Arsenal managed to overcome Blackpool yesterday after recording a 3-1 win at Bloomfield Road which has kept the Gunners title hopes alive.
Goals from Abou Diaby, Emmanuel Eboue and Robin van Persie secured the crucial 3 points which now leaves Wenger’s men 7 points behind league leaders Manchester United with a game in hand.
However, Arsenal’s defensive frailties were once again noticeable as Blackpool bombarded the Gunners defence in the first 15-20 minutes of the first half, and eventually, the Seasiders received their reward early on in the second 45.
Jens Lehmann, who made his 200th Appearance for Arsenal yesterday, was lucky not to be sent off after taking down DJ Campbell in the penalty area. Luckily for German and Arsenal in particular, referee Lee Mason played the advantage which Ian Holloway’s side converted from.
Despite leaking yet another goal, Arsenal will be happy to have bagged all 3 points at the end of the 90 minutes, and will now prepare for their next game against Liverpool at the Emirates this Sunday.
So, what five things did we learn about Arsenal this week?
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perspective, pls!!! with this so called defensive weakness we have, how come we managed to be the 3rd best defense in the league right now? only behind man city and chelski… even above utd wit their “rock solid” defense with vidic???? guys need to chill and accept us for what we are.. an attack minded team!
Well said bufu. I am afraid too many people spout this defence frailties nonsense far too often, it is getting boring. As the writer of the article said we were bombarded, and yet managed to concede only one goal. Not bad for a so called rubbish defence, and let us not forget playing with 3rd and 4th choice centre backs and a retired goalkeeper. How about putting some thought into what you write and stop propogating tired old cliches which do not stand up to scrutiny.
Guys you can’t doubt that we have a poor back-line? we have leaked so many goals this season which has cost us precious points. Yeh we may have the 3rd best defensive record, but how many chances do the opposition get on goal? Our full-backs are finished. And yeh we are dealing with a shortage at the back, but that ultimately comes down to Wenger not buying quality centre-backs. The writer has an opinion, and whether you agree or not you should respect it. We beat Blackpool, but believe me if we defend like that this Sunday, or for the rest of the season, we’ll get hammered.
Believe it or not other teams leak goals occasionally, most of them more often than us. And what do you mean, our fullbacks are finished? As for buying quality, you can do that but what happens if they get injured like our two 1st choices are at the moment? Oh yes just buy some more. Then when they are all fit you have two or three top quality unhappy players not getting a game. How do you get round that. Squillaci is an adequate 4th choice centreback, probably much better than most other teams 4th choice. Kos will become a 1st class player as he acclimatizes to the premier league. Anyone would think we were 2nd bottom not 2nd top.
What we learnt is we have to many ball watching maes
tros the likes of Clichy who was at fault for Blackpool,s goal,dozing of as usual,a lethargic midfield without Song and an inability to put the ball in the back of the net when the chances to do so are there,as Diaby couldn have had a hattrick and van Persie should have had one ,thank heavens Sagna wasn,t playing as Eboue got the crucial 2nd goal while going past defenders as often as possible?
I think saying playing without Song made us lethargic is a bit disrespectful to Diaby who had a cracking game yesterday. Maybe we should just start supporting the team like real fans do, assuming we are real fans.
Just because fans have different views on players does not mean they are not true Arsenal fans.
to me I was satisfied with the 3 points no matter how they played, we cant overlook the situation at the back which means wenger has to spend wisely during the coming transfer window, if Wenger manages to keep the current squad n invest on the defence am predicting another invincible squad.
The defensive frailties were there. Blackpool could have scored a couple more goals. It could have easily been 3-3. Our defence is weak. Everyone can see that and statistics be damned. Let’s also acknowledge that we would score a lot more goals and win a lot more games if we had a ruthless striker.
Gooner456, I agree with bufu.
I’m a youth football coach and train my players that defence starts with the strikers pressing the opposition. A proper football team both attacks and defends as “a team”.
Arsenal, as a team, has a very good defensive record; the stats prove that. Are there room for improvement – oh yeah, be sure of that. I actually think it would be easy to make those improvements from what I see during the games.
Clichy often gets exposed because of Arshavin usually does not track back. At the same time, Clichy seems to lose his concentration. On the left, we also have Jack who is still inexperienced.
Compare that to the right side where we have Sagna who is better defensively, supported by Alex and where especially Nasri tracks back.
We also have to remember that this season have been catastrophic for Vermaelen, basically injured for the season…
Yesterday, we started with 5 or 6 (Szczesny, Sagna, Vermaelen, Song, Walcott and maybe Djourou) of our usual preferred stating XI out, 4 or 5 (I’m not sure who AW prefers, Djourou or Koscielny) of them in defensive positions.
So far, this season has been a success. Next year is going to be very interesting – what will happen to ManC when they’ve played a season together, get a full pre-season in, and likely get to play CL? Look at Spurs, CL does take it’s toll. Will ManU be as lucky during the first 5 months when they played badly and still avoided defeats? Will Chelsea manage the change of personnel? Will Spurs build on the last 2 seasons relative successes?