Rather than a statistical analysis or match by match recounting, I thought I would post impressions of the season in some kind of random way that reflects discussions I've had with other Gooners since the FA Cup final victory over Hull City.
THE GOOD
My player of the season for Arsenal had to be Per Mertesacker. Ramsey burned brighter but you can't miss 14 weeks of the season and be named footballer of the year. BFG's interventions became so routine that they were expected, and I can't count how many times he would do the simplest thing that caused an opposing attack to break down. That's what I loved about Per this season: the simple toe-poke to dispossess someone, the simple pass from the back to the open midfielder, the clearance that snubbed out a threat; it was minimalist, Philip Glass-esque defending and that's what we needed. I don't hate his goals, either, few though they may be, they seem to always be of vital importance.
His partner in the centre of defence would be option 1a in the POS voting. Koscielny, the man with the big pockets, the man who scores the falling-down-iest goals in the squad used his considerable athleticism to chase the ball down when Wenger employed the much-lamented high line and I shudder to think what things may have been without him. Many was the time the opposition would break up the pitch and Kos would be the one at the touchline harassing the ball until reinforcements could arrive.
Aaron Ramsey...what mysterious ailment kept him out so long? We'll never know. But what we do know is that the cheeky look-off that he gave Podolski at the end of the 2012-2013 campaign before he smashed home a goal from a ridiculous angle was just a preview. He had displayed his tireless running and tackling during that season's run-in, but the goal scoring...it leaves one speechless. It didn't even seem as though it took effort, it just seemed to occur and then keep occurring every time it was needed. He was everywhere, he was industrious, he was classy, he was inspirational. Teams that want to win have to plan for injuries, but with only one striker Arsenal couldn't compensate for Ramsey's absence. And of course, he scored THAT goal.
THINGS I LOVED
Rozza's goals versus Spuds, especially picking off the ball from Danny Effing Rose, finally helping put to rest that ghost from season's past.
Wilshere's goal versus Norwich. Everybody likes that one, don't they?
Ozil versus Napoli at Ashburton Grove. More like that, please. The man is so good it's just ridiculous sometimes.
Carl Jenkinson's goal versus Norwich, and the joy he showed following it.
Wilshere giving the middles to the MCFC supporters. Never surrender!
Theo giving the scoreline to the swamp people, then being pelted with missiles which the FA did absolutely nothing to punish, and rather made the story about TW14 "inciting the crowd." Tremendous leadership and showed absolutely NO anti-Arsenal bias there.
Szcz's selfie. Anyone who was churlish over this needs to seriously grow a sense of humour.
Mertesacker and Cazorla's "unclassic" commentary video.
Anything involving Gunnersaurus.
Opponents running away scared from Bacary Sagna on the pitch when he got in their faces.
Flamini doing needed business against those who had it coming to them.
Wilshere doing the "Tottenham-Shit" cheer at the FA Cup celebration. Well done, lad.
Nicky Bendtner's goal versus Cardiff City whilst I was in the process of nearly shitting myself in angst.
All of Podolski's 8 league goals.
And my goal of the season, Aaron Ramsey's blast versus Liverpool. I hate Liverpool. That's why.
(All the fun stuff that happened during the FA Cup final is different unto itself, and since it was finally a trophy you could probably pick every moment in that game that was good as a highlight.)
THINGS I DIDN'T NECESSARILY LOVE ALL THAT MUCH
Losing at home to Villa on opening day following a summer of (to that point) transfer inactivity. It was not a pretty sight anywhere amongst the Gooners of the world.
Losing away to Stoke City and Manchester United without scoring a goal.
Drawing to Swansea, Everton, and Southampton.
"Those heavy defeats." I've said enough about that elsewhere.
The way they played at Napoli.
Arjen Robben, Chelsea Football Club, Stoke City supporters, Yanks pretending to like Liverpool, Juan Kincaid jinxing the Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger shirtless after the FA Cup final. Still better than seeing Steve Bruce shirtless ever, but not something I'd anticipated.
Starting Big Luke in the FA Cup final. What's done is done, but I thought that was not a very good choice by the manager.
People talking about the number of goals Olivier Giroud scored as 22, when he only scored 16 in the league, which is still not good enough.
I HAVE NO CLEVER SUMMATION FOR THIS POST
It was another decent 4th place finish for the Arsenal and it was great to win the FA Cup. Here's to a summer of smashing transfers that will push the club on to winning the Premier League. Heh heh.
