'The Crowd Was Very Good, But We Were Not'
Jan 13th, 2008 by 'holic
I’m delighted to announce the temporary appointment of Arsene Wenger as sub-editor of Goonerholic. I could not better his title for this mornings piece!
The nuts and bolts of the contest are recorded in detail elsewhere. Basically Arsenal were once again battering at a massed defence virtually throughout. I will not criticise Birmingham for that. Others should come to the Grove with greater ambition, but the Brummies need for a point was great and they did the only thing they could to secure that point. Adebayor scored confidently from the spot, but would you have been happy to see that penalty awarded at the other end? Three minutes into the second half the Gunners collectively dozed at a corner as O’Connor equalised.
That they achieved their end was down to a strange absence of creativity within thirty yards of their goal by the hosts. Arsenal didn’t actually play that badly until they got to the final third. My rose-tinteds tried to persuade me that the bulk of the side has had an eleven day break and perhaps had lost a little focus as a result.
That would not explain Theo Walcott’s performance though. I’m not pleased to see him being made the scapegoat elsewhere, but he failed to provide any threat from the right flank, and to my eyes seldom does. Am I the only one who wonders why the clips of his finest goals at Southampton show him attacking from the left flank? If he is to become a central striker is it not time to play him there so he can get some experience in the role, and we can get a fairer idea of his true promise?
There were senior heads around him however who should have grabbed the situation, and the game, by the throat. They didn’t. That’s all there is to it. A bad day at the office. We have said so many times this season that we have won a game that last season we would have drawn. This I think is the first time, and hopefully the last, we have reverted to that previous model.
Arsenal TV For Some
While I am in a severely hangover induced state of grumpiness can I just thank Arsenal Football Club, Setanta Sports, and Virgin Media for cocking up completely the launch of the new channel tomorrow (Monday).
When finally the launch date was announced I cancelled my subscriptions to ATVO online and Setanta by broadband. An upgrade to my Virgin cable subscription got me the ‘full Setanta Sports’ offering. I sat back a happy and contented man ready for the launch.
Except the incompetent clowns have not got around to agreeing a deal for the channel to appear on cable, a fact that has only just emerged in a barely publicised Q and A document on Arsenal.com.
I don’t know which of the three parties is to blame, although it would be a bigger disadvantage for Arsenal that half of the country cannot access their showcase channel.
Get your bloody acts together, the three of you, NOW!
12 Responses to “'The Crowd Was Very Good, But We Were Not'”
Totally agree with you on every point including the TV launch cock-up! I’m almost as sick about that as the 2 points we chucked away.
I refuse to over react to the performance on the pitch though because hopefully that will be the wake up call the the team need (together with Man U’s result) to regain that early season focus. Maybe they are ‘playing with the handbrake on’ now that they are in a position in the league where they fear losing too much? The pressure must be immense, but they have to find a way to overcome it.
Disappointing day all round yesterday. The TV cock up just seemed part of the theme for the day.
It’s a shame that Theo arrived with such a fanfare at the age of 16. Expectations of him have been unreasonably distorted ever since. He isn’t ready for regular first team appearances yet whether playing right, left or centre. He has the ability but needs time and space to mature physically and to learn the game at this level.
We played well yesterday without that extra sharpness that would have given us the goal we needed. We have left it late to win a number of games this season. It was inevitable that the law of averages would go against us at some time. Yesterday was just that sort of day.
‘holic, i totally share your opinion on young Theo. We know that he’s got bags of talent and pace to explode upon opposing defenders but how its not exploited effectively so far just seems to prove somewhat that he’s not deployed in an effective role.
I hope for his sake and ours that he’ll grow into the player that we paid so much money for.
You put me right off my breakfast ‘holic
so disappointing… Theo will be fine. So will under-performing Cesc Fabregas. Cesc is a greater concern for me cos whenever my little Spaniard plays well, he carries the whole team along.
Someone fly me back to London PLEASE. I think Cesc needs my TLC…
I still can’t stand looking for football news so I’m going to depend on you for update ‘holic!
x
Rant On.
F***ing Richard Bastard Branson. I was so looking forward to watching launch night and that bearded bitch has spoilt it for me. It’s not enough that we lose SkySportsNews and Sky One, but now we can’t even watch Arsenal TV. Useless turds.
Rant Off.
Some say v have been playing too many matches.. but to be honest some players look liked they havent had enough match practise..
Walcott is not a first team player yet – that is obvious and understandable at his age. Given time he will develop and improve. What is more worrying is that AW continues to deploy the kid in the first team. He’s ineffectual when he plays which weakens the side considerably. Against Birmingham we could have started with Eduardo out wide and a front two of Adebayor and Bendtner – why not? Bendtner has enough mobility and skill with the ball to drop deeper and his physical presence would help the midfield. I think he likes to drop off and move about the park and his partnership with Eduardo is beginning to click nicely.
Based on yesterday’s lack of killer instinct I would venture to suggest that our reserves would have won that game.
We cannot afford to drop vital points like that and now we are throwing away the great progress made in the first half of the season. NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO WIN THE TITLE THIS SEASON.
GOSH..V NEED A KILLER INSTINCT..WHICH MEANS A STRIKER..Bottom line !!! a breakaway striker like Berbatov or finishers like kanoute , trezeguet ???
That’s a spud, an ex-spud and a penalty-missing frenchie in one breath?
We cannot afford to drop vital points like that and now we are throwing away the great progress made in the first half of the season. NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO WIN THE TITLE THIS SEASON.
Given that Man U were beaten by West Ham among others, I take it they’re not good enough to win it either?
Chill out. We may not win it, but we are good enough to win it.
Agreed, Ollie. You brought back some sanity, yet again. Are you some yoga master or something? Where’s the new post, ‘holic?