Aston Villa 0 - 0 Arsenal: Arsenal don't do enough to win the game

It's a been wet and gloomy all game and the game was a late kick-off. Still, with two good wins behind us and Villa struggling the league, there was still a lot to look forward to tonight.

Arsenal made a couple of changes, probably with the fixture congestion in mind. Gibbs returned from injury to replace Vermaelen at left back, Jenkinson came in for Sagna, Ramsey in for Wilshere and Chamberlain in for the injured Walcott.

First half

This half can be adequately summed up with one word: meh.

It was a drab half of football with neither side impressing at all. Villa are a young side and, currently, very plucky, always closing down space and getting bodies in their penalty area. Their attacking threat was obvious: get the ball forward to Benteke and see if he can't hold the ball up and roll the centre backs.

Koscielny and Mertesacker were having none of that, though, and handled Benteke and Agbonlahor very well. Further evidence that, perhaps, this is our best central defensive partnership.

Arsenal's main issue was that they had no clear cut attacking plan. Cazorla played close to Podolski or Chamberlain, but didn't play in the central area in front of the defence very often, so he couldn't pull the strings or create chances. Chamberlain beat his man regularly, but didn't want to cross the ball, and Gibbs' and Jenkinson's crosses were poor. Giroud was dropping deep and getting involved, but no one was making any runs beyond him.

The result of this is that we often had four or five players playing close to each other, which resulted in some fine looking passing, but no players offering any penetration and no target in the penalty area. If we did have a target, we didn't use it, instead opting to pass it back to the midfield.

For a side who's best success recently have come from crosses, this was very strange.

Impotency aside, we did make one guilt-edged chance. Giroud crossed for Koscielny (yeah...), but the defender put it over the bar. It should have been 1-0 to Arsenal at half time.

Second half

A scrappy half of football with, again, precious little in the way of good goalscoring opportunities. The same problems Arsenal had in the first half continued in this half.

Changes were needed. Gervinho and Arshavin came on to try and offer some more penetration, but didn't do a whole lot. Gervinho's best play was running the ball out of touch while Arshavin's effect was minimal.

Then Wenger makes the nonsensical decision to replace Giroud with Coquelin. That one speaks for itself.

Arsenal's final third issues

Arsenal's problem as an attacking force, for me, is that the attacking players aren't set up to play a certain way. Rather, they're just put out there on the pitch.

In recent games, Arsenal have had a clear attacking game plan: get the ball out to Walcott and Sagna and get them to whip crosses in for Giroud to either head at goal or head down to runners from midfield. Furthermore, they got the ball up to Giroud quickly and played off him. In other words, they were making effective use of a target man.

Tonight, we didn't have that plan. Chamberlain, Podolski, Gibbs, Jenkinson... all seldom put crosses into Giroud and when they did, they were poor.

The next problem was that the space that should be occupied by an attacking midfielder wasn't occupied by our attacking midfielder. Cazorla either dropped deep or drifted closer to Chamberlain or Podolski. This left space that could have been taken up by either the striker or a midfielder. Giroud did this, but there was another problem: no one was making any runs in behind the defence.

It's fine for players to play close together, because it facilitates good ball retention. However, without runners in behind, you're not going to create chances. The target man wasn't in the penalty area, so Arsenal couldn't cross. The playmaker wasn't in the right areas and nobody was making penetrating runs in behind, so they couldn't play any through passes.

This has been our problem all season long. The off the ball movement and understanding has not been there. There's creativity and flair in the side but not the intelligent movement that can open up defences and lead to quality chances.

Frustrating night all in all

Overall, this result doesn't really help us. Villa were there for the taking but we didn't do enough to really win the game, and it feels like a step back after the two positive results against Spurs and Montpellier. It wasn't a terrible performance. It was okay and nothing more. Unfortunately, Arsenal can't afford to just be "okay".

Everton away in mid-week is now a massive game and it goes without saying that the performance needs to be better than just "okay" if we want to get a win. Had we won tonight, a draw would have been acceptable but now, I'm not so sure it would be.

Terrible Possession skills, Useless Players and Terrible substitutions..

We were completely outplayed by Villa.. lucky to escape with a point.. We are Arsenal and our players are supposed to be better than their players, but it is not.. How come we play more mispasses than them.. Our players cant hold the ball or atleast make a simple pass..?? nowadays all teams press us in the middle and we only manage to keep some possession by backpassing.. and when they have the ball we do not press and are happy to sit back and defend.. waiting for countering.. wtf..
Players with terrible possession skills are playing upfront.. Podolski is no use except for his finishing.. Giroud comes deep and try to make play, but his touch and passing is horrible.. F*** Ramsey, he cant do s*** and he is spoiling our game too opting for the difficult options and skills.. just understand you dont have the talent for it... and another less pointed out factors are Sczenys poor clearing and Metskrs headers or clearances which are pointless and concede away possession..
Whole game was s*** and we knew nothing was going to happen.. but still Wenger waits till the 70th min to make a change.. and the substitution was headless Gervinho.. Arshavin too was poor.. and then Wenger substitutes Giroud for Coquelin, should be some injury issue, otherwise it doesnt make sense..