Showing posts with label Per Mertesacker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Per Mertesacker. Show all posts
Thursday, June 05, 2014
Monday, April 07, 2014
11 from 33 = Failure
The former American basketball coach Bobby Knight used to stress that he coached his players to make the fewest mistakes as possible in a game. His theory was that even if your shot isn't falling or you're facing a team with more talent, making fewer mistakes than your opponent would keep you in the contest. I've heard many theories on coaching from hundreds of coaches and managers and one theme that kept popping up was that you can't coach from a negative perspective. Knight didn't believe this.
By a "negative perspective" I mean, it's more difficult to teach a player not to do something, to avoid an action, than it is to teach him to actively do a thing. A simple example is that it's easier to say to a player "Run fast!" than it is to say "Don't run slowly!" Putting a negative thought in a player's head makes him less decisive, forces him to start considering things instead of being instinctive, or so the theory goes.
Where Bobby Knight is concerned, let's put it in its most basic terms: He would lose his mind when a player made a mistake. That's not an exaggeration, either. Nothing, not even incompetent officiating, grated on him like seeing a misplaced pass, a missed assignment, a forced play, a silly foul, or anything that can be classified as a "mental mistake." As such, he tended to recruit players who were perhaps less physically talented than others but had a greater mental acumen for the game, and his teams tended to play in a fundamentally sound style, no matter the changes in the team sheet over the decades. (Knight's lunacy and lack of self control are another subject for another writer.)
There were of course other aspects to Knight's teams but it always came back to avoiding the mistakes that kill momentum or give your opponent easy scoring opportunities. That was the foundation--everything else rested on it. Knight had much success in his career getting good performances out of teams that were less talented than those they defeated.
I bring this up because of what I saw in the latest Arsenal away defeat to a "top" club. Well, what I watched of the match, anyway, as I got to the point where I simply had to switch it off. Abject performances in big matches have that effect on me.
The mistakes that Arsenal made, both of omission and commission, undid them. This is aside from an overall tentativeness in attack that I'll leave for either another post or for someone else to describe. What I find galling about the losses that Arsenal have suffered this year where they've conceded 3 or more goals is that they've shown none of the organisation and "pragmatism" that saved them during last season's run in.
I was so disgusted after the opening home loss to Villa that I turned to my group of Gooners in our New Orleans pub and said "If this is the best we can do then Wenger needs to be fired." What made me furious was the way that Arsenal conceded in that match. There it was--the ridiculously high defensive line again. Leaving essentially one CB to try to defend 3 attackers running at full speed straight at Szcz. The same old mistakes that we thought had been eliminated since February of 2013 were there again, the exact same ones, Groundhog Day and all that.
That, and not the loss in and of itself, is why I was furious with Wenger. That August fury has faded into a sad realisation that I was right, that Wenger cannot set out the team to play with the requisite toughness and help them minimise the mistakes that have cost them a league title this season.
Mistakes cost Arsenal first place in their CL group. A simple, pragmatic, even Teutonic game plan against Napoli would have settled it, we all thought going in that it was a fait acompli that we would win and avoid one of the big teams in the knockout phase. Instead, silly mistakes settled that and the rest, once again, is history.
The loss at City was one I could walk away from and say that, while it was hardly a glorious battle, it easily could have finished 4-4 and that would have been a fair result given the way both teams played. Of course that can't be said for the away defeats to Liverpool and Chelsea. Again, it wasn't about being outclassed, but rather it was down to silly mistakes and that insane high defensive line. (Pardon me for going all Stewie Robson on you by repeating that.)
So that brings us to "the biggest match of the season Mark VI" or whichever one it was away at Goodison. The team started out a bit more compact and the fullbacks didn't bomb forward like the bleeding Light Brigade, but again the mistakes crept in and led to the first 2 goals. I haven't seen the third and don't care to, but the first two were down to incredibly poor marking and a lack of composure around our own 18 yard box.
Mistakes, the same mistakes, over and over, season after season, simple, correctable mistakes are our undoing. League Cup against Birmingham City? A mistake cost us a trophy. Mistakes, errors, gaffs, comical cock-ups, whatever you want to call them, they are the recurring theme in a decade of failure. Enough is enough, really.
