Saturday, October 18, 2014

Hull Post Match Thought.

One of those worst Arsenal matches I've ever seen. First half was not that bad but second half was completely poor performance, aside from Alexis' brilliance. It would be disrespectful towards the opposition if I didn't give credit to Hull City. They played - and defended - really well, and attacking efficiently, but I would highlight Arsenal's poor display tonight.

I would expect Arsenal to win this game as most of the Gooners, but tonight's story was different. Arsenal, like usual, dominated the ball, and opened the scoreline from Alexis Sanchez, before conceded an equalizer less than 5 mins after they took the lead. On second half they conceded less than 1 minutes after the break, mostly because Per Mertesacker ball-watching the cross sent by Tom Huddlestone. When everything seems to be over for Arsenal, Alexis Sanchez whizzed through Hull's defence to set up Danny Welbeck, who made no mistake to took the equalizer.

On second half, Arsenal barely threaten Hull's goal despite the need to find a goal to level the score. There seems no desire to win this game and no urgency to create a clear cut chances. I can only see Wilshere and Alexis being the main force to bring the team forward but the teams looks toothless.

Offensive-wise there should not any problem individually. Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Danny Welbeck, plus Jack Wilshere is not a bad offensive force, yet they seems can't broke the deadlock when they are needed to. Against Chelsea. Against Sp*rs. Against Hull today. We can't do much about that despite having some quality players. I would say there should be one man responsible for this one, who is no other than the manager, Arsene Wenger.

Sadly, in overall, I don't see this team as a title challenger this season. Yes, we have been plagued with injuries of our first team players, but that's not a reason for a team not to play well. A champions should not look at excuses not to win the game and they can win the game in ugly manner. Arsenal did this - ugly win - last season but this season they seems to revert back to old Arsenal: dominating the match, conceded cheap goals. Until this mentality is fixed, this team would not move forward.