Arsenal v. Blackburn, October 26, 2002 [R]

[442]

Arsenal lose third straight.

Edu (OG) 5'
Edu 45'
Yorke 51'

Excuse me while I throw up in my mouth.

[chicago_fan]

Tough to put a finger on where it all went wrong. I watched it with a couple friends, most of whome felt we were just unlucky. I think not. The shots on goal stat, 25 or something, is misleading. We didn't look like ourselves, moving quick on the break and threading passes forward. Maybe its nerves, but instead we seem to be holding the ball too long and trying to ease it toward the goal. Too much shooting from the edge of the area, especially from Wiltord, who seems to be living in a world where goals are ten feet taller than they are. And someone else who is certainly not Fredrik Ljunberg seems to be inhabiting his body (that's the only explanation I can conceive for the new dye job). Props to Friedel. We took plenty of shots right at him, but he put in a dogged, stellar performance.

[dwinkler]

FT Blackburn 2, Arsenal 1

8' Edu (OG)
45' Edu
51' Yorke

Brad Friedel turned in perhaps the best individual performance of the season as he held Arsenal at bay for much of the game. Blackburn got an own goal and took advantage of one of its two clear-cut chances on goal to claim the points.

Arsenal put 17 shots on goal compared to Blackburn's 4. Arsenal had 13 corners compared to Blackburn's 3.

The most disheartening part was the final 15 minutes, where nothing clicked for Arsenal despite having a man advantage after Gary Flitcroft's sending off in the 79th minute. Sounds a lot like the Auxerre match, where we were playing long ball at the end and getting away from our strengths.

Elsewhere
Liverpool 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1 - late Owen penalty
Manchester United 1 Aston Villa 1 - late Forlan(!) goal rescues ManUre
Middlesbrough 2 Leeds United 2 - Alan Smith sent off - what a shock!
Newcastle United 2 Charlton Athletic 1 - Newcastle rallies from a goal down
Chelsea 2 West Bromwich Albion 0 - Chelsea move into 3rd on their own
Birmingham City 0 Manchester City 2 - Former Gunner Anelka with a goal

Arsenal, thanks to their torrid start to the season, are still in 2nd place, four points behind Liverpool and four points ahead of Chelsea, ManUre, and Sp*rs.

[LiverpoolFanatic]

Friedel was outstanding. Arsenal should have run away with it, but he just wouldn't let them.

[michaec]

I agree with chicago_fan, not enough movement, but I did think that we had enough good chances to beat Blackburn who really offered nothing and got gifted a couple of goals. The main culprits in holding the ball too long and stopping our flow were Wiltord and Kanu I thought, but that's nothing new. Bergkamp and Pires came on after 60 minutes (about 60 minutes too late!) and things picked up a bit, but we couldn't finish our chances off. And taking off Cole for Toure late on was just weird, at least Cole can get down the wing and whip in crosses with his left foot, Toure is not a left back and looked uncomfortable on that side of the field. While Friedel had a good game, when presented with chances from less than ten yards, or one on one with the keeper, we should finish and not give him a chance. His defenders cleared off the line twice today too, maybe it was never going to go in!

I am of the opinion that we play a lot better when Bergkamp plays. Now he is fit again, he has to play. I don't know if he'll be travelling to Gemany in midweek, but he is an absolute must for next weeks game against Fulham. He makes the whole play flow better, I heard Wenger saying thet Pires is the oil which makes the machine run better, but I think Bergkamp is possibly even more important. He gets the best out of Henry, Ljungberg, Pires and even Wiltord with his great vision and incisive passing. Come on Arsene, let the man play!

[cachundo]

Arsenal were unlucky. Friedel saved the game for Blackburn, and his defenders came up big when they needed to.

If Ashley Cole wasn't too lazy, he could have kept up with Dwight Yorke on Yorke's score.

[Andy]

I feel like I'm in a time warp. Missed chances, wasted opprotunities. It's the 99 - 00 season!

[jamison]

I watched the game and while I was upset at the loss, you can't exactly kill the boys. In the first half they had more chances and put more shots on goal then you'd expect from an average team in three games. They were just everywhere, but couldn't finish the chances. Freidel with some spectacular saves, a shot that went off a defenders hip on the line...it just wasn't going their way. Slack defending on the second half goal by Yorke, but you wouldn't expect Edu's own goal to happen again- it was a terrible fluke. He had time and space to trap the ball down, took it high in the air and just bent it past Seaman.

If they played a boring and lacklustre game I would get on them, but they didn't. It just wasn't going to be for them today.

And Freddie's new hair...uggh. Shades of Umit Davala, and not the right ones.

[michaec]

Originally posted by cachundo
If Ashley Cole wasn't too lazy, he could have kept up with Dwight Yorke on Yorke's score. Utter rubbish. If Lauren hadn't ball watched and then tried to play Ostenstad offside when it was clearly not on, the ball would never have got to Yorke. Just defend properly instead of switching off and wimping out with the attempted offside.

