A Gooners Report: Man Utd 2-1 Arsenal: Simply Not Good Enough

Arsenal slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime. Here is a report by our resident Arsenal fan Jacob Windon.

I’ve been sitting at my laptop for about an hour now, staring blankly at the screen, down at the keyboard, looking over at my match notes, looking back up to the screen, and all the while I have this thought going round in my head.

What is the point? I mean seriously, what is the point in writing a review about this game?

I actually find myself lost when trying to find the words to describe Arsenal’s display on Saturday lunchtime. I struggled to stay awake during the first half. I contemplated going to bed during half time. In retrospect, I wish I had. The truth is that whilst we lost 8-2 in the corresponding fixture last year, yesterdays defeat felt incomprehensibly more dissatisfying, ten thousand times more depressing. It was incredibly demoralizing and dispiriting stuff.

Arsenal simply did not show up. We did not look like competing. We were abject, completely ruined for ideas, absolutely hopeless going forward, and sure enough, we still make these inexplicable defensive mistakes that in this instance, ultimately ended the game with 87 minutes still to play. I will try to make this review relatively short, because quite frankly, talking about Arsenal at the moment is extraordinarily painful, and the less said about yesterdays game, the better.

When Thomas Vermaelen was made captain after Robin van Persie’s inevitable exit, I found myself feeling slightly skeptical. I realise Thomas Vermaelen sporadically exhibits qualities that we associate with leaders – fist pumping, heart pumping, ridiculous forays forward, the occasional goal followed by more fist pumping and heart pumping. He has shown during his time at Arsenal that he can be considered a genuinely world class defender. This season is a completely different story. Maybe he misinterpreted receiving the honour of captaining Arsenal Football Club as a cue for him to start thinking about his future elsewhere, because I tell you what from the opening game of the season, this man has been on a different planet. For someone who is captain of his team, Vermaelen performances have been absolutely unacceptable. His defending this season has been nothing short of abysmal. There hasn’t even been a foray into the opposition penalty box ending in a goal and more fist pumping, to cherish, only glaring individual errors and shocking defensive performances. Against Manchester United he was poor again, especially for the first goal, literally giving Robin van Persie the ball so he could fire home. I realise mistakes happen but Vermaelen has made no effort to make up for these stupid errors, and I firmly believe he should be dropped immediately.

Arsenal find themselves in a captaincy crisis. Arsene Wenger has made a monumental mistake giving Vermaelen the captains armband and now finds himself in a tricky situation, where he feels he has to play Vermaelen. I highly doubt that Vermaelen, despite his horrible start to the season will be stripped of the captaincy or relegated to the bench. This in itself reflects the lack of discipline shown by Arsene, although having said that he did strip Gallas of the captaincy in 2008. And promptly gave it to Cesc Fabregas, who moved to Barcelona, who passed it on to van Persie, who moved to Manchester United. Arsene, I realise that I’m probably the last person you’ll ever want to take advice from, but how about giving the captaincy to Squillaci? Or Chamakh? Because your choice of captain hasn’t really worked out. Do we even have players in our squad that can be considered captain material? Mikel Arteta is the obvious choice at vice captain and I was disappointed that he missed out on the armband during the summer. Then there’s Jack Wilshere, who at some stage will inevitably receive the dubious honour of Arsenal captain (providing City don’t come in with a cheeky bid). There is a real lack of leadership on the pitch at the moment, and this is a massive cause for concern.

Let’s move onto the other things Arsenal currently lack. A left back – Andre Santos was predictably roasted by Rafael and Valencia, and whilst I feel his lack of defensive quality is often exaggerated, he was pretty bad against United. He made the occasional good tackle, but like Vermaelen himself, Santos is very much a chance defender – someone who will gamble and jump into challenges. In my preview to the game I talked about how vital it was that Podolski worked his socks off. It was nice to see he read the article and paid attention. The return of Kieran Gibbs cannot come quick enough – Gibbs and Podolski struck up an impressive partnership down the left prior to Gibbs’ injury, and we can see now how important that partnership was in both an attacking and defensive sense. Gibbs allows Podolski to get forward much more than Santos, and Podolski has gone missing in the last five games because he has an incredible amount of defensive work to get through. This is a feat that cannot continue because quite simply, Podolski is not a defensive player.

I don’t like giving non-Arsenal players credit but Wayne Rooney must get a mention for his superb man-marking job on Mikel Arteta. The game highlighted how influential Arteta is to making our midfield tick, and we missed his metronomic passing due to Rooney’s hassling. It was also nice to see Rooney miss a penalty against us – quite a rare thing indeed.

There isn’t much else to be said about the game. Wilshere’s red card was an accident waiting to happen and I have no idea why he wasn’t removed earlier. Aaron Ramsey is not a right winger. I understand why Arsene Wenger continues to play him there, to keep possession away from home against the big teams like he did against Manchester City. But it’s quite obvious that Walcott would have been more effective starting in Ramsey’s position. I mean, we could have passed it to Theo… and he might have ran at Evra… passed back to Sagna… Oh look, we’ve lost the ball again. Once again we had a fair amount of possession but did absolutely nothing with it – a reoccurring theme.

There is a massive gulf in class between Arsenal and Manchester United perfectly illustrated by yesterday’s performance. I am so disheartened by our team’s recent limp displays, and have no great hopes for the rest of the season. Why bother getting your hopes up with this lot? Call me reactionary, call me a pessimist, but at the end of the season when this abject negativity is justified, call me ‘right’. The fact that Andre Santos ran the length of the pitch to catch van Persie and grab his shirt typifies the attitude our players seem to have, the majority of them anyway. How can you swap shirts with a player at half time, and then go out in the second half to play against that same player? It just reeks of being unprofessional and was an insult to the Arsenal fans who traveled to Old Trafford on the day.

The Arsenal fans also deserve a mention. They were once again superb, demonstrating why we have the best away fans in the country. If only half the team shared the same passion for the club.

Unfortunately, the last word has to be on Robin van Persie. If your like me, and right about everything, you would have been extremely annoyed with his actions yesterday, in not celebrating the goal he scored. The fact he didn’t celebrate is another half arsed attempt to show the fans that he still has respect for the club. I’m sorry Robin, but after everything you said, it was crystal clear that you didn’t have any respect for the club. To try and show you still care by not celebrating is insulting to the Arsenal fans, and it completely justifies why we don’t like you very much anymore.

So no positives to take from the United game. I’m sorry for what was a depressing article, but there’s nothing good to say about Arsenal Football Club at the moment.

Right then. I’ll be back for a preview of the very important Champions League tie against Schalke on Tuesday. Until then.

In the unlikely event that you enjoy reading me babble on and on about Arsenal and football and stuff, leave a comment below, I will reply back to you. Feel free to disagree with me on anything – that’s fine, however it would be most appreciated if you could refrain from using any abusive language.

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