On so many levels it was the classic, infuriating Arsenal performance and it has reached the point where the inquest can seem pointless. Regular followers of the club have heard it all before, which only adds to the collective angst.
Mikel Arteta touched on a few sore points in his assessment of Wednesday’s 2-1 Champions League defeat at Dinamo Zagreb, including the lack of ruthlessness, the sloppiness of a key concession and the general lack of consistency. But the club captain was keen to highlight another time-honoured Arsenal trait – the ability to bounce back.
“It doesn’t help, before a big game,” Arteta said, as he looked ahead to the Premier League visit to Chelsea on Saturday lunchtime which has, rather abruptly, taken on a different dynamic. Arsenal, previously, had been the club on a high, generating momentum and belief, while Chelsea were in a tizzy after their disjointed start to the season. Chelsea’s 4-0 Champions League win at home to Maccabi Tel-Aviv on Wednesday, though, was a tonic for the Stamford Bridge club. “We haven’t managed to win three games in a row, which is very important,” Arteta continued. “We had two in the pocket [Newcastle United and Stoke City] and we wanted a good result in Zagreb. We have to react quickly but we are quite good at that. We’ve done it in the past. Saturday will be a very different game.
“We’re upset and we have to react. Sometimes, when you have disappointment in the body, it’s good because you find a good reaction. First, we have to recover the best we can and start to prepare for the game, because we have only 48 hours. We have to be positive and take good things into the next game, because we can beat Chelsea.”Arteta was one of six Arsenal changes in Zagreb from the team that had beaten Stoke at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday and it was easy to connect the heavy rotation with the lack of rhythm and cohesion. Arteta, though, refused to do so. He was the only non-international player in the lineup and he was clear that Arsenal had sufficient quality to get the job done. “We had a strong team out there to win the game and we created enough chances to, at least, not lose, even with 10 men [after the sending-off of Olivier Giroud],” Arteta said. “The manager has to manage the squad with the number of games we have in the next couple of weeks.”
Arsenal did not take their chances, particularly Giroud in the early running; twice, he missed when well placed. Arsène Wenger’s team then proceeded to aim the gun at their feet and open fire.
Giroud’s red card was the most obvious self-inflicted wound: already on a needless booking for dissent, he did not have to make the clumsy challenge on Ivo Pinto in the 40th minute which gave the referee, Ovidiu Hategan, a decision to make.
But there were others, from the missed chances to the loose set-piece concession for the second goal. There was plenty of possession without end product and the familiar sight of a game drifting from them at 1-0 down, when the opposition seek to button down the middle of the field and play on the counterattack.To complete the Arsenal tick boxes, there was the rally when all seemed lost and the pressure was off. Wenger made attacking changes at 2-0 down and he almost saw his team complete an outlandish comeback. After the substitute Theo Walcott’s goal Dinamo and the home crowd were rattled. Yet it was nearly and not quite for Arsenal and, in truth, they did not create the big chance for the equaliser, before the usual wailing and hand-wringing kicked-off across social media.
“We could have been two or three-nil up in the first 20 minutes,” Arteta said. “And then we conceded a goal with the first chance that they had. We were very unlucky. Obviously, with 10 men, the game is difficult and different. We tried our best but we couldn’t get back in the game.
“The sending-off looked harsh on the pitch. I haven’t seen it again to judge it. I don’t know but it was a fact he was sent off and we had to react to that. At 1-0 we always had a chance to get back in the game but we were a bit sloppy to concede from a set piece.”
Arsenal lost their opening tie in last season’s Champions League group phase, also away from home. The difference was that it was against Borussia Dortmund, their principal rivals in the section. This time they still have Bayern Munich to face. Dinamo were, in short, opponents that they ought to be beating or, at the very least, not losing to.
“We know there is no room for error,” Arteta said. “We experienced that last year when we lost in the first game at Dortmund and we still managed to finish second in the group. But this was not the result we were expecting, that is for sure.”
