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It’s full time and the game ended 2-2 as we all know, Debuchy getting the first for us which was his first Arsenal goal and Giroud grabbing the second for us.
Sadly, we could not hold on to the lead we had which we did not even deserve in the first place. There are so many things to talk about after that game.
I don’t even know if I should start with the fact that we played woefully or the fact that we should stop this zonal marking thingy or the fact that we should work on our corners and set pieces in general or the fact that Szczesny was on top form today or the fact that we need to improve our big games turn up or…
The list goes on and on and on…
But I’ll just stop there as I can barely take them all at once.
[alert style=”1″]To start with, we could take some positives from this game. Firstly would be that at least we were not 4-0 down after 20 minutes like we were last time this happened, second would be the fact that we were able to get away with this game even though we were very very poor for most of the game.[/alert]
The game started with a lot of vibe from both sides but Liverpool were the first to come into the event and their fans did not make things any easier for the Gunners. They passed the ball around well with such urgency, they exploited our defence and the loads of space we gave them. It was just a tragic sight to behold, this was not the Arsenal we knew who would always have possession. The team just seemed to be scared of the ball today. For the entire length of the game, we could not hold possession which is our strong point and I am still in shock as to how we were even leading at one time even though the game still ended in a draw.
It was a no show from Welbeck, Sanchez seemed off, Chambo lost the ball alot, Flamini was caught out of position a lot.
Our defence gave Coutinho loads of space to play with, Wenger chose to play Debuchy at centre back instead of his preferred right full back position, all the players seemed confused. Too many things were wrong with the team today but I would just pick some things we could work on.
We need to work on…
Defending Set-pieces
First, we need to work on defending set pieces. As was evident again, we are totally a bunch of rubbish when we defend set pieces. This zonal marking style which we use never seems to work for us, it costs us a goal almost every game. It cost us a the equalizer today, it gave Newcastle their only goal last time out and the list goes on. This for me would be a key way to improve the team as it would help to reduce the amount of goals we concede.
Attacking Set-pieces
Second, close to the the first is the fact that we need to improve on our attacking set pieces, free-kicks, corner kicks. We had a lot of corners today against a shaky Liverpool defence and sadly we could not capitalize on that. The best of the best teams always make use of their set pieces when they need goals. A free kick taker who would score 4 out of 5 and an effective plan for nailing their corner kicks.
Develop a Plan B
Third, Wenger needs to develop a plan B for this team.
It was pretty clear to see that the team did not have a Plan B to work on after Liverpool had clamped down our possession game. We need something else to work on when our possession game is shot out and that was no where to be found today.
I could go on and on about more things we need to work on but I would stop here. I have to mention that Szczesny was awesome for us today, although he conceded two goals which were in no part his fault, he had an awesome game making a lot of wonderful saves which gave us a fighting chance in this game. Santi also had a good game.
[alert style=”3″]My man of the match is no doubt going to Szczesny.[/alert]
Our season is in no doubt going to be hinged on how we treat the few flaws which were spotted in the game today and the few additions we would add to the team.
That’s all for now… Albeit all this, its #AlwaysAGooner for me… #COYG
