Don't blame the team...it was my fault. Got up at 3.45am...and could have just DVR'd the match, as I had to be at work before it finished....but nooooo. I just HAD to watch the first half, AND the first 20 minutes of the second half. Took off my Arsenal jersey, and changed for work, at 65 minutes... ...and then...... Ergo, my fault. ......sorry.
Frustrated by our inability to go through a packed penalty area. Barca knows that teams will pack it in and they rehearse those things. We seemed unprepared for this one and it worries me that it has given remaning opponents a framework on how to play us.
Although we were out muscled I thought a lot of Zamora's jostling would have been called up by another ref. A statistical look at Mike Dean vs Arsenal. As one of the Comments said, this is hardly surprising given that he celebrated Spuds goal against us. http://anotherarsenalblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/mike-dean-shocking-statistic.html
True enough, but I thought we'd be past that because Cesc and Nasri left. When Cesc was here, they insistently played through him, through the middle. While Nasri was on the flank, he didn't truly play like a flank player. In retrospect, it was a mistake to start Ramsey on the left, not that we were more effective once Gerv came in (not sure for who). I think it was a game of "pick your poison" and QPR chose the right one. RVP barely touched the ball the entire match and there was no one else that could break us down. Theo had an off day and AR wasn't much use on the other side.
so Arsene throws on Gervinho when we need to score a goal. isn't that what we want to do from the beginning? Ramsey is so wasteful (and slow with decision making), that it is 10 v 9. effort shown was that we have 4th locked up and it's time to think about the European Championships.
Had to watch this one on DVR... maybe just as well. Honestly surprised that after clawing back to 1-1 that we let it slip again. But what can you do about two crucial slip-ups by Vermaellen? So today when I saw Spurs result I figured they must've jumped back over us... but NO! Just checked the table and we've got third by GD +21 vs +20. There's hope yet... next weekend may just be THE defining match of our run in.
agree. We were due for a let down. We didn't just suddenly become the invincibles again out of thin air (although we all hoped it was somehow true). The run in and our destiny for the season is clearly mapped out in front of us. It's going to be very interesting. In this season we have gone from calling for the decapitation of AW all the way to making him the second coming. What a roller coaster ride..... Praying for fourth spot or better but there is no way anyone can call this one!
Michael Cox echoes what we've been saying for a while now: Vermaelen's not very disciplined positionally: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/apr/02/qpr-tactics-arsenal-mark-hughes I think Mertesacker/Koscielny should be our first choice CBs - they're pretty solid.
Yes but he pushes up and has scored 5 goals this season 2 of which were crucial... its a give and take with him. I still prefer him over Per.
I agree that Vermaelen gets drawn out too far at times, and we've been exploited accordingly. But having just watched QPR's two goals again, I don't agree that it happened again here. IMO, Vermaelen was where he needed to be on both goals, but just got badly turned/beaten on the first and had an unfortunate slip on the second. Yeah, he had an awful match and both goals were mostly his fault (although the midfield not tracking Diakite's run on the 2nd was pathetic) but not for the "getting drawn out too far reasons" that have occurred in the past.
Score more than they do? I really think a second goal on that chance by RVP would have changed the game but can't say we deserved even a draw. QPR are better than their position in the table--certainly at least on the athletic side. Lots of pacy players. The tv announcer was painful. All of those comments about Arsenal not liking it physical, getting under their skin, etc. It wasn't even that physical of a game and I don't think it put them off. I thought we were just too slow and letting them get physical. It was the way we played earlier this season when things were real bad..just too damn slow. I think the pitch plays a part in that--seemed narrow and bumpy--but also QPR did a good job in slowing us down. No room out wide and they shut down Walcott for the most part. While some people miss Cesc and Nasri, I think they more than anyone really perpetuated that constant lateral passing around the other team's penalty area with no resulting shot. I figured we would drop some points at one of these away fixtures. Would have been nice to salvage at least one point. Everyone is playing for something at the moment and there will be no easy matches.
