Okay, I can tell what you're thinking. It wasn't quite as straightforward as that. At times last night, the team looked worryingly short of ideas and invention. The passing was stodgy, we were laboured in possession and particularly in transition, and there was the now almost de rigueur lapse in concentration at the back that resulted in a youthful Anderlecht side scoring a deserved goal.
On the flip side, despite all the injury worries and having to field a left back at centre half and an inexperienced goalie behind the sticks, we came away from what could have ended up being a disastrous away encounter with three points. The gunners can now be confident of securing qualification to the knock out rounds if we beat the Belgian side in the reverse fixture a fortnight from now and yes, we showed loads of grit and determination in coming from a goal down with barely ten minutes to go to win the game.
It’s pretty amazing to hear the cynics constantly harping on a particular theme as representing all that is wrong with Arsenal, only to do a complete about face when they’re confronted with evidence to the contrary and criticize the team once again for showing the very attributes they were supposed to be lacking. Remember all the times we were told the team did not have a spine and could not grind out results whenever they were incapable of playing their usual fluid, flowing football? Well, yesterday was an excellent example of an occasion where everything did not come off, but the team kept plugging away and got their just rewards at the end. So do the critics then give the team credit? Of course not. Instead we’re treated to a litany of complaints about how the team is not playing good football, how Arsenal cannot put teams away and how the team lacks a killer instinct. Which is not to say that the complaints are completely lacking in merit, but surely the boys deserve some credit for pulling out an improbable victory from the clutches of what seemed until the last two minutes of the game, certain defeat ?
Now, it’s obvious there’s a certain lack of confidence about the team at present. Per Mertesacker indicated as much when he stated: “Football-wise, we lack a few things.The passing game is not as efficient as last year. We are not at our best, we have to admit that. We have to be honest to ourselves and train harder”. He also seemed to hit the nail on the head when he observed, “Again, it is away from home on Saturday and again, I think we have to do better with our possession – to put more pressure on them, not to lose so many balls in the middle of the park, to play more in wide areas”.
In saying that, I think he highlighted the crux of the problem with the team, currently. We need to vary our game somewhat when those cute little passes through the middle. With Welbeck’s pace through the middle and his willingness to chase to play deeper in the opponents’ area, lofting a few crosses in may not be a bad idea, some of the time. Indeed it was instructive that the first goal on Wednesday night came from an excellently delivered deep cross by Calum Chambers.
For the weekend, the attention shifts to the game against Sunderland. There’s no use highlighting how important getting all three points will be to boost confidence and hopefully truly kick-start the season. It’s winnable, but as Mertesacker alluded to, it may be useful to consider operating with a bit of width, at least down the right flank. For this reason, I think it’s imperative that Wenger starts with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain down the Arsenal right flank as Walcott is not yet ready to start a full-blooded competitive, premier league away game. Other than that, the team should remain largely the same except for Szcesny who should make his return following his suspension in midweek. Considering the mauling they received at the hands of Southampton last weekend, Sunderland are likely to be very compact and will in all likelihood have a brief to defend deep and avoid conceding early at all costs. However, their confidence is likely to be fragile and scoring early against them will only serve to awaken the barely submerged doubts they are no doubt inundated with at the moment. It’s likely to be a difficult game but the gunners should be well equipped enough to rise to the challenge.
That’s all that matters now. A win at the weekend will ensure that the season begins to take a completely different complexion to that existing at the moment.
Source: DSG
