Arsenal’s Growing Pains
18. Dec, 2006 
19 Comments
I’ll start by calling Portsmouth a disaster. Yes, we pulled off a draw after going down by two. But, we went down by two. It’s completely unacceptable for The Arsenal to go down by two goals after 47 minutes, at home, against Portsmouth. If it were yesteryear and the team of 03-04 were on the pitch, this would have been a walk in the park.
I think I could best describe the team’s effort in the first half as pedestrian. It was a pedestrian pace that resulted in a mediocre effort. We did have several opportunities that James continued to push away, but we lacked an urgency and conviction that we ought to always have with us. There were several periods of that first half where we basically looked masturbatory while passing around the back line, back and forth. Where was the movement? Where was the tenacity? I know some of it was in the stands in a black coat.
I wouldn’t call the first half as bad as everyone else has been. Just mediocre, with no goals. The second half, after we went down from the second goal, resulted in quite a few opportunities and much quicker play. After Gilberto equalized you felt like we really had a chance, but some of our urgency was lost.
It goes to show that when backed into a corner the youngsters will fight hard. As I’ve said before, when it’s not a juggernaut team and when we aren’t backed into a corner, we just don’t look threatening enough.
The two goals were brilliant though and I’m thrilled we were able to escape with a draw. We needed a win badly but you take what you get. We really did have a slew of chances in the second, and any one of them could have gone in. It was an absolutely thrilling match in the second.
Aliadiere had his first start in quite some time and he looked fine by me. You can argue that after Adebayor came on, the game changed entirely. However, it was only ten minutes after going down by two, so I wouldn’t blame Aliadiere with all that. Aliadiere had some good chances and even better passes. He gave the ball up in some pretty silly situations though so I can see how he would get blamed for this. I still think he deserves a bit more of a chance. Alongside Henry he might look better, not that anyone wouldn’t.
The stand-out defender for my taste was Clichy. He was tenacious, he pushed up the sideline, and he defended well. Djourou, Toure, and Eboue played alright but played scrappy when both goals were scored.
Hleb had a good and bad game. On one side, his leading pass to Walcott through four defenders, that led to Adebayor’s goal, gave me a boner. On the other hand, he still has some problems in holding up play too much.
The average age of the Arsenal squad that played on Saturday, minus Gilberto and Lehmann, was 22. In the scope of football, this is too young not to expect problems. We’ll always be the Arsenal, and we’ll always be contenders, but when the average age of your squad hovers in the low 20’s, you can’t expect us to win every match.
Given the tender young age of the squad, we really should be quite happy. We’re in 4th right now and we have had some really big wins this season. If we can hold on to these players for awhile things will be quite different. It just goes back to the same old points, which almost aren’t worth bringing up anymore. We need to be consistent, capitalize on our opportunities, and dominate the midfield, but it’s hard to do that with youngsters.
Good write up, I agree with just about everything, especially what you say about Aliadiere who copped way too much criticism than is fair,
Aliadiere has had plenty of chances and I’m afraid I don’t see much of a future for him at our club. No criticism of the lad, but he just isn’t good enough.
Anyone could see Adebayor was a better bet to start the game.
Big loss for us to lose Patrick and Pires, the same situation happened last season at middlebrough when we were down 1-3 but the differnce being the spirit and hunger where we won the game in the end with a scoreline(5-3) that looks more like a title contender.
I have to agree with your comments, and we will possibly be a great side again in a couple of years when the youngsters have matured. Trouble is, football is moving at such a pace that it is vital for success now. Who knows what the strength of other teams will soon be if the money keeps pouring in – we could be left behind!
I know its been said many times before, but to lose four experienced winning six footers in Vieira, Bergkamp, Campbell and Pires from our last great team – plus – Cashly – you can’t really expect miracles.
aliadiere had a good game but has been made a scapegoat. your write up is pretty spot on though. But I am not sure about all this blaming the age of the players for our problems. Fabregas is our best player, but he is young. as we saw last season our worst players were our oldest players and again for me freddie and lehmann are currently our most ineffective players and they are the oldest. I think the team still plays great football, almost as good as we have ever done. the difference is we are now conceding goals, most of them are very soft goals that premiership sides should not be conceding and we never conceded goals like this a few years ago. the likes of Vieira and sol normally prevented a deluge of goals from set pieces and I think people under estimated how many goals they prevented, but it is the bare minimum that a premiership team needs to sort out. I guess with Diaby and Lauren things might improve but it needs looking at.
