Arsenal's game against Man City this past weekend ran across the entire spectrum of all things positive of negative. The goals we scored were amazing, while the goals we let in through sloppy defending were... um, not. The fantastic individual performances were also great, however Mathieu Debuchy went down with a serious injury. On the whole, it was a match that left me with a ton of mixed emotions.
Overall, there was a lot to like. It's not like a draw at home against the reigning champions was a bad result, it's just that tying the game after being ahead always feels like a huge missed opportunity. It's still too early in the season to really count these as two dropped points, but had we held on for the win against a team that is certainly a lock to finish top-four, it would've been massive. In typical Arsenal fashion, we were on the front foot from the beginning of the game, only to concede a goal on the counter attack. It was a little bit unlucky that Flamini's initial tackle sent the ball down line to start City's break, instead of rolling out of bounds, but it was Flamini's failure to track Aguero that allowed him to score. Dominating possession and shots and finding ourselves 1-0 down is nothing new and after that Szczesny made a brilliant one-on-one save that kept us in the game. Had he not, it would've been a totally different matter for us to have to come back from two goals down.
That save ended up paying off massively as Jack Wilshere scored a great equalizing goal midway through the second half. City turned the ball over in midfield, which led to Jack starting a flowing passing move before receiving a final pass from Aaron Ramsey and smartly finishing over Joe Hart. Wilshere was a standout performer on the day and it was a great response to all of the negative criticism he's received over his potential and performance for both club and country.
The other standout player was Arsenal's second goalscorer. Alexis Sanchez was excellent, from his running and pressing all over the field, to his dribbling attacks with the ball. His goal, volleyed in from Wilshere's headed assist, was an extremely skillful finish. The two goals were of such a high quality that it was definitely a shame to let City equalize, again from a totally unmarked player and again from a set piece.
The injury to Debuchy, who is now set to miss two months, is very concerning though. Our decision not to add to the defensive ranks continues to make less and less sense. It's a simple fact that injuries (not even to mention suspensions) have to be accounted for. With Calum Chambers coming in at right back, we have no natural backups at center back. Arseblog discussed the possibility of Hector Bellerin and Issac Hayden seeing first team action and honestly, under these circumstances, we may not have much of a choice.
The truth of the matter is that injuries are increasing across the board and not only at Arsenal. Maybe it has to do with the fact that most of the players at this level are playing virtually all year long. Even our players who didn't represent their countries at the World Cup this summer played their last game on May 17 in the FA Cup Final and had to return for preseason training in early July. Not even two full months off, and the players that did return from Brazil got even less of a break than that. It can't be a coincidence that most of our injured players (Gibbs, Giroud, and now Debuchy) played at the World Cup.
And when you think injuries are uniquely an Arsenal problem, take a look at Borussia Dortmund, tomorrow's Champions League opponent, and their injury list. That's Reus, Sahin, Ji and Kirch, not including Gundogan and Blaszczykowski whom Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp also mentioned as being hampered in an interview with the Evening Standard. That's not to underestimate their quality, nor the intimidating atmosphere of their home fans. It's always a tough test to go to Dortmund and pick up points and tomorrow will be no different.
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