, the team sheet for the Manchester United game put the fear of God into most of us. I exchanged text messages with my mate Rich.

Kick off message from Richard: "I have a bad feeling about this one."

Message to Richard 10 minutes into game: "If United score during this spell we're in trouble. We must hold for 40 minutes to leave here with any pride."

Message from Richard 16 minutes: "We're in trouble!" It was 2-0 then.

I'm not going to have a go at Wenger because I don't think it will be fair. We all knew from the Spurs game that any good counter-attacking team will take Arsenal apart without Flamini.

We all knew that Clichy and Sagna have no real subs. So without Flamini, Sagna and Clichy a decent team (and Manchester United are more decent than Spurs) would destroy us. At the same time Wenger has Adebayor, Flamini, Sagna and Clichy all recovering from injuries and he has AC Milan on Wednesday. What to do?

Your most important games in football are your last game and your next game. The last game determines your psychology going into the next game so it influences the next game and then the next game becomes your last game. It's a cycle.

Conventional wisdom says you should always put out your strongest team for your next game to give yourself a chance for the game after that. Ferguson followed that wisdom. But Wenger has the European champions coming to the Emirates in the Champions League – that's not just any next game especially compared with the FA Cup.

It turns out that Ferguson won but I cannot begrudge Wenger given the thinness of the squad. What if we got a replay and lost 2 players against AC Milan?

So Manchester United beating Arsenal 4-0 was the last game. How is it going to affect the next game?

One can never be sure but there are reasons to believe the effect may be positive because the game was so utterly uncompetitive that we know exactly what was wrong.

The players knew why they lost, Wenger knew why they lost and most importantly, AC Milan knows why Arsenal lost. The reason why we lost is not a deep rooted problem.

It is clear and completely solvable for the next game – it was the about inexperienced and incompatible substitutes. The team against AC Milan will be almost completely different and I believe they will take more strength, will and concentration into the Milan game. They will want to bounce back and the players in that team can.

The components of that reason why we lost are solvable for the Milan game but remain a long term problem for the title race.

First Gilberto, a player that has served us well with distinctions is no longer a good match for the team. He still does what he does well – I disagree that he has past it. His midfield style is about blocking channels for passes and it will work well if he played for Juventus or some other team where positioning is excellent in the back four.

Arsenal on the hand defend and attack together so in counter-attacking situations, we are stressed and out-numbered and we need midfielders who close down and challenge before it's too late. Flamini and Diarra are perfect for that.

In Gilberto's world, he tries to block the passage around Carrick or Anderson to stop them finding a killer pass. But behind him, Rooney is a resourceful and constant mover combined with the movement of Fletcher and Nani so the options for Carrick and Anderson are changing every millisecond without Gilberto knowing because he is facing the wrong way. Anderson and Carrick can deliver a good pass when given room and they did time and time again. The same thing happened against Spurs.

Flamini and Diarra on the other hand close down and force players to change options or pass under stress so they make poor passes or lose the ball. If you happen to beat them, they will try to bring you down or disrupt illegally asap (far away from a dangerous free-kick zone) so they don't get a yellow and it's usually harmless.

In 2006, I wrote here about the fact that I really wish Diarra was an Arsenal player. Then he came and left. He quit a fight that was really between him, Denilson and Flamini (since Gilberto is probably in his last season) in a league where you can play up to 60 games a season. Real shame!

United had the chance to play youngsters in exactly the positions where Arsenal were weak so their youngsters shone. Anderson is a wonderful player. He is not as intelligent as Fabregas and cannot survive different types of game situations as Fabregas but he is very skilful, strong and a match-winner.

Fabregas is not a match-winner, he is the best lubricant you can buy. It will be interesting to see how they go over the next few years. I get the feeling Anderson will have a huge profile like Vieira had and Fabregas will have respect but quiet profile like Scholes and Bergkamp had.

