Written by The Arsenal Kid.
Well, the month of November is getting from bad to worse, isn’t it? And there are still two more games to play before we see the end of the most unsuccessful month in our history.
A Champion’s League campaign that started so well is in tatters after Tuesday’s away defeat to SC Braga. Remember this is a team which we thumped 6-0 at home and are now lying in mid-table in the Portuguese league. How did we lose this match?
Again, we had so much possession in the match; almost double that of the home side. Yet we failed to create clear cut opportunities that threatened the opposition keeper. I don’t think Felipe had to make a save at all in the match. This has got to be a worrying statistic for Arsene and his staff. There’s no point having the ball without any end result. This has been our achilles heel for so long yet we can’t solve this problem.
We have been playing the offensive system with one tall centre forward up front for some time now. Yet in this match, we failed to do the most basic thing needed for this system; getting a high cross for the striker (Bendtner in this instance) to attack. On numerous occasion, Walcott showed his lack of a winger’s instinct by crossing it low when we all know how poor Bendtner is on the ground.
As for Bendtner, I think this game shows how poor he is in this system. He may win a some headers but there is no directionality in his headers. Contrast that with Chamakh first headed challenge which he won and directed it to Vela who was brought down.
Arsene will go on to blame the officials (what’s the point of the guy behind the goal anyway) but the truth is we were again very poor in the match. I don’t think we deserved to lose but certainly we did nothing to warrant a victory.
