The Post-Christmas Hangover….

This year we got to enjoy Boxing Day without an Arsenal fixture, thanks to the 24-hour strike by union workers shut the London Underground down, and had a knock-on effect on London surface and national rail traffic. So prior to Christmas, our club announced that our home fixture with Wolves would be pushed back 24 hours. An extra day of rest, which would hopefully translate into a good performance and three points…

Certainly, the opportunity was there. Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool all dropped points, the latter two at home. While City remain well off our radar for the time being, we came into today with an opportunity to leapfrog Chelsea and put some distance between us and Liverpool.

The official site ran a piece quoting Arsene as saying that Ju’s “adaptation” time is over and he now has to step up and show his quality. Seeing that he – once again – was not on the bench today, I am not sure just where and when he will be afforded his opportunity. If it won’t arrive until Chamakh departs for the African Cup of Nations next month, then there was no point to the article. Who knows…Perhaps Chamakh’s psyche is so fragile that Arsene is loath to even use Ju until the former is unavailable for selection. Anything resembling that speaks more to Chamakh’s unsuitability for our club than anything else.

There was also a piece quoting Arsene saying OC would be “ready to play” in 2012. He was on the bench but did not make it on the pitch…

Prior to the holiday weekend, Arsene also discussed Robin and his pursuit of the calendar year goal scoring record, suggesting the record is secondary (which I agree with) to team results and implying that our captain may rest one of these two (QPR upcoming) home fixtures, and stressing that other players need to be rested.

As it was, Robin did start, JD returned to the side at right back, Theo missed out due to illness (did he eat something on Christmas that did not agree with him?) and Ramsey rested for Rosicky. Benny was the direct beneficiary of Theo’s misfortune, taking his place.

We lined up Szczesny, TV, Mert, Kos, JD, Arteta, Song, Rosicky, Benny, Robin and Gerv. Al, Miquel, Coq, Ramsey, OC, Arsh, and Chamakh made the bench.

Wolves are a side we have done well against – both here and at Molineaux – in recent seasons, and we got ourselves in the scoreboard fairly early. Wolves threatened briefly before Rosicky picked Benny out. The latter bisected the Wolves defence with a great pass to Gerv, who decked Hennessey, and slotted home between a pair of defenders. Eight minutes in, a goal from someone other than Robin – a great start, and surely a platform for us to surge into fourth and perhaps improve our goal difference…

Sadly, that was not to be…

With 15 minutes gone, we should have doubled the lead, Gerv turning provider, but Robin shot wide. Robin then tried to chip Hennessey but Ward got back to head the ball out for a corner. Just past the half hour, we had another great opportunity, as Robin picked Henry’s pocket and played to Rosicky in. With room and time for a shot, he opted to pass – one of several instances where we should have instead shot – to Arteta, who had his attempted shot blocked. Robin then took the shot himself in our next attack, but Hennessey got down and tipped the ball around the post…

Wolves had not yet had a shot on goal, so perhaps it was inevitable that they would make their first – and only – shot on goal count.

The equalizer was more about our inability to deal with the set piece: we couldn’t clear a corner, Wolves played the ball to Hunt, whose deflected shot found Fletcher and he headed in from close range. Unfortunately, an inattentive Song played Fletcher onside, so the goal stood and we were back to square one…

We tried for an immediate response, Rosicky turning and shooting, but too close to Hennessey. Jarvis had given JD an uncomfortable afternoon, and Wolves had a good passage of play through him right before halftime, but didn’t create anything. Robin worked his way into the Wolves area right at the end of the two minutes extra time, but the move broke down and we went into the break level.

We kicked the second half off with no changes to either side. That changed within a couple of minutes, however, as Zubar apparently did his knee after colliding with Gerv. He tried to carry on, couldn’t and Stearman had to replace him five minutes in. On 57 minutes, we Kos’ cross clearly struck Berra’s arm. Referee Atwell awarded a corner instead of a penalty, and TV was booked for dissent.

