With Thomas Vermaelen's appeal being denied, and the injury to William Gallas, Arsenal have a centre back injury crisis. With 4 games in 10 days, it's going to be an issue. Against Birmingham, Sol Campbell must start. He, unlike Mikael Silvestre, can control a defence, and help Alex Song, who is inexperienced at centre back. Arsenal must think about Birmingham before Barcelona; as Arsene Wenger said "one game at a time", and winning the league is more realistic than winning the Champions League game. Also, Vermaelen is back, and rested against Barcelona, and has 2 options for his partner: Either Sol Campbell can recover in time (he has 3 days) or Alex Song has to be drafted into defence again, while Denilson will play in his role. Sol Campbell is the first choice defender, and in all 13 Cup Finals, he must play in them.
This year, the Premier League is going to go to the last day of the season, and it's still a 3 horse race. Goal difference is a major factor, and after having been ahead early, Arsenal are now behind in goal difference, and if it comes down to goal difference, I think Arsenal will not win the league. Here is how the table reads right now
Team
Pld
Pts
Man United
31
69
Arsenal
31
67
Chelsea
30
65
So, in the course of the next 7 games (8 for Chelsea), United need to drop 3 points. United are away to Bolton, home to Chelsea, away to Blackburn (after the Champions League), away to Manchester City, away to Spurs, away to Sunderland and home to Stoke. They could definitely drop 4 points in draws with Chelsea and City. Chelsea, if they beat Portsmouth, will have 68 points. They need to then drop 2, and do that by drawing with Man United. Their fixtures are: away to Portsmouth, home to Villa, away to United, home to Bolton after the FA Cup semi final, away to Spurs, home to Stoke, away to Liverpool and home to Wigan. Assuming both United and Chelsea drop 4 points (United in draws with Chelsea and City; Chelsea with draws with United and Liverpool), and Arsenal win all their remaining games, the table will look like this: Team Pld Pts Arsenal 38 88 Man Utd 38 86 Chelsea 38 85
We are only in control of our own games, but lets hope that Chelsea and United drop points, starting with Chelsea home to Villa.
Denilson scored a goal on Saturday, but was still somewhat underrated. However, despite not playing a deadly ball like Cesc Fabregas does, he kept possession well, and made 73 passes, all of which were successful. He also won 6 out of 10 tackles, and also made 3 interceptions. Denilson gets some criticsim from Arsenal supporters, some deserved, but mostly underserved, and you can see why he's played: not only does he have a nice 30 yard shot, but he keeps the ball well, which was important against 10 men, and will be important in 8 days time against Barcelona.
First off, Arsenal showed why it is so hard to play against 10 men, and why there is an increasing trend of 10 men winning games. Arsenal were compact, organized, and they didn't change their shape all that much, especially when Abou Diaby came on, allowing Arsenal to play something like a 4-1-3-1, with Andrey Arshavin up front, and Emmanuel Eboue on the right of the 3, Abou Diaby on the left, and Denilson, who had an excellent game, holding. Alex Song dropped back to replace Vermaelen in the defence. After the first 10 minutes of the half, Arsenal looked more threatening to score than West Ham, and that has to do with the introduction of Abou Diaby. Bendtner was up front on his own, and Arsenal needed a midfielder to help defensively, which Andrey Arshavin can not do. Diaby came on, Arshavin was freed of his defensive abilitites, and Diaby played very well. Arsenal were fairly comfortable after that, and the only real difference from the first half is that there isn't as many passes to the left wing in the second half after Bendtner was withdrawn for Diaby. Arsenal's passing was similar in the second half despite having 10 men by Guardian Chalkboards West Ham failed to take advantage of the extra man, and they did not make many passes in the final third. by Guardian Chalkboards Sagna came on for Nasri, allowing Eboue to push up forward, and not only was he involved in the second goal, and also allowing for Eboue to cancel out Daprela's runs forward. Arsenal were more likely to score, and that happened when Fabregas won the ball the back, passed to Eboue, recieved it back, and clipped it off the hand of Upson. Upson was lucky not to get a second yellow and be sent off. Fabregas duly scored the penalty, and Arsenal were home and dry. I know I recapped the second half first. In the first half, we scored with maybe our first attack of the game. A 6 pass move, with Clichy crossing to Bendtner, who knoked it back to Denilson, who played a 1-2 with Bendtner before firing into the bottom right corner for his 6th goal. Another early goal, this one 5 minutes in, and Arsenal had other chances to double the lead. Denilson should've passed to Fabregas a few moments afterwards, and Fabregas almost played in Nasri. Then, almost at half time, the otherwise excellent Song lost the ball in midfield, a long ball was clipped, Vermaelen got behind Franco, and tangled with him. The linesman signalled for a foul, a penalty was given, and Vermaelen was given a straight red by the referee who was miles away from play. It was a bad decision from an inconsistent referee, and a bad decision from the linesman. For one thing, Franco didn't have complete control of the ball, and Campbell could've got a tackle in as well, there was barely any contact, Franco went down easily and for me it wasn't an obvious goal scoring opportunity. Almunia made a great save from Diamanti, and the good news is that Vermaelen will only miss one game because he was sent off for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity. We go top, though Chelsea has 2 games in hand, and plays Blackburn away today, and Man United are at home to Liverpool, and lets all hope Fernando Torres celebrates his birthday in style.
