"This game is of utmost importance to our hopes of qualifying. Win, and we almost certainly ensure an early passage into the last sixteen. Anything less can be quite damaging."That's what I said before the game. However, not even in my worst nightmares could I have seen such a scenario.
After almost two full days I have calmed down a great deal, but my blood still boils when I think of that game. So I'll break my review in points, as I don't feel like writing a usual review. This was by no means an ordinary game.
The brilliance of Alexis Sanchez
The Chilean was directly involved in all three goals, and that in itself is saying a lot. He set up Welbeck for the penalty, smashed an unstoppable volley for the second and won the crucial challenge to release Oxlade for the third. All three goals were of Sanchez's creation and have, once again, come as a result of the enormous amount of work the Chilean puts in. Every Arsenal player and, probably, the manager, owe him an apology for this result.
The defense
Atrocious. The worst I've seen us defend in quite a while. Probably since these big away losses last year. On the one hand, it's surprising. Probably our best defensive display happened not so long ago, ironically in the game against Chelsea.
On the other, it's not that surprising. With Chelsea we had Koscielny fit and the centre of our defense looks much, much better when the Frenchman plays alongside Mert. This time Monreal partnered the German and produced one of his worst displays.
Even at 2-0 up I felt the game wasn't put out of Anderlecht's reach. They broke time and again down the middle and the absurdity of Monreal staying much further up field than is required of a defender was further compounded by Ramsey's weak display.
Aaron seems obsessed right now.Obsessed with scoring goals. He desperately tries to replicate his last year's form, neglecting his defensive duties. His all-round game suffers as a consequence. The Welshman forgot we don't need a goalscoring Ramsey, we need a hard-working one:
"A midfielder is a player who defends well, attacks well and keeps his priorities right
He's not a goalscorer, so he has not to be obsessed by that. I just want him to do his job well. The goals are the consequence of the quality of his game. I don't believe that he has to be obsessed by that.
He's running after consistency. He's one of the players who has been very efficient last season."Ramsey is not impressive at all at the moment. He's consistently below-par and I think he should be dropped against Swansea for the returning Wilshere.
The conceded goals
Yes, Vanden Borre was offside for the first goal. Miles offside. Yes, his penalty needed to be retaken because some bloke or another ran into the box before the initial shot.
But so what? The fact remains: we've let a three-goal lead slip. Which is inexcusable against any opponent in any competition under any circumstances, let alone at home against Anderlecht in a crucial game:
"We cannot afford to make that many mistakes and to concede three goals after we went 3-0 up. It's just not good enough. I'm very disappointed - we missed a great opportunity to finish the job today. It's not good."Arteta's words. And a bit more:
"Even with the first goal, you have a two-goal lead at home and we know what we're playing for. It was a massive day for us to finalise the group stages, and we need to analyse the mistakes and what happened in the second half, because it's not at the level required at this club."Personally, I consider one of the main reasons of our draw is Arteta himself being subbed. We had no choice - he pulled a hamstring - but the Spaniard at least kept the midfield organised and ticking. He mopped up the mess left behind by Ramsey several times during the first half and thus losing Arteta equalled losing probably the most important on-pitch player. Flamini, who came on, had a disastrous night. Really, I'm not sure why the Frenchman is still at the Club. He's not at the level required. Why are we tolerating mediocrity? And please don't tell me there are no better DMs available. Because there are. The same Tielemans would do a better job.
The aftermath
Apart from Twitter being flooded by angry and disappointed fans, there are far worse repercussions to this draw.
Firstly, we basically lose all chances of qualifying from the top spot. Borussia is five points ahead of us with two games to go and only a miracle can gift us the first place. Looking at how the Germans perform in the Champions League, I'm not counting on one. Moreover, I think they completely deserve their first place.
Secondly, there's a mathematical chance of us not qualifying at all. It is highly unlikely, cause for this scenario to pan out we need to lose both remaining fixtures while Anderlecht win their respective games (Borussia away is one of them), but it's not out of the picture completely and this worries me. We should have at least solved this problem on Tuesday's night.
And finally, that little bit of confidence we've built up after three consecutive wins is now gone. Smashed to pieces. We'll need to start from scratch and by that I mean a win against Swansea away. No easy task.
There's all the usual talk of picking ourselves up, learning lessons and so on, but the genuine fear I have right now is, if we don't strengthen central defense and midfield in January, we can be in for a very long and muddy campaign.
Until later
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