Sheffield Wednesday 3 - 0 Arsenal

" I just want the young guys to give a good showing in Sheffield, and for no one to get hurt. "

That was the last sentence I wrote on this blog.  Well, shit.  I don't know how serious the injuries are to Chamberlain and Walcott.  I hope they were taken out as a precaution.  It's certainly strange that both took themselves out within minutes of going on.  Had they not trained properly?  Weird.  We have run out of replacements, and Wenger loaned out the likes of Gnabry who could slot in respectably.  This could be very bad.

The other bad thing was how poorly all the substitutes played (with one or two exceptions, below).  I figured Kamara and Iwobi would be in over their heads, but I didn't expect veteran first teamers like Chambers, Debuchy, and Flamini to stink up Hillsborough.  Cech was fantastic, Mertesacker OK (though open headers that close in are unforgivable), and Giroud got absolutely no service (more on that later) so it's hard to rate him.  Gibbs did his job.  Bennacer was dreadful when he came on.  Campbell may have been the biggest flop of the night.  Bielik was the best of our midfielders after he came on. 

Sheffield outplayed us by a long way.  They easily kept us from doing anything remotely dangerous, took the ball away almost at will, and their attacks and set pieces were clinical.  They prepared for this game.  I don't know what we did, but it wasn't helpful.  I blame Wenger.  It's not reasonable to expect that group of B teamers and youngsters (with three starters) to ping the ball around the Arsenal way.  He played Giroud; why?  I expected a lot of long balls for the Frenchman to knock down for Iwobi and Campbell, but no one even looked for him.  They just kept their heads down and dribbled into trouble, or left passes short (Flamini did it a lot).  Hardly anyone checked back for the ball, allowing the opponents to nip in and steal it repeatedly.  They weren't distracted by defending, because time and again they lost their man.  Guys like Debuchy, Flamini, and Chambers know better.  

Flamini is simply past it.  He must have eaten spinach before the Tottenham game, but he's really not that good anymore and needs to concentrate on his job, which is mostly defensive.

I'm worried that it isn't going to happen for Calum Chambers.  I once thought he'd be a mainstay for Arsenal, but he looks lost.  He's nowhere near Gabriel's level at CB, and he has been found wanting at right back.  He's not fast enough for a defensive midfielder, and he does not pass the ball well.  His stupid, blatant takedown of their forward in a dangerous position led to the third goal on the subsequent free kick.  (That was a very lovely play, I must say, and if it was a touch offside, I don't care.)  He may end up with a team like Villa sooner rather than later.  Seriously, he was garbage today.

Debuchy was a very good right back in the EPL and internationally.  Maybe the injuries took a toll.  I don't think he's going to play his way back into top form.  He was torched today.  With his current form, and Chambers's, I say bring Carl Jenkinson back next year.  Chambers may be a project, but unless Debuchy rounds into form, he has to go.

Joel Campbell is not an Arsenal player.  Wenger made a mistake with him and it's time he admitted it.  He won't get much money for him now, but sell him, please.  I'm sick of watching him in an Arsenal shirt.

Iwobi showed some promise, but he was not ready for this.  Bielik actually looked decent, but he came on fresh and by then Sheffield had done all the damage they needed to.  Kamara was pretty bad in this game.  Bennacer embarrassed himself.  And Wenger let them all down.  How were these desperate, frightened youngsters supposed to do well when they couldn't get decent passes, when the guys they passed to were hard to find and lost the ball anyway, when the veterans they played with couldn't keep defensive shape and were constantly out of position, and their manager sent them out there with a crap plan (or none at all)?  This was a horrible experience for all of them.  Wenger would have done far better to play the youth team.  I mean it.

In short, this was awful.  We learned nothing we can use and we're out of this competition.  All the confidence we had was shot.  There are more important injuries.  

Crap.

