After an absolutely pivotal weekend of Premier League absence, we assess Dalglish’s Liverpool, Torres’ goal drought and whether Arsene Wenger has irrevocably lost the Arsenal fans’ trust.
Did Arsene Wenger make the worst possible substitution at the worst possible time?
Who should be blamed for Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester United, their third in three Premier League games amid form that has garnered just point from their last four ties?
Johan Djourou? Sure, the Swiss defender was skinned alive by Nani in the first half, yet the centre-half received the same treatment last week at Swansea and still made the starting XI, as Arsenal had no-one else to rely on.
Arsenal’s full-back injury list has been an issue of pressing concern since the January transfer window opened up yet rather than getting out the cheque book or even attempting a loan move (QPR’s new signing Taye Taiwo was available all month from AC Milan), Wenger didn’t left a finger and had to rely on 18-year-old Nico Yennaris for the final 45 minutes after deservedly hooking Djourou.
Surprisingly, the young Cypriot actually acquitted himself better than Djourou against the United challenge yet he shouldn’t have been the last ditch resort against the champions, while equally the Swiss defender shouldn’t have his confidence stripped on a weekly basis by playing out of position.
So should Andrei Arshavin be blamed for the loss instead? The Russian captain, described as “the most disinterested player in the league” by Gary Neville on Sky Sports after the game yesterday, made a late sub appearance and contributed little more than being the cause of Manchester United’s winner by allowing Antonio Valencia to breeze by him. Yet not even he should face the finger of blame wagged in his direction.
Instead, it should fall to Arsene Wenger, who now faces the same mutinous fury from his fans that followed a devastating 8-2 defeat the last time his side faced United.
For most Arsenal fans, the sight of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain making his first full Premier League debut caused a sigh of relief. Wenger had seemingly finally ditched his hope that Arshavin would turn good and placed his faith in the 18-year-old wunderkind.
Having been the most influential Gunner on the pitch and having just set up Robin van Persie for a crucial equalizer with 15 minutes to go, it seemed as though Arsenal might even a nip a win with the youngster running the team from the wings. However, we all know what happened next.
Wenger decided that this was the perfect time to substitute a “fatiguing” Oxlade-Chamberlain and brought on the ineffectual Russian, rather than the midly more interested Yossi Benayoun. The startling sub was greeted by visible cries of “No!” by Van Persie and even elicited overwhelming boos from the Gunners faithful. How often do you see fans boo their own player as he takes to the pitch?
Bringing on Arshavin was just as effective a decision as starting Oxlade-Chamberlain was to begin with, albeit with the consequences of each move at completely different spectrums. Stripped of their energy and momentum, Arsenal played out their final 10 minutes behind to United and underneath chants of “Spend Some F***ing Money!” directed at Wenger. Worse for the club’s fans, the substitution could be constantly replayed this summer as the first public sign of discontent from Robin van Persie should he leave the Emirates.
In Arsene the fans evidently no longer trust and after an inevitable drop from their disproportionately great form of November and December, not to mention nary a whisper of transfer activity, who can really blame them?
Dalglish needs to start accepting responsibility for the team he has built
Now we know why the Fenway Sports Group took so long to appoint Kenny Dalglish as the official manager of Liverpool, despite a string of fine performances at the tail end of last season.
They knew that if they were to appoint such a club legend, with seemingly unwavering support from fans, he would never come under the same kind of pressure from the Liverpool faithful that Roy Hodgson received during his torrid time at Anfield.
Having hand-picked a team of expensive misfits since last January to bolster his side, the Reds have now dropped 31 points out of a possible 66 this season and sit six points behind fourth-placed Chelsea for what was an expected Champions League berth. In fact, they’re closer to Stoke (five points) than they are to Chelsea right now.
While Dalglish attacked his players after the game for what he perceived as a lack of pride in the club and their own performances, he must surely have to accept some responsibility in the fact that the players he wanted, signed and prepares before each game are woefully underperforming.
Manchester City are enjoying the luck of potential champions
Did Manchester City just have their ‘Federico Macheda’ moment? The true example of a team “playing like champions” isn’t routing lesser teams on a weekly basis – at least not in the Premier League – it’s having incredible strokes of luck and achieving last minute winners, such as Manchester United’s last-gasp victory against Aston Villa through Macheda two years ago.
A quite similar moment occured for City yesterday, who may have finally shruggled off a possible Tottenham Hotspur title challenge yesterday in the 94th minute through a coolly taken penalty by a striker that shouldn’t have even been on the pitch.
While Spurs boss Harry Redknapp is rightly demanding FA action over Mario Balotelli’s stamp on Scott Parker, we hope he also reserved some of his ire for Jermain Defoe’s calamitous injury time miss prior to the winning penalty. While Spurs were left licking their (and Parker’s) wounds, Manchester City strode on with a little help from Lady Luck’s increasing interest in Roberto Mancini’s men.
Robbie Keane showed Kevin Doyle how it’s done
In 90 minutes at the Molineux, Aston Villa’s MLS loan signing Robbie Keane equalled Kevin Doyle’s Premier League goalscoring record for the season, yet the misfiring Wolves striker can probably expect to partner the Tallaght man this summer at Euro 2012.
That is a painful statistic for us to impart but it proves the old adage that in Keane’s case, form is temporary and class is permanent. The real question is whether for Kevin Doyle, his class is temporary and his drought in front of goal becomes permanent.
No more excuses for Fernando Torres, please?
We’ve heard a litany of excuses for the form of Fernando Torres but having finally got his chance to wow us in a Chelsea shirt with Didier Drogba away on international duty, the Spaniard goes from bad to worse.
With the one-year anniversary of his £50m move fast approaching, it is now fair to say that Torres may be the worst signing in modern football history, having undermined a superior striker’s form (Drogba), set back Chelsea’s Financial Fair Play standing by millions and cost one of Europe’s finest managers his job (Carlo Ancelotti).
Truly, the excuses must have ran out but as Andre Villas-Boas explained after Torres fired more blanks at Norwich: “He’s doing excellent things for the team – it doesn’t matter who scores the goals.” We wonder who will be there – if anyone – should Torres’ lack of goals require a swath of excuses to defend the efforts of Andre Villas-Boas his team suffer through another slump.
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