Arsenal get away with it

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
30 Jan	3:00 PM	FA	Huddersfield Town (H)	2	1	Win

I don't read comments a lot, and I certainly don't want to get into the habit of responding to everyone, because it would take forever, but I understand that the general consensus on here is that I'm too negative, even when the team does well.

I apologise that I can't please everyone, but I won't apologise for my style, that's just how I am. I care very deeply for Arsenal, so much so that I'm perhaps like an over-protective and overly critical parent; I can't stand seeing players wearing the shirt and not giving 100%, and sadly I see that a lot, and I perhaps don't get as much of a short-term thrill from one good performance or win that I should, so I'm overly cautious about getting ahead of myself, and try to see how we're looking in the long-term.

Today is one of those days, I'm afraid, where watching Arsenal has stressed me out. Having started so well against League One side Huddersfield, going a goal up pretty early, we spent most of the first half trying to score the perfect goal like it was going to be a walkover. That's not an attitude I like and I have seen it cost us games many times.

The second half was even worse, as we basically stopped playing all together. The visitors could have been about 4-1 up by the time they eventually equalised. To be fair on him, a great save from Manuel Almunia had temporarily kept us in the game. For a change, I can't really fault him on the goal either, as a bullet header from a poorly defended set piece flew past him.

In the end, we got out of jail a bit with a late penalty, as we did against Leeds in the last round, and this time it was a winning goal to send us through.

We won the game, and for some people that's good enough. Obviously I'm glad we won and I cheered with mad relief when Cesc scored, but I'm still left with the feeling of dread that this kind of performance will keep creeping back and eventually cost us. We got away with it against Leeds, performing much better in the replay; we got away with it against Ipswich, performing much better in the second leg, and we got away with it today, but we've been punished against West Brom, Sunderland, Newcastle, Shakhtar, Spurs and Braga this season, and many times in previous seasons, so excuse me if the result alone isn't enough to comfort me.

What the game today showed more than anything, is that despite recent quotes from Wenger, and agreement from various blogs that this is the manager's strongest squad in his time at Arsenal, it clearly isn't. In theory, the lineup that played today should be able to come in against Premier League or Champions League opposition and do a job, and yet it struggled greatly against a side from League One. Denilson in particular (who can do no wrong in the eyes of some) had a shocker, and has shown that even as backup he isn't really good enough. Almunia did well, Eboue was fine, Diaby was rusty but can be forgiven as he has been out for so long and Gibbs was pretty poor for the same reasons.

I hope we get top flight opposition in the next round, I really do. I don't trust us against lower league opposition based on what we've seen this season. We take them too lightly and think 20 minutes of good football is enough to see us through. We clearly didn't learn from Leeds and Ipswich, and we probably won't learn from this.

Am I being so unreasonable? Perhaps. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and I have given mine, and what would be the point in blogging if we didn't have something controversial to say occasionally? Otherwise every post could be done in about two sentences: Arsenal won today. I am glad they won.

Overall, just because of everything in between, that doesn't stop those two sentences being true.

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