Manchester United 3-2 Arsenal: when it all comes crashing down

When the match squads were announced, I started to feel reasonably confident. After all, United could only boast the returns of David De Gea and Marcus Rojo (the latter sustained an injury during the game and limped off). None of Jones, Valencia, Smalling or, most importantly, Martial recovered enough to even make the bench. And thus United played with a makeshift defense (Carrick and Blind at CB), a midfield containing Mata and Lingard and with an 18-year old debutant, Marcus Rashford, up top.

Arsenal, meanwhile, looked a 10-man pressing machine. Arsene made 3 changes to the side that went down to Barcelona: Gabriel for Mertesacker, Walcott for Oxlade and Welbeck for Giroud. All three made sense, none of them looked like weak links at the time.

As I made my way to the kitchen (where I watch most games), I made a passing joke to my dad, inviting him to come along and witness a rare sight of an 18-year old debutant bagging his 1st competitive hat-trick. He waved it off with a smile.

Some 35 minutes later I couldn't believe my eyes. I couldn't understand what was happening. The situation was so incomprehensible that I struggled to come to grips with the fact it was, indeed, real. We were 2-0 down, both goals were scored by Marcus Rashford.

The horrible thing was, few would argue, United's lead was deserved. While we had fashioned the best goalscoring opportunity when Monreal went clean through (something that makes me think, however fleetingly, about the fine margins in football), our overall display was atrocious. It was limp, it was disinterested, it showed complete lack of fight and desire. In short, it was the display of a bunch of bottlers crumbling under pressure.

And so I find myself this morning, standing on the tube, wishing dearly I could support some other team or at least being less emotionally invested in the current one. Unfortunately, it looks like both tasks are insurmountable.

I'll get you through the talking points, as always.

The substitutions

I don't mean the in-game ones, I mean the changes Wenger made compared to our last game. Suffice to say two of the three didn't work. At all.

Gabriel looked absolutely out of his depth. He was badly at fault for failing to deal with a low cross which led to the 1st (though Koscielny was just as bad), he lost an aerial duel for the 2nd, he nearly gifted the home side a penalty early on (thank God Pawson saw the foul was actually committed outside the box. To me it looked perfectly inside before I saw the replays) and his overall display was dreadful. Like Flamini, Gabriel's mere presence induces a sense of panic in everyone around him, which isn't helped in the slightest by his below-par displays ridden with mistakes.

If you think I'm ripping into Gabriel on the basis of one game only, you should read my pre-Leicester thoughts, where I talk at length about the Brazilian’s lack of organisational skills, his inability to forge any kind of partnership with Koscielny and, most importantly, his spacial awareness.

After the Barcelona game, when people were blaming Mertesacker for the goals conceded (not without reason), I had an idea to write an article about our German, highlighting his importance to this side. While I still may do so when I have the time (most likely during the international break), Gabriel’s performance yesterday kind of made it redundant. He failed badly at all the things Mertesacker does right in 95% of the cases and his fabled pace was of no use to us whatsoever. He showed those Gunners who crave to chuck Mert out because “he's slow” that your acceleration means little if you don't have a defender's head on your shoulders.

I don't want to see Gabriel start another game for us this season. All through the 15/16 the signs were there that he's not ready. He was a disaster waiting to happen and against United we got what was coming. That doesn't mean I think Gabriel is utter crap and should immediately be sold, far from it. I think he can turn out to be a very good defender, but right now he is not one. I actually think Chambers should be ahead of Gabriel in the pecking order. Despite being 5 years younger, Calum looks much more ready to be 3rd-choice.

Unfortunately, I don't have warm words for Theo Walcott either. He played 100 minutes of football in his last two games. During that time he took no shots, didn't complete a single dribble, created no shooting opportunities for his teammates and only managed 12 passes of 16 attempted. 12 passes.

Theo Walcott is one of our highest earners. Only this summer he signed a new marquee deal. He'll soon turn 27. He is no longer a prospect. He is an established professional, on par with Alexis and Ozil in terms of wages and experience. And games still drift him by. Most of them. He is not only making no tangible difference, he actually looks like he can't even be arsed to make one. He is not a winger, but he's also not a striker.

