Date: 27th February 2015 at 8:19am
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I love Arsenal. I love the club, and I will forever. But Wednesday’s performance was disgusting. I usually just watch Arsenal mess up in big games and see them struggle but the game against Monaco got me on a mad one. Not good enough at all. We all celebrated when we got Monaco in the draw, you couldn’t really ask for a better opponent, even considering the fact that we finished 2nd in our group and quite frankly we was lucky not to get a Madrid, a Barca or a Bayern.

Now, no disrespect to Monaco, they were organised, knew exactly what they came to do and executed it perfectly, they would have just executed it well but knowing us we made it easier for them.

Olivier Giroud, who played brilliantly in the last few games, was saved by Arsene when taken off, because he was playing abysmally, it was like the old him we saw who would miss the key chances in the game that you expect him to score, even someone of his calibre should be scoring golden chances.

Manchester City played almost as bad as Arsenal did the day before but Sergio Aguero remembered where the back of the net was. His passing is usually average or below but like everyone else on the pitch, we constantly gave the ball away. Mesut Ozil, completely in-effective in the game. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain showed a million times more passion in the little part he played than Ozil ever did in 90 mins. Why isn’t he starting, why wasn’t Walcott? Welbeck is not a winger, trick may work a few times but when there’s better players available in that position you play them. Welbz works his socks off but he had the net gaping and hit it at Walcott instead. Cazorla’s not a holding midfielder either, it was Ozil that should have been off and not him. Ozil’s a brilliant player and it’s acceptable to drift in and out but he was oh so poor. Monaco are a beatable side but they’re no joke. Play your best team, debatably resting Sanchez as he looks knackered.

Before I get onto the manager, I’ll have to take a look at the atmosphere from the fans. I wasn’t there to see the game live, but from what I could see it was reflective on the team’s performance. Complacent. Slow. Predictable. It’s probably the worst performance I’ve seen from Arsenal at home in a while, and the worst performance we’ve had in Europe. Unlike big sides like Chelsea & Bayern who have come here and outdone us, Monaco was there for the taking and we blew it. This was the chance to finally say to our doubters.

I have not been an “In Arsene We Trust” fanboy so I’m far from a plastic fan, but if you can’t put these teams away in the games that matter what other chance do you have of winning the CL? The players will end up performing well and I can see us winning at their ground simply because we pretty much do that every year these days, only to still bow out.

We all cried out to the club and said he needs to change his ways, transfers he has but the tactical naivety is a joke. It was obvious in the first-half that we was playing to narrow, our two wingers was meant to be Welbeck (who was mostly in the middle) and Sanchez (who was mostly in the middle). No width and then the full-backs get exposed and they will get the biggest criticism. It’s ironic how our captain was arguably the worst of them all, Gabriel has to come in because I’ve seen enough mistakes from Per to consider that he may just be past his best.

We can’t lose our heads, it’s one loss in a good run of wins before that, there’s the game against Everton which really is a must win game now if it wasn’t already. But the same problems keep occurring, even Tottenham fans know the changes we need to make. Wenger is good enough to get us top four, and good enough to get us a domestic cup with luck going our way, but we should be aiming higher, we can’t do that with him at the helm at this moment in time. The great things he has done is duly appreciated but times have changed and we’re drifting away like Mesut.

Don’t mind me though, we’ll get top four and we’ll repeat this cycle all over again.

Get them to watch the Invincibles and know that on paper they’re not too far but when it matters they are lightyears away. Beating City doesn’t feel worth much any more.

 

One response to “Beating Man City means nothing for Arsenal anymore”

  1. Kimmono says:

    Gabriel for Per and William Carvalho andre are much netter insulated om the counter.