Arsenal will struggle to make the top four, Chelsea’s future looks adventurous and Spurs are a well-greased machine
A top-four finish is beginning to look beyond Arsenal
Arsenal’s season is not yet in crisis – they remain in four competitions, the club’s finances are still sound, their form is shambolic rather than irredeemable – but already there is an ominous waning, a sense that their fate may no longer be in their own hands. With the Manchester clubs and Chelsea arguably forming a breakaway, Arsenal currently look less well-equipped for the pursuit of Champions League football than both Spurs (more of which later) and Liverpool.
In many ways the performance at Blackburn was vintage Arsenal: neat interplay between midfield and attack; a gorgeous goal carved out for their Spanish creator; chances bought and sold; some calamitous defending typified by set-piece diffidence and an offside trap to make Tony Adams weep into his plov; a couple of blooper reel own-goals. Arsène Wenger could lament Yakubu’s offside strike and a possible penalty that his side were not awarded. Plus ça change, etc and so on.
It is also true that since the Invincibles were vanquished, Arsenal fans have become used to seeing their side hamstrung by early season incompetence. They took one point from their first three games in 2006-07 (before winning at Old Trafford); were beaten at home by newly promoted Hull in 2008-09; suffered similar embarrassment at the hands of West Brom last season. But this start has been far worse, a 1-0 win over Swansea offering the most meagre encouragement.
Like a photocopy of a photocopy, or a straight-to-DVD sequel, the product is fuzzily familiar, recognisable yet diminished. Once again it appears Arsenal are out of the running whilst barely out of the traps – only this time not just for the title, but possibly the top four as well.
Kean deserves the chance to change his luck
Perhaps Venky’s can bring some of their expertise to bear at Ewood Park after all. Because unfortunately, Steve Kean often sounds like a man who has counted his chickens before they’ve hatched. As Richard Jolly’s match report put it after Blackburn lost their third match in a row against Everton last month:
“I look at the stats from a half-full point of view,” [Kean] said, citing 21 attempts at the Everton goal and, improbably, 60 penalty‑box entries … before reluctantly accepting that not since 1951 had Rovers begun so badly. “If it’s our worst start in 60 years then stats don’t lie,” Kean said. “But when you’re dominating games and missing penalties, I don’t know if we could have done any more.” The facetious response would have involved the word “score”.
As any fule kno, shots on goal are not the same as goals themselves but Kean experienced fortune’s flipside against Arsenal, his side netting four times despite barely mustering the same number of attempts on target. Rovers will not play a side with Arsenal’s back flaw every week but after a committed display, featuring typically dogged defence as well as neat performances from the likes of Rubén Rochina, Junior Hoilett and the substitute Martin Olsson, Blackburn have reasons to look up (and no longer just because everyone else is above them).
Not even a supporters’ protest before the match could spoil Kean’s day, though he was probably overstating things to claim that if 1% of the fanbase were calling for his head, the other 99% are right behind him. Doubts remain but the manager deserves the backing of his owners a while longer; and if Kean’s eggs won’t hatch themselves, at least with Yakubu Ayegbeni up front, they’re more likely to be poached – which is probably just as good.
Villas-Boas is stamping his mark on Chelsea
It was Gary Neville, in the Sky studio, who called it before the game, commending André Villas-Boas for his attacking team selection and suggesting that Chelsea had come to Old Trafford to “have a go”. That, as it turned out, was an understatement, as Manchester United were forced back repeatedly by Chelsea’s adventure. Still, if you come at the champions, you’d better not miss – and, notably with the chances squandered by Ramires and Fernando Torres, that’s exactly what Chelsea did.
For 80-odd minutes, Torres gave his own personal demons a chasing, until an open goal proved that his recovery is not quite complete. However, there was enough in his movement, and the way he combined with Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge in a mobile front three, to confirm that this is the way forward for Chelsea. Raul Meireles’s composed passing was also a feature and with Villas-Boas withdrawing Frank Lampard at half-time, the manager seemed tacitly to concede Torres’s point that Chelsea have tended to play too slowly when in possession.
Villas-Boas’s approach to perhaps the most scrutinised game of his short managerial career suggests that, at the very least, he is prepared to accept the twin demands of the club’s owner, Roman Abramovich: that Chelsea must win and do so with style. Perhaps unsurprisingly for such a dapper man, he has made a statement on the latter point. If his side continue to perform as they did on Sunday, the former will surely take care of itself.
Rested Spurs prove that Harry knows
Harry Redknapp must be purring like the proverbial cat who got the cream after his decision to excuse so many of his regular first-team squad from the trip to Greece on Thursday night was thoroughly vindicated by their sparkling and energetic performance against Liverpool.
The pace and vigour with which they began the game put the visitors on the back foot from the start and it did not take long for their principal attacking strategy to emerge.
Liverpool, without a recognised fit right-back, made do with Martin Skrtel stationed out of position and he struggled from the start to cope with passes threaded or chipped behind him for Gareth Bale to run on to. Neither Stewart Downing, nor Jordan Henderson, gave him adequate protection. Neither are orthodox right-sided midfielders and it told in their defensive work. They stood too far infield and too high up the pitch, allowing Benoît Assou-Ekotto, Luka Modric and Scott Parker to invite Bale to stretch his legs on numerous occasions. Dirk Kuyt, so diligent in his defensive duties, was omitted from the position in which he excelled under Rafael Benítez, robbing Skrtel of a shield.
The movement of Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor, occupying the centre-backs with smart convex runs to entice them out of position, meant that Jamie Carragher had his hands too full to help out Skrtel.
Tottenham began brightly, pressed like demons in midfield and were tactically superior even before the red cards that eventually reduced Liverpool to nine men. It’s early days for Spurs but Parker and Adebayor look tougher and savvier than the players they were bought to replace, while Modric and Bale hit the heights of last season’s form and caused havoc for an oddly static and slack Liverpool. If they carry on like this, they will earn Thursdays off for the rest of the season.
The promoted clubs are up and running
Not since 10 February 2007, when Reading, Sheffield United and Watford were victorious, had the three clubs newly promoted to the Premier League all won on the same day. That marker was quietly replaced on Saturday, as QPR, Swansea and, to a lesser extent, Norwich, completed impressive victories against more established opponents. For the latter two teams, three points were claimed for the first time this season. Swansea, after 374 barren minutes of Premier League football, scored their first goals.
All of which will mean nothing come May if they can’t avoid the Championship’s tractor beam. The last time all three promoted teams stayed up was in 2001-02, while none of this season’s newcomers look like bouncing as high as, say, Blackpool did last year (only to then plummet like Icarus). But the signs are there that all three have got the stomach for a fight and, when it comes to defying the bookies, that’s a pretty good place to start.
ArsenalAndré Villas-BoasChelseaTottenham HotspurPremier League 2011-12Steve KeanBlackburn RoversAlan GardnerRob Bagchiguardian.co.uk
