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Arsenal v Ajax

Ally

Active Member
Arsenal 1 (Wiltord 5) Ajax 1 (De Jong 18)

With everyone still coming down from the euphoria of Saturday, yesterday offered up a dose of stark reality. Still not enough to spoil the Old Trafford resplendence, but frustrating and bothering nonetheless. We proved ourselves unable to scrap and grind out a victory when faced by a stubborn and well drilled Ajax back five, whilst never being troubled in any real way by the much-hyped Dutch strikeforce.

Things started promisingly enough. The only time Arsenal managed to successfully get their trademark counter attack in operation, it worked. Vieira, on the back of a give-away by Zlatan, slipped it to Bergkamp on the half way line who spotted that Van Damme had gone completely AWOL at right back. Wiltord came chugging in at great speed and was duly dispatched for the one-on-one - he took it almost to the by-line and cracked a lovely drive right in between the legs of Bogdan Lobont. Sublimely worked, but a goal that should never really have been. The flood gates? Well, they stayed well and truly shut. This was merely the point where Koeman instructed his inexperienced eleven to stifle the game by packing the midfield and penalty box which they managed well. Arsenal were restricted to two more chances in the opening 45 - Pires jinked away from Van Damme off a quickly taken free-kick and screwed his strike way, way over the bar from an angle, and an Henry effort was parried out by the erratic Lobont within an inch of Pires’ head on the rebound.

All this was sadly after Ajax had levelled. A speculative cross ball to the far corner of the penalty area saw De Jong take down the dropping ball with an awesome first touch which completely took Ashley Cole out of the game. In a flash the ball had been taken in to the corner of the six yard box and curled round the advancing Seaman who had little chance - our centre backs had been completely caught out by the lighting bolt motion of the 18 year old goalscorer.
Gilberto, having an absolutely horrible game, must have been thinking dark thoughts about Steven Pienaar who was giving the Brazilian the runaround in the middle of the park - Edu, on the bench, must have been wondering what on earth he has to do to get a game. Quite frankly, I would have made absolutely no changes from the line-up that thrashed Man Utd out of the stadium. We needed the fight of Parlour, the cool and calm demeanour of Edu in a midfield warzone. We could perhaps have done with a similar performance from Jeffers - someone to hold up the ball and wait for an energetic frontman to make a run inside and take the ball and have a shot.

Of course, that energetic frontman is Wiltord, back on the right wing and looking for all the world like he was signed to play there. Meanwhile, Thierry was having his third game on the spin where nothing he did went right. Personally, I’m not sure how much of his work breaks down because of bad luck, or how much is down to unnecessary intricacy. At one point he attempted two keepie-uppies and a completely outrageous overhead kick that might have troubled some guy in the upper tier of the North Bank, but posed as many problems to the Ajax keeper as a lamb would have. A lamb with no arms.

Half time came and out went Seaman, apparently having damaged something in his thigh or something, and the titanic figure of Stuart Taylor took the gloves for the second forty five. He didn’t really have a save to make, but rose effortlessly to claim crosses approximately fourteen feet above everyone else’s heads. I suspect that given time he’ll be Arsenal’s number one sometime in the future. However, his distribution needs more than a little work. It’s absolutely appalling.

He wasn’t alone in providing shabby service to Thierry and Dennis, though. The game plan seemed to be playing pretty passes along the back four, followed by a Cole hump upfield that was headed away nonchalantly before being dispatched back in the general direction from whence it came. Our one and only chance of any real note came when Bergkamp, very disappointing, attempted a audacious pot shot from twenty yards. The keeper was beaten and then some, and it looked as if it was in, but it smacked against the outside of the post and bounced out for a goal kick.

In the way of stimulating and attractive attacking football, I’ve got nothing to write about. The most fascinating battle on the field invoved Sol Campbell and Zlatan. For the second game running, Sol had been assigned to neutralise a potentially lethal opposition sharpshooter and for the second game running, he did it with plenty energy to spare. Van der Meyde’s crosses were never going to be effective against our back line, but Campbell still had to ensure that the Swede was given no space at all to control the ball and turn. Control the ball and turn? The thing never got near Zlatan for the whoe of the second half. Cygan (In at the last minute for Keown) mopped up anything coming his way and proved his worth with some snappy and incisive ball play out of defence. Maybe he should provide the midfield with some helpful hints.

Jeffers did eventually come on for the completely out-of-sorts Gilberto and Kanu entered proceedings late on taking Bergkamp’s place. Neither made any impact. Kanu had one half chance when he chested down, spun and...snatched at his half-volley to send it wildly over the bar.

There was one split-second moment when Ajax looked to have won the game. A Van der Meyde curler was deflected by Cole, Taylor was caught out and couldn’t adjust in time and the Moroccan substitute Boukhari nipped in, the ball bounced off his shins and thankfully dribbled past the post. To be honest, if it had gone in there would have been no point complaining. Any side that comes out with strikers who perform so profiligately deserves to get beat. We occasionally saunter out with an arrogance that a) isn’t actually needed to win and b) more often than not hinders any progress or attacking strategy.

So there we are. I wish I had more to write on than that. This weeks’ report looks a little anaemic. Perhaps that sums the game up perfectly. Our home record in the Champions League is pretty shocking and a victory in Amsterdam would not now be useful, it’s now essential. Maybe I should put my tin helmet on at this point, but I believe that this competiton is still a bridge too far. I still think we’ll make the quarter finals, but if we’d have been playing Inter, or Barcelona, or Real Madrid yesterday, the consequences of such a poor performance would have been absolutely dire.

Man of the Match

Sol Campbell. A second stunning defensive showing in four days and the complete shut down of one of Europe’s finest young predators. There was no margin for error. There was none.

Moment of the Match

The final whistle?

Moan of the Match

After Plan A fails, do we have the practical thinking in the team to work out a second strategy designed to break down a formation that had shut out the first option? Yesterday, we got Plan A recycled in the second half.

Ally Winford
 

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