After that monstrosity of a humiliating weekend for all Gooners young and old, everyone knew from Wenger to the programme sellers outside the ground that yesterday’s game against the red side of Manchester was one that was vital not to lose. With that sitting in the back of the minds of Arsenal supporters, we all wanted a response. A response that would be similar to that of our other humiliating defeats this season against Manchester City and Aston Villa, after which lead the Gunners to go on impressive unbeaten runs to cement their title challenge. Following the catastrophic result against Liverpool, Wenger was open to changes in his squad with Kieran Gibbs coming in for Monreal after his short spell on the substitute’s bench. Tomas Rosicky was also handed a start for Alex Oxlade Chamberlain and Mesut Özil kept his place in the first eleven after receiving some, in my opinion, unwarranted criticism from the social media sites and the country’s paper because of his recent performances. Moyes on the other hand had the chance to start his three star men, Van Persie, Rooney and Mata in a search of a place in Europe’s elite competition next season.
In recent weeks it is fair to say that a few nerves have been creeping into the games of both sides, yet it was only Arsenal coming through with results and after both sides had disappointing performances on the weekend, it may have been the case that both managers were content to keep tight at the back and keep a clean sheet in the early stages of the affair following each of them conceding early goals in their previous matches. However, Arteta gave the fans and Wenger something to worry about early on as the Spaniard conceded possession over far too easily and meant that van Persie was left through one on one with Szczesny. Szczesny stood tall and made the save in the end but he was a bit fortunate with the traitorous Dutchman slipping as he took the shot. Arsenal responded well though, as a fired up Jack Wilshere was picked out by Mesut Özil, but he was left frustrated as a deteriorating run only resulted in a corner. It was from the resulting corner that Giroud met Cazorla’s cross and put the free header wide, one that he really should’ve slotted home past De Gea. An ever growing open match left van Persie with another chance to put his side ahead, but he slashed at it with his right foot – which nearly led to it going out for an Arsenal throw.
Özil was the catalyst and the heart of every Arsenal attack, igniting his game and responding to the ever opinion changing media with flair and desire. He managed to create chances for the likes of Rosicky and Giroud, but yet again, nothing managed to culminate from them. As I said earlier, the criticism targeted at Mesut Özil has been extremely unwarranted; yes there have been a few poor performances here and there. Everyone has them, do they not? But until you really witness Özil in the flesh it is near enough impossible to pick up what he really does to the team, he isn’t a goal scorer, he isn’t a man who’ll run lengths of the field to score a wonder goal. He will, however, run and run at defences before splitting the opposition so wide open that they won’t know what day it is. The real shame at the moment though, is that he’s being wasted with the likes of Walcott and Ramsey being injured for such long periods of time. They are our only real direct runners that will run behind the lines for Özil to pick out with his 8x optical vision. In fact, I believe we have only been able to field Özil, Ramsey and Walcott together a staggering six times this season, a real blow to us as it is a pivotal part of our game now. Here’s a few more Özil based stats for you to digest, last night Özil created six chances for his compatriots in the match, three times as many as the whole United team did, 2. Here’s one final one, Mesut Özil has made a massive amount of 523 passes in the final third this season, more than anyone else in the Premier League, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it. From what I see of Özil when I am only yards away from the Turkish German magician, is that he is always, as Wenger puts it, “looking for the perfect pass” and yet no one was there running ahead of him whilst he was busting a gut to get forward and turn United inside out. If it wasn’t for Özil, we’d be struggling, a lot. And if it wasn’t for Giroud, Özil’s assist count would be through the roof right now.
Anyway, now for the second half. Arsenal came out with a real intent and purpose it seemed in the second half. It looked like Laurent Koscielny had put the Gunners ahead after Özil whipped in a corner and it was well met by Koscielny whose clean header was cleared off the line by Antonio Valencia. Arsenal continued to dominate the possession and had all of the ball in the second half, but yet again the likes of Sagna, Özil and Cazorla were all creating again and again but Giroud couldn’t apply a finish to any of his chances and well, let’s just a few Arsenal fans weren’t too happy with the French workhorse by the end of the night. For one chance, after Sagna had whipped in one of his trademark balls across the box after 15 attempts, Giroud only needed to have put on the longer studs before the game if he was to poke home.
That was the real tale and familiar scene throughout the whole of the game for Arsenal, all of the creativity and flair to produce the chances but the clinical touch left behind at London Colney, in fact it was left behind at Palace or maybe even Spuds on the 4th of last month.
Wenger’s men were nearly left to felt destroyed and mentally battered only a minute later when a United counter attack sprung, leading to Rooney to clip an exquisite ball to the back post where it was met by van Persie’s head, only for that to be met by a truly world class save by Szczesny. Szczesny a man maturing and ever proving himself minute by minute. Cazorla had chances in the final ten minutes at the other end but they were also met by world class saves from De Gea, two real top performances from the keeper’s.
In the end the game resulted in a bore draw, leaving Wenger and the fans scratching their heads in wonder of how they didn’t take home all three points. Don’t get me wrong I may sound negative, but I’m not at all, the title dream is not over at all for us, with teams dropping points left right and centre, anything can happen from now to the end of the season, there are still so many twist and turns to take place. Let’s just hope we can go on another run similar to that of our one after the City game, where we, just like then, got hammered and then drew our next game 0-0. Will fate play its part again?
On a positive note, I think it’s great for Per, Laurent, Bac, Kieran and Wojciech to keep a clean sheet after the nightmare of a 20 minutes they had last Saturday. I’ll also mention the fact that Paul, from Piebury Corner, was saved from putting on a £100 punt on us to win the league, if we had beat Utd last night he would have done that, but we didn’t, so he may have to think what to do with it, maybe if we beat City Paul? Finally, just to let you know that I won’t be at Bayern, Sunderland or Liverpool as I am in Spain skiing, lucky me. I will be watching from the bar though, don’t worry. See you in three weeks, I hope.
