Bottom Of The League! Surely Some Mistake?

Gary Lineker was ‘havin a larf’ describing our encounter as “end to end stuff” on Match of the Day. End to halfway-line, more like! I’m pretty sure Lehmann only touched the ball twice in the second-half and both of those were back passes! In fact I’m looking forward to our trip to Old Trafford next week, as win, lose or draw, at least it will be a proper contest, as opposed to the sort of ‘hit and run’ tactics we’ve fallen victim to in our first 3 outings.

Boro scored with just about their only attack of the game. Gallas switched off and allowed Morrison to ghost inside him. However it’s a bit harsh to blame the Frenchman’s lapse in concentration. He’s bound to lack some sharpness, considering how little game-time he’s had. It’s our reaction to going a goal down which bothers me. 17 attempts on Schwarzer’s goal proves we’ve no shortage of the ability required to create chances. But our recent bad form is the harbinger of the lack of belief and confidence that prevents us from capitalising on all our entertaining efforts.

Arsène’s excuses won’t really wash, as all the top teams’ players have been traipsing across the continent for penny-ante Internationals. Obviously highlights can be misleading, but even without Wayne, one gets a feeling that Man Utd might score with almost every attack. Whereas we show a reluctance to take responsibility in front of goal that’s symptomatic of players who’ve been struggling to find the back of the net.

Apparently Rosicky has impressed his teammates in training and Saturday’s 20-minute cameo was cause for optimism. At least he was more direct. Sending on the diminutive Czech and the chunky Baptista, in a triple substitution, certainly raised the temperature and resulted in some added impetus. But it didn’t really offer us a different dimension, just more of the same. With Henry having mislaid the packing case containing his sparkle, in the move to our new home, I find it hard to imagine any of our players displaying the strength of personality to grab a game like this by the scruff of the neck, determined to demonstrate to the rest how it’s done.

I’d easily be able to pay for our season tickets, if I’d a pound for every time Gooner talk has turned to our lack of a Plan B. We appear conditioned to cutting in from the flanks and ploughing a path through the heart of the opposition’s defence with our pretty passing patterns.

Woodgate and co’s doughty defensive performance deserved some plaudits. But for the most part our predictability left Boro looking comfortable, playing with their backs to their keeper, rarely being turned and required to intervene whilst running towards their own goal

It’s hard to recall many instances when we’ve stretched defences in matches thus far. In truth, while affording the opposition the opportunity to get so many men behind the ball, it’s testament to our prodigious ability that we still continue to create so many scoring chances.

It was always going to take time for us to feel at home at the new gaff, but freed from the tight confines of Highbury’s narrow turf, to my mind the principal advantage of the move, was the prospect of being able to make the most of an additional 13,000 sq.ft. of playing surface, by exposing the opposition with our pace.

At least Wenger is aware of our patently obvious failure to exploit this extra space. Thus it’s weird he didn’t address the lack of a natural winger in our entire squad during the transfer window. Strange also that the one player capable of burning full-backs down the flanks, with speed to spare, wasn’t even on the bench on Saturday. I know Wenger is being cautious about Walcott’s development, but as a teenager, I recall playing twice in the same day. So two games in a week should be a doddle for someone with Theo’s youthful energy.

With his versatility and experience Gallas knows what’s expected of a full-back, but it’s hardly second nature for a centre-half to be flying down the flanks. As a result Eboué is the only player offering natural width. Until Rosicky appeared, the young Ivorian was also the only Arsenal player to cause Boro some concern by running with the ball, eventually drawing the foul which resulted in the spot-kick and Henry’s equaliser.

Buoyed by the new arrivals, I was hoping for success against Boro, as a springboard for our Champions League campaign. It makes life so much easier if you can get off to a good start in the first phase. A couple of wins under the belt and you are almost home and hosed. However after our tri p to Hamburg, we face a home match against Porto, followed by a long schlep to Moscow. Unless we can mirror the miracle of last season, where our European form was in complete contrast to our inconsistent Premiership performances, it’s hard to see any of these games as a guaranteed three points.

You can be sure our European opponents will have been studying tapes of our recent matches, in order to try and repeat the same formula for frustrating the hell out of us. We can but pray Andy Gray’s prediction on Sky proves correct, sooner rather than later and that Hamburg are the first of many to get a good hiding from the Gunners. Albeit based on our depressing efforts to date, I’ll be glad to bring any sort of result back from Germany.

Mercifully things could be a lot worse. At half-time on Saturday the traumatic spectre loomed of travelling to Old Trafford as a total laughing stock, rock bottom of the league. But no matter how we fare on the pitch, I am pleased to support a club capable of retaining some dignity, in such a sordid, gossip driven age. Whereas all but the most blinkered Blues fans appear to have been embarrassed by the antics of Chelsea’s press office. With regard to Gallas’ threats to give a game away, if everything we said in the heat of the moment was misconstrued as fact, then I for one would have long since been locked up, to prevent me committing all the murder and mayhem I must’ve promised over the years.

I was also amused by my miffed Chelsea colleague’s karaoke offering from the Human League last week. It’s ironic that she’s annoyed by Gallas’ apparent ingratitude, when you consider that Ashley Cole has unleashed his scathing attack, on the club that nurtured him since he was nine! Moreover we’d be in almost constant mourning, if we were to take it to heart every time one of Wengers protégés followed the filthy lucre, when if it wasn’t for Le Prof their careers might well have passed them by. And as for her “Library” snipe, it certainly wasn’t our new kettle of a stadium that match commentators described as “totally silent” on Saturday, but the increasingly black pot that is Stamford Bridge!


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