Judgement Call – Not Judgement Day
Apr 5th, 2008 by 'holic
Tuning into Sky Sports at lunchtime I was greeted with the team news. It was astonishing. Everybody had expected that Liverpool would make wholesale changes. When I wrote beforehand, “Now we are about to find out if Arsene believes the Premier League is still a realistic target”, I really thought the answer was yes. His selection told me otherwise.
Forty-five minutes in it was painful to hear an ungrateful crowd jeer the side off, but it was not surprising. A ‘grade A’ game at the Grove these days is not a cheap event to attend. Those who had dug deep for the second time in a week arrived thinking we would be making every effort to secure three points and put some sort of pressure on next weeks opponents ahead of their trip to the Riverside tomorrow.
It is difficult to take the ‘wider view’ when you have forked out a fair chunk of your disposable income to see lads like Justin Hoyte and Armand Traore thrown to the wolves. Hopefully in the days to come a sense of perspective will prevail, and the disgruntled will have reason to show a little more appreciation for what we have seen this season.
At no stage in the near future will we hear Arsene Wenger admit he had surrendered the title before today. He cannot say in public what his sense of judgement is telling him. We expected he may start with his strongest side, and slowly rest players as the contest progressed. He took the opposite approach, and strengthened when it looked possible to nick the points at the death.
Liverpool were ahead at the break, and deservedly so. Once again Crouch proved to be a handful for the pairing of Gallas and Toure, and grabbed a very well-taken opener. The young Gunners full-backs were having a nightmare, but in fairness were not getting much in the way of cover from those ahead of them. I lost count of the times Eboue surrendered possession cheaply as Hoyte raced to accompany him, and then stayed upfield as his young colleague attempted to recover.
The second-half started no better, but the introduction of Adebayor, Hleb, and Clichy, swung matters in our favour. Nicklas Bendtner once again grabbed a headed goal in the scousers ‘corridor of uncertainty’, and Cesc Fabregas became the second Gunner to be tugged down in the box this week and yet not get the obvious decision from the referee.
Strangely I wasn’t that upset come the finish, more concerned that our ‘weakened side’ had included Mathieu Flamini, who for the first time looked laboured in everything he did. He is a key player if we are to concentrate on the Champions League. Why was he included in that starting eleven when clearly he had so little left in the tank.
The criticism by the few irks me greatly, but I have to accept they have much in their favour today. Back in August we were not equipped to secure a top-four berth. By the middle of February we were favourites to lift the title. Fragile bones and young legs have been stretched to the limit, and beyond.
You cannot ignore the fact that we have only one win in seven league outings since that time. People who have not experienced all of the emotions football has to offer are understandably bitter. I will ask once again that we reserve our judgement, and our constructive criticism, for the future.
The boys need you on Tuesday. Judgement can follow what happens at Anfield. Only then will we have a true appreciation of what has happened today.
21 Responses to “Judgement Call – Not Judgement Day”
We as fans need to keep a level head until the season plays out. We’re 1 result away from potentially seeing the likes of Fenerbache in the CL semi’s. No matter the result, you have to be proud of what the lads have done this year. They pushed the top spot until the gas ran out in the tank.
Thanks for the post G’holic. I was surprised (watching on TV in B’lore) to hear the boos at the end of the first half. The penalty decision wasn’t even given coverage by the commentators. Andy Gray said, I don’t know why people do that in the box, but didn’t say anything more. Two penalties in two games that could wreck our season. Sigh.
For the last hour or so I’ve been looking at the stats of the minutes played by the teams of the top 4 just in the EPL. The key misses for us have been Rosicky, Eduardo, and RVP, with 15, 11, and 10 games (effectively based on minutes played) over the 32 (+1 today) so far. That’s games that Eboue, Diaby, Bendtner, Walcott have had to make up. Also, we have 9 players who played more than 2000 minutes, and ManU have 7, Liverpool have 5. Chelsea? Just the two Coles. It’s catching up with us at the wrong end of the season.
But, the season’s not over yet and there’s a massive game to be won at Anfield. We’re due a break and I hope we do get it.
