Arsenal- The COC starts, The COC ends

Quick Post this morning.

We are still in the Champions League and we most likely would still qualify from our group but the reaction to the loss at Dortmund was vociferous which was indicative of the performance that we put out on the day, yesterday however we crashed out a competition but it was subdued. I feel we played very well especially considering the team we put out.

Losing is not the desired result any day but sometimes we need to appreciate effort. In the preview yesterday I expected that the team field would be a mix of youth and experience and it was. Experience players were in charge of getting the goals while youth tried to keep the goals out. The result on face value might indicate that we lost and hence defence failed but in reality our young defenders were amazing.

When the team sheet was released I was a bit worried about the defenders as I haven’t really seen Hayden play as a centre back and having him play with Chambers who doesn’t have much experience playing there either doesn’t seem like an ideal experiment, but Wenger is the kind of guy who when he decides to trust you will give let you go all out to prove yourself.

It’s like teaching you how to drive and letting you go on your own in a matter of days, I trust you enough to make the correct decisions on the road and even if you make mistakes I am here to support you.  There is a difference between Chambers playing with Koscienly at the back knowing he has an experienced player beside him and Chambers playing with Hayden and both of them knowing we are steering this ship together, how well we sail is completely up to us.

We can go on about not having an experienced defender to lead the defense yesterday but that would be taking away all the good things that Chambers and Hayden did. The first goal was completely Rosicky’s fault and he should have known better than to be making a needless tackle at an area of the pitch where the player really wouldn’t be causing us any damage. I think Rosicky himself didn’t recover well from this mistake as he was completely off the pace in the game.

The second was a screamer and yes we could have pressed quicker but goals like that will always be scored, Ospina could have done better but like I stated goals will always be scored. Wilshere played very well as only him and Sanchez looked like we they had any chance of getting us anything going forward. Campbell for all his promise didn’t do much and we could all see the difference in maturity when Oxlade was introduced.

Alexis Sanchez never gives up…. Having someone like him in your team at work is extremely inspiring.

— CanonCrested (@canoncrested) September 24, 2014

Did we do enough to win the game? I think we did enough to get a result, we controlled the game especially in the second half and if Podolski had taken his chance it might have been a different encounter. Sanchez showed why the manager invested all the money in him and just watching him makes you glad knowing someone is giving 120% for the jersey.

Podolski though needs to be asking himself some questions, he doesn’t offer much with regards to link up play and you can see why he isn’t played through the middle in a formation that we play with just one out and out center forward who would need to drop in and link with other players.  For all his enthusiasm off the pitch, you can see why he was rumored to be out of the club just before the window ended.

Have to run now, but its cheers to the young lads that played defense yesterday. Hopefully, it’s a big step in their progress. Have a splendid day.

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