Benfica 2 - 1 Arsenal: Poor second half for Arsenal

Yet again in pre-season, Arsenal have conceded a lead and for the fourth or fifth time we have seen two different performances within the same game; one half of very good play and a second half of poor play. For this reason, I'm going to split my analysis into two main sections: first half and second half.

First Half
The team for the first half was pretty much as strong as it could be with the squad we took with us and could very well be the starting eleven that plays Newcastle next Saturday given our injuries and players missing due to other circumstances.

It was a relatively even game in this half with Arsenal just shading it. Benfica didn't have their strongest side out but they still presented a couple of threats down their right hand side. Fortunately Gibbs was up to the challenge so we weren't too troubled.

Up the other end we managed to create a couple of good opportunities but struggled to sustain pressure in the Benfica half. In fact we struggled to really control the ball all game, which resulted in an open game. Because of this, van Persie wasn't in the game all that much and our main attacking threat came down our left through Gervinho and Gibbs.

Our goal was like an old-style Arsenal goal. A couple of quick passes lead to Gibbs being played in down the left and he put the ball on the plate for van Persie to sweep in. The move was well constructed and hopefully it's something we'll see often as it's a darn lot betetr than the tippy-tappy stuff we usually play. That was pretty much the best of our attacking display.

Defensively we were actually okay. Benfica didnt do an awful lot to trouble us, though there were still moments where the defensive line was too high, or one of the defenders was caught out of position. Other than that, we were pretty solid.

Really, the only negative in the first half was our inability to keep the ball for extended periods of time. Part of this is down to the pressure Benfica applied on Ramsey and Song. Another contributing factor is the forwards losing the ball via a sloppy pass. Also, our tempo was a little flat.

All in all, I was quite happy with the first half display.

Second Half
Second half is where it all went south, though.

As you'd expect in a pre-seaosn game, there was a host of changes from back to front. Fabiasnki, Squillaci, Jenkinson, Frimpong, Miyaichi and Chamakh all came on at half-time, while Miquel, Traore and Lansbury all featured later on.

Benfica, likewise, made a lot of changes; bringing on first teamers Aimar, Gaitain and Saviola and their new signings Capdevilla, Witsel and Nolito.

We conceded fairly early on in the second half and it was a soft goal. The ball was played into our box into the feet of Aimar. Vermaelen failed to intercept it and was too held off by Aimar who just stroked it home easily. Of all people I didn't expect Vermaelen to just be outmuscled by an attacking midfielder, especially Aimar of people. This isn't a slight against Aimar - he had a terrific half - but Vermaelen really should have done a lot better.

Since then we were quite poor. We couldn't keep the ball, and thus couldn't build any decent attacks. Our midfield was heavily pressured, isolating the forwards and putting pressure on the back line. Aimar drifted about in the space between midfield and defence - Frimpong again caught too high up the pitch like he was against Boca Juniors - and Benfica played some nice stuff. They wholly deserved their second goal, even if it was another soft one.

The finish from Nolito was excellent, but the defending was appalling. Squillaci was just beaten far too easily and was caught completely flat footeed. This opened up the space for the young forward to have a strike at goal, and he made full use of it.

Our performance really didn't improve after that. We couldn't keep the ball, couldn't maintain any pressure, was shakey defensively and, all round, pretty poor.

The Players
Wojceich Szczesny - 6. Rarely tested.

Thomas Vermaelen - 6. Did well despite being overworked, but was at fault for the first goal.

Johan Djourou - 6. Was okay, but looked a little shakey at times.

Kieran Gibbs - 8. Arsenal's best player in the first half. Defended well and provided excellent support to the attack. Needs to turn in performances of this calibre consistently to ease the concerns over this position.

Bacary Sagna - 6. Got forward quite a lot but was sometimes caught too high up the pitch.

Alex Song - 6. Had an okay game. Was sometimes caught on the ball, but then he did provide a couple of good passes.

Aaron Ramsey - 5. Annonymous the whole game. Struggled to cope with the pressure being applied by Benfica's midfield and pretty much ineffectual the whole game. Wilshere probably would have done better in this game.

Andrey Arshavin - 6. Another okay performance from an Arsenal player. Wasn't a major threat, but wasn't totally ineffectual.

Tomas Rosicky - 5. Was he even playing? Like Ramsey, he was pretty annonymous.
Gervinho - 6. His movement was lively as usual, but he drifted out the game as time went on.

van Persie - 7. Started and finsihed the move that lead to his goal. Overall wasn't as good as usual but you can quite clearly see how important he's going to be for us next season. Hope he's not injured.

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Luckasz Fabiasnski - 7. Made a couple of good saves in the second half.

Sebastien Squillaci - 4. Just... horrible.

Ignasi Miquel - N/A. Wasn't on long enough to be rated.