PS: Just wondering about the decision to rest Senderos and play Gallas/Toure. I thought Toure would’ve been given the rest.
dream on hoyte rubbish traore inexperienced but got better as game went eboue absolute rubbish bendtner poor shud go back to a championship team should be good in the air he is sixfoot plus ade did nothing when came on again over rated strikers should be able to shoot hleb overdoing it like last season walcott should get a run of games wenger should stop making excuses and the players will be mouthing off again on monday telling how they are going to win anfield
Jason, there are some symbols on your keyboard that can be used along with the letters to give us a clue what it is you want to say. Do us a favour and use them next time. Cheers old son.
Birmingham got a draw against us with a wrongly awarded last minute penalty, shortly after a clear penalty for us was not given.
Adebayor had a goal wrongly disallowed against Middlesborough. There was an offside in the build-up to Boro’s goal.
Drogba was offside (along with two team-mates) when he equalised against us at the Bridge.
Now two clear penalties against Liverpool have been ignored by refs a few yards away, looking straight at the incident.
All in the last 6 weeks. What the fcuk!
They say these things even themselves out over a season. I don’t think that’s true – but if it is, we’re due to win at Anfield and OT, with dodgy pens and offside goals, and still have enough luck left over to win the big one in Moscow.
thanks for the post goonerholic….there are lot of people who claim themselves to be Gooners are not really Gooners.A True fan is one who stands behind the team all the time, when they win and most importantly when they fail to win….
Another good article ‘holic. I too was disappointed with the team selection given this was another ‘must win’ game. We all know we’re lacking somewhat for strength in depth in our squad and the season is starting to take it’s toll on players who’ve performed so well for us, just when it matters the most.
Here’s to boro having a decent game tomorrow and taking some points of that other team in the north…
Oh and this is just for you ;o) : http://tinyurl.com/63djf8
I’ve got bad news for you Gerry. We discovered in 2003 that decisions don’t always even themselves out over the course of a season. They get worse with each passing week and sometimes you have to accept that’s life. Our turn will come, and it will be all the sweeter for the wrongs that have been done to us recently.
No. I don’t think it’ll happen.
I also appreciate that we should have been 2 or 3 goals ahead of Birmingham before those decisions; we had 85% possession(!) against Boro, so we’ve got no excuse for not scoring about 10 goals; it was a few minutes of shambolic defending that cost us at the Bridge; a draw was a fair result today.
Even so, when do we get a break? I’ve really struggled to remember occasions when we’ve had dodgy decisions go our way. Seriously, all I can think of is that Ljungberg was wrongly given offside and should have equalised for West Ham, and we might not have won so comfortably at Goodison if the ref had spotted Eduardo’s handball.
What do you lot think?
…and Mal, thank you. That might just have been me except I don’t drink and drive!
🙂
sorry that was never a pen today. On Wednesday yes, today not.
Why not? Cesc had his shirt pulled which prevented him from going for the ball. A soft pen, yeah. A stupid one to concede, yeah. Still a pen though.
I for one will stand behind the lads, losing points (especially at home) sucks, but every team does it! I hope this today doesn’t deflate our boys too much especially since we have to go to Anfield on Tuesday?? There is one thing that does irk me and thats AW doesn’t spend in the summer months for long days ahead, the long days in March and April that seem to suck dry the smaller squads, period!! Other sites people are complaining about AW getting the tactics wrong, well I say “shut your pie holes!!” If you cant stand behind your manager when it gets rough then blow-off and support some other club! So up the Arsenal!!
There is absolutely no doubt the gunners have been found wanting again. We hear of Cesc saying Liverpool aint playing football but anti soccer. In case he or AW or any other Arsenal player does not know this so called negative tactics win matches and not pretty weaving soccer with no end product but a string of x passes running into human walls.
Actually arsenal could have won the cl in 2006 after leading. if they had a nine man defensive wall it could havw won the day.This is my personal belief.
Until such time as Arsenal/ AW wake up and accept that winning is the game and not beautiful soccer.