I used to find it easy to blame the mistakes on the players--Gibbs falling over versus MUFC, Clichy continually doing something stupid, Alex Song leaving an huge gap at the back as he galloped forward like a riderless horse--but after so many years of seeing them, I can't do that anymore. Last season I thought Wenger had rid himself of all of his bad habits (tactical intransigence, misplaced loyalty to failing players) when he took the team to Bayern and benched Szcz and TV5. It seemed as though this was a new Arsenal, a new old Arsenal, a new old George Graham at his peak Arsenal. I wrote that Wenger had finally merged his need for Gallic flair with Teutonic pragmatism. In other words, "Just win, cheri."
This run in has undone all of that good will. There is none left. This post simply addresses in-game errors and doesn't even begin to treat on the transfer window miscalculations. Arsenal are a tactical mess right now. What is the point of a side that pleads inequality in spending but is set out to attempt to overwhelm supposedly much more talented opponents? Why not continue to pile up results with pragmatic tactics that keep the flaws in the side hidden and actually minimise the potential for mistakes?
And that's it, isn't it? You have to hide the flaws in your team and find a way to play to whatever strengths you have. Mertesacker has no pace but is masterful at reading the game. Why have him knocking it about in the other team's half? Sagna is tops at winning headers but is rather crap at crossing. Is it sensible to have him stationed in the other side's penalty area when they've been sent out to hit you on the counter? These are schoolboy mistakes, and quite frankly they're unacceptable after so many years.
Arsenal have taken 11 points from the last 11 league matches. 11 from 33. Mistakes piled on top of mistakes have destroyed what was a very pleasing season for the club and forced Wenger's supporters (I had counted myself among them) to be rather harsh in our assessments. These in-game errors are avoidable and a manager with Wenger's experience ought to have cut them out after the opening match of the season, but here we are and there they are, and nothing seems to have changed.
Last weekend I had to shamefully say to my friends that "right now, Pulisball > Wengerball." What a vulgar and disheartening thought.
By a "negative perspective" I mean, it's more difficult to teach a player not to do something, to avoid an action, than it is to teach him to actively do a thing. A simple example is that it's easier to say to a player "Run fast!" than it is to say "Don't run slowly!" Putting a negative thought in a player's head makes him less decisive, forces him to start considering things instead of being instinctive, or so the theory goes.
Where Bobby Knight is concerned, let's put it in its most basic terms: He would lose his mind when a player made a mistake. That's not an exaggeration, either. Nothing, not even incompetent officiating, grated on him like seeing a misplaced pass, a missed assignment, a forced play, a silly foul, or anything that can be classified as a "mental mistake." As such, he tended to recruit players who were perhaps less physically talented than others but had a greater mental acumen for the game, and his teams tended to play in a fundamentally sound style, no matter the changes in the team sheet over the decades. (Knight's lunacy and lack of self control are another subject for another writer.)
There were of course other aspects to Knight's teams but it always came back to avoiding the mistakes that kill momentum or give your opponent easy scoring opportunities. That was the foundation--everything else rested on it. Knight had much success in his career getting good performances out of teams that were less talented than those they defeated.
I bring this up because of what I saw in the latest Arsenal away defeat to a "top" club. Well, what I watched of the match, anyway, as I got to the point where I simply had to switch it off. Abject performances in big matches have that effect on me.
The mistakes that Arsenal made, both of omission and commission, undid them. This is aside from an overall tentativeness in attack that I'll leave for either another post or for someone else to describe. What I find galling about the losses that Arsenal have suffered this year where they've conceded 3 or more goals is that they've shown none of the organisation and "pragmatism" that saved them during last season's run in.
I was so disgusted after the opening home loss to Villa that I turned to my group of Gooners in our New Orleans pub and said "If this is the best we can do then Wenger needs to be fired." What made me furious was the way that Arsenal conceded in that match. There it was--the ridiculously high defensive line again. Leaving essentially one CB to try to defend 3 attackers running at full speed straight at Szcz. The same old mistakes that we thought had been eliminated since February of 2013 were there again, the exact same ones, Groundhog Day and all that.
That, and not the loss in and of itself, is why I was furious with Wenger. That August fury has faded into a sad realisation that I was right, that Wenger cannot set out the team to play with the requisite toughness and help them minimise the mistakes that have cost them a league title this season.
Mistakes cost Arsenal first place in their CL group. A simple, pragmatic, even Teutonic game plan against Napoli would have settled it, we all thought going in that it was a fait acompli that we would win and avoid one of the big teams in the knockout phase. Instead, silly mistakes settled that and the rest, once again, is history.
