I've wondered many times this season (and previous ones) where I end up horrendously frustrated with Arsenal and yesterdays match was right up there with the best of them. Appalling is not the word to describe our performance yesterday, it was without a doubt our worst performance this season. We had the lowest possession stats in match since Opta began, Liverpool had the most shots by a team since Opta began. Luckily our abysmal defending was only matched by Liverpool's shocking shooting. Unsurprisingly we went 1-0 down then somehow Debuchy headed in beating Skrtel at the far post after the ball was powered back in by Flamini.
We started the second half marginally better but the game was still ridiculous by any standard. Sanchez played as poorly as I can remember and he's clearly exhausted. Welbeck had a mare as well. If the OX was fit then I'm the fucking tooth-fairy, he misplaced every pass, gave everything away and was just generally poor. Cazorla was, along with SZCZ, one of the only positive players in the game and it was through him we took a surprising lead. He produced a brilliant run down the left and then pulled it back for Giroud who powered the ball between Brad Jones' legs. A great finish from the big french man who was also fairly good.
As the game rolled on it was so painfully obvious what was going to happen, any Arsenal fan can tell you that. Borini came on and 18 minutes later was sent off so Liverpool were down to 10 men. Any top team should be able to see a game out against 10 men. Then 6 minutes into injury time (9 minutes due to Skrtels injury) we had a corner. For whatever reason we had nobody on either post and the man who caused such a lump of injury time Martin Skrtel powered his header in across the goal. Writing on the wall but still horrifically frustrating. A point away at Anfield is nothing to be sniffed at but the manner at which is happened is what is annoying.
That's done now no point lingering wen we play in 4 days. We take on an improving QPR at home before a tricky trip across London to West Ham so we need some points desperately. Team news right now is non-existent so I can't speculate on who will play, all I know is that we need to win and there should be no reason as to why we don't. We showed what we can do against Newcastle, we need to start doing it more. QPR will be buyoed by their late win against West Brom at the weekend but at the same time they also shipped 2 goals early on so they are there to be beaten.
Obviously their man man is Charlie Austin who has been banging the goals in for fun and he's the one our defence will be tasked with keeping at bay. Mertesacker is terribly out of form and he needs support from team mates. Personally I would shift Debuchy back out to the right and put Chambers into the middle just because I think that's where we'll get the most use from him. Debuchy knows how to get back and cover when needed which I think is where Chambers lacks a little pushed out wide.
So that's Boxing Day and although Arsenal are all over the place right now, it's time to forget about football for a few days. Merry Christmas and I'll be back soon.