Sheffield Wednesday Tuesday

I'd rotate the hell out of the squad.  Here's my suggestion:

                                          Ospina

Debuchy         Mertesacker           Gabriel           Gibbs

                          Flamini               Arteta

    Walcott                      Chamberlain                 Alexis

                                         Giroud



Okay, a bit top-heavy.  And I am really afraid of the two CDMs.  But this team ought to be enough to beat a good Championship side like Wednesday.  I'd sit Alexis out, but he probably would run out there anyway and get red-carded for being the twelfth man.  Besides, I don't know who I'd put there in his place.

I want to see Walcott and Giroud out there together, and I want the Ox steaming through the middle picking up the balls Giroud knocks down to him.  I think Gibbs and Alexis will be a terrifying combination coming up the left, and I really think Debuchy needs game time.

We'll play Swansea four days later, then Bayern, two games that are in my opinion more significant, so some freshening up will be a good thing.  The Liberty has not been all that friendly a place to go, and Bayern will want to cement first place in the group; those will be battles.

Arsenal 2 -1 Everton

All the goals were scored in the pouring rain in the first half.  Ozil's perfect ball to Giroud's head as he sliced his way into the 6 yard box got the touch-on it deserved, past Tim Howard and into the Everton goal, followed a minute and a half later by a great Cazorla free kick well turned in off Koscielny's head.  Cech made this stand up, although a nasty deflection wrong-footed him at the end of the first half.  Three points!

I hope the team doesn't get complacent.  Everton always does poorly at Arsenal, and this one could have gone differently.  The Gunners did not dominate, though I think we deserved the win.  Oxlade-Chamberlain is going to have to improve his passing.  Maybe the weather played a role, maybe fatigue was a factor, but there was some uncharacteristically slack passing from our otherwise stellar fullbacks, and at least twice Alexis put us in trouble by coughing up the ball in dangerous positions.  Gabriel was wonderful, and Giroud showed why he's our best forward.  If wide left is good enough for Alexis, wide right should be good enough for Walcott.

Arsenal 2 - 0 Bayern Munich

I did not know what to expect from this game, other than that it would be hard-fought.  After some open play in the early minutes, it settled into a fast-paced affair but with Bayern having much more of the ball.  That pattern continued into the 75th minute, when the breakthrough came.  The goalkeepers were sharp and they had to be.  Both made impressive saves, none better than Neuer's on a header from Walcott, though a diving Cech's elbow save on Lewandowski's short-range shot was perhaps its equal.  Thus it was surprising that a goalkeeping error led to the winning goal.  Neuer came out to deal with Cazorla's excellent free kick into the center of the penalty area, but was momentarily frozen by Koscielny's leap towards the ball.  As sometimes happens, Koscielny didn't touch it and it also flew past Neuer, and hit the face of Olivier Giroud as he was falling to the ground.  It may have brushed his hand on its way towards goal, but this was no handball, and after the ball bounced across the line it was correctly given.  Bayern was not done, and there were several anxious moments, the worst featuring Lewandowski again.  But at the death, the team that snatched a late goal was Arsenal.  Bellerin, who was absolutely fantastic the entire night, nipped in to steal a pass, motored past the last defender, and crossed to a wide open Ozil, who hit the ball towards goal.  Neuer clawed it out, but only after it had crossed the line with an inch or two to spare.  Two-nil to the Arsenal!

This doesn't mean Arsenal is out of the woods, of course.  Yes, winning the rest of our games would virtually assure going through, but we have games in Munich and Athens to negotiate.  (Hey, isn't this the third time in recent years that our final group game is against Olympiakos away?)  Assuming Bayern wins their games against the other two, Arsenal will still have to beat each of them.  A point in Munich could be precious.

