Arsene Tortures With Late Substitutes
13. Dec, 2006 
8 Comments
It was a thrilling last minute win at Wigan last evening to move us into third position on the league table. Adebayor worked hard throughout the game and was rewarded with a spot-on pass from Fabregas in the 88th. He trapped the ball deftly and slotted home a perfect shot through the legs of Kirkland.
This is a good sign for the Arsenal. We really didn’t play all that well and we had three of our youngster all-stars on the bench for a better part of the game. Despite all that, we did what we needed to do get the win. Three pionts, third spot.
The only thing I’m still upset about is how long it took Arsene to make the subs. I was calling for the exact same substitutions in the 55th, when it was clear that any locker room discussions hadn’t seriously impacted the game. Yes, Arsenal did put more balls on goal in the second half. However, we were never as potent as we needed to be and still looked lackluster in the midfield. The problems were chronic and weren’t getting better.
Waiting until the 75th minute to put on VP11 and Fabregas was a roll of the dice in my mind. You can argue that we came away with the win so all is well… but if not for several key saves from Lehmann and clearances from Toure it could have gone either way. For the majority of the match we had trouble moving the ball past the midfield, even out of the defense, and much too many passes went awry.
Cesc and Van Persie came on to do exactly what was needed. I really don’t see the point in waiting until the 75th and basically risking three points when we could have potentially dominated the whole second half from the 60th or so onwards. I’m just glad they pulled it off in the 15 minutes they were given.
three points is what matters, but i don’t share your assessment of ade. yes he worked hard but i don’t think that is enough for a team that wants to challenge for the title. despite the goal, i thought he showed many times last night that he doesn’t have strikers instincts and we have seen this too many times this season with missed chances, poor control and , at times, bizzare positioning for a lone striker.
I have no doubt that he will get better as he is still young but we should not play him up on his own; he needs help. fundamentally he is not a goal scorer and i can’t believe we can go into a game without a real goalscoring threat up front.
we got lucky last night, but maybe we deserve a bit of good luck (if you discount the 5 mins against chelsea)
Will I completely agree with you. Even though it is hard to say this, this is an area where Mr. Mourinho excels. When he is chasing a game or sees his team being outplayed, he makes the changes swiftly. I saw the match, and I must say that first half performance is the worst I have seen in a long time. But we did improve.
one question…..when the other half (well almost) becomes healthy in the new year, will we see 4-4-2 on the road? i see united playin the same system and they have carrick and scholes in the centre. they base their game on attack and killing teams off. surely we must do this as well. we know that this our achilles heel.
G: Lehmann RB: Lauren/Eboue CB Toure/Djourou CB Gallas/Djourou LB Clichy/Gallas RM Alex the Great/Walcott (along w/ Cesc,Gilberto, our players of the season so far) DM Gilberto CM Mr Fantastic/Diaby LM Rosicky CF Henry/RvP
CF AdeCool/Baptista
Another thing I was shocked with is Freddie. But I think he is becoming a liability. How the Prof, sticks with him these days is beyond me. maybe i am watching a different match to most other ppl.
Do u think Wenger will play Lauren and Eboue at the same time to give a rest to Alex the Great?
God bless Adecool. He does look the part.
Onwards and upward for the Arsenal…..Until next time
after saying “wenger knows” for so long, today is the final straw. the man is a stubborn dickhead. he wont change whats not working cos he’s always right.
I agree completely on the substitutions, was thinking at least give them half an hour. wenger, you were 2 minutes away from looking like a complete fool. dont you learn from your mistakes?
against, fulham, gut the team and lose. against wigan, remove all the flair players and hope for the best. we got lucky and if you keep this up we will get beaten again. van persie should have started, he was fresh, didnt play at chelsea so why rest him? gotta at least have one player who can create something. if you want to rest fabregas, why rest hleb and vp? reckless and stupid decision.
wenger, you are the new steve mclaren. he changed 2 a formation that didnt suit the players and they got belted. at least HE had the brains not to do it again.
4 5 1 is crap and you said you’d never play like that, arsenal would always play attacking 4 4 2. YOU LIED. and now look.
the start to the season is NOT because of our young team and all your other excuses, like henry, stadium, injuries, etc.
your responsibility and your fault, stop being so stubborn learn from your mistakes and do something about it.
Adebayor could have done more but he grafted on his jack jones again. Fact of the matter is he is improving all the time. If we leave him on his own all the time he really is limited in what he can do. He needs freedom to turn against the run of play, hold the ball up AND lay the ball off to people like the skipper and RVP.
Poor Baptista. I feel sorry for the beast cos he was so far away from the pace last night he could have been in a hammock on a beach. It’s a tricky one as he definitely has it in him to perform but where can we play him to get into the swing of things? Patience me thinks.
All this talk of sticking with the lads, having faith blah blah blah. We need a Ribery. We need a Wright-Phillips. We need width. Imagine Ribery charging down the wing and playing a 1-2 with an over lapping Eboue the getting the perfect cross for TH to volley though the net into row Z. Dreamland for now.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS EIE
bgooner, we do not need wright-phillips, he is shit.
I think that it was a good chance to get a lot of our bench players some playing time.
And I completely disagree that we played shit in the second half until VP11 and Sesc came on. There were a few great opportunities that we barely missed. Shots that I have seen our first team miss as well.
Wenger should have subbed earlier, sure, but just look at the confidence that he has in VP and Sesc, amazing!
Yeah … was hoping for subs to come on right at the start of the second half with the kind of performance on there in the first. I am delighted that we at least scraped a win but am just sometimes surprised when AW choses to play a team without Fabregas, Hleb, Van Persie … seriously, at least play any one of them. Not making Fabregas start, I understand because he needs a rest (even though I would want him to play in every single game), but why exclude Hleb then!! It seems a bit nonsensical to bench our more creative players, then play two defensive midfielders and a player who is still struggling to get his hold on the English soil (Baptista needs more games, yeah, but I think he should be brought on in the second half after we are one up or something). Maybe he is just trying to show a bit of faith in his players but it would have been a disappointment if we had drawn because Wigan, even though they created chances, looked like a team we could theoretically easily beat if we had played a wee bit better. With that all said, thank God Adebayor scored a goal (though he could have had a hat-trick) and we won.
Adam, why all the vitriol towards Arsene?? OK, I understand that we are all entitled to our opinions and they don’t necessarily agree. But chill out mate.
Anyone would think you would make a better job of it the way you carry on. (Yeah right)