Morning All…
It wasn’t our greatest game by far yesterday and decisions before the game put us in a little bit of a downer even prior to the players walking onto the pitch, with news that Sagna, Denilson, Song, Arshavin and Chamakh would be rested and Cesc hadn’t recovered in time either. As news broke of each of the absentees, you wondered how seriously Arsene took this game in the first place. The line up was announced, and saw young Eastmond score:
Fabianski
Eboue – Squillaci – Djourou – Clichy
Wilshere – Eastmond
Walcott – Nasri – Rosicky
Bendtner
Our bench consisted of Szcznesy, Sagna, Koscielny, Vela, Lansbury, Chamakh and Emmanuel Thomas… Don’t get me wrong, there was quality in the team selected, but against a Shaktar team ready for revenge, against a team feeling bruised since the defeat at the Emirates. It resembled a little like a Carling Cup team to be honest…
It’s hard to write a match report for the game, there weren’t many Arsenal talking points, except the great goal from Theo Walcott, which really put us in the driving seat. With Shaktar pressing forward, we broke away and an excellent ball from Wilshere into the path of Theo Walcott and the young Englishman wasn’t going to be caught by anyone. He took the ball early, which in the end was the right decision as it was too quick for the keeper and it put us 1-0 ahead…
Shaktar were a little shocked and at that point we could have taken the game to them, but instead we sat back and allowed them to move forward. They are a good team and always posed a threat but the amount of balls we gave away and the lack of urgency we showed was ultimately going to shape the game. Many a time, when a ball was on, we’d misplace the pass – Bendtner being rendered effectively useless by the Shaktar rearguard.
And it wasn’t long before the home team got back into the game, via an own goal by Eastmond. With Denilson, Song, Diaby, Cesc and long term absentee Ramsey all out injured, Eastmond seemed to be the viable option and it was a hard night for him in the Ukraine. A cross came in, flicked on by Chygrynskiy, but headed past the otherwise excellent Fabianski by Eastmond. And it was 2-1 before we knew it, this time through a mistake from Clichy who in any game in which he deemed important would have kick the ball out to touch, but he dilly dallied and Srna nicked the ball and squared to Eduardo for an easy tap in…
The second half brought much more possession, and to be honest, it looked like an “average 4th game in the champions league” after winning the first three. We could have been more attacking, but we were in second gear and maybe it was a bit more of a formality – knowing we have another home game to go, it would always be hard to motivate…
Arsene spoke about the lost urgency and said:
“Congratulations to Donetsk, they played well and won the game. We had a good start but after we lost our urgency and let Donetsk come into the game too much. We lost concentration in the duels and you could see what was coming towards half time. I felt we moved out of the game altogether and moved into the game altogether so it was more of a team problem, a kind of complacency problem more than an individual problem. In the second half we came back into the game and gave a lot so you can’t fault the team. We were a bit unlucky. We have learnt the lesson that at this level you can’t lose focus at any moment and that is why we were punished.”
And that’s basically a good summation on a game that we knew we didn’t have to win.
I’d expect to see Arshavin, Cesc, Song and Sagna back in the starting line up on Sunday, when we take on Newcastle. But for now, I will just remember this game for the Thierryesque goal from Theo and the overall superb play from Jack Wilshere….
Til tomorrow…
