Last night England game in Boston was not a match that will stay in my memory very long, it ranks alongside the 2010 bore-fest against Algeria as being one of the most insipid World Cup watches that I have ever endured. Now I will not deny that the Three Lions were pretty average and with the exception of Noni in the first 20 minutes and Buks in the last 20, no one covered them selves in glory. Even Declan had a very below par game and we don’t say that very often.
England should not shoulder all the blame
Now as my slightly odd headline suggests, not only me, but also the collection of twenty something group of my son’s friends who watched it with me all agreed on one thing – it felt like we were watching any one of about 15 home matches that the Arsenal played at home in our recent glorious Championship winning season. But this is not actually a criticism of the England let alone us.
Set pieces again ole, ole…
It was something much more fundamental than us being brilliant at set pieces or pressing defences so hard that they turned the ball into their own net, neither of which England particularly excelled at last night. It was about the nature of the opposition set up with nine behind the ball, their hopes for the game and their willingness to sacrifice all but the occasional counter attack in the desperate desire to come away from the match with a point.
It’s boring playing against a parked bus
And that is the crux of the matter and what Arsenal faced in the vast majority of our home games and a fair few away ones last season. You come to expect it from teams in the bottom half of the table, but Liverpool and Chelsea did it, whilst Villa and the N17 numpties tried to do it with slightly less success. Notable exceptions go to both the Manchester clubs although once City scored their early goal even they started to focus on just keeping us out. It’s tough to break down and makes for very dull football and so it gave me a strange sense of satisfaction to see England huff and puff against a well organised 10 man defence.