A Tale of Two Free Kicks

from the Factory Floor

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE

Ground: Ashburton Grove

Referee:  Martin Atkinson

Arsenal             1-2              Chelsea                 29 September 2012

Gervinho [42]                      Torres[20]

                                                  Mata [53]

For the first time in very long time I woke up for this one not knowing it was a match day immediately when I opened my eyes. Maybe that’s down to the crap sleep I've been getting lately, but I thought it had something to do with the supreme confidence with which I approached the visit of Chelsea to our emerald shores, erm, pitch. I really thought we’d tonk them.

I arrived earliest at the Factory, got a Guinness from Jack Keane and was shortly thereafter joined by the Kaiser, sporting a new Vermaelen home kit.  We were soon met by tEd, Tin Lid, the Captain, and Barry.  There was a fair smattering of chavs around the place, but not nearly as many as for a normal kick-off. One of the things I noted right away was the absence of the NY Blues flag in front of the bar. Ours hung in all its glory though. It didn't turn out to be any kind of portent of good fortune to come, but I enjoyed that we got that privileged position on the day.

It was a bit of a nothing start to the match, and probably the moment we all stopped worrying about Diaby, given the break he’s had since the interlull, his hamstring twitched and he was hooked for Chamberlain.  An early re-jig couldn't have done us much good but considering we nearly had the same XI on the pitch as versus City bar Koscielny, it didn't seem to be much of a concern. Worryingly it turns out to be a few weeks worth of damage, and is surely related to his withdrawal from France duty.

Still, it appeared to have little impact on our fortunes. Instead of being good news this meant we looked just as average after he was replaced.  Minutes after he left however, Chelsea went ahead on a free kick.  I’m not at all looking for an excuse but you do wonder if our fortunes might have been better with him on the pitch in that regard. I mean, after all in his earlier days on a set piece he knocked out John Terry.  Then again, even that didn't stop Chelsea winning the League Cup final that day, and as it turns out his presence might not have made much difference on this day either.

Another way of putting that is we were awful on set pieces throughout the team. All over the shop. This was the first time I think we've been at sixes and sevens as a team all season.  Even against City we looked assured for the most part. But Chelsea managed to muscle us properly for 90 minutes and we never could compete. Instead we dove in impetuously, as Vermaelen did to concede the free kick for their first goal.

Mata lined it up, the home support were in the middle of “we know what you are” to John Terry, and Luiz nudged off a snoozing Chamberlain and got into wide open space for the delivery. Just behind that Torres engaged Koscielny in some grappling that distracted him enough to take his eye off the cross while the Spaniard volleyed in the ball his Sideshow Bob-alike teammate missed despite being wide open.

On replay you’d have to say that Koscielny had just as much to do with that grappling and that it would be childish indeed to bemoan the goal because Torres ‘started it.’ However correct I feel that turns out to be [it is] it’s also not near enough of a worthy excuse. Fact is, Kos got bossed on that one and never should have been manhandled, especially by that particular player. Sweet finish though, I’ll give him that.

Torres played with his tail up for a spell after and was denied a penalty in a sequence in which we also had a shout turned down. On the surface Obi-Mikel didn't seem to do much, but he put the same kind of forearm shimmy into the back of Cazorla’s head that Luiz did to shuck the Ox on the goal. It was apparent that Chelsea were doing both a better job of committing those little fouls and falling theatrically to get free kicks to sway things in their favor. It was a high-priced version of Stoke or Allardyce-Bolton. Con artists, in other words.

As a result, I think Cazorla was played out of this match. Perhaps City didn't adopt such a tactic against us on their pitch out of feeling they could handle us, but we were coming off second best to the physical challenges against their oil-money predecessors and I think Santi’s play suffered the most for it.  We were biting too early on Mata’s and Hazard’s play, conceding stupid free kicks and falling right for the disjointed, physical match Chelsea would have wanted.

It was turning out to be a dead nervy affair when Tin Lid pointed out that there was a guy in the pub, standing right in front of our flag, looking like David Luiz’ much less accomplished and much more rotund brother, wearing a John Terry shirt, Chelsea scarf, and a captain’s armband.  The Gooner sitting behind us cottoned on and we all had a quiet chuckle about it, and knowing their lot would chirp up at some point because they are a bunch of cunts, I filed that one for later [after snapping this photo].

We looked flat and unlikely for that fact to change. Just about as soon as I said “we need a to score a goal before the half ends” we went and did just that. What little joy we got early on seemed to come from the right side, and when Arteta found Chamberlain in acres of space, the Ox drilled a low cross toward the penalty spot. Gervinho, in a complete departure from last week, killed the ball perfectly with his first touch, swiveled, and roofed it past Cech. One-one, and I hoped that would be the spark that changed the game.

