Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Bolton this afternoon not only ended any faint hopes that Arsene Wenger had of winning the title this year, it also means that Arsenal are in real danger for caught for 4th place by Man City.
Where to start about today’s game? It was all all too familiar story for Gunners fans this season. Two goals conceded from corners. Lots of possession but not a lot of chances taken, and those ones that were created were squandered.
Once again Arsenal’s defence was crying out for a strong center-half to take control of dead ball situations. Someone like Gary Cahill would be ideal. Yes Djourou was poor today, especially for the second goal ( I think he lost Sturridge for the first one too), this was one of his few poor performances this season. His defensive partner of the other hand, Koscielny, I don’t think he has the strength or speed to play in the Premier League. Time and time again, especially in the first half, he was dragged out of position by Sturridge and Elmander.
When attacking, almost all Arsenal’s attacks came between the lines on the penalty box. Vary rarely did Arsenal use their speed and width of the pitch to get around the back of the Bolton defense. That made is much easier for teams like Bolton to defend against Arsenal. In the second half and I think that Jaaskelainen had to make only one save in the second half and that was off a Nasri diagonal run.
For all the talk from the manager about this teams mental strength, the bottom line is that Arsenal have never recovered from losing in the Carling Cup Final two months ago. Since then Arsenal have now played 10 games. Their record is W2 L3 D5. That is simply not good enough, especially when you consider one of those two wins was against Leyton Orient in the FA Cup.
