Arsenal slipping back to bad old habits? by DN
I do not want to be too hard on Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal players, because they dug in to win a crucial match against a determined and dangerous Everton team – after giving absolutely everything to chase the German champions Bayern Munich down on Tuesday night.
It may well be some of the mental and physical after effects of that Champions League game that caused it, but two of the players most culpable for making bad decisions and showing poor game management were Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mathieu Flamini and they did not start against Bayern.
I am talking about the old Arsenal failing of focusing too much on attacking and scoring goals when the Gunners are actually leading the game. It was not just the Ox, who made a poor decision not to play the ball out wide to Bellerin, but the whole team that had no business pushing for a third goal just before halftime.
After conceding Arsenal should have been even more careful but we kept going for that goal and giving Everton chances at the other end. What Flamini was doing trying to be a centre forward I will never know but I also blame Wenger as the boss should have brought him on early and left the midfielder in absolutely no doubt what his job was.
Hopefully this was a one-off and the Gunners will be back to managing a game well again, but it did give me horrible reminders of how we have been punished for this in the past, such as when we drew with Anderlecht last season or after getting a goal back against Monaco.
Do you think we are slipping back into old habits?