ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: IT WAS just as well Arsenal won on Wednesday. Arsene Wenger was starting to sound like a common-or-garden football manager. Professor Higgins was metamorphosing into Eliza Doolittle.
Certainly in beating Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal were blessed with that little bit of luck celebrated in song by Doolittle Sr, namely the enforced departure of Jamie Carragher from their opponents’ defence early in the second half and, more crucially, the handball Cesc Fabregas got away with in stoppage time that might have brought Rafael Benitez’ team a penalty.
While Fabregas was not inside the area when he intercepted Steven Gerrard’s free-kick with an upraised arm he may have been standing on the 18-yard line. Either way it was irrelevant since reCertainly in beating Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal were blessed with that little bit of luck celebrated in song by Doolittle Sr, namely the enforced departure of Jamie Carragher from their opponents’ defence early in the second half and, more crucially, the handball Cesc Fabregas got away with in stoppage time that might have brought Rafael Benitez’ team a penalty.feree Howard Webb either did not see the offence or did not believe an offence had been committed.
For Arsenal, in a perverse sort of way, the most satisfying aspect of a victory that, combined with Chelsea’s defeat and Manchester United’s draw, has kept their championship hopes minimally alive, was that it was achieved more by a brick through the window than the usual painstaking picking of a lock. For once the influence of Fabregas was not a major factor. An excellent centre from Tomas Rosicky followed by a thumping header from Abou Diaby, and all Liverpool’s previously successful efforts to hustle Wenger’s team out of its stride had come to nothing rather than nothing-nothing.
It was not an ugly win so much as a win for a pragmatism that Arsenal’s recent performances had tended to overlook. Not until the second half on Wednesday did they appear to realise attempting to work the ball neatly through the thicket of Liverpool players clogging the central areas was rather like trying to find a way through a gorse bush with a pair of nail scissors. So they went round the outside instead and won the match.
Maybe this result, following the defeats against Manchester United and Chelsea, will restore some rationale to the Arsenal manager’s public pronouncements, which were becoming bizarre. While Wenger made no bones about his displeasure at the defensive shortcomings so ruthlessly exposed by United when they won 3-1 at the Emirates, his reaction to Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge was that the better team had lost, that Arsenal had had 70 per cent of the possession and that Chelsea were adept at committing tactical fouls.
Wednesday’s result will have gone some way to restoring the Arsenal fans’ faith in the ability of the present team to win big games and now that Wenger’s side have completed their season’s fixtures against Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool the task of keeping up at the top of the Premier League while keeping some powder dry for the Champions League should be less fraught with self-doubt. That said, the way Arsenal defended, or rather did not defend, against United and Chelsea will continue to give cause for concern.
For while William Gallas surpassed himself against Liverpool, the vulnerability of Wenger’s team to the sort of quick counter-attacks that had frequently blown their cover in the two previous matches may still be there if more opponents have twigged that Arsenal are suckers on the break.
The simple expedient of employing a midfield anchor to protect the back four appears to have been forgotten at the Emirates. Some of those watching the games against Manchester United and Chelsea on television must have been tempted to check their picture controls since so many Arsenal players were off screen when the opposition broke to score.
Guardian Service
