Avalanche

With seven and a half of the eight minutes of injury time signalled by the 4th official yesterday afternoon gone, Arsenal were still just about in the title race. With eight minutes up, we were still in the title race. After ten minutes of injury time, we were still there, although still playing. But with 111 minutes played, Liverpool won a free kick right on the edge of the box. The free kick was repelled, the home crowd cheered, thinking that had to be it. Not so. Lucas followed the ball out to the left, Eboue inexplicably ran into the back of him and referee Andre Marriner awarded his second penalty of the afternoon, his second penalty in fact, of the last five minutes. Dirk Kuyt smashed it into the top corner and the referee blew the whistle for full-time.

That was it.

None of which is to blame the referee for our third home draw in a row- a sequence of results that looks decisive. This isn't the first time this has happened to us this season and it certainly isn't the first time we have "won" a match against Liverpool late on only to throw it away almost immediately. In fact, if you ignore the fact that Abou Diaby's header to win the home game against Liverpool last season came with about fifteen minutes left, the sequence of events that took place right at the end of yesterday's match are remarkably similar to last year's. A last gasp Liverpool free kick that leads to a penalty shout- we got lucky last year when Cesc's outstretched arm was ignored by the referee, but not this time.

The fact of the matter is that, yet again, we made very hard work of opponents who came with one idea, to defend in an organised fashion and look to hit us on the break- or is that two ideas? You tell me. To me, this 90 minutes, or 111 minutes, against Liverpool encapsulates a season that could so easily have been glorious, but is now collapsing in an avalanche of frustration. Possession, possession, possession. Almost total dominance but without creating the chances to show for it. We get handed a breakthrough and then, under the bare minimum of pressure, we panic and give back the advantage we had only just won. I don't want to scapegoat Eboue for his actions yesterday- you only had to look at his face to see that he knew what he'd done and what it meant. Arsène likes to talk about this side's intelligence and mental strength, I don't see any of that in Eboue; but that's not his fault. He either has it, or he doesn't and I think that the judgement's been in on him for some time.

But in his panicky challenge on Lucas yesterday, we see the chickens coming home to roost in Arsène's persistence with players that clearly lack what it takes to do the right things at the right time. It's difficult to imagine, for example, that Bac Sagna would have made that challenge- although, of course, had Sagna been fit, then Eboue wouldn't have been playing so perhaps this is not an entirely fair argument. But I look back through the season and I see players that appear to crumble under any sort of pressure; Bendtner in Barcelona, Koscielny at Wembley, Rosicky anywhere except at home to Leyton Orient, the team as a whole at Newcastle, at home to Spurs... I could go on. Even Fabregas yesterday- though he won the penalty, some of his decision making and passing appeared to be that of a man who knew what was at stake and felt that pressure.

It would be unfair to write a paragraph like that and not commend Robin van Persie's mental strength in expertly dispatching what should have been a decisive penalty in the 8th minute of injury time yesterday afternoon. But I think Robin also struggled to break his shackles yesterday afternoon. And I go back to something I was saying after the Blackburn game. Which is that, when faced with massed ranks of defence, the guy needs more support than he is getting. I can't talk about Sunderland as I didn't see it, but the last two home games have seen Robin very isolated amongst a sea of defenders. I know what the idea is behind giving Cesc the role behind him in midfield, but I think we really need to think about going back to a 4-4-2 formation at home and giving opposition defences something else to think about. For all our possession yesterday afternoon, we created very little in the way of clear cut chances, Koscielny hitting the bar and van Persie denied by a fine Reina save late on. At the moment, it seems like this Arsenal side have been worked out- they need to find another way. They need to do it fast.

Finally, I'd just like to say congratulations to Jack Wilshere on winning the PFA Young Player of the Year award last night. I think you'll all agree that Wilshere has exceeded expectations this season and the award is a richly deserved one. Let's have more of the same next season.

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