One thing is clear, both these sides are not going to challenge for the title. Arsenal because they have oppositional defiant disorder, which means touting them as potential league winners induces into doing exactly the opposite. Liverpool because they have had the assistant refs in their pockets. Today, it was Aaron Ramsey’s perfectly legitimate goal declared offside. It’s interesting to note, Liverpool’s goal was allowed to stand against Bournemouth last weekend because Harry Lennard probably didn’t pay attention to the new offside rule. Prompting the PGMOL to issue a clarification which probably made Simon Bennett see all sorts of interference as possible. Maybe Ramsey’s ego got in the way of Mignolet or his shadow. One can’t be sure.
The Emirates continues to be one of the toughest stadiums for the Gunners to play in which tells you their problems are psychological. They also have a manager who doesn’t manage expectations well and tactically seems to believe doing the same thing over and over again will yield a different result. One of the greatest mysteries is why wouldn’t you want to exploit the speed on the wings when you have Theo Walcott and/or Alex Oxlade Chamberlain at your disposal.
Man City is winning because they stretch out the space in front of the opposition’s defence through Raheem Sterling and Jesus Navas on the flanks which gives David Silva room to operate and pick out his passes. They’ve hit the winning formula and it’s called simplicity (pun intended). Arsenal congests so much of the midfield and then pour their passes into this tight bandwidth which gives the defence all sorts of time to re-organize, tackle, block, or in Arsenal’s case, lose the ball. Even the scoring opportunities come by inches of space which means having to have Aguero like reflexes and Olivier Giroud is not that man. Over-elaboration is killing Arsenal in an elegant bloodletting.
By now we should also expect injuries or illness. It’s an Arsenal staple. Knocks given a week or two to recover, mysteriously stretch to weeks, months, and sometimes years. So it was. Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny were not in the starting line up, missing through illness and a back injury. Their relief was Gabriel and Calum Chambers in a brand new pairing. Considering how Merts had mentioned developing a relationship with new signing Petr Cech was key to defensive organization, one wasn’t highly encouraged. But what followed was worse than expected.
Calum Chambers’s psyche has obviously been shot to pieces by Jefferson Montero’s hiding. He’s regressed. He played like the ball was an IED to be rid off as quickly. Which he did to Phillipe Coutinho. You do not want to give the ball to Phillipe Coutinho. Because Phillipe Coutinho scores goals and had nearly done so hitting the crossbar minutes ago. Luckily, Coquelin came to the rescue. The first half was a blundering mess of shoddy defending and errant passing and yet Liverpool weren’t able to take advantage because Petr Cech was Arsenal’s saviour. A blinder to save Christian Benteke’s sure goal which had Brendan Rodgers lifting his hands in premature exultation and then a gossamer of fingertips to deviate Coutinho’s wickedly swerving shot heading to the inside of the far post to catch the upright. All told, Liverpool should have been ahead. For Arsenal, Ramsey’s disallowed goal was the only positive attacking note.
The second half was much more Arsenal. Looking far more assured on the ball, working the spaces, inside to the left, yet inevitably filtering to the centre. Alexis Sanchez hit the woodwork, Giroud came inches from connecting on Ramsey’s cross, then once more on Monreal’s cross. The striker had the best chance in the 69th minute when he collected Bellerin’s pass and falling back managed to clip the ball into the air without much power and Mignolet manages to keep it out. There was a suggestion he might have been impeded by Dejan Lovren but it would have been far too soft.
This is the thing about Giroud, he’s a player who sort of lives in the realm of edges, flicks, and volleys, which work on timing. If the timing is off, Giroud cannot pull it off. I’ve rarely seen him score a goal of exceptional power, maybe the one against Man Utd on the last minute in a losing effort. The other thing is Giroud’s hold up play is virtually inconsequential with so few aerial crosses put in. An aspect that really needs to be developed and is missing from Bellerin and Nacho Monreal’s repertoire. But even if they do, who takes advantage of the knockdowns which Giroud might provide?
The introduction of Walcott and then the Ox gave much more thrust and speed but it should have happened at least a full 30 minutes ago. The Ox piledrives a ball goalward and Martin Skrtel sliding in front of Walcott almost scores an own goal. The Ox was putting on a lot of pressure with his direct approach and his penchant for not being afraid to belt the ball from distance. Things looked a lot, lot more promising. But then Arsenal ran out of time. They’ve scored just two goals in three matches, one courtesy an own goal. Which means Joel Ward is top scorer with Giroud. Think about that.
For the full match. First half as well as second half.