Alexis Sanchez looks unhappy at Arsenal (Photo: REUTERS)
No selfies from the dressing room this time but an interesting kerfuffle over that goal celebration.
To be fair, The Outraged have a smidgen of a point. Having scored in the 92nd minute, Olivier Giroud might well want to ask himself why he was more concerned with showing off his goal celebration than racing back to the centre-circle to finish off a devastated Bournemouth.
The pictures say it all. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is beside the Frenchman, ball under his arm, tugging Arsenal’s goal hero back towards the action in a bid to get on with the game.
Giroud is all ‘Here’s a Scorpion celebration I prepared earlier!’, milking it for all he is worth and diving into the crowd as the clock ticks down.
He isn’t the cause, of course, of Arsenal’s inability to defend or Arsene Wenger’s inertia as teams find a weakness in the Gunners defence and exploit it.
Giroud wasn’t at fault for Hector Bellerin being turned inside out by Charlie Daniels, Granit Xhaka’s lack of discipline or the failure of both Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi to deal with Callum Wilson.
In fact, it is nine in seven starts now for Giroud who also assists the other two goals for Alexis Sanchez and Lucas Perez.
But the striker did sum up the trouble with Arsenal. The reason why so many of their top stars over the last decade have gone off to seek their title-winning fortunes elsewhere.
The Gunners so often lose their focus precisely at the point that it is needed most. This is another season in which their title aspirations are slowly turning to dust when the optimism surrounding the club had been so high.
The improvement in the big hitters - when you compare last season to this - is interesting.
Chelsea have made the biggest strides with 29 points more than they had 12 months ago. Liverpool have 14, Manchester United six, Spurs four and Manchester City three.
Arsenal are three points worse off. They are going backwards. Again. With what was supposed to be their best team for years.
No wonder Alexis Sanchez was so visibly furious, having criticised his team-mates’ hunger to become champions last season.
Victory in Bournemouth and defeat for Chelsea tonight would have left the Gunners six points behind with five months to go.
Instead Wenger was left admitting he is once again reduced to hoping his title rivals slip up and drop points. Good luck with that.
Chelsea, if anything, are moving up another gear going into the second half of the season.
Liverpool have won four of their last five and still look the most likely to reel the Londoners in. Spurs have won five of their last six going into their showdown with the league leaders and have the second-best defence in the top flight.
For Arsenal, Tuesday night wasn’t about rescuing the draw. It was about going in for the kill.
It was about rectifying an horrific 70 minutes in which Bournemouth looked all set to inflict one of Arsenal’s most embarrassing defeats for some time.
Instead Giroud was still dining out on last Sunday. Admiring his work when the job for Arsenal is far from finished.
No comments:
Post a Comment