I think the time has come for us to part ways with Theo. Danny Welbeck, in his four games, did more than Theo did all season. Not in terms of numbers yet, but definitely in terms of desire to make things happen. You could argue that desire accounts for little if you don't have numbers to back it up, to which I'll say: is 6 goals in 32 appearances enough to justify a 140k salary? Welbeck already scored twice, in 4 games. Who do you think, hand on heart, will have scored more by June?

Like with Gabriel, I sincerely hope Theo’s abysmal showing has earned him a place on the bench for the rest of the season. Who Wenger sticks on the right is not even a problem with Theo the benchmark. Iwobi will do a better job all-around, Campbell will definitely do a better defensive job, Welbeck can be shifted to the right with Giroud coming back centrally. Even Ramsey can play there, seeing as it won’t be long before Cazorla returns. Oh, and speaking of Ramsey…

Aaron Ramsey, the central midfielder

He disappointed yesterday and, frankly, he had been below par the entire season. If we take his last three months only, here’s what Aaron did down the centre, a position he so craved for (League and CL only):

1. 3 goals
2. 3 assists
3. 36 shots (11 on target)
4. 15 chances created (4 vs Sunderland - highest)
5. 22 dribbles completed (9 in 2 games - City and Chelsea)

That’s all Ramsey did in 14 (!) games. I checked out Cazorla’s stats. Took only his league games, though I feel the contest if fair, since there were 14 of those:

1. 0 goals
2. 3 assists
3. 23 shots (9 on target)
4. 36 chances created
5. 36 dribbles completed

Cazorla created more than double the chances, completed almost double the dribbles, took fewer shots, but was less wasteful on these. The difference being, of course, that Santi didn’t leave huge gaps in midfield. He played much deeper than Ramsey, yet was still more effective up front.

The problem with Ramsey, from what I’ve observed, is that he offers NOTHING to the team unless he stays in position and helps his midfield partner defend. But he doesn’t do that very often. For an attacking midfielder he offers surprisingly little up front too.

That’s why I think he should either be dropped or shifted out wide. I don’t know how ready Elneny is, so I’m going to pipe up Chambers alongside Coquelin. If nothing else, Chambers will help out defensively much more + he is a very good passer of the ball. At least we won’t see a gaping hole in the middle of the park until Cazorla returns.

What now for the players?

They should be ashamed of themselves, of their mentality. They couldn’t bother to turn up for so many games. I understand losing to Barca or Bayern, but West Ham? West Bromwich? Zagreb? Olympiacos? Southampton? Even Chelsea, to whom we managed to lose TWICE in their worst season, in, like, 12 years.

This is hints at a psychological problem. Players take opposition for granted. It’s not the big teams we’ve lost this year, to dropped points to (mostly). It’s the supposed underdogs. Players need to have a long hard look at themselves and ask whether they really want to achieve something with Arsenal.

What now for Arsene Wenger?

While some laughed at the notion “if we don’t win the league, Arsene has to go”, I’m starting to think it has merit. Of course we can’t heap all the blame on Arsene, after all I’m pretty sure he never instructed his players to go and play like a bag of rat’s droppings, but he’s still the man at the helm.

It’s his team. He bought these players. He trained them. He put faith in them. He said time and again how this squad is capable of great things. He motivates these players.

It’s one thing losing the title to Chelsea, City or United. However if we lose it to Leicester or Tottenham, this should ring the bell for changes. Neither club has our resources or such an experienced manager. Neither club can boast players like Ozil or Sanchez. And, while they won’t smash the Premier League highest total points haul, them finishing above us is embarrassing.

Besides, this season we haven’t demonstrated anything to suggest we would be the worthy champions. We were good in flashes, in short spells, but we haven’t been anywhere near good enough on the whole.

It’s not a step back not to win the league but it’s a step back if you lose it to Leicester or Spurs. If that does indeed happen, I’d say it’s time for Arsene to step aside and let someone else have a shot. Losing out to such teams with such a level of performances is simply not good enough. If that happens, I’d say Wenger has taken us as far as he could.

That’s how bad yesterday was.

Back with a Swansea preview

United preview: need to get back to winning ways

The game against Manchester United is looming large and it is the 3rd match in a busy schedule. It started vs Hull in the cup, continued against Barca, now we have United and then, with a 3-5 days interval, Swansea, Tottenham, Hull again, Watford/West Bromwich (depending on whether we beat Hull in the replay), Barcelona again and Everton, before the wretched international games intervene and wreak havoc in the organised world of club football.