Credit where it's due here.  First, the referee was astonishingly good.  I don't remember a card other than Giroud's for barging into Neuer as he was about to release the ball he'd just collected.  (Giroud did not remonstrate with the ref--yay!)  The officials let the game flow and it was a great spectacle.  The defenses were excellent, despite the wealth of attacking talent out there.  It's tough to rate individuals in a game like this; there was enormous pressure put on the ball and both teams misplaced some passes, particularly Arsenal.  Bayern completed a higher percentage of their passes, but this was mostly because Arsenal was making a lot of them from deep in their own half and they were as much clearances as passes.  Arsenal finished with 30% possession, an unthinkable stat in the EPL.

But Wenger intended exactly that.  He wanted to hit Bayern on set pieces and the counter, and this is exactly what happened.  It's not often that he out-tactics the other manager, but he did it to van Gaal a couple weeks ago and he did it to Guardiola today.  If I'm singling out anyone for special praise--and they were all superb today--t would have to be our fullbacks, who covered a lot of ground and made it very difficult for Bayern to do what they wanted to do.  It seemed to me that Ozil and Alexis were given special attention by the German side; neither had any time to dwell on the ball.  Consequently, both coughed it up repeatedly, Alexis twice in very dangerous positions.  Yet both did their jobs on both sides of the ball.

The one negative from this magnificent victory, and it's a big one, is the hamstring injury to Ramsey.  The guy was just getting his confidence back, doing a fabulous job in every game.  He'll be out for a while I'm sure, and Chamberlain will get his chances to start.  A minor disappointment for me was Walcott's finishing.  He should have had at least one today.  But a swarming defense, weak shooting, and Manuel "Spiderman" Neuer conspired to keep him off the scoresheet.

Watford 0 - 3 Arsenal

I admit I was concerned when we didn't score after an hour.  The first half was full of action, but not goals.  Watford was very aggressive.  Their high pressure resulted in a fair number of turnovers, but Arsenal had the ball in their end for several opportunities too.  I was impressed with the intensity of both squads.  Arsenal had more talent, and that was obvious; but it did not translate into a lead before the half.  The first 15 minutes of the second half looked much like the first 45:  Arsenal mostly on top but Watford threatening on occasion.  Then came 11 minutes that resembled those 13 glorious minutes at the Emirates two weeks ago, and the three points were assured.

It looked to me as though we simply wore them out.  Troy Deeney, their best player on the day, was gasping for breath towards the end.  As the Brazilians say, "The ball has no lungs."  With Arsenal having most of the possession and sublime ball control, Watford players had to run and reverse directions more often than ours did.  The role of conditioning is sometimes overlooked, but in this game it was glaring.  Aaron Ramsey was a machine.  He runs as much as any EPL player.  Near the end of the game, he still looked relatively fresh.  He's involved in lots of chances and before today had as many shots as anyone in then league who hadn't scored.  It was great to see him do it today.  Without Ramsey-like reserves of energy, Watford was unable to keep closing us down and tracking our runs.  The last half hour was very different from the 62 minutes that preceded it.  Ramsey said in an interview that Watford groundskeeping had not watered the pitch, making it slow.  They adjusted very well to that.

Some random observations:

Walcott looked a lot less effective.  I think that's partly because Watford's aggressive defense didn't allow Ozil, Ramsey, Cazorla etc. the time and space to launch diagonal balls or long passes over the top at just the right moments.  He doesn't hold the ball up and he's hopeless in the air.  His link-up play and finishing are much improved, though.  I'm still not convinced he's better up front than Giroud or even a healthy Welbeck.  We really need a striker.

Koscielny played well, but at times he seemed not to be 100%.  I hope his hamstring is healed.  There was talk of Gabriel having an operation (Arsenal said he was out of the lineup due to "illness").

Our fullbacks are fantastic.  We need to find games for Gibbs and Debuchy, but it's tough to sit Bellerin or Monreal.  (Jenkinson scored for West Ham today.)

Our mids and wingers were all very good today.  However, Arteta definitely looked rusty--or is it just old?--when he came in.  And Oxlade-Chamberlain has lost his way.  He dribbles too much (Wilshere syndrome) and never seems confident in his shot.  Alexis attempts a lot of dribbles too, but his are more often successful and often end with a good shot or pass.

