Arsenal 1-2 Swansea

Match Report – Match Highlights – Post-Match Press Conference (via Arsenal.com)

There are mornings like these I wake up and wonder why I even blog about Arsenal football club. It’s one thing being an Arsenal supporter that watches a terrible game like yesterday and finds a way to allow it get out of your system, and it’s another thing for an Arsenal supporter to watch such a shitefest and re-live it in writing. I may never be as consistent as my Arsenal blogging mentors, Arseblog, and A Cultured Left Foot, but the way I feel at the moment cannot be explained with mere words.

Following the insipid and lackadaisical performance against a weakened Manchester United side, Arsene Wenger came out to defend his players stating that the criticism they were receiving was over the top. According to the gaffer, he stated the obvious that the team was fighting for the title, not trying to survive relegation but he was confident that they would channel the criticism into a better performance against an out-of-sorts Swansea side that was just a couple of points above their fellow relegation strugglers.

As you would expect from a fragile squad like ours, Laurent Koscielny suffered a calf injury just before kickoff, so a Gabriel Paulista that probably wouldn’t have played courtesy of his torrid show at Old Trafford retained his place alongside Per Mertesacker. One positive was seeing Joel Campbell return to the side and I wonder what he had done to the boss to lose his place in the team in the first place. He was one player that looked to make things happen and was a breath of fresh air. Heck, he even scored the opening goal after some nice team play and we were hoping for a rout to close the gap on Leicester.

What came afterwards was worse than a cheap horror flick.

It was a case of maybe or maybe not on the foul incident that led to the equalizer. Mesut Ozil was clearly impeded by a Swansea player and in my time watching the beautiful game I have seen referees give that as a foul but the man with the whistle waved his hands for the game to continue. Then came the typical Arsenal lapse in concentration – Jack Cork sent a through ball to an onrushing Wayne Routledge that had crept in behind Mertesacker and the out-of-form Hector Bellerin before placing the ball neatly past Petr Cech.

What the hell happened to Bellerin? Last I checked, he was the reason Mathieu Debuchy left the club and may never come back. He showed off his inexperience when he was clearly impeded in the opposition box and instead of unleashing his inner Jamie Vardy to hit the turf for a penalty that would have been given, he relied on his acceleration to cross a ball that was quite meaningless. Then he was even possessed by the ghost of Bacary Sagna as all his crosses were downright erratic.

Then of course, there was our lil’ ol’ bad luck that decided to come around yesterday. Ozil swings in a dead ball that would usually connect with a teammate but the ball manages to evade everyone. Alexis Sanchez in shambolic form worked as hard as usual, makes some space for himself and blasts a shot that Lukasz Fabianski knew nothing about but the ball clips the post and returns to the Pole’s hands. Mr. Bad Luck wasn’t done with us just yet as Sanchez had a free kick that left Fabianski flat-footed but the cross bar came to his rescue.

Mertesacker stays in the box and flicks it to Giroud and he blasts it onto the cross bar.

Then Arsene Wenger would sit in front of some pressers and say that Giroud is world class. He should continue deceiving himself.

With Arsenal contriving to cock up, there was that potential for Swansea to give a sucker punch and it arrived when Ashley Williams reacted to Gyifl Sigurdsson’s cross to put the Swans ahead. Not that I wanna play the ‘blame game’ but our defending was pathetic and I actually expected more from my ‘world class’ goalie as he fluffed at the ball instead of anticipating it.

As if we weren’t having a horrible night already, Wenger, that has famously made 50,000+ substitutions replaces Campbell with Danny Welbeck. It’s not like I didn’t want Welbeck to come on, but Wenger should have taken out a confidence-bereft Giroud, instead of a player that played so well. But what do I know. He then goes on to replace Sanchez with that fraudster that earns 140,000 quid-per-week for being anonymous and anonymous he was yesterday.

Did I forget to say that Cech suffered an injury? Hold on while I stifle my laughter with the prospect of seeing a clearly unfit David Ospina in goal against Tottenham at the Lane and potentially Barcelona at the Nou Camp.

So at the final whistle, Wenger was faced with a collection of boos from the angry Arsenal fans that had seen their team bottle it yet again. To make things worse, Tottenham lost at West Ham and Liverpool exerted some revenge on Manchester City which ultimately means that Leicester’s dropped points on Tuesday counted for nothing. Watching Wenger after the game, you could see his disappointment as he even stormed out, albeit respectfully, but in all honesty, it doesn’t count for shit.

He is fully responsible his team’s slump as after Christmas. Arsenal has won just three of their last 11 games and it was a second division team in the FA Cup third round, a struggling Bournemouth and a 10-man Leicester. With the Gunners’ next game coming at White Hart Lane, one wonders the kind of shitefest the lads are preparing for us but frankly, I’m not bothered anymore.

As an ardent Arsenal supporter, I will make out time to see the game but I won’t attach anymore expectations to this team, because they have shown me that they clearly do not have what it takes to challenge effectively for the Premier League title.

Congratulations Leicester, this league is yours to lose because as far as I’m concerned, Arsenal doesn’t deserve to win the league.

Sayonara.

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