However, Arsene views this stretch as much of a chance to prove our worth as a potential hurdle in competing for silverware:

“It is the key period. We work the whole season for this period and that’s where you’re really tested but it’s where you have an opportunity to show your quality as well. On that front, that is the most interesting period of the season”.

As we all know, momentum is extremely important when the schedule gets tough. Win some games in a row and the feeling of elation allows the players to brush off all the aches and niggles. Lose once, disrupt momentum and it all suddenly looks much harder.

And that’s another reason (in a list which grows ever longer as the game approaches), why a win on Sunday is so crucial. We haven’t exactly kicked off our busy period in spectacular fashion, drawing Hull and losing to Barca, that’s why it’s essential to get back to winning ways as quickly as possible.

Team news update

From Tuesday we have lost Oxlade-Chamberlain and it doesn’t look like we’ll have him back anytime soon:

It’s not [a recurrence of a previous injury]. Not at all. It’s a new injury. He has been cut in two by Mascherano and he did his knee. We have to see how big the damage is in his knee. He is consulting a specialist at the moment. Hopefully we will have good news. How long is he out for exactly? I don’t know”.

Rumour has it Ox will be out for a period from 2 to 7 weeks. It’s a big shame for him personally, but the blow the team has suffered as a result of this injury is debatable. It’s never good to have your players out, but what I’m trying to say here is that Oxlade’s contribution this season has been neither stellar, nor consistent. The speediest of recoveries to him anyway.

Cazorla, Wilshere, Rosicky and Arteta remain sidelined (what the hell is going on with Mikel?!), but Gabriel could be back:

“Gabriel has a test today (February 25th) and tomorrow then we will see if he is available for the game”.

With regards to United, they’ll have De Gea back, while question marks are hanging over Smalling and Martial. The latter is less likely to be involved, having suffered a strained hamstring just on Thursday, but I’ve become used to opposition players making miraculous returns against Arsenal. I’m not suggesting there’s foul play involved this time, not with United’s long list of injured anyway, just making an observation and trying not to get my hopes up at the same time.

Squad and approach

“We had a good performance against them in October. I think we took them a little bit by surprise and we played at a high pace from the start and closed down well early on. We need to play at that pace again because our game is based on pace and speed, and if we don’t have that I don’t see how we can win there”.

Wenger then goes on to say that we have to up the intensity at the right moment, which means we are not necessarily in for an early bout of pressure from the Gunners. However, we are very well equipped for stage one, as the only player missing who was at the Emirates on that October day is Santi Cazorla. As Ramsey is better suited for a pressing game, there should be few worries about having the personnel to pull it off.

Indeed, with Welbeck and (hopefully) Gabriel back, there’s a strong case to be made to start both of them in order to further our, ahem, pressing cause. If Gabriel comes in I suspect it’s Mertesacker who’ll give way, while Welbeck can start either on the right or down the centre.

My personal preference is seeing Danny start up front with Campbell/Theo on the wing. Hell, Wenger may even be tempted to start Elneny in the middle of the park and shift Ramsey to the right. After all, Cazorla’s return is drawing closer, so it would make sense to start getting ready for it right now.

Back to Welbeck however. He’s better suited for a lone striker role at the moment for several reasons:

1. He dovetails better with Alexis. The Chilean’s richest vein of form last year coincided with Welbeck’s run up top and I don’t think it was a coincidence
2. He will be better suited to press United’s centre-backs than Giroud
3. Giroud has gone 8 games without a goal, a break can help recharge his batteries
4. Welbeck is a right little conundrum in terms of how to mark him. He is fast, he possesses aerial prowess and he’s very good facing the goal. Essentially, he offers a blend of Giroud’s and Theo’s qualities, something that would make him hard to shut out

Knowing Arsene, however, we’ll most likely see Welbz come in for Oxlade in order not to disrupt the dynamics of the team, its balance. Gabriel is easier to reintroduce in this sense, because the Brazilian was a regular starter prior to sustaining an injury. It’s just the question of whether he’s fully ready for a game of this magnitude.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Bellerin - Mert - Kos - Monreal - Coquelin - Ramsey - Ozil - Alexis - Welbeck - Giroud

The verdict

Despite United being utterly crap this season, we have to approach this game on full alert. For one, United have actually been decent against the big teams, beating Tottenham, losing to us and drawing everyone else: Leicester, Chelsea (twice), City. They have even beaten Liverpool twice. United step it up in big games and I don’t think tomorrow will be an exception.