Boy was I wrong about Cech.  He's still got it.  I don't see why he can't be given the #1 shirt and be our first string keeper for another two years at least.  After his howler against Olympiakos, Ospina knows it's merited.

The Manchester clubs also won easily, making for a tight race so far.  Wenger will be desperate to salvage his Champions' League hopes, so he has some difficult choices to make in the coming weeks.  He won't want to lose ground to City, who are still the favorites.  Not everyone will stay healthy.  And there's no satisfactory replacement for what Alexis and Coquelin bring to the team.

And another shout-out to Shad Forsythe, who's keeping Arsenal as fit as I can remember it ever being.

USA 2 - 3 Mexico

Mexico were worthy winners of the so-called "CONCACAF Cup" but they waited until close to the end of extra time to do it.  The teams traded early goals and it looked as though a goalfest was on, but a combination of desperate defense and poor finishing from Mexico was responsible for 80 scoreless minutes from the Americans' equalizer until Mexico's go-ahead goal in ET.  The only spell of US dominance followed as they attempted to get back in it, and after they equalized, when they looked for an unlikely winner; but Mexico turned the pressure back on and a magnificent volley from 20 yards and a tough angle won it for them.  You can get the commentary anywhere.  I'm just going to say a bit about what this game reveals about the USMNT.

First, the good part:  Michael Bradley and DeMarcus Beasley.  That's about it.  Yes, the two US goals were well taken, but Cameron's unmarked header off a Bradley free kick and Wood's one-timer through the GK's legs were too easy.  When Bradley wasn't on the ball, the US did not pass crisply.  There was plenty of enterprise, but the Mexicans were simply quicker, better, and smarter.  Maybe Klinsmann didn't set the team up properly--wide areas were ceded to Mexico all game, and when the US did manage to get the ball it looked as though they had no idea what to do with it.  But mostly, it was a quality gap in personnel.

The biggest disappointment was Clint Dempsey.  He wasn't getting open, and the few times he did get the ball he seldom found a teammate.  If he plays like this in Russia, we're toast.  Altidore wasn't much better.  Beckerman and Jermaine Jones were poor in possession (especially the former) and a step slow in defense.  Zardes looked decent early but the game passed him by and he was the first to be substituted--rather late, in my view.  His replacement, Yedlin, got the assist on Wood's goal, but he did not look particularly good tonight.  The fullbacks did what they could but were pulled inside too much.  While the TV commentators praised our central defenders, I thought they were awful.  Cameron and Besler were slow and out of position.  Only poor finishing kept Mexico from being out of sight in regulation.

I may be harsh on our two center halves, because Beckerman et al did not track the Mexican mids who charged into the box.  While the decision to play Guzan and leave Howard on the bench was inexplicable, I don't think our GK was at fault for any of the goals.  Maybe Howard would have stopped one of them, and certainly he would have marshaled the defense better.  But Mexico was on top for 90% of this game.  They looked better; they were better.  They moved the ball around crisply for the most part.  Yet the Mexicans really weren't great.  We were poor.  That was probably our best eleven, and they were lucky to hang around in a game against a team that was not truly world class.  On this evidence, I predict an early exit for the US in Russia.  Klinsmann better take some youngsters along--some of the guys out there tonight are not going to get better with age.

Anyway, it was a very entertaining game.  The outcome was in doubt until the final goal, after which one sensed there was no way back for the US.  In truth, Mexico could have scored four in 90 minutes, while the US cashed in on their only good chances.  There was only ever going to be one outcome tonight, however long it took the Mexicans to turn their superiority into victory.  PKs would have been an injustice.

Worth Another Look

I had to watch that first half again today.  It was even more impressive on the second viewing.  The one touch passes, the hustle tackles, the lightning attacks...United was simply blown away.  In his postmatch interview, Wenger confirmed that the strategy was to come out flying, pressing high and committing to attack.  He admitted that that level of effort can't be kept up for a whole game, so the idea was to get on top early.  You'd have to say that for once, his tactics were spot on.

