Ref Rubbish but Result No Surprise. Too Many Questions

I expected Arsenal to go forth and be fourth today, after all Wolves have failed to win away for their last seven games, Arsenal fans were predicting 2-0 or 3-0 wins to the home team.  But like most Arsenal fans I was to be disappointed, yet fans shouldn’t have been surprised.

For if fans had stopped to read the form book we wouldn’t have been so cocky, for this is now the third time in a row that Arsenal have scored only one goal at home. Everton, Fulham and now Wolves have held Arsenal to one goal, the last 3 games at home have yielded five out of 9 points, hardly championship form, three goals to two against. Not much room for defensive error there.

Having scored on eight minutes for the next 15minutes Arsenal played some of their best football all season. Then they took their foot of the pedal which invited Wolves onto them, sloppy defending allowed Fletcher to head home on 38 minutes. From that moment the game died. Wolves decided to hang on to what they had by all means necessary, and Arsenal’s lack of imagination, at times, and great keeping by Hennessy, ensured there were no further goals. I hate to say it but this seemed more like the Arsenal of last year; not the lazy one, but the one that can’t break down a massed midfield and defence.

 Arsenal had seventeen shots on target and the Wolves keeper made some fine saves, but quite a few of those shots were duds. Wolves had only 4 shots on target in reply, so to only get a 1-1 result is Arsenal’s own fault and no one elses. Wolves score one goal per four goals on target, Arsenal score every 17 goals on target.

Rubbish Referee

I agree partly with Wenger who said after the match: “The decisions did not go in our favour but we do not blame them today. We blame nobody in fact, it was a game we could have won anyway.” We were probably denied a nailed on penalty, handball in the area, but the referee was not the major cause of the failure to take advantage of our rivals lapses. Nonetheless he was a rubbish referee who spoilt the game as a spectacle, and both sides were irritated by his strange officiating.  His worst gaffe was actually blocking van Persie’s run up for a free kick, with Robin having to tap him on the shoulder to get clearance to approach the runway. The ref was the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons. Hopefully Attwell will be officiating in the Championship next week.

More questions than answers

Arsenal looked very narrow for much of the game, is the absence of real full backs undermining the team? Arsenal could only score one goal at home and van Persie couldn’t find the net, did the burden of scoring 63% of Arsenal’s goals, and chasing Shearers record cause him to dry up in this match? Gervinho scored a great goal, but after that he reverted back to Mr Magoo, he couldn’t a hit a correct pass or shot after that.

Some Arsenal fans don’t rate Walcott, but surely he might have given RvP the pass he needed or even scored?

Wenger brought on Chamakh who managed to knock out RvP, some fans felt he was better placed to head in than RvP, but wouldn’t Oxlade Chamberlain have been a better substitution?

Doesn’t the fact that this team failed to take its chance to move up to 4^th place when it was there on a plate to be taken mean that Wenger must buy in this transfer window?