Secondly, United, while scoring very few goals, also concede very few, especially at Old Trafford. This is in most part due to David De Gea heroics, cause, whatever your view of him might be, it’s stupid to deny the Spaniard is really very good.

Thirdly, United will also step in up against us in particular, simply because there is a long history between the two teams. We can only thank heavens Rooney won’t play. Regardless of his form (which has actually been very good prior to his injury), the Englishman loves a goal against us.

Finally, we have our own problems to solve. While generally tight at the back, sometimes even unnervingly good, we are still lacking up front. It’s high time for us to start banging them in, that’s why I’m in favour of a reshuffle and giving Welbeck a chance up top. A simple shake-up can prove very effective. Give some players a chance to prove their worth (Welbeck, maybe Campbell too), others a better environment to thrive (Alexis), remind some they are not indispensable and should shake themselves out of their limbo (mostly Walcott, maybe Giroud).

This is our best chance to win a league game at Old Trafford for quite some time. I believe key to success would be putting United’s mismatched defense under pressure, forcing them into mistakes. After that we’ll just need to find our shooting boots.

Come on you Gunners.

Back with a review

Arsenal 0-2 Barcelona: good, but not good enough

If you asked me to describe our yesterday’s performance in one word I would say “valiant”. It was a valiant effort from the Gunners for the entirety of the contest. That’s why the loss, especially by two goals, was so heartbreaking.

We were more than equal to Barcelona for 70 minutes, then, clearly as was pre-planned, pushed for a winner. This meant opening up space, giving Barcelona opportunities on the counter. We contained them brilliantly while playing in a low defensive block, but it was obvious we wouldn’t be as efficient once we abandoned it in favour of a high pressing line. And so it proved. I’ll start my review with the tactics bit then, and the bearings it had on the outcome.

Tactics

After a brief period of 10-15 minutes at the beginning, during which Arsenal controlled the ball and dominated the proceedings, Arsene’s men retreated in their shells. Unable to find an early breakthrough whilst trying not to open themselves up at the same time, the Gunners fell back to soak up the pressure.

And they did so remarkably well. Up until the last two minutes of the half (when Suarez got his two chances), our defending was nothing short of admirable. The players moved around the pitch as a unit, didn’t leave gaps between the lines, stuck to their men and doubled up on Messi, Suarez and Neymar. On the rare occasions any of those three received the ball they did so with their backs to the goals, with their markers hot on their heels. Our wingers, meanwhile, also didn’t forget about their attacking duties and both Alexis and Oxlade looked very positive going forward.

The picture changed slightly at the beginning of the 2nd half. Barcelona forced us to defend near our own box and Neymar had a most brilliant chance to open the scoring, were it not for Petr Cech. Our right flank looked more vulnerable than it did during the 1st half, owing to the fact Oxlade limped off to be replaced by Walcott. I do not remember Theo doing anything of note up front, but at least he was disciplined enough in defense, which prevented Neymar from running riot.

We played in this fashion up until 65th minute and then decided it was time to push for a winner. Almost immediately we were caught on the counter and found ourselves behind.

The debate this morning centered (apart from individual mistakes, which I’ll get to anon) around whether it was a sensible thing for the Gunners to do, going forward like that. Perhaps we should have stuck to what wasn’t broken, ride the waves and get our 0-0? Perhaps we should have and, indeed, a draw of any kind is preferable to a loss, but the players were clearly under the instructions to go forward. It was a part of the plan, the players didn’t suddenly decide to abandon the low block of their own accord and go seek the fortunes elsewhere.

1-0 down wasn’t the end of the world and the Gunners took it on the chin. They stayed disciplined and utilised Welbeck’s strengths to great effect in going forward. Unfortunately, 8 minutes from time a miscommunication between Mertesacker and Flamini resulted in the latter hacking down Messi in the box. The Argentine coolly converted the penalty and it was all over. Arsenal mostly played damage limitation for the last ten minutes, unwilling to make an already bad situation even worse.

