Especially when we had Chamakh upfront. Knock it long and get the play up the field then pin them in the final 3rd. After 20 minutes I was shocked to see us still playing it short. But then again when you have the great minds of Djourou and Squillaci it was not all that puzzling.
We're probably the only fans who could moan so much after losing a dead rubber (especially when all the other English clubs hadn't qualified yet before tonight). The injury to Santos was the one annoying thing from the night, otherwise frankly we finished top, job was done two weeks ago. I'll worry about games that matter, like on Saturday.
I'm also worried by the lack of Strength and depth in our squad in all areas we had some glaring weaknesses for example the two keepers tonight looked very shaky and our defence was very weak particularly between Djourou and Squill which was targeted by them throughout the game, in Midfield I didn’t feel we had any real shape and some of the players don’t seem ready yet, also Arshavin was terrible and it was like we were playing with 10 men at times due to his lazy attitude. If what ever reason our first begin to have some injuries then I don’t think our backups will cut it. On the plus side I have been very impressed with Yossi so far and think we should make the deal with Chelsea permanent, he’s one of the few that makes a great backup for our team.
Two losses using our reserve team. You could say 1 win in 2 with the senior team, that'd be accurate. Would be rather pointless, of course, given the 5 wins that preceded that. And the lack of a loss with the senior team in 11 games.
Arshavin has wanted out for over a year. I really admired him at the beginning but these last months (a year ?) show he is making a point to be sold. Back to Mother Russia?
i'm worried. i expected a vibrant display by a group of players all trying to convince Wenger that they were ready to be playing every week in the Premiership. instead, we got a bunch of lost-looking puppies. Fabianski and Mannone looked very very unreliable. Djourou was played out of position again at RB, it's shooting his confidence being deployed there. Squillaci and Vermaelen looked awful as a CB pairing. Coquelin was hardly in the game, Frimpong made rash decisions, Benayoun drifted in and out, Oxo hardly contributed, Chamakh looked great at getting knockdowns, but there's no-one running onto them. Arshavin rarely tracks back, has lost a yard of pace, and doesn't appear to care. Rosicky was positive for me. Wasn't on for long but made a good contribution. You want a game like this to display a team fighting for the right to wear the shirt, not content to remain second best.
This does make you wonder though. Chamakh, Squillaci, Djourou, Mannone, Fabianski (probably arshavin too now) would not make it into the squads of any of the TOP european clubs! So why the **** are they playing for us??!! Goetze, Neymar, Podolski, Gourcuff, Vertonghen.. that's the quality of player we should be getting linked with. A few injuries to key men and we are back in trouble because the quality in depth is not there.
Must admit I have not seen the game from yesterday, but had it recorded on SKY+, (I am working from home today so might put myself through the pain of watching it). But honestly I wondered what we expected in terms of performance/results from last night's fixture? Either we have a very short memory or are deluded, if we expected the team AW picked last night to go and get a result in Greece. When was the last time our shadow team get a result when it mattered? I seem to remember last season, with finishing top still up for grabs, AW decided to field his shadow team for the last 3 games...... net result we finished second and had to face Barcelona...... Yesterday's game was a nothing game to be honest, even though I was cheesed off we lost, but not too bothered, would have been more angry if I was a fan of Marsailles, and hacked off with Arsene decideding to throw the game....... but they did what they had to do to qualify........ PS: The injury to Santos in a nothing game shows Wenger cannot win.....Some fans would question why did he play Santos, considering we were already short at Left Back.
