Aston Villa 1 - 2 Arsenal: Three points despite abject display.

That was pretty crap, wasn't it?

The performance from first whistle to last wasn't anywhere near the calibre that Arsenal had been showing in the last couple of months. I'd say this is probably the worst we've performed for a while now.

Putting aside the fact we won for the moment, let's look at where we went wrong this evening.

To start off with, there were obvious problems down our flanks. Charles N'Zogbia, always prone to performing well against us, gave Coquelin a torried time of it. Walcott didn't come back often enough to help out his full back. On the other side, Vermaelen didn't quite have the same problems with Albrighton but still struggled to keep him quiet. Gervinho also didn't help out much. Both of Villa's wingers got good crosses in and created some trouble for Koscielny and Mertesacker.

Villa didn't score of these chances, but kept coming back. Arsenal did a poor job in midfield, both in winning the ball back and in controlling possession. Frimpong looked slack in his positioning and very poor in his passing. This highlights how much of a miss Song actually is. Song not only brings discipline to the midfield, but also doubles up as a very good user of the ball and is dependable at playing out from the back.

Arteta tried to exercise the usual calm and class in there, but both of his mates let him down. Frimpong as highlighted above, and Ramsey, who despite covering a lot of ground, was also sloppy with the ball and failed to create anything.

With the midfield failing, the attackers were always going to be isolated. Van Persie wasn't helped with his fellow forwards Walcott and Gervinho also having poor games, doing very little in both defensive and offensive capacities.

All this combined resulted in a poor display that really made Villa look better than they are. The reason for this? Well, the most likely reason is tiredness.

I thought that we would be completely sharp tonight since the City game will have taken a lot out of the team. Remember that this has happened on two notable ocassions this season: the Marseille game after the win at Chelsea, and the Fulham game after the win at home agaisnt Dortmund. Evidently, these big games are exhausting affairs and with the same starting eleven playing near enough every game, putting in the same level of performance is difficult.

Still, despite the poorness of the performance, we still managed to pull two goals out of somewhere. Both from set-pieces, actually.

Winning ugly is not a bad thing
While we're all condemning the poor display tonight, let's not lose sight of the fact that every now and again, you have to win ugly. You have to find ways of winning games when you're not playing well, or when things are going against you. Arsenal did so tonight, by scoring from two set-pieces. How often do we do that? Not very.

To win ugly with so many injuries, with such a poor display, is a hugely positive thing.

Rosicky and Benayoun should start more often
Our depth issues are well documented. However, that doesn't mean we should play the same team in every game. Consistency is nice, yes, but these guys can't play every single game without getting fatigued or injured and having their performance effected as a result.

Rosicky and Benayoun are two players who may not be of the greatest quality, but both have done well in the limited time they've had on the pitch and thus deserve more minutes, especially with Ramsey struggling a little bit and the form of Gervinho and Walcott being up and down. Rosicky looked good when he came on tonight, and Benayoun scored the winning goal. Let's give them more of a go.

Player Ratings
Wojciech Szczesny - 7. Dominanted his area tonight and made a couple of good saves.

Per Mertesacker - 6. Made a mess of intercepting the ball for Albrighton's goal, but actually had a good game overall.

Laurent Koscielny - 6. Very solid. Solid enough for the fans to sing his name.

Francis Coquelin - 6. Struggled in the first half, but improved in the second.

Thomas Vermaelen - 6. Not his best display.

Emmanuel Frimpong - 5. Was poor in just about every aspect.

Mikel Arteta - 6. As good as he usually is.

Aaron Ramsey - 5. Was quite poor, not producing anything and missing a good chance on top of it.

Theo Walcott - 5. Was anonymous despite winning the penalty.

Gervinho - 5. Also anonymous.

Robin van Persie - 6. Isolated all game, but still managed a goal and an assist. Just to more goals to go to equal Shearer's record.

----------------------------

Tomas Rosicky - 6.
Yossi Benayoun - 6.
Andrey Arshavin - n/a.

lol.. still thanking God i did not watch this one

would be another early heart attack for me

What da hell? When did this match happen? Is this EPL? Man i didn't even know....

LOL verminator xD


it was a crap match in all honesty. we created like 1 or 2 chances all match. We were lucky bent wasnt there otherwise he would have scored for sure early on


but hey ? 3 points ! and another rvp goal. next 2 games at home!

Scrapping points. That's championship material.Atleast thats what they say about Yanited

I've done the analysis.

right now Coquelin is in front of Frimpong..... Frimpong needs to send out on loan when Jack is back

Is there enough time for RVP to score two more goals before the turn of the year?

wolves at home and some other team on 31st

2 home games

but rvp might be rested at wolves at home

Wolves and QPR

Wolves home on Boxing Day, QPR home on New Years Eve.

Provided he plays in both, I'll be disappointed if he didn't break that record.

What a ugly game, Frimpong was just not there at all. Thank god we got all 3 points.

one good thing about RVP's form

if he does not score one game

know he is gonna score in teh next

We need few players in this January window.Yossi Benayoun he looks like he has been playing with us his whole life, love the guy.

Benayoun needs more games.



My boy Coquelin delivered a couple long distance beauties to Walcott & Gerv. Excellent passer

Arsenal always play poorly in the league in mid-week games.

Nothing new.

Main thing is 3 points.

That was pretty crap.
Didn't sleep until one, chatting, and then slept in half of the first half, till 7, and I couldn't even find a good stream. I was happy for it to go ten seconds without stalling. Actually no, I hated it.

I see RVP lining up for the corner, and I'm thinking HOW ABOUT WE SWAP TEN CORNERS FOR A PENALTY? And then BENAYOUN FAITH.

Arsenal have the same points tally (32) this season after 17 games, as they did last season. But last season, Arsenal were 2nd.

A heads-up about the Boxing Day fixture. There's a 99% chance that I won't be able to do a post match thread, since I'll be around a relatives house. I may not even be able to watch the game.

The 1% comes from the fact that I've no idea when my father wants us round, so I may have the time. Chances are I won't. So if someone else could do it for that day, that'd be great.

I'll remind everyone again closer to the day.

GoonerJay29 wrote:A heads-up about the Boxing Day fixture. There's a 99% chance that I won't be able to do a post match thread, since I'll be around a relatives house. I may not even be able to watch the game.

The 1% comes from the fact that I've no idea when my father wants us round, so I may have the time. Chances are I won't. So if someone else could do it for that day, that'd be great.

I'll remind everyone again closer to the day.

Sure, just let us know mate.

Incidentally, next 4 afc league games: Wolves (h), QPR (h), Fulham (a), Swansea (a).

We've learned how to grind out results, which is amazing considering how crap we were holding on to heavy leads just last season.

No problems in winning ugly. You can't play pretty every game.

Benayoun should infinitely bench Arshavin from now on.

Sushi Master wrote:We've learned how to grind out results, which is amazing considering how crap we were holding on to heavy leads just last season.

No problems in winning ugly. You can't play pretty every game.

Benayoun should infinitely bench Arshavin from now on.

I agree, and please no more Frimpong unless we have no choice lol what was wrong with him today.