I’ve heard cries this morning about how Wenger adopted the wrong approach and I have to say I disagree. The same people berating Arsene for abandoning the style of football his teams usually preach would be the first in line to blame the Frenchman had we attempted to go toe-to-toe with Barca in the true sense of this word and got picked apart. And I think we would have been picked apart. The counter from which Barca scored the 1st was a terrifying glimpse of what they are capable off.

Arsene attempted what he did vs City (twice already), Bayern and some other teams. The difference being small things didn’t go our way this time. We were less composed in front of goal, our mistakes got punished ruthlessly and so on.

The substitutions

It’s fair to say only one switch yielded positive results: Welbeck for Giroud. Danny has been very good for the 3rd game running and I think the time has come to give him another shot at centre-forward. On top of Giroud being clearly exhausted and hitting a purple patch (8 games without a goal) Danny offers qualities our handsome Frenchman does not: speed on the counter, the ability to play facing the goal, the skillset to take on an opponent (cheers, Pique!) He also looks more able aerially than he did prior to the injury, less wasteful in front of goal and a whole lot of hungry to prove himself after 10 months out.

Walcott’s substitution, though forced, robbed us off Oxlade’s direct running and physical stature and I do wonder whether we would have been better off with Campbell. Joel would certainly be more helpful in defense and also more willing to get involved higher up the pitch. Guess Arsene was really angling for a win when he subbed Walcott on. Theo is more of a threat than Campbell, but unfortunately we didn’t see much of the Englishman at all.

Flamini’s sub was downright disastrous. And I’m not talking about the consequences of it only, I was dubious why it was made in the first place. Alright, supposing Coquelin had a knock and couldn’t continue (and I still haven’t seen anywhere information of this kind), why did it have to be Flamini? Why not Chambers, a much cooler head, a better distributor and a defender on top of that? Why not throw on Campbell? There were less than 10 minutes to go, after all. We were 1-0 down, maybe it was worth bringing another forward on? And where the hell was Elneny? Why guys like Gibbs and Flamini made the bench, but Elneny didn’t?

It was a strange thing for the manager to do whichever way you look at it and, unfortunately, we paid a heavy price for this miscalculation. Perhaps Mertesacker is just as guilty for not clearing the ball, but had Flamini been quicker, smarter or at least tactically more astute, he would know better than to plunge in a tackle like that in our own box.

The naivete?

Frankly, I was surprised by Wenger’s comments after the game. Have a look:

“I believe technically we were very average overall. But the regret I have is that once we looked to dominate the game in the last 15-20 minutes, we gave a goal away. Similar to Monaco, naive and that what is frustrating, because when we looked like we could win the game, we just gave it away.”

While Arsene certainly didn’t instruct the players to get caught on the counter, did he really think Barca wouldn’t have such a chance once we poured forward in the last 20 minutes? Who is being naive here?

I didn’t like the way we were caught, I didn’t like the way Coquelin and Ramsey were so high up the pitch, cut off from the action, once Barca sprang their attack and I certainly didn’t like how Mertesacker threw himself in a sliding tackle on the halfway line, and finally, I didn’t like how no one committed a cynical foul to stop this attack, but let’s be honest here: once we went searching for the winner, we were always going to be susceptible to counters. Wenger has the right to blame his players for this particular counter, but calling them naive overall when all they did was follow his instructions, is doing the players who gave their all a huge disservice.

The aftermath

It wasn’t the loss itself, but rather the manner of it that was highly disappointing. Barca, for all their possession, could have been defeated yesterday. They didn’t look all that special. They didn’t bully us into submission by playing incisive and direct football. They just pulled off a counter and got lucky for the penalty.

Barca were there for the taking, but we fell just short of capitalising on it. It seems to be the story of our life in the recent years, falling just short. It’s painful, agonising and heartbreaking, the way we lost and basically crashed out again, however, I still salute the players for this performance. Their gave their all, it just wasn’t enough.

Now we have to compartmentalise this loss, push it to the back of our minds and focus on getting our players back (fingers crossed Ramsey and Coquelin are fine, while Ox’s injury is not serious) and getting a result against United on Sunday.

Chins up.

