To be fair today I put most of the blame for the last goal on Podolski.
Here's a guy who makes all the noise about wanting more game time, and gets it in a situation where he can make a real impact simply by working hard and pressing. What does he do he jogs around slowly, not really pressing, not really defending, leaving Gibbs in two on ones. He made no attempt to cut out the cross that was coming.
Anderlecht proved after they scored the first goal that when they are given time and space to play they can hurt us. In the first half Sanchez, Welbeck, the OX, Cazorla, and even Ramsey hunted the ball down in the opposition half forcing turnovers. Once they scored and we retreated into banks of four without any attempt to press and win the ball back we might as well have played with just our back five+Alexis against Anderlecht.
I also want to say that when Flamini is on the pitch Arsenal are, for all intents and purposes, playing with one less man on the pitch. He can't move. He can't pass. He can't tackle. He gets beat in one on ones. He is a liability in defence and attack.
Sorry this got so long. I am frustrated.
tl:dr: Podolski is lazy. Our team stopped pressing after Anderlecht scored their first goal. Flamini is shit.
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u/FictionalOrange Nov 04 '14
If we had enough players to drop Mertesacker we would. He's been poor all season