Van Gaal seems to have thought that United could play Arsenal's style too, and he definitely got that wrong.  He played into our hands by trying to be open.  Their passing was off and when they did maintain possession it was often labored and unimaginative.  They did have a few opportunities, but far fewer than Arsenal, and they were not taken.  Some had noted that United's schedule was a bit light to date, and maybe they aren't as good as they thought they were.  United will play City in three weeks and that will be a real test, and Everton and Palace are the two games either side of that fixture.  Not exactly like playing Bayern Munich twice, but still.

Lots of people criticize Wenger for putting too much faith in his players, but look around the field and you'll see men doing a job no one but Wenger thought them capable of before they got the chance.  Walcott is actually turning into a real central striker, much to my surprise.  He still isn't going to win balls in the air, but his link-up play is enormously improved, and his runs are excellent.  Coquelin has blossomed into one of the league's best holding mids; who saw that coming?  And lest we forget, Aaron Ramsey was written off years ago by most Arsenal supporters.  Monreal and Koscielny were very smart buys, and Bellerin has become so good that Debuchy can't get on the team.  (That must have shocked even Wenger.)  I have no doubt that he'll find Callum Chambers' best position too.

Alexis has been a hero from Day 1--what a player!--but Ozil came in for a lot of criticism, much of it unfair, since his arrival.  Wenger does not blame players individually; the most he will say is something like "we lost concentration."  I used to think he coddled his players too much, but he chooses a squad based on technical ability more than mental toughness and he's handling them appropriately.  Manuel Almunia, Szczesny, and now Ospina are never to blame for a loss as Wenger tells it.  It's always a team failure.  Maybe that approach allows a Squillaci or Santos to kid himself that he's not a liability, but I think team cohesion is improved, and Arsenal will not melt down like Chelsea is now because of managerial tantrums.

Arsene is going through a difficult personal time, which has to make job pressures even harder.  I'm happy for him that he's going into the international break on a high note.

Arsenal 3 - 0 Manchester United

I did not expect this, especially after our error-filled performance at the Emirates just five days ago.  I watched the game with a United supporter, and instead of celebrating openly in that glorious opening salvo, I merely gaped in joyous wonder as the Gunners dismantled a team whose manager had just said could beat anybody.  Wenger outmanaged van Gaal, sending Arsenal out to press high but defend deep, trusting in his speedier midfield to control the space between the lines if the front four wasn't winning and keeping the ball.  United's back line has always been suspect in possession, and never more so than today.  That first half hour looked so easy for us.  Had Ramsey finished--it looked harder to miss than score--it would have been four goals.  Martial missed one gold-plated opportunity, and United had four or so half-chances, but our back line did a good enough job against what looked a tired, off-color United attacking unit.  Something is wrong with Wayne Rooney.  Maybe he's simply past his expiration date, but it's not working out for him.  Mata was not effective either.

Second place on goal difference over United, two points back of City.  Had Mike Dean not thrown the Chelsea game, we could be on top now.  We need Koscielny back, and it would be great to have Wilshere and Welbeck, but I suppose they're out for a while.

Cech was really good today, saving at least one goal, probably two, with very sharp play.  Monreal and Bellerin were awesome; Mertesacker and Gabriel good enough.  Coquelin did an excellent job in front of them.  Cazorla is getting to be quite efficient in a deeper role.  Ozil had a superb game--a goal and an assist.  Ramsey was good, I thought, but he is lacking confidence.  Walcott played really well, having an assist for Ozil's and the last pass on Alexis's second.  And of course, Alexis was fabulous.  The United supporter I was watching the game with asked me if Alexis always helped out on defense, and I told him "Every game, all game."  He's a guy no one wants to play against.

Okay, it'll still take a miracle to get us into the knockout round of the ECL, but I feel a lot better about the season than I did yesterday.