Armand Traore - 6. Did okay, though he was caught out of position a couple of times.

Carl Jenkinson - 6. Wasn't really tested.

Emmanuel Frimpong - 5. I thought he struggled. His performance was typical of an agressive tackler up against intelligent attackers in good form; he chased, he tried to get the ball back but most of his tackles were mistimed. Also, he didn't do a good job of screening the back four. I think that he needs to work a bit on the tactical side of things.

Henri Lansbury - 5. Wasn't particular great when he came on.

Ryo Miyaichi - 6. Worked pretty hard on the left but didn't make much of an impact offensively. He wasn't the only one, though.

Marouance Chamakh - 5. Typical performance from him, really.

Conclusion
So what do we take out of this game?

Well, it's pre-season so the result really does not matter. What does matter is the performance and even though I said we weren't great, we do have to add a bit of context to this.

Inevitably, when you make several changes to your team you're going to end up with disjointed performance. But let's be realistic; how often are we going to make six or seven changes at half-time? We're not. The team that played in the first half - the one that did well - is pretty much going to be our team for the season with the likes of Wilshere, Walcott, Fabregas and Nasri to come in and improve it. So from this perspective, it isn't all that bad.

What is concerning, though, is the lack of depth in certain areas. Centre back is a concern because all it takes is one injury for Squillaci to be in the squad. He must be replaced with someone better.

The other area of conern is up front. Chamakh. as we all know, just isn't cutting it at the moment and with van Persie always liable to injury, he's probably going to see a fair bit of action.

On a more positive note though, poor pre-season results and performances doesn't mean we're going to have a poor season. A couple of years ago we went to Valencia and lost 2-0. A week after, we beat Everton 6-1 and Goodison Park, then beat Celtic 5-1 on aggregate in the Champions League and then won 4-0 at home the following weekend.

So keep your chins up and don't let this performance get you down.

I know its preseason and we had some 3rd stringers out there, but its still another lead blown away.

And I'm sick of seeing this f*ckers face.

good laf from benfica as well adding on to that
you guys were very dangerous with rvp on the field, he is your talisman for this season.

why is it that the most experienced ones in our teams that mess up the most

chamack and squillaci

I dont know why in earth are we playing Squid again and again? I really hope that wenger gets that he is no use. Also what did chamakh do today?

you can't blame Chamack..... he may have be crap... but the service to him was crap too.....Rosicky and Lans both didn;t have a good game

How was Miyaichi btw ?

average performance today to be honest, I'd prefer gervinho as back up striker for rvp this season, chamack needs a rocket up the arse

imalegend wrote:you can't blame Chamack..... he may have be crap... but the service to him was crap too.....Rosicky and Lans both didn;t have a good game

I am not blaming him and i agree that our midfield was quit dead today but chamakh was no where to be seen. Also he missplaced some passes.

RealGunner wrote:How was Miyaichi btw ?

Lost the ball a couple of time, worked hard but.

one thing is for sure, arsenal dont have quality depth

Can we PLEASE not overreact?

We came into this match without 10 of our players right off the bat. Add to that the fact that we subbed off practically all our team during the second half, which is when we lost the match, and you just can't be surprised with the result especially since this is a good Benfica side that we were playing.

Iceman wrote:Can we PLEASE not overreact?

We came into this match without 10 of our players right off the bat. Add to that the fact that we subbed off practically all our team during the second half, which is when we lost the match, and you just can't be surprised with the result especially since this is a good Benfica side that we were playing.

Hear hear. With you mate.

i am not very sure about arsenal squads can you tell me who was missing except nasri and fab.
i just wanted to know what kind of depth arsenal has

goals here http://www.planetbenfica.net/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=1693

We were missing the following players due to injuries:

Koscielny, Walcott, Wilshere, Nasri, Fabregas and Diaby. Arguably 4 or 5 of those are starters.

Three other players were missing as they were talking to other clubs and might leave soon:
Eboue, Almunia and Bendtner

We also have Bartley as well as some others on loan. There were also players like Vela who didn't feature today.

All in all, if we keep all these players (Minus Almunia), then I'd say we have plenty of depth

any news on rvp ?

He is fine

You sure Gunnerlistick? Any sources?

gunnerlistick wrote:He is fine

INB4 he's out for a month with a calf strain or some other lame ass injury lol

Did Gervinho Play? how did he perform?

Its good that we lose games that dont mean shit, I hope this make Wenger bring in players, we cant do this in EPL and CL.

our fitness is still poor imo.

Raptorgunner wrote:Did Gervinho Play? how did he perform?

Its good that we lose games that dont mean shit, I hope this make Wenger bring in players, we cant do this in EPL and CL.

gervinho looked like pele in comparison to majority of the team