It was not as if Arsene Wenger got the hairdryer out on the Arsenal team that struggled to a 1-0 win over the League One club Doncaster last night, although Sir Alex Ferguson was there so he could have borrowed one off the former United manager if needed.
But you could tell that the Frenchman did not really enjoy the Carabao cup match at the Emirates, even though Theo Walcott gave us the relief of opening the scoring about halfway through the first half. That took a bit longer than it might have, to be honest, and although it was a quality finish and build up from Theo and Alexis Sanchez, it did not lead to the opening of the floodgates as we expected.
In fact Wenger said in the post match interview on the Arsenal website that he felt the Gunners got worse from that point and lost our way, while the visitors surprised the boss with their ability and application as well as their fitness levels which allowed them to press us right up to the final whistle.
Wenger said, “I believe that we started well and in the first 25 minutes had a good pace in our game and good flow and slowly lost a bit our cohesion and our speed in our passing and decreased our level and after that I think we did the job even if we had not anymore the style we want to play and the flair to kill the game off.
“I would say that they played well, very well and that has changed in the lower divisions now, first of all everybody is super fit. They had absolute total fitness, they were well organised, they came they gave us a tough time, they never have shown any weakness mentally, they kept going until the end – they could have scored a goal as well. I must say I was surprised by their quality and their level, so they shouldn’t be too concerned to stay in the league. I think they need to adapt because they just came up, but they have enough to stay in the league for me.”
Of course the most important thing in these cup games is to get through and the Gunners did that, but it was hardly an emphatic performance and Arsenal will need to get better if we are to have any hope of reaching the business end of the league cup.
Bob.
These cup games are always difficult. A win is a win. Well done!!!
I have to say though that our preparation continues to shock me. We buy players who it seems we only after discover they can’t tackle (Xhaka) or don’t rate at all Perez, Gabriel. And now it seems we could not even bother to scout Doncaster.
As I said I have no problem with the narrow victory but is there an excuse for Wenger to be surprised about an opponents fitness, quality, and level? I would have thought to send a scout down before a cup game should not be too much to ask and why should scouts not assess fitness, quality, and level?
Wenger doesn’t do tactics. He goes to every game with the same mentality: walking the ball into the net.
I think this has been confirmed by several players. He doesn’t give any pep talks during half time etc.
Well if he is that complacent himself he can’t be surprised if his team is complacent as well against “smaller” teams.
Don’t know why people are pleased with Wilshere performance, I thought it was a very average looking game. He played one incisive pass to Giroud who tried a scissor kick. Everything was played with players having their back to goal, and he plays too many one twos. His positioning was very questionable, I didn’t think it was a positive performance. Niles looks a good athlete, he has a bite about his play. Chambers I thought his passing was very good, pity he got injured because these guys are our depth.
Break-on-through
Last Night Wilshere had self discipline by not been tempted to go in the opposition box and he held his position well, unlike most of our players, he was amazing making space for himself to receive passes and making passes quick so not to lose momentum of our attack or possession, in fact i was hugely disappointed with Sanchez and some of our forwards they complacently blanked Wilshere like he was there to make the numbers up, i was hoping Sanchez could connect with Wilshere too feed him with great passes in the box,
Wilshere was my MOTM
It was the quality of opposition that gave him that space, that’s why it changed in second half. They gave us too much respect in first half, they gave our mids all the time in the world to pick a pass. I think with a quicker striker we could have done some real damage.
That was some assist from Sanchez?
That was some finish from Walcott. Give credit where credit is due. No goal – no assist.