Whether it was the lack of communication on a side that had so many first team absences or just silly mistakes lacking focus - Arsenal simply blundered a big opportunity to walk out of Portugal with at least one point and perhaps three.
Lukasz Fabianski was at the heart of the failures as his two ENORMOUS gaffs directly led to both Porto goals. It exposed again two of Arsenal's biggest problems - once again lack of depth and also a lack of a world class keeper or even a decent back-up. Many have questioned Manuel Almunia's credentials, but if Fabianski is the back-up then clearly Almunia has no competition.
In the first half Fabianski tried to sneak off the near post on Varela's cross. Whether Varela saw the Arsenal keeper's critical mistake or simply did not execute his cross properly, the ball delivered low traveled towards goal. Although Fabianski got both hands on the ball, he let the ball slip through his grasp into the net.
The second goal was a case of "what was he thinking." Put under pressure by a dumb back pass from Sol Campbell, Fabianski for some reason decided to pick up the ball instead of clearing it. The ref correctly whistled the back-pass hand-ball foul and award the free kick to Porto in the top left corner of the box. Quickly restarting, Falcao made the run into the box and finished as Arsenal sat bewildered watching the forward place the ball in the back of the Gunner net.
Maybe Arsenal was satisfied to get one away goal and walk out just down a goal going into its home match in two weeks, but the second half was really a disaster. The Gunners had no shots on goal and never really threatened. Another frustrating display leaving more questions than answers.
No comments:
Post a Comment