Barcelona preview: it's showtime

There have been quite a few articles this week on how we can beat Barcelona. I particularly liked this one from Michael Cox, where he argues the combination of early pressing and deep defending for the remainder of the game can do the trick. Then there were two, very similar in the idea they conveyed, articles from @Stillberto and @PoznanInMyPants. Both fine writers expressed their thoughts that this Arsenal side, though more by accident than design, is better equipped for counter-attacking football and utilising the full width of the pitch. Indeed, much of our recent struggles have come when we reverted to classic Wengerball (like the 0-0 against Hull) without having the personnel to make it work. And though neither article mentions our Barcelona game, I think the timing of both speaks for itself. Last, but not least, Danny here on Gunnerstown did a detailed piece on what players are best equipped to negate the threats of this Barcelona side. As I happen to agree with him completely, I won’t dwell on who I would put out and why and concentrate on something a bit different.

As my Hull report was warmly welcomed in certain quarters and, given the abundance of the standard previews and negative opinions you will undoubtedly encounter in the build-up to this Barca game (if you haven’t already), I’d veer from my usual preview format. Instead, I’ll focus on the reasons why I think Arsenal CAN beat Barcelona on Tuesday and, indeed, on aggregate. After all, if you can do it once, you can do it twice, can’t you?

We have Petr Cech

And I’m not talking about this “Cech has never conceded a goal from Lionel Messi” stat, which has been doing rounds recently and which you are surely fed up with already.

I’m rather talking about his overall experience in games of such magnitude. This includes many things, I’ll list some of them:

1. Calming influence. Having a rock solid goalkeeper who you know can bail you out of trouble when push comes to shove is comforting. As opposed to having a certain fidgety Colombian who can GET you into trouble without extra help. Not only that, Cech is also great at organising the defense, which I’m sure will play a major part what with all that “backs-to-the-walls” stuff
2. Unfazed by the occasion. Here’s someone who won’t get sent off in the first half because of a rash challenge *knocks on wood* Makes a nice change from, ahem, Szczesny. Pretty hard to play with 10 men against the best team in Europe for the greater part of the game
3. Massive individual quality. Not only is Cech highly unlikely to make a silly mistake, he also can actually make (a) crucial save(s) from situations you wouldn’t normally expect a keeper to. It’s part of being experienced, but sometimes you just need that little bit of individual brilliance to make the difference. Cech has that

The overall quality of our squad is not to be sniffed at

Of course you’d wish to have a fully-fit squad at all times and in this sense the unavailability of Gabriel, Wilshere, Cazorla and even Rosicky is far from welcome. However if we need an ideal situation to beat teams and win stuff we may just pack things right now and go home because we’ll never have one.

4 injured is far from the end of the world and considering how little Wilshere and Rosicky have contributed for over a year now, their losses won’t be felt as much. Arsene has moved on from relying on either of them it seems, and no longer builds his teams in a hope of Jack and Tomas being fit and firing. In this sense we are much worse off without Santi Cazorla, who has been a mainstay for 3,5 years and even Gabriel, whose absence robs us of an opportunity to rotate centre-backs. In fact, I think Wenger initially planned for the Brazilian to start against Barca, that’s why he’s been giving him regular playing time at the beginning of February. But no use crying over spilt milk. Things like that happen in football and, indeed, I’d rather have Gabriel injured than Mertesacker for such a game. The German has a better understanding with Koscielny, it’s easier to accommodate him overall because Per has been a regular for the past 3,5 seasons and he’s also better suited to our probable gameplan (in my opinion, of course).

But apart from these 4? We can still put out a very strong squad, capable of delivering the goods. We are even spoilt for choice in attack, because, amazingly, all 6 of our forwards are fit. If you look at the team of Cech - Bellerin - Mert - Kos - Monreal - Coq - Ramsey - Ozil - Oxlade - Alexis - Giroud and think you’ll get an easy ride, well… you haven’t been paying attention.

We are the underdogs

No one (apart from Arsenal fans, and even then not all of them) thinks we stand a chance against Barcelona. Not just on aggregate, at home too. I haven’t looked at the odds, but I doubt highly the bookmakers favour Arsenal to get a win in London. A draw maybe, but not a win.

And this suits me down to the ground. There is no pressure on players, no weight of expectation. For once we are not going into the game as favourites.

