Goals change games as juggling not up to standard
Future
By Boris Mellor
April 10 2006
With Henry on the bench the odds of Arsenal scoring against a team as good as Manchester United lengthened. Yet in the first 15 minutes Arsenal played some of their best football all season.
Time and again they ripped the Man U defence apart. But there was no one who could make the deadly finish when needed. The pace of the game took Adebayor by surprise and he could not control the ball enough to score.
If goals change games so does not scoring them, and Manchester sensed that Arsenal were not going to score. After 20 minutes they got into the game and increasingly our defence and midfield were under pressure. From then on United dominated the game; not that Arsenal still didn’t have flashes of brilliance. By halftime it was clear that the Gunners midfield was not biting enough, apart from the excellent Gilberto. It was also clear that the partnership of Adebayor and RvP was not quite clicking. Arsenal were slightly lucky not to be one nil down at halftime, but the versatility of Kolo knows no bounds. Lehmann might have beaten Khan to the shirt, but Toure could take it off him at Arsenal.
As the teams returned after half time Arsenal had a brief flourish, but were clearly fading. Senderos clearly frustrated at a lack of penetration by the midfield went on a rampage up field, he stayed up there far too long. When United broke he was too far behind Rooney, he nearly caught up with him but could not prevent him from scoring. Lehmann had no chance with the well-placed shot. Maybe I have underestimated Rooney’s pace, or how slow Senderos is. Phil is a good centre back, but he shouldn’t push up so far against a team with quality players.
I had been praying that Wenger would ring the changes before we went 1-0 down, they were clearly needed. Arsene argued that he kept Henry on the bench because he had not recovered from the Juventus games. To prove it he put him on for 20 minutes and Thierry hardly had a touch. However Freddy and Diaby did improve our tempo, and Adebayor got back into the match. But we were chasing the game, and the second looked increasingly inevitable. It came on 78 minutes, once again it was Rooney beating the Arsenal defence, and his pass found Park who had little trouble putting the ball in the net. That was the end of the game as a competition, Arsenal did not give up but even a consolation goal did not look likely.
The most important difference between the two squads at present is the ability to juggle goal scorers. Ferguson has Nistlerooy, Saha and Rooney. Henry is as good, if not better, a goal scorer as any of those, but the same cannot be said, at least for the moment, of RvP or Adebayor. Yes our defence made mistakes, but the chances of a 0-0 were remote. We needed a goal that never happened. Some have suggested we didn’t have the chances – not true – both RvP and Adebayor had air shots just feet away form the goal line. Not many teams make as many chances as the Gunners did at Old Trafford.
The team were clearly jaded, that’s not an excuse its fact. If it weren’t then managers would prepare their teams by keeping the team up until 3 am on a Thursday before travelling 200 miles on a Saturday for a Sunday fixture.
The fixture list remains crowded until the end of the season, Wenger said he wouldn’t juggle too much. On this occasion his juggling did not work. Was he keeping Henry back for Portsmouth? Was he being pragmatic – that is prepared to take his chances against Manchester? If so why not go for 4-5-1? We will know soon enough.
One reason we have done better in the CL this year is because we are not in the FA Cup, now chasing 4th spot could become a barrier too. Arsenal players have talked about hitting the wall in the second half against Chavski in 6th round CL defeat. Wenger will have to rotate the squad a lot more if the team is not to be jaded against Villarreal.