It's fucking ludicrous. For me a large part of our improvement defensively is that Sagna and Gibbs are generally more reserved with their bombing forward but against Chelsea it looked like we'd reverted to type and giving them both licence to bomb forward. Chamberlain was doing Gibbs' job for both the 2nd and 3rd goals, and Stewart Robson commented on Sagna being far too willing to hare up the pitch.Gunner Rob wrote:I watched the first couple of goals last night and still can't believe where Gibbs was for both of them!
that was not an accident as Wenger has said but a big bloody shambles!
what is remarkable is that both times now at the Bridge and at Anfield after going a quick 2-0 down the clueless one just sat there because he had no idea of how to change things.
Even though we were caught in possession far too easily for the first two goals by their fast, high pressing which came as a surprise to nobody except our midfielders and Wenger, losing the ball in the opposition half in the first 5 or 10 minutes should never pose such a huge threat as it did. On both occasions the other midfielders and at least one full-back had galloped past the ball even though it was in a position of no attacking threat.
What compounds this is that Sagna can't cross a ball to save his life and Gibbs' attacking return is also gash. At least if they were causing a threat going forwards you could think about giving them more licence, as it is there's no justification for taking this defensive risk and also asking our attacking players to undertake more defensive work.
And why not play Flamini? I still harbour some resentment about his move away and I think some of the analysis of his performances earlier this season were wildly over-estimative, but he has done a job on a number of occasions and if ever there was a game to play him in it's Chelsea away. I am a big Arteta fan but whether it be injury, age, confidence or form he is struggling at the moment and expecting him to chase round the likes of Hazard and co whilst giving just about every other player positional freedom was moronic. It was like he was running in quicksand trying to track Oscar for their 4th, and for their 5th (I think) although the pass to him was slightly misplaced he turned like an oil tanker.
Even as Wenger's ignorance of tactics go this was as bad as I can remember in a long long time.