Very accurate report.
I was at the match, and,I didn’t really see how Aladiere could have helped not concede the 2 goals – in the opening 20mins, him and Van Persie created many good chances and if not for some excellent goal keeping from James, we would have been 2 up.
Adebayor just happened to the be striker on the bench – if that had been Van Persie/Aladiare/Henry coming on, they would have scored the goal too – it was fresh legs and analysis from Wenger that got us his first goal.
Is what this team needs to do beyond anything is learn how to score from set pieces, and defend set pieces . They are almost free goals we are missing – when was the last time we scored a header from a courner / free kick – compared with Bolton or Chelsea. Rubbish. And before anyone says ‘we havent got the height’ explain to me how players like defoe, owen, johnson and rooney (going back, wright who wasnt exactly a giant) are all good with their head. Plus, when was the last time Hleb or Rosicky headed the ball in the direction of goal – like Pires used to?? Never!!
Still, with Henry, Gallas, Lauren and Diaby all back in the new year + hopefully Baptista finding his feet, it will be like some new signings, so should be good.
If I had written a piece on last Saturday, it would have been almost identical to yours, except I do not think Aliadiere is up to the mark. I wish he was but I just think he falls a bit too short. Good article though.
I SENT THE MESSAGE BELLOW, TO THE 2 LINKS BELOW, AT ARSENAL.
I HOPE THAT IF ENOUGH OF US, COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS, THE CLUB WILL RECONSIDER.
IT’S PROBABLY THE MOST PATHETIC POLICY, I THINK I’VE EVER HEARD.
FOOTBALL FANS HAVE BEEN GOING TO GROUNDS, FOR ABOUT A HUNDRED YEARS, AND
SOMETHING LIKE THIS, HAS NEVER BEEN A PROBLEM.
WE LIVE IN A VERY TOLERANT AGE, AND RIGHTLY SO, BUT WHY SHOULD US, THE LOYAL
GOONERS, HAVE OUR RIGHTS TRAMPLED ON, BECAUSE OF A FEW PEOPLE MOANING ABOUT
A FLAG.
IF WE LET THIS GO PEOPLE, IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE AT OUR CLUB.
ANYWAY, I HOPE YOU ENJOY MY E-MAIL TO THE CLUB.
PLEASE FOLLOW SUIT!
STEPHEN “CLOCK-END” GALLAGHER
info@arsenal.co.uk & marketing@arsenal.co.uk
I just wish to complain, in the strongest possible fashion, on the clubs new
policy on banning International flags at the Emirates.
I am really worried as to where Arsenal Football Club is heading these days,
with their stances on agreeing to kick people out from Stamford Bridge, last
sunday for brining inflatable mobile phones to the game, yet countless
Arsenal fans were abused & coined in the process.
Also kicking people out of the Red Section, earlier this season, for
standing up, after asking loyal gooners to go to this section & help
increase the noise, on match days, and what not…
It appears that the club, I once claimed to be the pinnacle of
professionalism, has now turned into a pathetic yielding organization, that
gives into any politically correct scheme thought up by some protest group
or minorities.
It appears that if some falls into a certain category or minority or
religion, they get preferential treatment over the loyal, passionate fan,
and a lot of gooners I know, are getting very angry about this.
I understand that certain people may not like to see certain flags, because
of their view on the religion or the politics of that particular region, but
to ban ALL international flags, because a section of people don’t like one,
on display, is beyond belief.
Are the club going to get rid of the “Fly Israel” ad’s, that appear on the
advertisement boards, during the matches, because it offends muslims?
Are the club going to change the arabic sign of the Emirates logo, because
it offends jews?
If you set one president against flags, then you are going to have to change
almost every aspect about a match day, until there is not a single ounce of
passion left… and no passion = no atmosphere and could in turn mean a down
fall, in attendances.
I hope that you reconsider this new policy on flags, before you have a fan’s
revolt.
Thank you,
Stephen, North London
Copied and sent Stephen