Arsenal suffered a humiliating 2-1 loss to Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia last night in their opening fixture in the Champions League.
The Gunners went into the game brimming of confidence against the Croatian minnows, but were left stunned after slumping to a shock defeat to the side who had only participated in the Champions League competition once before last night.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain netted an own goal after the ball rebounded back off him following a David Ospina save, and the Gunners then went 2-0 down after Junior Fernandes headed home from a corner – this before Olivier Giroud got his marching orders in the 40th minute!
Theo Walcott gave Arsenal some hope after making an intelligent run and finishing with composure in front of goal. However, it only proved to be a consolation goal, with Arsene Wenger’s side very much second best all night.
So, having watched the game last night, here are FIVE things I learnt about our side:
1. Gabriel shone
The Brazilian centre-back has started the season off brightly and was arguably our best defender last night.
The 24-year-old stood firm while other faltered around him. He got stuck in and showed great awareness and composure on the ball throughout.
Per Mertesacker will more than likely put straight back into the side when he becomes available, but Gabriel will certainly give Wenger something to think about after another solid performance from the former Villarreal man.
2. Olivier Giroud needs to be dropped
The Frenchman is clearly out of form and doesn’t look to be in the right place mentally. He is in need of a rest in order to regroup his thoughts and come back more focused, as he is not up to standard at the moment.
3. Mikel Arteta’s time is coming to an end
The Spaniard returned to the starting line-up last night following months on the treatment table, and he seems to have lost more pace and his awareness is not quite there anymore. His lack of movement and positioning in midfield led to Zagreb’s goal and showed to me that he is not as an important player as many may think.
Arteta simply cannot play alongside Santi Cazorla in the centre of midfield as he cannot get around the pitch like he used too.
4. Wenger underestimated Zagreb
Yes, we have Chelsea on Saturday, but Wenger shouldn’t have changed the side as much as he did last night. The Frenchman clearly underestimated Zagreb with his tactics and team selection and should have dealt with the Croatian side before thinking about the game this Saturday.
5. Theo Walcott needs a run in the side
The England forward played just 25 minutes last night but he showed great pace, intelligent runs and even composure, scoring a consolation goal late on.
Walcott has scored two goals in five games so far this season and with Giroud not firing on all cylinders, I think a lot of us would like to see him get a proper run in the side as a striker.
Chamberlain is not living to expectation, I’m afraid. He gives the ball away too easily. Can somebody please teach him to keep his game a little more simple please.
The problem is however, you may well have learned five things about Arsenal last night, but more importantly our numpty manager will have learned nothing!!!!!
Did anybody noticed how tired Alex is during the game and all previous ones. Regardless how much energy he brings to the game, the guy need some time to recharge after the SA Cup.
How true. The only change I was excited about was Chamberlain for Ramsey and that proved worthless too. Why not move Bellerin up with Debuchy behind; it’s worth a try. Ramsey has been poor, now Chamberlain. Wenger is terrible. We will never win more than a League or FA Cup.
No ideas on strikers. Walcott is consistently poor but Giroud has streaks of quality, just not now. Recall one from loan, we had good luck with that last season.
Arsenal is my team but Arsen Wenger isn’t serious .without a lethal striker we are going no where final third is the greatest thing leading us to even a worse position this season.tell Wenger to stop his nonesense.
The performance was very similar to the away performance last year to Anderlect. In that match the team only turned up in the last five minutes otherwise Anderlect like Zagreb were on course to register their first victory in the Champions League. In both cases Weger made some reasonable changes but the players let him down.
I am also reminded of the match last year in the Carling Cup against Southampton. The changes also didn’t work. I am happy about one thing…that the players who have been on the fringe have been given a chance and they have shown that they are not ready yet. They can’t complain of not having chances. I hope that Wenger has learnt his lessons-wholesale changes with this team do not work. The squad depth we tout so much about is actually not there. There is a big chasm in quality between the regular eleven and the rest. Wenger should rather make two or three changes at most unless there are injuries.
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For all of you who blamed Wenger for underestimating Zagreb how many of you wouldn’t have rested players before Chelsea on the weekend?? Its easy in hindsight to say he should have fielded a stronger 11 as Zagreb were unbeaten domestically but in reality no one expected them to play so well and us to play so poor…frankly it was our midfield that let us down. There was no urgency and for the first time ozil was the only one taking the game to them but was left stranded. Sanchez still looks drained and ox seems to be trying too hard. As for debuchy and arteta they both seem passed it now. Gabriel seems far more aggressive and reliable than mertersacker and as for giroud he simply has to be dropped now. Ivanovic has had a terrible season so far therefore starting Walcott upfront with Alexis on the left could cause him all sorts of trouble especially considering Walcotts goal came from that side too. He needs a run in the team but our players not the manager have to seriously start to stop being so complacent against smaller European teams its happening far too frequently!