Arsene-al

Another week passes, more points dropped, the new season has really brought disappointment. A 1-1 draw to Sunderland really isn’t good enough, even if we were 1-0 down in the 92nd minute. I understand how difficult it is to play against a team who play 10 behind the ball, but really, is Walcott effective enough to play away from home against a team who allow us no room? His best attribute is raw pace, not using skill to beat a man and whip a cross in, the same with Sagna, we’re playing to our friggin’ weaknesses here.

I don’t know the ins and outs of Samir Nasri not starting, whether he had a knock or what I don’t know but I’d understand if Wenger played Fabregas, Denílson and Song in the same midfield away to Chelsea or Man Utd where we’d expect to get attacked, but Sunderland, come on. They hardly attacked us, why do we need extra defensive bodies in the middle? It doesn’t make sense, Nasri or even Eboue would have been the better option on that left hand side.

For me, we get the best out of Walcott when he plays wide left, he can cut inside and slip passes in behind, especially away from home where he can’t nessarily run down the wing because of the lack of space in behind. van Persie should be on the right in this case too, cutting inside, perhaps attempting to slip offsideAde in or maybe having a few shots, albeit most would balloon over anyway, but that’s not the point.

Adebayor isn’t in form, Bendtner came on and had a couple of good touches, played a delightful dink over to van Persie who drew a fine save from Gordon. Bendtner should be starting these away games, he seems to thrive when there’s little space in behind so he can drop off and dictate the way the play with it at his feet. Song and Denílson were all action and overall did little wrong (except for the goal, Alex!), but I just felt we needed less defensive umph and more offensive umph.

Almunia (7) was good once again today, nothing he could do to prevent Leadbitter’s goal and he saved well from Cissé twice early on. Sagna (6) was pretty innefective, he didn’t have a lot of defensive work to do nor did he have the room to bomb forward, he was expected to whip crosses in all day again and once again, surprise surprise, it didn’t work. Toure (7) played the offside trap to perfection 3 or 4 times, his tackle on Whitehead was to perfection to deny them a goal, and overall he did well. Gallas (6) didn’t have much to do really, didn’t inspire us much going forward and seemed to keep his volume down throughout, average performance but that wasn’t his fault. Clichy (6) was pretty flat aswell, given a harsh yellow card and couldn’t seem to find the right cross a lof of the time, did what he had to do well but didn’t really stand out.

Walcott (5) really lacks consistency. He runs at defenders, drags them wide and expects to have another touch half a yard from the byline, what the fuck is that all about? Why doesn’t he implement a step over into his game so he can come onto his left and perhaps have a shot or something? Fabregas (7) was good, surprised he was the one who came up with the winner but there we go, his 1st goal of the season is finally out of the way and he’s looking like his old self again. Song (6) read play well but was at fault for Sunderland’s goal, caught in posession quite easily and we paid for it. Overall he was okay but the lack of concentration let him down. Denílson (7) was pretty good, not spectacular but slowly did his job, was one of the 3 better players for us even on that left hand side.

van Persie (6) didn’t have much to work with, lost the ball a few times, couldn’t seem to find his touch in the tight gaps and had next to no movement from Adebayor to actually slip some balls into. Adebayor (5) was very poor once again, first touch of an elephant, his shooting was whack, he wasn’t prepared to jump for the ball from corners and free kicks and after the Inernational break, needs to be rested or dropped, whatever Wenger wants to call it, Bendtner IN!

Bendtner (6) came on and showed some urgency, got a silly yellow but a superb dink over to van Persie nearly got us a goal, his touch was good and he managed to turn and face the goal on a few occasions because of his touch, needs to get a start soon. Nasri (6) didn’t have much to work with, should have started if he was fit, had one opportunity but with 937 red shirts in the box, what do you expect? Vela (6) only had a few minutes but put in a decent cross, nothing more of note really.

Normally after a 93rd minute goal it’d feel like a win, but it doesn’t, we’ve dropped points to Fulham, Hull and Sunderland while beating Newcastle, Bolton and Blackburn, we really should be topping the table after the fixtures we’ve had, and Everton doesn’t get any easier in 2 weeks, especially knowing 15 or 16 players are heading away to Internation duty.

What changes do we need to make? What does everyone think of Ade’s form? Bendtner to start?