Losing Gracefully: Guess Who Can't Do It

Playing in a way only they can, Arsenal had the ball for most of the match but couldn't muster any concrete threats and lost to CSKA Moscow 1-0 at Lokomotiv Stadium today. In typical Gunner fashion, they would go on to bitch and moan that they lost the game because of the ref, the state of the pitch, the weather, etc. While I think that they might have a case on the last ditch effort to score that resulted in Thierry Henry's goal getting called back, Arsenal (like always) should point the finger at themselves first.

CSKA looked lively from kick off, particularly through Yuri Zhirkov down the left flank. The hosts, playing in front of a feverish crowd, were dominant during the opening 10 minutes while Arsenal were often careless when in possession. This would be the case for most of the match.

When the visitors did string a few passes together to send Cesc Fabregas into the left side of the area, the young midfielder was soon hustled off the ball. In 23rd minute, Kolo Toure was penalised for a clumsy challenge on Dudu just outside the area. Captain Deividas Semberas cleverly backheeled the deadball to his left, away from the wall. Carvalho lashed an unstoppable drive through the advancing defenders, with Johan Djourou turning his back, past an unsighted Jens Lehmann and into the net.

The supporters of CSKA – Moscow’s traditional army team and 2005 UEFA Cup winners – were now going absolutely nuts in the stands. Lehmann acrobatically tipped a looping shot from Carvalho over the bar as the half-hour mark approached.

In a rare attack, Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky found space for a cross from the right in the 33rd minute, which he floated to Henry at the far post. But the Gunners skipper could not get enough power behind his header and Ignashevich cleared off the line.

It was close to being 2-0 in the 35th minute when Vagner Love swept in Carvalho’s left-wing cross at the near post, only for the celebrations of the Russian champions and league leaders to be cut short by the flag of the assistant referee.

The poor state of the pitch was not receptive to Arsenal’s normal slick passing style. The field looked bad on TV, so it must of been pretty bad for the players in the figid tempature. A case in point was when Robin van Persie sprinted clear in the 38th minute only for the ball to take a nasty bobble just at the moment he looked to put William Gallas in on the overlap and the chance was gone. The Dutchman skipped into the area four minutes ahead of the break, but lost possession in the six-yard box to keeper Igor Akinfeev. The frustration on the face of Henry was telling, all he needed was a simple cut-back across goal to tie the game.

The stats at half-time told the story. Arsenal had enjoyed 58% of the possesion but only had one shot on goal and two corner kicks. They did seem to come out with renewed purpose after Arsene Wenger's locker room chat.

Arsenal were passing the ball much better during the opening stages of the second half. However, once again the Russian defence were determined not to give any quarter in the final third. At the opposite end, the Gunners needed a well-timed tackle from Toure to deny Love a shooting chance inside the box as CSKA broke quickly after 53 minutes.

Wenger's team had won six straight games to get their season back on track before tonight. But as the hour mark approached, they were continuing to be careless in possession. Gallas was forced to make a saving, last-ditch tackle on Love after he and Djourou had left a hopeful through ball for each other.

With 23 minutes to go, Emmanuel Adebayor replaced Van Persie as Wenger looked to inject some life into the Arsenal attack. The Dutchman again showed that he is extremely unconsistant in his performances. He had chances in both the first and second forty five minutes to change the face of the game but seemed to have his touch let him down at the final moment.

The Gunners thought they had bundled in an equaliser with 15 minutes left through Toure, but the offside flag was swiftly raised. Then, full-back Justin Hoyte drilled a low angled shot against the base of the post from the edge of the box. If just a foot wider, it could have created some real problems for CSKA's defense.

England Under-21 international Theo Walcott was then introduced for Rosicky as the game went into the last 10 minutes. Henry thought he had snatched a late equaliser when he controlled a deep cross from the right at the far post and stroked the ball into the net.

However, Spanish referee Manuel Enrique Mejuto Gonzalez ruled the French striker had in fact used his arm, and booked him – which just about summed up the night for Arsenal. The game then petered out as Arsenal went Route 1 and lobbed balls into the opposing penalty area. Thus, the streak ended and CSKA took a massive step towards qualifying for the knock-out stage of the UEFA Champions League.

After the match, both Henry and Wenger were livid. The Arsenal forward decided to run with the conspiracy theory: that his late 'goal' was disallowed because Arsenal are not considered a 'big club.' When asked what he meant, he said "We're not a big club. What does it mean? That means what I'm saying - we are not a big club." Great, thanks for the enlightenment Thierry.

For his part in the soap opera that is Arsenal after every loss, Wenger didn't like the ref either. He would later give him benefit of the doubt by saying that "Sometimes referees cancel good goals because they don't see things." Well, after the ref, what else can you blame? I'll let the modern day Napoleon tell it: "The quality of the pitch was a big handicap for us. We had an October pitch in Russia and UEFA must look into it because it is not acceptable to play on a pitch like that in the Champions League." Well, what are you supposed to do when it's 36 degrees at kickoff?

It just wasn't Arsenal's day, they reminded me of how they started the English season. Lots of possesion, pretty passing, and close to no goals scored. They now find themselves in second, trailing CSKA by two points. They have two straight home games coming up before finishing on the road against Porto. I see them getting at least seven points from those matches, seeing them comfortably into the knock-out stage. Will they be able to surpass CSKA and avoid the first-place teams in the next round? Only if they can get some goals out of all of their beautiful build-up play.

Man of the Match: Daniel Carvalho

Match Stats [UEFA official site]

-ac