The loss at City was one I could walk away from and say that, while it was hardly a glorious battle, it easily could have finished 4-4 and that would have been a fair result given the way both teams played. Of course that can't be said for the away defeats to Liverpool and Chelsea. Again, it wasn't about being outclassed, but rather it was down to silly mistakes and that insane high defensive line. (Pardon me for going all Stewie Robson on you by repeating that.)
So that brings us to "the biggest match of the season Mark VI" or whichever one it was away at Goodison. The team started out a bit more compact and the fullbacks didn't bomb forward like the bleeding Light Brigade, but again the mistakes crept in and led to the first 2 goals. I haven't seen the third and don't care to, but the first two were down to incredibly poor marking and a lack of composure around our own 18 yard box.
Mistakes, the same mistakes, over and over, season after season, simple, correctable mistakes are our undoing. League Cup against Birmingham City? A mistake cost us a trophy. Mistakes, errors, gaffs, comical cock-ups, whatever you want to call them, they are the recurring theme in a decade of failure. Enough is enough, really.
I used to find it easy to blame the mistakes on the players--Gibbs falling over versus MUFC, Clichy continually doing something stupid, Alex Song leaving an huge gap at the back as he galloped forward like a riderless horse--but after so many years of seeing them, I can't do that anymore. Last season I thought Wenger had rid himself of all of his bad habits (tactical intransigence, misplaced loyalty to failing players) when he took the team to Bayern and benched Szcz and TV5. It seemed as though this was a new Arsenal, a new old Arsenal, a new old George Graham at his peak Arsenal. I wrote that Wenger had finally merged his need for Gallic flair with Teutonic pragmatism. In other words, "Just win, cheri."
This run in has undone all of that good will. There is none left. This post simply addresses in-game errors and doesn't even begin to treat on the transfer window miscalculations. Arsenal are a tactical mess right now. What is the point of a side that pleads inequality in spending but is set out to attempt to overwhelm supposedly much more talented opponents? Why not continue to pile up results with pragmatic tactics that keep the flaws in the side hidden and actually minimise the potential for mistakes?
And that's it, isn't it? You have to hide the flaws in your team and find a way to play to whatever strengths you have. Mertesacker has no pace but is masterful at reading the game. Why have him knocking it about in the other team's half? Sagna is tops at winning headers but is rather crap at crossing. Is it sensible to have him stationed in the other side's penalty area when they've been sent out to hit you on the counter? These are schoolboy mistakes, and quite frankly they're unacceptable after so many years.
Arsenal have taken 11 points from the last 11 league matches. 11 from 33. Mistakes piled on top of mistakes have destroyed what was a very pleasing season for the club and forced Wenger's supporters (I had counted myself among them) to be rather harsh in our assessments. These in-game errors are avoidable and a manager with Wenger's experience ought to have cut them out after the opening match of the season, but here we are and there they are, and nothing seems to have changed.
Last weekend I had to shamefully say to my friends that "right now, Pulisball > Wengerball." What a vulgar and disheartening thought.
Sunday, May 05, 2013
"Please sir, could I have some more?"
When you're starving, even gruel satisfies the craving and does so to the extent that you will ask for another helping. Eat the weevils, they're rich in protein! And dysentery is a smashing weight-loss programme, so dig right in.
This is what Arsenal are serving up in an end-of-season slog toward whatever fate awaits them: A runny, watery, gruel that is doing just enough to sustain the hopes of supporters and the squad's own desire to play in the big cup next season.
And yet...and yet the form table says "Hang on a minute--this is quite different than last season's trip-stumble-fall across the finish line." Instead of defeating our wee sisters from up the road, launching a brilliant run, then repeatedly punching themselves in the face until the final day of the season, this year's model has used a loss to that lot as a cold splash of water to bring back some missing vitality.
It's a complete reversal, but the result is still the same. It will come down to the final day of the season, and an away match against a side that may or may not offer up the comical defending that has come to reflect its manager's silly personality.
Waking up in the middle of a long winter, one of those mornings where your bones are so cold that your body rightly aches from being clenched up all night, you saw that Arsenal had taken just five points from five January matches. After an unbeaten December that had supposedly righted the ship's course, the season had seemed to have completely crumbled. Rage and resignation battled for control of the Arsenal supporter's mind. An acceptance of fate seemed reasonable to me as I had so little energy left for rage anymore.
