Our home form this season has been a bit worrying. We haven't performed well in the league since Bolton on September 10th. We thought that the defeat against West Brom was a one off slip up. Evidently not. Hopefully it doesn't happen again, I would expect they'd learn from this, but I thought the same after the WBA game. We didn't have any excuses today either, we had a strong team out and the best bench I've seen us have in a very long time. OK, Van Persie had just come back but still with the options we had, you wouldn't have expected us to fail to score. Often after defeats, like the Chelsea one, we have perfectly good grounds when saying that injury woes were a factor in our defeat and a legitimate excuse, but not today. We had Vermaelen out but against a team like Newcastle at home, that isn't enough excuse for playing so poorly. We had other players out but I'm not sure if any of those players would have played today had they been fit.
I don't blame Fabianski for the loss either. He was half at fault for the goal as he made a bad choice in coming out to challenge for the ball, but after his recent performances I can forgive him that one mistake- everybody makes them. The other player half at fault, who lost Carroll whilst "marking" him was the striker guilty of putting on an absolutely abysmal showing today. Lethargic, thick, poor technically and not threatening enough- Chamakh. The runs he makes and positions he takes up are often ridiculous and thick. Another abysmal performance came from the man who should have been picking up the other players and driving us forward more than anyone else and leading by example as the captain of Arsenal football club- Cesc Fabregas. I can't remember him playing as badly as that or giving the ball away as often.
Theo Walcott was also very disappointing but its the team performance that was most disappointing today and we can only blame individuals to a certain extent.
It's vital we pick up some points in our upcoming games, including our next game at Wolves which won't be easy and a game at Everton which should be even trickier. Like with Newcastle today, we might be getting Wolves at a bad time after their recent games should give them confidence as they beat Man City and have provided themselves with encouragement after their games against Man Utd. On the other hand, them being gutted after that last minute winner yesterday could work in our favour, they may also be tired after their recent run of tricky games- either way its a game we should win. But after today, I'm not too confident.
Chelsea and tottenham losing are consolations, especially the former as we remain 5 points off the top instead of 8. Let's bounce back against Wolves!
Ratings:
Fabianski 6
Sagna 5- why did he look so uncomfortable on the ball?
Squillaci 6
Koscielny 5
Clichy 6
Fabregas 4- awful
Song 6
Wilshere 7- did alright- best player today (not that that's saying much)
Walcott 5
Chamakh 3- atrocious
Nasri 5- couple of decent moments first half and perhaps should have had ball layed off to him when Walcott hit the bar
Arshavin 6- decent when in possession
Van Persie 6
Bendtner 5
Glad to see those rests in midweek cam in handy.
Notes:
- Our delivery and final ball were awful today- crossing is very poor and where was that different dimension that Chamakh supposedly brings us- he needs to make more effort to get away from his marker as he never seems to create space for himself.
- Weren't strong enough at the back
- The players didn't seem to communicate with each other enough- is this a regular thing that is holding us back slightly?
- We need to stop starting these games so lethargically as it gives the opposition confidence and makes our task of winning harder.
- Do we miss the balance in midfield that Diaby brings?
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