I never thought I would say this, but I think a healthy dose of Martin Keown is what is needed at the back. I am overlooking his terrible touch and atrocious distribution of the ball in favour of his grit, pace and dogged defending which is just what we need. He'll at least shout and talk to the likes of Lauren and make sure he doesn't get caught out of position. While Cygan started off well, he looks like he is feeling the pace of the Premiership a bit. He also looks to me like he wants to be a central midfielder, pinging passes at people when it's just not on and there is no need to. He has a good touch and decent passing for a centre back, he should just play it simple and give the ball to the midfield simply instead of firing passes at people which reach their targets head high meaning the receiving player is closed down before he can get the ball under control.

[chicago_fan]

I for one would like to see Keown back in the middle, purely because we need someone to hold down that position. I like Cygan, but I think he needs a bit more time...his tendency towad the Hail Mary pass (pardon the allusion to American footie) hasn't done us any favors. I still say he's done an admirable job filling in for Keown, but Keown is grittier, doesn't drift forwad, and makes Sol look better.

Is Keown healthy again? Any word on whether he'll be traveling to Germany?

[revelation]

Crap...Crap....Crap....Unmitigated Crap!

Arsenal played a sloppy, lazy game and got punished. I agree with michaec, that the main culprit was WILTORD! He had an absolute stinker out there. His decisions were off, his touch was horrid, his shots except the first two were off, and he gave the ball away at least 75% of the time he was in possession. While I don't think that Sylvain is utter crap in general, he had a cesspool of a game.

Maybe it is better when Arsenal aren't acknowledge for their success - Wiltord: Player of the Month for August - now playing like crap - Henry: Player of the Month for September - now playing like crap - Wenger: Manger of the Month for September - now can't seem to get Arsenal back on track. :mad:

[Andy]

Threads merged.

[kygunner]

Originally posted by Andy
I feel like I'm in a time warp. Missed chances, wasted opprotunities. It's the 99 - 00 season! Hush your mouth! Actually thinking the same thing AAAAAAAAAAAH!

[kygunner]

Ill agree that Wiltord was responsible for a majority of missed chances but he did play his left foot more instead of turning his whole body to shoot.

The announcer said,
" the build up is all Arsenal, the finishing is not."
I agree with this statement for about 75% of the game. We were not clinical in front of goal and its sheer fundamentals when you get the chance. The fact the team is "tired" is rubbish. They were getting down field quickly and running well, it was the last step that killed them. The biggest frustration is losing when you should have won. If we were outclassed or facing a better team than Id say it doesnt hurt as much but to lose this way is painful.

[dwinkler]

Perception's a funny thing. I thought Wiltord was fine - at least he was creating chances and making Friedel stop the ball. For what it's worth, the game story in the Telegraph agrees.
http://www.sport.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2002/10/27/sfgars27.xml

If you want to assign blame on the Arsenal side, I didn't think Freddie or Kanu did a whole lot, or Henry, who never really looked "into" the game. Or, for that matter, Bergkamp, whose main contribution was the stupid and petulant near-stamp he pulled late in the game. (http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/sporttop/page.cfm?objectid=12317893&method=full&siteid=50143) He's already a liability for our crucial European games, and now he's put himself in a situation where he might be banned for up to 3 league games. And he's not exactly durable, either. A great talent, but at times a selfish, stupid player.

How hard is it for us as fans to credit our opponents when we lose? Plain and simple, we lost because of Brad Friedel's excellence. Can anyone think of a better performance by an opposing keeper in recent memory?

[chicago_fan]

I felt like a lot of our finishing problems had to do with positioning. Without Dennis in the mix, we have a hard time breaking into the box. I never saw Freddie make any darting runs, and I was flabbergasted by Henry's insistence on playing so far left. We looked like a team with a half dozen midfielders, which caused congestion and slowed down our attack. I have no good answers for why this is, by the way. If you go back to early in the season, Wiltord was so successful because he was breaking behind the defense. Now he's charging up to them and firing from 18 yds. out. Maybe except the Henry goal at West Ham, have you ever seen us score from that far out? No, we're a team who likes to use our passing skills to slip the fall in front of goal and have someone run onto it. Kanu does best when he sneaks in, but he too was playing outside the box and getting trapped with his back to the goal.

Great game by Friedel. It's impossible to even breathe a word about that game without crediting Friedel, but I still think Arsenal struggled by not sticking to their usual game.

[michaec]

I know I made this point on another thread, but when Bergkamp plays the whole team flows better and this shows in a bit of disjointedness in the play, especially when the ball gets to Kanu who's not happy unless he beats three men before he passes or shoots. The whole way we play is geared to fast movement and quick passing, as soon as this stops our team runs out of ideas and resorts to the long ball.

Also, I will reiterate that while I think Friedel had a good game, he shouldn't have been given any chance with several of our goal attempts. The main culprits here are Henry and Wiltord, Henry in the first half and Wiltord in the second who had chances with only the goalie to beat from less than 8 yards and both times the keeper was allowed to make a save. Strikers of this calibre shouldn't be letting the keeper get anywhere near their shots from that range, especially as neither of them were under any pressure at all. In my opinion, with chances like these, it's less about the keeper making a save than the striker hitting him. All he can do is make himself as big as possible and hope it doesn't go in the corner. If Hasselbaink or Owen were on the end of those chances they would have had hat-tricks! This lack of clinical finishing must be addressed, we are winning titles in spite of this shortcoming, that's why we didn't defend our title last time and I think it is the only thing that can stop us this time after watching a quarter of the season.