Two seasons in a row I've gone ahead and made peace with the idea that Arsenal would neither finish ahead of the Chickenballs nor qualify for the qualifying for the Champions League proper. That's not a load of fun when those things have seemed to be a given, even as challenging for the league has become a fading memory. But then Arsenal began to do what Arsenal are wont to do and the form table cannot lie: The Gunners have earned 29 points since the beginning of February, and dropped only 7.
What the hammer, what the change? "Why so pragmatic, Arsene?" Suddenly, and I mean literally from one match to the next, Arsenal went from being free-wheeling, devil-take-defence chokers to stuck in, grinding gears hard men content to win in the manner of George Graham's most turgid sides. Comic concession was replaced by 8-man walls of resistance. The captain--the man doing mock acrobatic routines and giving giving away free kicks like they were lollies at the doctor's office--was benched. One Pole was sacrificed for another that was long-since forgotten.
I looked at Wenger and said, "Who are you? What have they done with the real Arsene? SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! POSSIBLY EVEN MADE UP OF THE REMAINS OF ALEXANDER HLEB!" Benching players for crap performances? A steely resolve? Winning ugly?
The world has gone mad. Camus and Sartre have become chorus boys.
After the draw with United, I was "over it." I was bored with the classic Arsene feint, thrust, and parry. I was bent out of shape over Sagna's moment of madness. I was saddened that losing a player like Giroud could actually have a negative impact on a side. United had clearly fallen arse over tit after winning the league and yet the Gunners could do little to trouble them. "Meh," I said, with full shoulder-shrug included.
So...why did the 1-0 over QPR leave me both full and satisfied? Content, even? It's because of the result. The result is all that matters. The result is god. Worship the result. I would rather that result than another result. That was better than a 6-0 thrashing.
Why?
Because this squad is no longer deserving of handing out 6-0 thrashings. Sorry, I hate to say it (no, I don't) but that would only be papering over the cracks in a house that needs much restoration. A hiding given to QPR would hurt more than help. It would distract this bunch. It would have Theodore asking for more wages. It would serve to inflate an opinion of a side that deserves nothing more than a bitter, give it all and then give it more struggle to achieve anything resembling a reward.
That's the sort of effort that, if this team had approached every match with that mindset this season, would have the team at worst in second place at the moment. You don't need to get to February to discover the true nature of your side. You ought to know exactly what you have after you win 5 matches from your first 14.
A one-nil win over a relegated side full of overpaid mercenaries who are stepping out the door already is EXACTLY what this Arsenal team OUGHT to be doing every week. I don't need to channel basketball genius Rick Pitino to tell you that Bob Pires isn't walkin' through that door. You already know it. You know what this team is compared to its rivals.
1-0 over QPR was extremely satisfying. I'm not in the mood for beauty, for a fleeting glimpse of "what this team could be." This team can't be anything more than what it is: Gallic flair sacrificed for Teutonic pragmatism. The two players who have come to symbolise this "new old" Arsenal? Ha ha, it's Aaron Ramsey and Per Mertesacker. It's the all-energy running and effort of the Welshman and the rather dour, "it's Pear not Pair" German that have served as the example for the others. In Ramsey they see an unwillingness to give less than the maximum, and in BFG they have organisation, calm, a sense of purpose and devotion to the grubby work of defending. Neither player brings artistry to the match in his kit bag.
Arsene's earlier Arsenal sides featured a balance between the pretty and the ugly, between attack and defence, between goals scored and goals not conceded. I think this is what most bloggers are talking about these days when they say this version is unbalanced. It could never be both. Not this lot. Rebalancing the side is what lies ahead in the summer--either that, or a willingness to admit that next season, the entire season, will need to look a lot more like the 1-0 over QPR Arsenal than any of us would like to see. Boring, boring? One-nil to the...
This is what Arsenal are serving up in an end-of-season slog toward whatever fate awaits them: A runny, watery, gruel that is doing just enough to sustain the hopes of supporters and the squad's own desire to play in the big cup next season.
And yet...and yet the form table says "Hang on a minute--this is quite different than last season's trip-stumble-fall across the finish line." Instead of defeating our wee sisters from up the road, launching a brilliant run, then repeatedly punching themselves in the face until the final day of the season, this year's model has used a loss to that lot as a cold splash of water to bring back some missing vitality.