Hoyte, Eboue and Armand Traore are well known issues so there is no point discussing that. I like Hoyte – he benefits from a balanced team. In a non-balanced team he has problems. Eboue lost his place to Sagna because he was not professional enough to match his talents.

Traore is not ready – in fact he is so far from ready he should go back to the reserves. His skills are visible but he needs time and it is almost unfair to put him in these situations.

So we don't have any decent cover for Sagna, Clichy and Flamini. Arsenal are where they are now because that back line plus Flamini has been very good this season. One person missing and we are in trouble. This is by far the most worrying problem that is facing us this season. What if we had an injury to Flamini or Clichy or Sagna in the run-in?

I also made a personal observation about Gallas and Touré. Gallas is a technical defender but he is an optimist. If an Arsenal player is tackling or jumping, he expects them to get the ball and reacts a little late if they miss. Touré is not a technical defender.

He is a player that relies on his recovery and initial pace for his defending and his ball skills for coming out of defence. His aerial power and positioning are suspect – because he is not a trained defender.

Senderos on the other hand is a trained defender, a technical defender and a pessimist. He anticipates that people might miss tackles or headers. He plays to a thrown-in instead of trying to beat a winger and above all he is excellent in the air. He is not great one-to-one but he does a lot to make sure he is never one-to-one because he is a trained defender.

Against AC Milan, I would prefer to see Gallas-Senderos partnership. Touré needs a rest and I also think he should come in if Flamini gets injured instead of Gilberto.

Lastly, I was impressed with Eduardo's work rate and professionalism during the defeat and I appreciated Adebayor a little more. His short time on the pitch showed just how difficult he is to play against.

AC Milan are different to United. They don't have Rooney. Rooney threatens defenders with skill, persistence and power. He is direct and unsophisticated.

Milan's counter-attacking will not be as quick but they will be dangerous from all kinds of situations. Flamini will naturally help double-up against threats and Gallas-Senderos will be good in the air. Hleb will draw a lot of fouls if he plays it good and hopefully Rosicky will be back.

Adebayor will not have an easy time against some of the most canny defenders on the planet especially as his first touch usually takes the ball away from him but his nuisance may make a goal for Eduardo. Adebayor needs to be at his most unselfish and be quick to look up against Milan. If he does, then I'm backing Eduardo to score.

User Comments

samuel paul

Posted on 3 Mar, 2008 at 02:09 PM - Reply

the absence of van persie made adebayor thinks he is the best striker in arsenal

Sege Bee

Posted on 20 Feb, 2008 at 01:12 AM - Reply

eehm nice post but sorry dnt agree with the Fabregas and Anderson comparison.Fab is indeed a match winner and won't have that much of quiet career.He's always in the news and it'll remain so for a very very long time

Femi

Posted on 19 Feb, 2008 at 09:59 PM - Reply

Hleb and Eduardo hold the aces for tomorrow's match. If Hleb can find his touch, He'll cause lot's of problems for Milan's defence. Also Arsenal should not be fixed. It's been seen that they score fantastic goals from the wings. They should also take shots. Even though their marksmaship is highly suspect.
All the best!!!

joseph,from nigeria

Posted on 19 Feb, 2008 at 02:19 PM - Reply

wenger we arsenal fans in nigeria enjoy your style of football alot and we are 100% behind you.just keep giving us the good result.bye

Jesper

Posted on 19 Feb, 2008 at 01:52 PM - Reply

What you say is true but I feel if we are complete and Traore would be the only backup player in the squad he would not have been so bad. Wenger likes small squads because his type of football requires understanding between players. Wenger will never have a bigger squad and Saturday it was just too many injuries against a good opponent, and it went wrong. I think the backups have to be more experienced, but when you look at Gilberto I also know that is not always a solution. Lets hope our keyplayers tomorrow.

SouljaKyd94

Posted on 19 Feb, 2008 at 12:05 PM - Reply

wow that is an amazing article and yeah we will win against AC Milan hopefully!!

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