An opportunity to go joint top with Leicester and City went begging, and two more crucial injuries have put Arsenal in a difficult position in their domestic and European campaigns. The game was similar to last week's, in that Arsenal had most of the possession, shots, and shots on target. But in fact, it's Norwich which will rue opportunities missed. They could easily have had four today, counting a PK that Flamini could have been called for. Ruddy had less to do than Cech despite the shot discrepancy. The Gunners looked punchless; crosses seldom came close to the target. Monreal and Bellerin had chances to set up teammates but simply didn't produce. No one had a great game, although Ozil played his part with his very well taken goal from Alexis's wonderful steal and quick pass.
The worst part was the two injuries. Koscielny went down with what looked like a hip flexor tear, and Alexis did his hamstring. Seriously, why would Wenger even play Alexis today? He said he had hamstring problems. Well, when one of your top two scorers has a hamstring problem, you don't play him. I have no idea what Wenger is going to do in Athens now. Stupid.
The refereeing wasn't terrible, but once again, gratuitous thuggery went unpunished. The worst was an entirely intentional shove of Alexis into the camera pit as the touchline. It reminded me of Arnautevic's vicious foul on Debuchy that messed up his shoulder.
Dreadful day, and more will come now that half a dozen starters are out injured.
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