I think we need to stop looking at this season in the league, because it only ends in frustrated fans. We’re not going to catch up and the quicker we move on the better. Forget about how we haven’t won anything this year, blah blah blah. We know that for a long time we were at the top and that is something to build on. I believe Wenger will build up on quality players in the summer and we will be serious contenders next year. We have the quality, we have the manager, now we just need the quantity…Oh yeah, we also need fans at the Emirates that are supportive. It felt like a bloody Chaplin film there today!!
Dave G, we only found out in March that our squad’s not strong enough. But I do agree, Arsene Wenger needs to acknowledge that season after season we get more than our share of injuries, and spend accordingly. We’ve got the money now.
We need strengthening in all areas. I trust that he will make the right signings, players who fit the profile.
Alex gooner, if you want a team who just shut up shop, go and support the scum at the Bridge. The Arsenal way to close out a game is to play in the opposition’s half. I’m proud of the beautiful football. We need midfielders who contribute goals though.
I am glad a number of fans know a thing or two about keeping the faith. the season is not over in case some of you have not noticed. man u drew today and if they continue like that, be sure that chelsea will sneak in and win it.
i am not iving not until it is mathematically over; that what fans should do. stick with the team through it all.
Eduardo had not played much till about December and would have been key for us cos what we are lacking right now is not scoring enough goals; every other thing else os not that bad really. Please give the team and the manager a break. He got injured in feb after the transfer window had closed…
Diarra did show that it is not easy to keep a good player on the bench as back up waiting for injuries to others. i am sure he was bought for such a time as this but became disruptive and was allowed to leave.
I can always rely on you to give some balance to Arsenal blog writing ‘holic, and once again you haven’t let me down. I was not around this weekend, so couldn’t watch the match, but I’m disgusted if so called fans were booing the team. Wenger wanted to win the game, but he had to rest some players given that he knew Rafa had the luxury to rest key players. We were not comprehensively outplayed and could have nicked a win by the sound of things, but Man U’s draw shows that there are still a few twists and turns to come before this season is over.
I agree that Eduardo could have made a difference at this point in the season when things become tight – we have still created chances and just needed an experienced goal-scorer to make the difference. He could have been our secret weapon, but unfortunately it was not to be. The team need us to back them until it is mathematically impossible to win – maybe the comments about Anfield’s 12th man is a thinly veiled reminder to the Arsenal home crowd of how important that backing can be in lifting the team when the chips are down.
Hello ‘holic. I was mostly annoyed by some fans around me on saturday.
While I can understand criticism at half-time/full-time to a certain extent (‘Wenger you French twat!’ wasn’t the best thing I heard all day), I was mightily annoyed by the constant moaning from the moment the game kicked off. Not once during the game did these guys attempt to sing. Yes it’s not always fun paying 60quid for the type of performance we were served in the first-half, but you’re better off in front of the telly than at the stadium with such an attitude.
Anyway, rant over. Meeting Ray Parlour after the game was the highlight of the day! 😉
The words ‘Constructive criticism’ needs to be in bold, italics and a huge font there, ‘holic. Its obvious that Wenger has got a few things wrong, but booing is not helping the players (read Cesc’ comments who’d rather play at Anfield coz there is less pressure from fans).
You claim to be disappointed by Wenger’s team selection, yet wanted Flamini to be rested ? A bit of a contradiction, I feel ;). The team selection was ok, though I would have preferred Flamini / Cesc to be rested. That was clearly a 2nd string Pool side, and we should have won comfortably.
I was more disappointed with the squad not stepping up more, but then again, that might be due to Wenger not playing them enough earlier this season. Hindsight is a wonderful thing :).
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Absolutely right prits. I wanted Flamini in. I wanted our strongest side out from the start. What happened though is that we did not start our strongest side by any stretch of the imagination, and Flamini looked like he was blowing from very early on.
Given the rest of the side, and given his obvious fatigue, I would have thought, after the event, he should not have played. That’s not intended as criticism as much as an observation.
I also didn’t use the word ‘disappointed’. I did say astonished because clearly Arsene had made a judgement before the game that did not match his public pronouncements. I was surprised and just commenting on the fact that his actions did not match his words.