This quarter final will be one for the purists and the neutral, as Arsenal drew Barcelona. I think I can speak for many Arsenal supporters when I say Barca and Man United were the 2 I wanted to avoid. While I look forward to the chance for revenge from 2 years ago, the thought of Lionel Messi against Sol Campbell scares the hell out of me.
Arsenal and Barcelona play very similar passing games, obviously, pressing games and formations. Both are regularly described as a 4-3-3, and while Arsenal's was, both, independently have switched from a 4-3-3 to what is more like a 4-2-4 type. Arsenal's 4-2-4 is better described as a 4-2-1-3, with Cesc Fabregas playing just off the main striker in a ponta da lanca role. Barcelona's 4-2-4 type formation is different. As pointed out in some excellentarticles on Zonal Marking, Barcelona's 4-2-4, which is their plan B, comes from pushing Andres Iniesta higher up on the left wing, and moving Pedro over to the right, and pushing Messi inside. Thierry Henry plays as the centre forward, but drops off like a false nine.
Both formations allow for a playmaker behind the forward line, as Fabregas is given license to roam at Arsenal, while at Barcelona, with Pedro and Messi both on the right, Messi can roam in a similar position to Fabregas.
Defensive solidity will be the key for Arsenal; both sides are very good going forward, but Barcelona have only conceded 16 goals in La Liga this season while Arsenal have conceded 33 in the Premier League. If Barcelona score, they're more likely to hold on to a league than Arsenal, which is why keeping a clean sheet at home is crucial. If we don't concede at home, even in a 0-0, it would be more pressure for Barcelona because they know even a draw would see us through. So, for Arsenal there can be no defensive mishaps, otherwise the Champions League is surely over for another year.
For the second half against Hull, you could almost substitute the second half against Stoke and not notice the difference. A crap pitch, hostile crowd, lots of injury time, and Arsenal trying to break through a packed defence.
by Guardian Chalkboards The second half against Stoke and Hull were similar as Arsenal struggled to find a breakthrough. Obviously there wasn't a horrific injury to an Arsenal player, but there could've been from the first half. George Boateng deserved a straight red for his challenge on Bacary Sagna, and in my opinion, it was worse than Shawcross'. Boateng's was high (on his knee), late and studs up, while Shawcross, which was reckless, was lower and wasn't studs up. It could've been much worse for Sagna, and Boateng should've been sent off earlier for poking Bendtner in the eye. Inexplicably, Bendtner was booked along with Boateng. The first half was quite promising; Arshavin scored after 14 minutes after great build up play by Eboue, Sagna, Nasri and the final ball to Arshavin. It was a great goal, and Hull were on the ropes. Then the referee and the linesman decided to help Hull back into it, and Hull got a penalty when the ball was flicked over to Venegoor of Hesselink, and Campbell nudged him and he went down. Venegoor was offside, and the linesman was looking right at him. Phil Brown thought Campbell should've been sent off for it, but V of H did not have full control of the ball (it was behind his head), so it wasn't an obvious goal scoring opportunity. In fact, it was the kind of penalty that we don't get; Bullard put it away and it was 1-1. The second half was all Arsenal; Hull had maybe one attack, when Zayatte broke forward, and got injured when Campbell tackled him. Again, Phil Brown wanted him sent off for it, but for me it was an excellent tackle. The BBC interviewer tried to compare it with Shawcross' but Wenger was having none of that. Arsenal continued to press forward, but it didn't look like happening. Our passing wasn't the best, and Arshavin missed a glorious chance to score, when Walcott set him up, and he hit it about 30 yards in the air. He also missed a couple in the first half, so it wasn't a great game for him despite the goal. Eduardo came on for the disappointing Nasri, who didn't have the cutting edge that Fabregas might've had in this game. Nasri, though was jaded, and Eduardo played in Walcott, but he couldn't get his shot away. Bendtner had a shot blocked, and even though there were 6 minutes of added time, we really didn't look like getting anything until Denilson, given time and space, shot from 30 yards. The ball was swerving and dipping, but their keeper should've dealt with, but he parried to Bendtner, and the Dane coolly finished for his 6th goal in 5 games. A tough game, but a big three points; this might've been a game previous Arsenal teams would've lost, as Arsene pointed out in his post game interview
We needed the three points and we got it after 90 minutes, exactly like at Stoke. It tells you that it was a difficult game, but as well that we have desire and mental strength and we never give up. And for such a young team that is great
Vermalen was excellent again, he was a bargain for £10 million. Denilson was alright, but we'll be happy to see Song back next week, Nasri was so-so, Eboue was good, and was upset to be subbed off, he's been in good form, and Sanga and Clichy did well attacking on the flanks. Clichy should've had a penalty in the first half when he was brought down by Boateng, I think, but we don't get those kinds of penalties.
The Telegraph have players average positioning graphic in their match reports, and looking at Tuesday's, I find it very interesting that Nasri, Eboue and Bendtner all occupied the same area. This shows that Bendtner was dropping deep, either defensively or to pick up the ball from midfield, and it also shows Nasri's role meant he was able to play right behind Bendtner, with Song and Diaby giving midfield cover.
Against Birmingham, Sol Campbell must start. He, unlike Mikael Silvestre, can control a defence, and help Alex Song, who is inexperienced at centre back. Arsenal must think about Birmingham before Barcelona; as Arsene Wenger said "one game at a time", and winning the league is more realistic than winning the Champions League game. Also, Vermaelen is back, and rested against Barcelona, and has 2 options for his partner: Either Sol Campbell can recover in time (he has 3 days) or Alex Song has to be drafted into defence again, while Denilson will play in his role.
