UEFA Champions League: Against Marseille, Arsenal Pull a Manchester United

Arsenal nicked a goal in added time to take all three points and claim top spot of Group F in the UEFA Champions League. This was more than the solitary point Arsene Wenger had hoped for coming into the match.

A victory in the rematch, even a draw, will more than likely see them through the group stage of this season’s campaign, considering Arsenal do not mangle their rematch against bottom of the group Borussia Dortmund at home, or their away fixture against Olympiakos.

Aaron Ramsey proved to be the wild card in the match, not because he scored the game’s lone goal after a flick from Gervinho, but because the switch that brought him on turned out to be the tactical tonic the team needed to gain a level of cohesiveness in the midfield, which helped to settle the nerves of the team to a noticeable degree.

But besides the improved last quarter of the game, Arsenal’s display in the match was painful to watch. The entire back four had a torrid first half. Andre Santos, for example, put in a disjointed performance, was profligate in possession and woeful in tackling.

Per Metersacker was turned inside out at least twice and was clearly far from his best. Carl Jenkinson’s inexperience was painfully exposed, and he was lucky to get away with a clear penalty. To cap a bad night, he came away injured. At one point, Laurent Koscielny seemed to think this must be the night to recap the Birmingham Carling Cup shenanigan.

Thankfully, the unit improved in the second half.

In attack, even Robin van Persie was strangely off, although he still managed to hold his own in the match. He improved markedly in the second half.

Theo Walcott’s performance was no different from Saturday’s match against Sunderland, but I didn’t expect him to give way before Andrey Arshavin. If Arshavin seemed to be on fire on Saturday against Sunderland, he must have doused the fire before this match.

He, like the team, improved in the second half, but his performance in the first was, as they say, nothing worth writing home about.

The midfield labored as a unit in the first half. It wasn’t anything individual, as all three members performed well enough, it was rather a collective thing. It could not string together extended passes or pick out good ones for the attack. The collective lethargy, disjointedness, and underperformance was what Ramsey’s introduction improved.

For the entire first half, the team never seemed to be comfortable or in control of the match, not even when it had possession, which was rather sloppy and erratic. The defense was shaky and gave an unconvincing performance when put under pressure. In attack, the crosses sent in from Walcott and Arshavin were easily dealt with by the Marseille defense.

On the positive side, the team defended better as a unit, which is why Arsenal kept a clean sheet and came away with a victory. If they can manage to compensate for individual underperformance and come away with victories on a regular basis as they did today, they could be on their way to turning around their horrible start to the season.

By the way, this is what Manchester United have perfected, managing to grind out draws or even lone goal victories on difficult days. Arsenal need more of this.