I’m glad we lost. It makes me sick to my guts, but Arsenal deserved their defeat to Inter Milan. Wenger can say all he likes about the difference between the teams not being 3 goals. 3 goals was about the right margin. Not that Inter were spectacular, they simply made sure when a chance arrived they took it. Out of 5 clear chances they scored 3 of them, but Freddie missed when he should have scored; Henry’s penalty technique is always going to face problems against a keeper like Toldo who just won’t commit until the ball’s been struck; and Kanu missed a sitter in the second half.
Should it have been 3-3 all then, would that have masked what was really wrong last night, taken away some of the blame from those who deserve it? A 3-3 draw’s every gambler’s dream, but, like United’s defeat of Real Madrid at Old Trafford last April, the excitement of that would only have diverted public and press attention from a gaping wound in our tactics. I don’t blame Toure, he’s doing a good job of aping Sol’s last-ditch tackle technique. I don’t blame Sol, who’s perilously out of form, whatever the problems in his personal life. I don’t blame Lehmann, who seems to be blaming himself. I don’t even blame Lauren, who’s looking more and more like a decent midfielder with each week he continues at right back.
I blame Vieira and Gilberto, and they’ve both got to be big enough to stand up and take responsibility for a strategy that’s going to leak us goals anytime we play against opposition with the application to match a well thought out game-plan. Over and over again last night Vieira and Gilberto were stranded too far up the pitch as Inter Milan bypassed us, exposing the defence to the attentions of Martins, Gonzalez and Van Der Meyde, who all played very well. Particularly Martins, who Toure did very well to subdue to only one goal.
What is the point of playing two defensive midfielders if they defend on the halfway line? What’s the point at all? Inter are an extreme example, no teams like the challenge of defending as much as a Hector Cuper team does. Not even Liverpool. But Zanetti, as capable at right back as in central midfield, or even on the wing (which should embarrass Lauren all the more), and even Emre, whose presence in the match was fitful, showed exactly what the most feted midfielder in the world and his junior partner were doing wrong.
Play two defensive midfielders and when the opposition attacks you should be facing 6 defenders. It’s nothing more complicated than that. Inter weren’t playing crosses to some big lug. They were playing the through ball from midfield that we were trying so forlornly the whole night. Except for us it wasn’t getting further than the outstanding combination of Zanetti and Cannavaro who picked off those balls. Who between them watched the ball coming towards them and knew right away that one of them would get hold of it. That was a masterstroke of judgement by Cuper, putting his best two players in position to deal in tandem with the main threat Arsenal pose to teams, cutting off absolutely the channel from the left wing to the edge of the box. They’re better than any defenders Arsenal have. Better than Sol, and miles ahead of Lauren, Toure and Ash. But if Vieira and Gilberto had been doing their jobs then there should not have been the problems there were. Toure shouldn’t have had to show how proficient he is at the flying salmon tackle.
Just goddamn get in the way. That’s all. Watch the ball moving towards the 18 yard box and stop the fluency of the player in possession of it. Gilberto and Vieira are GOOD at that. But there’s no point doing it on the halfway line. It’s to prompt an immediate counterattack, but on those occasions when, Vieira particularly, we did manage to rob the ball that far forward, what did we face? Zanetti standing 3 yards in front of Cannavaro. Waiting, watching. And deep inside laughing at the longstanding capacity for Arsenal not to learn the lessons of the past. Not to remember those games against Juventus in Turin, all those times against Valencia, against Ajax and Roma. Back in the Wembley nightmare against Fiorentina. And to learn from them.
It’s not defensive football for two defensive players to stand a little further back. It’s common sense. And for a man as renownedly intelligent as Wenger, our team’s not collectively realising that is making us look really, really stupid. I don’t even want to mention our inability to cross the ball. That’s something for another day. Crossing needs Pennant and a new centre forward, an Ibrahimovic, our own Vieri. Don’t even worry about that unless we go into the transfer market. And it doesn’t mean we can’t win the Premiership. No English team could do what Inter did last night. English teams have no real idea how to defend, no matter if they’re managed by Scotsmen, English pensioners, or aloof Frenchmen. Even Ranieri, who first compiled that magnificent defence at Valencia which Cuper inherited, seems to have turned Chelsea’s embarrassment of defensive riches into a high-thrills goal slipping machine. People call it a different culture, talk about catenaccio. Rubbish. It’s doing your job in the only way it can be sensibly achieved. And football at the highest level requires that at the very least.
