Disappointment, Frustration, Anger.

How the hell is Arsenal losing the lead twice in a week? Enough with excuses of they scoring from the spot, disallowed goal, or lacking of the defender. Last time against Anderlecht, we surrendered THREE goals lead to draw 3-3. Today we surrendered one goal to lost 1-2. Something is wrong with this team, or at least how this team should defend. 

Okay, basically we are back to three years ago where we always conceded a soft goal. In my opinion, some of the goals are preventable, and happened because of our own mistakes. Sigurdsson's goal was great and there's nothing to complain about it but Gomis' goal was our own mistake. Chambers has a bad game so far, being bullied again and again by Montero, yet Wenger did not do anything with it. 

Chambers is not an explosive fullback so he is exposed easily by pacey winger like Montero. We have a quick defender in the name of Hector Bellerin on the bench, but Wenger keep playing Chambers. You can change our right back with Hector Bellerin and shifted Chambers to the middle so that we play 5-4-1 to grind to our lead. I know it is good to believe in our players to show their potential, but how much points we can afford to drop in sake of "developing players"?

Nacho Monreal might be faulted at the goal, but he ain't a central defender who is aerially strong. He is left back in the first place and never played centrally. The criticism for him is unfair when your manager played you out of position.

Wenger also looked static - as always - with his tactical plan. He never had a plan B on his mind. Look at Gary Monk today. He see Arsenal completely nullify Bony and Emnes, and he reacted to bring in Modou Barrow and Bafetimbi Gomis, who directly responsible for two of Swansea's goal. Barrow was fouled for Sigurdsson's freekick and Gomis scored the winning goal. Yes, Wenger might have it done with Anderlecht away win as Podolski scored the winner, but that was a rare example where our substition changes the game.

Wenger might have make Arsenal bigger, but he is ain't Arsenal. He might be a good motivator, but he is not a tactician. He had last year without certain restriction on budget and another good money this year. No excuses on selling our best players any more. 

Aaron Ramsey was another anomaly in this game. Looked like our Saviour last season but this season he did a Bendtner, failed to impress everytime called upon. I didn't know whether this correlates with the injury he had but he looks out-of-form, and Wenger should do something about it. The Welshman seems to be obsessed with scoring goals or making overly-complicated goals. Back to basic please, that's how the midfielder should be. Wilshere was pretty good recently before he was out of the team due to suspension and injury, and I think he should enter the pitch next match in expense of Ramsey. Still, give him like 20 minutes each game so that he can regain his form again.

Conclusion: I felt disappointed, frustrated, and angry with the results. Enough with all the excuses. Scoring from the spot? Do a better defending, try not to do a rough challenge on the box. Lack of defender? It's Wenger's fault not to bring more defender on the transfer windows. Our defensive performance has been abysmal recently. To be honest, with this kind of performance, we are going to be raped by Falcao, Di Maria, and that certain traitor. Well, I do hope Wenger could prove me wrong.

PS: I still support Arsenal, it's just I need to express my frustration and anger towards the game.

Post Match Analysis

So the curtain for the Premier League has raised for the new season, and Arsenal started the campaign by defeating Crystal Palace 2-1 in the Emirates Stadium. It was much harder than people would expected, especially after Palace's manager, Tony Pulis resigned just two days before the campaign. Palace even got a lead on their first corner of the game when Brede Hangeland headed the ball to the far corner, 0-1. Laurent Koscielny levelled the scoreline just before the break when he made a great header from Alexis Sanchez' freekick, 1-1. When everyone thinks the game would end in a draw, Aaron Ramsey made an important goal, as he slotted the ball from the close range after Julian Speroni parried Mathieu Debuchy's shot. The final scoreline is 2-1 for Arsenal's victory

There are few points I'd like to highlight from this game.
1. Santi Cazorla didn't have the best game today, though he is much better in the central position after the introduction fo Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Crystal Palace marked Cazorla really tight, not giving him the space he wants, and he struggled throughout the game. He is forced to play deep or wide when he played on the wing. However, he might not playing centrally very often as Ozil is coming back next week.

2. Mathieu Debuchy and Nacho Monreal is quite impressive in this game. Both acts as auxiliary wingers on the match as Arsenal pushed for the goal. Debuchy looks an upgrade for Sagna in terms of attacking and his off-the ball movement is impressive. Nacho Monreal was solid after Kieran Gibbs limped off injury, and combined very well with Alexis and Cazorla, bombing on the left wing and sending few dangerous crosses.

3. It was a bad set piece defending on the conceded goal. No one is lurking on the far post, plus they lost Hangeland on the process. We've been doing zonal marking, but we suffered this when Per Mertesacker and Olivier Giroud not on the pitch.

4. Olivier Giroud was much improved from the pre-season defeat against Monaco. He looked sharper upfront, and held the ball well. Especially against smaller teams who sat deep to defend, I think it's better to play Giroud on the solo striker as we won't be able to see much spaces behind the defender, something that Sanogo is better than Giroud. As the opposition sat deep, Arsenal would need someone who can flick the ball and attack the cross, and in the squad, there's no one better doing that than Giroud now.

5. In the past few years, we've been seeing Arsenal conceded in the final minutes, but from the last year it's more often that we found equalizer or winner on the final minutes, showing that we have that right mentality to challenge for the title. Late at the game is one of the most crucial moment that would differentiate between title challenge and title winner. Credit to Crystal Palace who was very well organized and strong in defence, only to beat by a decisive tap-in by Aaron Ramsey on the second half injury time.

In short, it was not the best performance by Arsenal, but what matters most is the three points. With the trio Germans is yet to come, expect an improvement in coming weeks, especially when Mesut Ozil comes to the team. However, I'd still hope that Wenger brings a world-class, tenacious defensive midfielder, a different type of midfielder from Mikel Arteta, to add steel to the midfield, especially against big team.