Pressure is the hardest thing to deal with in competitive football. Not experiencing this pressure leads to footballers being able to express themselves freely and without fear. You need to look no further than Leicester to know what I mean.

Also if you, like me, have been regularly watching Arsenal for at least a couple so seasons, you know the Gunners are no exception to this rule. Not that we have never delivered with the pressure on, but we have undoubtedly exceeded expectations when the said pressure was off. Tuesday is going to be one of these relatively rare occasions when the weight of expectation will not be on us.

Also, look at it from the eyes of the Barcelona players. You are the favourites. You are on a good run. You have a good head-to-head record against Arsenal, despite not having won away from home. Arsenal, on the other hand, are pretty inconsistent, even in the immediate lead-up to the game. The Spanish press don't give the Gunners a chance (obviously you more or less know what the press’ view is).

All of this can lead to two things. The first is dealing with the favourites’ status and becoming burdened with the weight of expectation. Which leads to not performing up to your usual standard. The second is complacency. You underestimate the opponent. You drop your guard. Even if only a bit. Partially. Result? The quality of your performance drops.

Sounds familiar? Of course it does. We've been in this situation ourselves quite a few times. We've suffered from both problems. Now the roles are reversed. Let's see how Barcelona fares in this situation.

The verdict

We wanted to stay in the Champions League so badly before the Olympiacos game. What has changed since then? We’ve drawn Barcelona? So what? If we are ever to stand a chance of winning the Champions League we should beat the best. Facing the best is only a matter of time. You can’t shithouse your way to the final, all the while playing inferior opposition, mostly because there is no inferior opposition after the group stages, as we have found out to our cost last year.

Those “fans” who are harping on about how we should just play second-string players against Barca because “we don’t stand a chance anyway and will be better off focusing on the league”:

1. Are not real fans. Real fans would never want their team to lose on purpose
2. Don’t get the point of playing in the Champions League
3. Were probably giving the same shit before the Olympiacos game, though their reasoning was different. In my view, if you change your reasoning to suit your agenda, well, you are a hypocrite. Kindly stay away from my Club

To wrap it all up I’ll say this: no one is invincible, not unless he was a part of Arsene’s 2003/04 team. Barcelona, however mighty, have their weaknesses. Now it’s only a matter of identifying and correctly exploiting these weaknesses.

Come on you Gunners.

Back with a review

Arsenal 0-0 Hull City: not the end of the world

Well, that didn’t quite go according to plan, did it? However it also could have been worse: when Aluko took aim from what would be Hull’s only shot on target, I was prepared for the worst. It was a genuine heart-in-the-mouth moment, which would have felt like a cold shower had Aluko been a half-decent finisher. Mostly because we so utterly dominated the proceedings that it never occurred to me Arsenal could lose the game.

And here is one of the positives we can take from this game: we didn’t lose. Yes, it would have been unfair to go down as a result of Hull’s only good moment, but let’s face it: it wouldn’t have been the first time we did.

However I’m not inclined to dwell on the negative side for too long, so let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first. I’ll try to be as concise as possible.

The replay

A real problem in that it’s not clear when it’ll take place. Due to us facing Swansea the midweek after next (the earliest possible date for a replay) and then Barcelona in the reverse fixture after that, I really don’t know when the replay will take place.

However it doesn’t really matter from a “we have a heavy schedule already” perspective. It’s not like Arsene is going to suddenly field his strongest team in the replay. If anything, I suspect we’ll see even more changes than we did today (meaning more than 9), as Gabriel and possibly even Cazorla and Wilshere can come back by then.

Mike Dean

He wasn’t as bad as he could have been, to be honest. The ref didn’t Koscielny for the Frenchman’s late and unnecessary sliding tackle, he didn’t allow Hull’s players to bully ours and he even brandished a yellow to Maguire for a theatrical dive in our box. By the time Maguire hit the ground I was ready for Dean to point to the spot.

However neither was the ref’s performance impeccable. He failed to notice two clear handballs (one of these quite deliberate) in Hull’s box and his decision not to award a penalty after Chambers was hauled off his feet was as dubious as it gets. Dean had a clear view of the incident, Calum was obviously stopped with a foul, so it beats me why we never got a penalty.