Gerv then went on a great run with the ball, bringing into the box, but instead of shooting when he had the chance, he passed to Song, who was crowded out. At this point, we dominated play, but continued over-think and over-pass the ball…It was starting to resemble us at our ineffectual worst of last season’s run-in…

Arsene made his first change with 25 minutes remaining, Arsh replacing Benny, who I thought didn’t have that bad of a game. Henry then fouled Gerv to concede a free-kick in a good position. Robin took it and curled the ball towards the top corner, but Hennessey just tipped it over the bar at full stretch.

By now, the pressure on the Wolves defence and keeper was almost non-stop, with Hennessey saving a point-blank Mert header, with Rosicky then shooting wide…

With 20 minutes remaining, Song and Fletcher squared up. The former was booked, and Arsene replaced him with Ramsey soon after.

Five minutes later, Wolves were down to ten men, after Atwell showed Milijas a straight red for a challenge on Arteta. Honestly, I thought the Wolves player was unlucky to be sent off here – if it were an Arsenal player for the same challenge, I would be furious…

As it was, we couldn’t really make the extra man count.

The final 15 regulation and 6 extra minutes were a one way procession to the Wolves goal. Robin had a handful of good chances – including a one-on-one – but Hennessey denied him each time and when we did beat Hennessey, Arsh hit the post instead of the net.

Arsene made his final change with 5 regulation minutes left, Chamakh replacing JD. While Arsh looked improved for the second consecutive appearance (albeit without making a telling impact), all we got from Chamakh was more of the same. His only contribution was to take Robin out when both players collided going for a header – fortunately, our Captain was able to continue.

At this point, if Ju cannot give us more than Chamakh does, perhaps we should just release him from his contract…

After a great save to deny TV, Hennessey was then booked for time-wasting during the stoppage time but Atwell didn’t add any extra time on, and blew the whistle just after six minutes. And so we allowed a golden opportunity to slip through our fingers…

We started the day in fifth and finish it in fifth. Five seems to be a relevant number, as that is also the amount of points Wolves have now picked up away from home. They have more or less been road kill away from Molineaux – and not particularly good there, either – making our failure to win today look that much worse…

At the same time, it has to be mentioned that we are not the only side this happened to. For Wayne Hennessey, read David Stockdale, the Fulham keeper who frustrated Chelsea in a very similar manner at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day. Add frustrating draws for Man City and Liverpool against opponents they also would expect to beat fairly comfortably.

Other than Spurs (who won 2-0 at Carrow Road in the late kickoff) and Man United (who once again saw Wigan roll over and hand them three points on a platter), none of the top six had a good round of fixtures.

So it is best to get this one out of our system and look to take it out on QPR on New Year’s Eve day.

If Arsene is thinking about making wholesale changes there, I would urge him to reconsider. For now, I think we will have to start our strongest available side, try to rack up some goals early and perhaps put ourselves in a situation where three players can get partial breaks through substitutions.

I don’t think we can afford to put ourselves in a position to drop more points, after what happened yesterday.

The thing that continues to worry me is that lack of impact our subs have been making. Benny’s goal at Villa Park is the first decisive contribution I can remember for a while. Before that, Robin had to rescue us as a sub, when Arsene had intended to rest him.

Normally, Arsene mechanically brings on the usual suspects (Arsh and Chamakh) at seemingly pre-determined intervals and it rarely makes a difference.  Yesterday it certainly did not. As long as we continue to persist with these two players as first subs, I think the more difficult it will be for us to come back in games…

This wasn’t a good result but we have a chance to make up for it on Saturday. Looking at the frustration on many of our players’ faces, I expect a response versus QPR.

If this isn’t motivation enough, then hopefully the prospect of settling some accounts with a certain Joseph Anthony Barton will do the trick…

We owe him, and not just a little bit…

Written by Oliver