And last night our most important players failed to do anything that even resembled that job. So the players better start learning fast. Having had to endure an ironic standing ovation from the West Ham fans in my East End local is not something I want to go through again. Nor is being this hung-over on a Thursday morning when I’ve got work to do. We were pitiful. And things have got to change. Starting on Sunday against our deepest foes.
Should it have been 3-3 all then, would that have masked what was really wrong last night, taken away some of the blame from those who deserve it? A 3-3 draw’s every gambler’s dream, but, like United’s defeat of Real Madrid at Old Trafford last April, the excitement of that would only have diverted public and press attention from a gaping wound in our tactics. I don’t blame Toure, he’s doing a good job of aping Sol’s last-ditch tackle technique. I don’t blame Sol, who’s perilously out of form, whatever the problems in his personal life. I don’t blame Lehmann, who seems to be blaming himself. I don’t even blame Lauren, who’s looking more and more like a decent midfielder with each week he continues at right back.
I blame Vieira and Gilberto, and they’ve both got to be big enough to stand up and take responsibility for a strategy that’s going to leak us goals anytime we play against opposition with the application to match a well thought out game-plan. Over and over again last night Vieira and Gilberto were stranded too far up the pitch as Inter Milan bypassed us, exposing the defence to the attentions of Martins, Gonzalez and Van Der Meyde, who all played very well. Particularly Martins, who Toure did very well to subdue to only one goal.
What is the point of playing two defensive midfielders if they defend on the halfway line? What’s the point at all? Inter are an extreme example, no teams like the challenge of defending as much as a Hector Cuper team does. Not even Liverpool. But Zanetti, as capable at right back as in central midfield, or even on the wing (which should embarrass Lauren all the more), and even Emre, whose presence in the match was fitful, showed exactly what the most feted midfielder in the world and his junior partner were doing wrong.
Play two defensive midfielders and when the opposition attacks you should be facing 6 defenders. It’s nothing more complicated than that. Inter weren’t playing crosses to some big lug. They were playing the through ball from midfield that we were trying so forlornly the whole night. Except for us it wasn’t getting further than the outstanding combination of Zanetti and Cannavaro who picked off those balls. Who between them watched the ball coming towards them and knew right away that one of them would get hold of it. That was a masterstroke of judgement by Cuper, putting his best two players in position to deal in tandem with the main threat Arsenal pose to teams, cutting off absolutely the channel from the left wing to the edge of the box. They’re better than any defenders Arsenal have. Better than Sol, and miles ahead of Lauren, Toure and Ash. But if Vieira and Gilberto had been doing their jobs then there should not have been the problems there were. Toure shouldn’t have had to show how proficient he is at the flying salmon tackle.
Just goddamn get in the way. That’s all. Watch the ball moving towards the 18 yard box and stop the fluency of the player in possession of it. Gilberto and Vieira are GOOD at that. But there’s no point doing it on the halfway line. It’s to prompt an immediate counterattack, but on those occasions when, Vieira particularly, we did manage to rob the ball that far forward, what did we face? Zanetti standing 3 yards in front of Cannavaro. Waiting, watching. And deep inside laughing at the longstanding capacity for Arsenal not to learn the lessons of the past. Not to remember those games against Juventus in Turin, all those times against Valencia, against Ajax and Roma. Back in the Wembley nightmare against Fiorentina. And to learn from them.
It’s not defensive football for two defensive players to stand a little further back. It’s common sense. And for a man as renownedly intelligent as Wenger, our team’s not collectively realising that is making us look really, really stupid. I don’t even want to mention our inability to cross the ball. That’s something for another day. Crossing needs Pennant and a new centre forward, an Ibrahimovic, our own Vieri. Don’t even worry about that unless we go into the transfer market. And it doesn’t mean we can’t win the Premiership. No English team could do what Inter did last night. English teams have no real idea how to defend, no matter if they’re managed by Scotsmen, English pensioners, or aloof Frenchmen. Even Ranieri, who first compiled that magnificent defence at Valencia which Cuper inherited, seems to have turned Chelsea’s embarrassment of defensive riches into a high-thrills goal slipping machine. People call it a different culture, talk about catenaccio. Rubbish. It’s doing your job in the only way it can be sensibly achieved. And football at the highest level requires that at the very least.
And last night our most important players failed to do anything that even resembled that job. So the players better start learning fast. Having had to endure an ironic standing ovation from the West Ham fans in my East End local is not something I want to go through again. Nor is being this hung-over on a Thursday morning when I’ve got work to do. We were pitiful. And things have got to change. Starting on Sunday against our deepest foes.
another great report