Eldin Jakupovic

What is it with Arsenal’s luck this season? It’s at least the 3rd time an opposition’s goalkeeper hit double digits in terms of saves made against the Gunners. First Butland made 10 (in September), then Forster repeated this feat in early February and now Jakupovic made a whooping 11. Insane.

Could we have finished our chances better? We certainly could have, it’s something Arsene pointed out too:

“The goalkeeper did well of course, but we had maybe 70 per cent possession and more than 20 shots on goal, and we didn’t score. We have to look at ourselves as well, even if you can give credit to their ‘keeper.”

Some of the saves Jakupovic made were simply jaw-dropping. The fingertip one from Campbell’s free-kick, the one with a deflection from Welbeck’s shot, a save from Danny at the near post, Alexis’ free-kick late on…

However some of our efforts were really weak considering the positions the shots were taken from. Alexis in particular didn’t look like his usual self at all.

And now the good moments.

Rotation

Koscielny and Mertesacker will most likely be the only ones to start in three days from this side. As their positions require the least energy, I don’t expect either to suffer from exhaustion and let it affect their performance on Tuesday.

Of everyone else involved we may see Welbeck start (though I doubt it), Alexis, Giroud and Oxlade. The latter three have only played 30 minutes or less, so again, their standards shouldn’t slip vs Barca. As for Welbeck, the guy is fresh. Even if he does start this shouldn’t be a problem.

Besides, most of the stand-ins acquitted themselves well. I thought only Gibbs and Flamini looked underwhelming, while Ospina was mostly uninvolved, so it’s hard to pass judgement in his case. Others, though? Chambers, Elneny, Iwobi, Walcott and particularly Welbeck looked very bright, all filling in admirably and doing their respective jobs well.

We played some good football

We really did. Second-string players gave Hull a torrid time and can feel hard done by not to win. After all basically the same squad defeated Sunderland and Burnley earlier and there was little wrong with their performance on the day.

Amusingly though, they suffered from the same malaise the regulars seem to experiencing lately: finishing. Completely different personnel, but the problem persists. Arsene warned after the game, however, that such a profligate performance in front of goal will get us nowhere against Barca (think this was more of a message to the first team, though):

“We need to be more efficient in the final third, because today we had more than 70 per cent possession and we will not have that on Tuesday night. That means we’ll have to be more efficient with much less of the ball.”

Think this snippet also hints about how we are going to approach Barcelona on Tuesday, but I’ll cover that in my preview.

We kept a clean sheet, didn’t go out and didn’t dent our confidence

Some would say a clean sheet against Hull’s reserves will mean little on Tuesday night, but I disagree. This clean sheet continues a fine trend we started in January: a knack of keeping our goal under lock and key.

We have only conceded 3 goals in our last 7 games (all competitions), of which one was from a penalty and one after going down to 10 men. If we look a bit further, we have conceded 7 goals in the last 11 matches, 3 of these coming in a mad rollercoaster at Anfield. Scrap that game out and we have only 4 goals against in 10 games.

And this plays a part, let me tell you that. When you face the most daunting attack in Europe and go into the game with such a good record, the players feel more confident about their chances.

We are also still in the cup. The replay is a nuisance, but we are still in it and winning away at Hull is only slightly harder than winning at the Emirates. Not like we were held to a draw vs Chelsea or United and now have to go to Stamford Bridge or Old Trafford where our record is notoriously bad.

Finally, a draw of any kind is always preferable to a loss. Every little thing counts when you are about to face Barcelona, and I’d much rather we did it on the back of a draw than a loss, even if it were mostly the reserve players involved. A loss affects the confidence of the entire team, it spreads like toxic gas and hampers the belief in your own abilities. Ain’t nobody needs that.

The aftermath

“The nightmare would have been to go out. The frustration is that we didn’t score and it’s not what we wanted, to have a replay, but between that and going out, we choose the replay. I am happy for the replay [as opposed to going out].”

Which kind of returns me to my original point: a draw, with all the ensuing consequences, is hardly the end of the world and is infinitely more desirable to a loss. We are in these competitions to compete (I didn’t learn the difficult word “repetition” at school), not to purposefully lose to make our schedule lighter.

Now the players need to push that draw to the back of their minds and concentrate fully on the Tuesday night. They can deal with everything else when it comes.

Back with a preview of our Champions League clash.

Until then