Slavia Prague 0 Arsenal 0-Trio Have Every Right to Feel Aggrieved

What a truly mindnumbing game of football that was. The general spin coming out of the side seems to be that the young guns have shown their resilience in claiming a point and a clean sheet away from home in the Champion’s League. I can see some logic in that, but I would have to say that while Slavia edged it slightly, this was no backs against the wall test of character. Instead, we saw a lifeless and lacklustre ‘experimental’ team fail to carve out a single clear-cut chance until the 83rd minute. Further to yesterday’s post, we had the bizarre situation of a central midfielder playing at centre back, another central midfielder who has been known to play on the left as an inside forward, a central midfielder playing right-back, and two strikers playing on the wings, a bizarre set of circumstances. I felt particularly sorry for Eduardo, Diaby and Diarra, all three ran their hearts out to little effect and all three desperately want to start games for Arsenal in their chosen positions, surely last night would have been the time to do it? Didn’t Lasanna Diarra leave Chelsea because he wanted to be a central midfielder? Surely Eduardo needs as much ‘bedding in’ as possible to prepare for the hectic festive period? And for a talent as enigmatic as Diaby why can’t Wenger decide where he wants to play him, and stick to it?

For me Diaby is a central midfielder, but as we have seen Arsene wants his squad players to replicate his first team stars, for Cesc read Denilson, for Flamini read Gilberto/Diarra. Diaby doesn’t really fit the paradigm, he takes too many risks in possession to be a holding player and lacks the decision making and final ball to provide a creative fulcrum for the side. As such, he’s shunted out onto the left, position in which we lack adequate cover for Rosicky, a position where, at times, he’s used his deceptive pace and trickery to great effect. In my view this should now be Diaby’s position, and I think Wenger shares that view, which is why I was amazed to see him played up front, whilst Eduardo was dumped out wide to very little effect. Midway through the second half Arsene switched them round, but by then it was too late, Sparta were dictating the rhythm of the game and at times triple marked the young Frenchman.

One thing’s for sure, if Arsenal’s B side is tinkered with to a similar extent when we face Blackburn in the quarter finals of the Carling Cup, we could be in trouble. A performance like that would be punished by Mark Hughes’ motley crue.