When we lose emphatically, there’s tons of things to talk about and discuss. Naturally that would be good for writers or journalists, but I absolutely abhor writing posts in the wake of abysmal defeats. So Arsenal echoed my sluggishness writing this blog with an appalling, shambolic performance of their own last night.
Well, where to start? Coming into the match, into a very confident Arsenal with an air of anticipation and genuine excitement, we absolutely bottled it. The fact that we only were alive in the first 5 minutes summed it up. Welbeck’s turn was brilliant, but he really should have made the most of it. Cazorla got into a great position, but tried to set up Welbeck to no avail, with some great Monaco defending. It wasn’t a glimpse of what was to come, and instead, Monaco grew into the game exactly the way we did at the Etihad, where Man City played into our hands. Our players were sluggish, lackadaisical, and weren’t up for the occasion. Our slow build-up play meant that it was easy for Monaco to get behind the ball, with their resolute, organized shape to frustrate us. Sideways, meaningless passing, Cazorla dropping too deep, and the wingers drifting inwards too much meant that our play was compact and had no width at all. These were the perfect conditions for Monaco to execute their master plan.
Their first goal was really a mixture of poor awareness and bad luck, as Kondogbia was offered all the time and space in midfield to have a long shot. The ball deflected off Mertesacker past the helpless Ospina, and yesterday’s performance didn’t really put him under a bright light. Our attacks though, were constantly being broken down by the talented, powerful and dynamic Frenchman, who really did very well. Him and Fabinho were excellent, and our players just seemed to bounce off them.
Giroud missed an excellent chance where you would expect him to really test the keeper, and that chance turned out to be portentous for the Frenchman, with two other glaring misses. It was a particularly horrifying night for the Giroud. With 8 impressive goals in 11 games and much of the buildup on him, last night was a nightmare. A header that glanced over the bar from an excellent Cazorla freekick, and a miss that will leave him traumatized forever. Alexis did well to dribble his way into the box, got a shot away, and with the goal gaping. With Giroud 8 yards out, you would have bet your house on him scoring the equalizer. Inexplicably, he missed. Leaning back, his shot skied well over. He was taken off immediately.
Soon after, Monaco got their second, and it came when Alexis lost the ball. With 3 defenders around a Monaco player, Mertesacker decided to play a game of catch, where he deserted his man for the rest of the island. This allowed for the ball to be squared to Berbatov, with all the time in the world for the Bulgarian to make it 2-0. Shambolic defending, ‘suicidal defending’, anything. Mertesacker, whom was supposed to be the calm and experienced head, looked as lost as a kid in the shopping mall.
Wenger rang the changes, with Ox for Coquelin, Walcott for Giroud, and Rosicky for Cazorla. Walcott added impetus to our attack with some great running in behind the defense, and with an excellent ball played in, he really should have scored. The rebound came to Welbeck, and with the goal gaping, his shot hit Walcott’s leg on the ground. It just told the whole story, and what was most shockingly hilarious was the fact that we hadn’t hit the back of the net. If you had sensed a comeback, you would have already seen the Giroud and Welbeck miss and dismissed it. Chamberlain then pulled one back with a real special effort, faking Kondogbia before unleashing a real cracking curler into the top corner. What was most frustrating here, was that with 3 minutes left, we got this goal back and you would have thought that we would shut up shop and just leave the lifeboat hanging there. But no, we were stricken with naivety. Running around like wild men for the equalizer, and like on so many occasions such as the Swansea game back in 2012 or the Dortmund game last year, our naivety really destroyed us. Conceding a third goal really made a comeback unfathomable. No logic seemed apparent. It was all but over. Wenger’s naivety had caused the team’s destruction. We have given ourselves a mountainous task of scoring 3 goals away at a team that has just beaten us 3-1 at home. A team that has just conceded 4 goals in 18 games. What a massive blow.
“It looks like we have lost our nerve and our rationality on the pitch. The heart took over the head and at that level, it doesn’t work. We had a lot of possession tonight and I believe that defensively, we were not at the proper level. Our weakness was more down to mentality, and we rushed our game. We knew coming back at half-time it was important not to concede a second goal, and we were too impatient. This is a game of 180 minutes and if you look at the second and third goal, it’s difficult to explain how we conceded these goals. You cannot afford that. Wenger was typically unusual in his post-match conference, publicly condemning his players for ‘suicidal defending’ but as much as it wasn’t his fault that Giroud couldn’t kick a ball from 8 yards or Mertesacker didn’t know how to stay put, isn’t it his fault for the team’s apparent naivety? It has cost us so much, and every season promises so much. Every season provides a learning curve, and almost every season there will be games that we get bashed, but they are either ignored or repeated. Our naivety has been perpetual, and it is insidious. After a really sublime January and a solid February, it really looks like the ‘improvements’ we’ve made after that sublime win over Man City was just an aberration. Yesterday’s performances seemed to put that win back in the history textbooks, as if we totally forgot how to play with rational minds.
We were bullied by a strong physical Monaco side, and I really think that we have underestimated them. Yes, they might not be as good as Barcelona, Bayern or Real, but yesterday’s performances just reinforces the frustration, because the performance was abject, and even worse than how we fared against those aforementioned sides. When the draw came out, we were relieved. We had finally got a decent draw, and a real decent chance of progressing to the quarter-finals, bringing with it real hopes and aspirations. Right now, it has all crashed down in devastation. Any harboring hopes have just been stripped to pieces by this Arsenal side, time and time again. When yesterday was the premiere of the InvinciblesDoc, which came right after a real horror performance, some will recall how things were like back then, and choose to live back in inception. And no one can blame them for doing that.