Oddly enough, after all that symmetry talk last week, we had another bit here. Earlier in the week Coventry fans were jibing the home support at the Grove early doors by singing “Robin van Persie, he thinks that you’re shit” to the tune of “scores when he wants.”  I wondered on the facebook page if they thought it was as funny as getting spanked 6-1. I was warned then that it’s less funny when the other side sing that and get a result against us. The chavs in the away end were in the middle of singing it when Gervinho equalized, just as we had been taunting Terry when Torres gave them the lead.

At the break we chatted with Jack Keane as he collected the empty pints from the floor, and when alerted to the presence of the armbanded chap his reply was “wow.” This was Jack Keane, decades as a football barman, always effusive about the sport he loves, with a one word response. Still I resisted the urge to call attention on a larger scale. 

Within a few short minutes of the break, that facebook foreshadowing came to pass and Chelsea took the lead. It was on another free kick, once again conceded by a Vermaelen showing a bit too much vim and vigor. As they had done all match, Torres maximized the contact and got a kick in a similar position to the kick for the opening goal. Koscielny was visibly struggling, but Vermaelen wasn't much sharper himself after recovering his illness. 

Again we were all over the place and Mata’s well crafted serve was aimed right at the back post, so it didn't need the slight nudge from Koscielny to settle into the back of the net. But as if to compound the French center back’s misery, it did and he will feel responsible, even if by the dubious goals guidelines it is Mata’s to claim. It could be said that Mannone didn't help matters. Shades of the League Cup final loss to Birmingham for me; seems like both players could share the blame on this one. No Chelsea player was anywhere near it.

At times one or two chavs would try to start singing prior to that.  They were clearly feeling the pressure of the occasion as well and rarely did anyone try to join in. But when they went ahead of us the second time, that previously very quiet mob that outnumbered us five to one suddenly found their voice. They started singing, among other things, about being champions of Europe. It was finally time. Before they got carried away I started in, to the tune of “she’ll be coming around the mountain:”

HAVE YOU EVER WORN AN ARMBAND TO THE PUB? The rest of our little band of grumpy NY Gooners, a whole half-dozen of us, joined in.HAVE YOU EVER WORN AN ARMBAND TO THE PUB? HAVE YOU EVER WORN AN ARMBAND, EVER WORN AN ARMBAND, EVER WORN AN ARMBAND TO THE PUB? [punctuated nicely by tEd with a “have you FUCK!”]

It was by no means fair exchange for losing to that lot on our own ground but it got laughs all around and did perhaps take the sting off for a while. Giroud and Theo came on and it was clear that Wenger’s midweek talk about using different players for different tactics did not apply to this match. We left our biggest defender on the bench and our biggest front man. It might not have been his size per se, but we looked better with Giroud on the pitch and through him had two very good chances as the match wound down to get back level.

First the Frenchman had a deflected shot narrowly palmed over by Cech, who had earlier snatched a certain goal from a Podolski header. Then a lovely reverse from Chamberlain, similar to this set up for Lord vanPersemort against United last term, found Giroud cutting across the box in the same fashion. Instead of shooting first time he tried to round Cech. He did, but in so doing took himself even wider and could only guide his shot into the side netting.

Honestly we never looked like rising to this occasion on the pitch and while it hurt to lose, we were hard pressed to be too miserable about it, probably because the poor level of the performance looks more like an off day than the norm this year. We didn’t do enough to hurt them until it was too late and if there’s a side that has proven it can sit on a narrow lead it is this bunch of jammy bastards.

It’s funny how the post game analysis centers on legitimizing Chelsea’s title challenge now that they have faced a top team, then those same two-faced knobs can say that losing to Chelsea exposes our inability to compete for the title. What’s less amusing is how this Blues side continues to ride their luck and get results. It remains to be seen how they’ll cope without Terry in a span that includes matches against Tottenham and United, and I hope by the time we meet them again in January our side will have taken some things on board from this match.

It seemed like we were nervous as a team and couldn't get anything going. Attacking we were complacent or just plain lacked urgency, and defending we were simply overzealous. Perhaps now that our little unbeaten run is over we can get on with building the side up.  We have recently proven we have enough quality to punish lesser sides, but we haven’t yet clicked to a degree that we can sustain that kind of form against better opposition, the City performance notwithstanding. Lucky for us we have a little run of games now in which we can potentially get back into the groove and get ready for the next big test against United.  We should and can just take this one on the chin, and I think we will.


Follow @11cannons