I’m sure that by now most Arsenal fans are tired of hearing that they are defensively unstable. That they’re a soft touch, that they’re error prone and that they can’t be trusted to see out a lead. A good run of seven Premier League games may have helped ease the pressure, but the defensive performance against QPR on Saturday showed that there’s still plenty of work to be done. They’re going to have to put up with these complaints for a little longer.
That the costly errors were made by their most solid defensive performer is all the more worrying. Arsenal fans can’t pin the blame on the likes of Johan Djourou or Sebastien Squillaci. Thomas Vermaelen needs to step up and accept liability.
The truth is that Vermaelen was bullied by Bobby Zamora (who always seems to cause Arsenal problems) never properly settled and always looked on edge. It’s disappointing to see him let Adel Taraabt turn him inside out but that’s what happened for QPR’s first goal. Even worse was his slip for QPR’s second goal that effectively took the wind out of Arsenal’s sails.
It was somewhat reminiscent of his slip against AC Milan for their third goal in the 4-0 rout. Despite a number of decent performances this season, these high profile mistakes may see Thomas Vermaelen garner an unwelcome reputation for being error prone. But in my opinion that would be deeply unfair.
Against QPR (and AC Milan) the rest of the team didn’t play with the urgency required to see off a hard working side that is desperately fighting for Premier League survival. At this stage in the season relegation threatened sides up their games significantly and if a team turns up content not to play their best stuff, they will get punished. Just look at Liverpool who recently lost to both QPR and Wigan.
Arsenal were unable to keep possession in midfield and this put increased pressure on their defenders. The usually reliable Tomas Rosicky gave away the ball in the centre of the park allowing Zamora an early chance. Alex Song gave away the ball frequently in an attempt to make something happen and this piled the pressure onto Arsenal’s back four.
Just look at the way QPR were able to completely bypass Arsenal’s midfield in the run up to their first goal. Speculative efforts played out from the defence across the ground should be soaked up by Arsenal’s midfield and should certainly not find their way to the feet on QPR’s most deadly attacker.
I’m not going to go into the logic of playing Aaron Ramsey out on the left. Whether that’s tactically astute or not, what was clearly lacking from this Arsenal performance was application. Ramsey doesn’t deserve to be singled out, but he too is not exempt from this criticism. He was part of a midfield who failed to match QPR’s energy and efficiency and should be held to account for this whether he deserved it or not.
It’s no surprise that Thomas Vermaelen’s two worst performances in an Arsenal shirt have come when the players in front of him failed to perform. The way the Gunners are set up makes it almost impossible for a defender to look world class. They’re exposed in a way that Manchester United and Manchester City defenders never are.
Despite this, Thomas Vermaelen has established himself as one of Arsenal’s most important players. So let’s make sure that blame is apportioned to the right areas of the squad and not make a scapegoat out of one the Gunner’s most reliable and passionate performers.
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Agree with these comments but there is also a need to recognise the role of a referee who allowed several QPR players an unusual amount of licence to commit what others would judge to be fouls. Same referee, same sh1t!
When will we investigate ref’s? Untold aresnal doing great work