It's Saturday the 17th of August a day that only means one thing in any football fans calendar, the start of the premier league season, we started with a winnable game in my opinion; a home tie against Aston Villa so therefore I felt relatively positive in the build up to the game, even with the lack of signings made by Mr Wenger, the main topic on everyone’s lips before kick off.
We started the game on the front foot and took the lead via Olivier Giroud’s first goal of the season, it only took the Frenchmen 6 minutes to find the net and from that moment on when the goal went in all Arsenal fans could have been forgiven for thinking the team was about to kick on and go and win by a decent margin. Without underestimating Aston Villa even their most die hard of fans probably couldn't have expected what was to happen next.
First of all a moment of madness by Gunners keeper Szczesny who upended the on running Villa forward Gabriel Agbonlahor, which saw Villa awarded the first of what was to be two penalties given to them by referee Taylor. The Arsenal keeper was awarded a yellow card for his mistimed challenged although some would say he was lucky to stay on the pitch, up stepped Christian Benteke one of Arsenal’s summer transfer targets fresh from signing a new contract to take the penalty kick for Villa which was well saved by the Arsenal keeper and with some of the Arsenal fans already starting to celebrate the save up Jumped Benteke to head the rebound over Scczesny to level the game up at 1-1.
Things then went from bad for worse for the Arsenal as Lambert’s Boys took a surprise 2-1 lead and it was the referee Taylor once again who was playing centre stage, this time it was defender Laurent Koscielney who some might say was Harshly Punished for a foul on Andreas Weimann although replays show that the Arsenal defender was unlucky to give away the penalty and in my own person opinion even more unlucky to reserve the yellow card which proved to be costly in more way than one.
This time Benteke stepped up once again to convert the penalty this time without the aid of a rebound and Villa were ahead 2-1. A result that would have surprised many people but looking at the lack of quality in the Arsenal back line it was clear that both goals could have been stopped and that we are a long way away from our old selves defensively as proved in a number of seasons now, we had conceded 2 very sloppy penalties and the villa forwards were getting their way into the box unchallenged.
For the Arsenal fans who thought that was bad then there was worse to come first a silly challenge by Koscielney who already being on a yellow card should have known better than to lunge in and there was only ever going to be one outcome as referee Taylor reached into his pocket to pull out the second yellow card for Koscielney and Our task was made even harder. 2-1 down at home with 10 men something that really started to annoy the fans as chants of spend some money were ringing around the emirates something that on this performance needs to be done and quickly if we are to have any chance of challenging for champions league qualification again this season.
A main area for strengthening for me would have to be in defence as shown by the 3rd goal it was clear that we have a lot of work to do when from a corner which everyone was up for bar Szczesny we were caught out by a routine counter attack there was no Arsenal player anywhere to be seen as Villa came forward, the defence were far to slow getting back and any one of 3 villa players could have killed the game off, in the end it was their new boy Luna on his debut who hit a low show to the Arsenal keepers near post and complete a 3-1 victory for Aston Villa.
Take nothing away from the performance by Villa they could tell we were out of form we aren’t the team that everyone once knew us as and on the early showing its going to take an awful lot for Wenger to get the fans back on side with a tricky champions league tie to come away to Fenebahce on Wednesday Night, without 3 or 4 regular first choice defenders,
A result that had Manager Arsene Wenger apologising to the Arsenal fans for the performance on the day but only time will tell what happens with the Arsenal this season.
In my opinion the next few weeks are going to have to be very busy in the transfer market if we are to stand any chance of having a successful season because on this showing there is an awful lot of work to be done and on the back of that result it’s going to be even harder for Wenger to attract the players he wants out there because let’s face it who would want to come to a club in such turmoil,
We have lost our passion we have lost our fight and we have lost our belief, something that is going to take time to get back, it won’t happen overnight by any stretch of imagination but something that Wenger and the Board need to sit down and talk about because it is clear that We have the money to spend and it is clear to most Arsenal fans that there are players out there that we have lost out on in the transfer window who would have made a huge difference to this team already.
On to Wednesday now and lets all hope for a better Performance and hopefully a sneaky result to boot.,Wenger will have them working extra hard in training to sort out their mistakes and let’s face it things can’t get much worse.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!