It's a complete reversal, but the result is still the same. It will come down to the final day of the season, and an away match against a side that may or may not offer up the comical defending that has come to reflect its manager's silly personality.
Waking up in the middle of a long winter, one of those mornings where your bones are so cold that your body rightly aches from being clenched up all night, you saw that Arsenal had taken just five points from five January matches. After an unbeaten December that had supposedly righted the ship's course, the season had seemed to have completely crumbled. Rage and resignation battled for control of the Arsenal supporter's mind. An acceptance of fate seemed reasonable to me as I had so little energy left for rage anymore.
Two seasons in a row I've gone ahead and made peace with the idea that Arsenal would neither finish ahead of the Chickenballs nor qualify for the qualifying for the Champions League proper. That's not a load of fun when those things have seemed to be a given, even as challenging for the league has become a fading memory. But then Arsenal began to do what Arsenal are wont to do and the form table cannot lie: The Gunners have earned 29 points since the beginning of February, and dropped only 7.
What the hammer, what the change? "Why so pragmatic, Arsene?" Suddenly, and I mean literally from one match to the next, Arsenal went from being free-wheeling, devil-take-defence chokers to stuck in, grinding gears hard men content to win in the manner of George Graham's most turgid sides. Comic concession was replaced by 8-man walls of resistance. The captain--the man doing mock acrobatic routines and giving giving away free kicks like they were lollies at the doctor's office--was benched. One Pole was sacrificed for another that was long-since forgotten.
I looked at Wenger and said, "Who are you? What have they done with the real Arsene? SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! POSSIBLY EVEN MADE UP OF THE REMAINS OF ALEXANDER HLEB!" Benching players for crap performances? A steely resolve? Winning ugly?
The world has gone mad. Camus and Sartre have become chorus boys.
After the draw with United, I was "over it." I was bored with the classic Arsene feint, thrust, and parry. I was bent out of shape over Sagna's moment of madness. I was saddened that losing a player like Giroud could actually have a negative impact on a side. United had clearly fallen arse over tit after winning the league and yet the Gunners could do little to trouble them. "Meh," I said, with full shoulder-shrug included.
So...why did the 1-0 over QPR leave me both full and satisfied? Content, even? It's because of the result. The result is all that matters. The result is god. Worship the result. I would rather that result than another result. That was better than a 6-0 thrashing.
Why?
Because this squad is no longer deserving of handing out 6-0 thrashings. Sorry, I hate to say it (no, I don't) but that would only be papering over the cracks in a house that needs much restoration. A hiding given to QPR would hurt more than help. It would distract this bunch. It would have Theodore asking for more wages. It would serve to inflate an opinion of a side that deserves nothing more than a bitter, give it all and then give it more struggle to achieve anything resembling a reward.
That's the sort of effort that, if this team had approached every match with that mindset this season, would have the team at worst in second place at the moment. You don't need to get to February to discover the true nature of your side. You ought to know exactly what you have after you win 5 matches from your first 14.
A one-nil win over a relegated side full of overpaid mercenaries who are stepping out the door already is EXACTLY what this Arsenal team OUGHT to be doing every week. I don't need to channel basketball genius Rick Pitino to tell you that Bob Pires isn't walkin' through that door. You already know it. You know what this team is compared to its rivals.
1-0 over QPR was extremely satisfying. I'm not in the mood for beauty, for a fleeting glimpse of "what this team could be." This team can't be anything more than what it is: Gallic flair sacrificed for Teutonic pragmatism. The two players who have come to symbolise this "new old" Arsenal? Ha ha, it's Aaron Ramsey and Per Mertesacker. It's the all-energy running and effort of the Welshman and the rather dour, "it's Pear not Pair" German that have served as the example for the others. In Ramsey they see an unwillingness to give less than the maximum, and in BFG they have organisation, calm, a sense of purpose and devotion to the grubby work of defending. Neither player brings artistry to the match in his kit bag.
Arsene's earlier Arsenal sides featured a balance between the pretty and the ugly, between attack and defence, between goals scored and goals not conceded. I think this is what most bloggers are talking about these days when they say this version is unbalanced. It could never be both. Not this lot. Rebalancing the side is what lies ahead in the summer--either that, or a willingness to admit that next season, the entire season, will need to look a lot more like the 1-0 over QPR Arsenal than any of us would like to see. Boring, boring? One-nil to the...
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