Still pics aren't a good measure of what happens in the real time game, but Arseblogger today has a couple shots of that second goal that illustrate the point about poor tracking on Diakete's run.
Yeah, I saw those. Not quite as bad as Denilson completely ignoring Wayne Rooney making a 70 yard run past him....but pretty bad nonetheless.
Vermaelen rushed up at least twice in this game which lead to QPR chances (this is from what I remember). The Diakatie goal, I dont see it there but it definitely happened with the Taraabt goal and then he got turned. He also did it again in the 2nd half when Mackie was free only for Kos to cover that space up and and force Mackie into a bad shot. He does it all the time. Idk if he needs proper coaching or its just a fatal flaw in his game, but it happens all the damn time and its annoying. And him scoring goals does not make up for it. And he got dominated by Zamora on top of that. I call him an idiot defender, and he doesnt do much to dis-spell that. Most overrated non English centerback in the premiership. It annoys me too because a) he plays for Arsenal b) he has potential to be an amazing defender if he just played smarter. both instances led to a goal. Id say they are equal.
I wasn't arguing that he didn't get drawn out at all in this match, just that it didn't lead to any goals....this time. And I include the Taraabt goal with that. Vermaelen didn't get drawn too far out on that play, in fact he was not any farther forward than Kos or Gibbs when the pass is first made to Taraabt. His attempt to tackle was poor and he got turned like a chump, but he was right where he was supposed to be. I knew if anyone would bite on that comment, it would be you. The only reason I'd argue the Denilson brainfart was worse is because Denilson watched as Rooney....yeah Wayne Rooney....one of the best players in the Prem....ran by him with no one else around.
he is like 3 yards in front of Kos, and then gets mugged off. It could be the angle, idk. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mhKH57rdGw"]adel taarabt vs arsenal - YouTube[/ame] The worst mistakes were with Mackie running into open space on his side. It happend at least twice from what I remember. None of those moments lead to goals but they were the "vermaelen rushes forward again" mistakes. Idiot defender who has become the most overrated non-English defender in the premiership. both lead to a goal. They both took Ls. Both Arteta and Denilson were idiots on those plays. Both errors in judgement and ball watching.
But he's still where he's supposed to be. You wouldn't want to be playing farther off Taraabt at that point on the field, thus allowing him to turn even easier and run at you. And I've now agreed three separate times that this happens to him too often and in this match (although it didn't lead to any goals), so I'm not quite sure why you keep harping on it. But this also makes it worth noting the contrast in that the Taraabt goal wasn't a situation where Vermaelen rushed forward to unnecessarily chase the ball while leaving space behind him that another QPR player exploited. These types of comments are why I find you hilarious.
Seeing it again, the biggest atrocity on that goal has got to be the fact that a center half (!) played a ball all the way through our entire team on the ground into the feet of their most advanced player. After that, Vermaelen is overly aggressive in a one on one (shocking, I know) and gets turned way too easily because of it. Koscielny really should be deeper, too. It happened quickly so I don't apportion much blame for it, but in that situation, one defender attacks the ball and the other drops off. It's one of the most basic things about a center half partnership. Lastly, Szczesny should maybe do a little better with his positioning. With Koscielny rushing in, Taarabt is unlikely to score to Szczesny's right, so he should be cheating a little to his left. He probably shouldn't have come so far, either. Where he was didn't cut the angle enough to make the loss of reaction time worth it. So Vermaelen gets the most individual blame on the goal, but it's hardly as bad as Prince claims. I reject the notion that Vermaelen is an 'idiot', and I'll continue to say that while this kind of play from Vermaelen sometimes leads to goals, it also wins a ton of balls that we otherwise wouldn't and prevents other goals we might give up. In my opinion, the guy is a pretty sizable net positive.
I think he can only be considered a net positive if we look at his goalscoring. Otherwise, he's our third best CB behind Koscielny and Mertesacker. His positioning is really suspect at times.