Ratings...

Sczeny - 7 saved the match with a good save later in the match.. came forward well.. this was a match which Mannone could have costed us without we even noticing..
Jenknson - 5 poor game.. looked out of touch.. contributed nothing ofensively in a game where we had little options
Metskr - 6 decent game
Kos - 6 decent game.. should have scored the only solid chance we had.. but hard to blame a defender for his poor finishing when we have even worse players upfront..
Gibbs - 6 average..
Arteta - 5 was he playing today.. will be interesting to know how many passes did he make today..
Ramsey - 4 terrible.. cant make a simple pass.. and some wayward shots..
Cazorla - 5 poor.. now we know that he gets nullified once the opposition presses and crowds the middle..
Podolski - 5 he should either play as a striker or not play at all..
Giroud - 6 cant blame him.. was trying to make play, but he is not good at that.. you provide him the service and he scores.. there was hardly any today..
Chamberlain - 6 better of our players today..
Gervinho - 5 useless..
Arshavin -5 didnt have enough time.. i feel these are the games he could have made some difference if he came at 60 mins..

Coquelin for Giroud

Great sign of intent there Arsene.

Gervinho's also a joke, I cannot believe how Wenger got this one so wrong.

The only positive note was our defence which held up well all night.

Everton is more than Must win now lol

We need January. We need Theo.

Next 5 #AFC Premier League games: Everton (a) Swansea (h) WBA (h) Reading (a) Wigan (a)

Wenger with his subs

63% possession 1 shot on target

5 wins in 13 games

not good enough

We were terrible, struggle to keep possession all game. I don't know why Wenger took Giroud off and bought Coquelin on, we had nothing to hit in the last 10 mins.

RealGunner wrote:63% possession 1 shot on target

5 wins in 13 games

not good enough

Wenger needs to change things, his subs doesnt make sense at all. He leaves Wilshere on bench when we needed him the most and brings Coquelin on.

Gervinho is nowhere good to play for Arsenal and his first touch is so effing useless.

Abject. That's it.

Great defensive display. A little surprised Jenkinson started instead of Sagna, but Merts and Bosscielny were very solid. Vermaelen should be worried.

The ball seemed to fall just wrong for every player all game, probably influenced by the crappy weather. As for our decision making, all I can say is 'frustrating.' When Ramsey makes the best creative plays all game, you know the other players are under-performing; yeah, Ramsey was our best midfielder IMO

And some of those subs

Artetta needs the bench also. He has brought us nothing for to long now.

Any team that press our midfield well will take away points from the game. Same old thing that we don't have other options. We don't have players who can cross with accuracy, we don't have players who can shoot rockets (like that holman guy did) when our passing isn't working. Good that we got atleast a point because it could have been easily none.

Cazorla was shit tonight so was oxlade and podolski

Ramsey was our best midfielder.

Samuelj29060 wrote:We need January. We need Theo.

Next 5 #AFC Premier League games: Everton (a) Swansea (h) WBA (h) Reading (a) Wigan (a)

You can easily drop points in 4 of those games. Its a tough list.

Tony Adams said he doesn't believe Arsenal will finish in the TOP 4.
Can't blame him though, along with Norwich and Schalke, this was one of our worst games in terms of motivation.

Absolutely no urgency or hunger to succeed.

It's official though, Walcott is our most important and decisive player.

Sad how easily our entire midfield was subdued from their pressing. One would think Wenger would be trying to counteract that somehow but there's also no spearhead to our midfield, Santi, Arteta and Ramsey all dropped back when they were supposed to be going on runs and creating space, although Ramsey was the least of these offenders.

If we dont win against everton wenger is a clown. 2 games, one easilly winnable, the other difficult, but points count the same in both. Make sure win the easy one! even with rested players we still arent likely to win away to everton. Should at least get 4 points from these two games now we will probably get 2 or even just 1 becuase wenger decided to disrespect aston villa

The man needs rest badly






a lot of passes went down there in right
not much produced
Theo was missed badly

That last picture pretty much sums up our game tonight.

4 successful passes into Villa's box.

Quite a few harsh ratings here. Jenks was solid on the right, won 50-50's, outmuscled Benteke more than once and kept in tune with the rest of the defence. Gibbs bombed forward and looked dangerous while also keeping Agbonlahor quite all game. Arshavin, for all the stick he gets, created the ONE chance we had to actually score and, had it not been for a well timed interception, Gervinho would've tucked it away

really angry and frustrated to know that our players dont have the quality...
one of the most frustrating games i have seen..

Since the start of last season, Arsenal's Premier League win % with Ramsey starting is 41% compared to 71% with him not in the first 11.

I already mentioned this in chat, but 7 of 11 players who started for Aston Villa tonight were under the age of 23.