Analysis of the goal conceded against Arsenal (1/9)

I think that AVB got it wrong today. The starting eleven was fine, but Dembele was poor and has not got going at all. He should have been replaced by Holtby. We needed someone to inject pace into our midfield. I also think Dawson should be dropped. Our back four should be Kaboul at RB, Chiriches and Vertonghen as CBs, a new LB or Rose. The injury to Capoue looked bad and so the midfield should be Paulinho, Sandro and Holtby. The forward line would be Eriksen, Soldado and Lamela.

I perhaps need to look at this again, but so far I don't understand why people are having a go at Rose for this. Clearly we're aiming to play a high line and go for off-sides - and Dawson totally breaks this. Once he's done that he _can't_ let Giroud get in front of him, but he does. We had a lot of close calls, but this one goal (due to clear NLD type mistakes we see every year from our old boys) is all the separated us. Just thinking back to our recent victories over Arsenel (like the one with Rose's wonder goal), we were back to the wall defending for the bulk of those games. Here we had them doing the same for the last 10-20 minutes. This is progress.

Holding a high line is only part of the tactical equation. A high line is worthless if the player on the ball is not closed down quickly but allowed to comfortably pick the timing and direction of the through-ball. Dawson IS at fault for not holding the high line but the high line tactic is totally exposed by Capoue getting sucked into the defensive high line at a time when he should have been closing down Rosicky and putting pressure on the player with the ball. Instead Rosicky is allowed to perfectly time his pass to Walcott. In another universe, if Dawson had indeed held the high line, Walcott could have easily ran the touch line towards Lloris and shot/pulled back for what would have been a very decent opportunity at goal. Good player that he is, I thought Capoue struggled throughout the game and should have been replaced by Sandro/Holtby much earlier on.

Regarding the goal itself it was misunderstanding between two centerbacks. Had it just been Giroud/Walcott pushing the line then yes, Dawson should have stepped up but it was both, you can't do that when there are two attackers as you always have to assume the referee and linesman are only looking at the one that is. Superstition or playing to the whistle, either way, you have to hold in that situation. On a brighter note, I didnt feel arsenal were'nt there for the taking. They had a settled team but that only counts for the first 6 weeks, nothing has me dreading the reverse fixture. If i were to find major faults with the team it would be the lack van der vaart-esque around the box touches, something that I think in eriksen and the return of holtby spurs may already have addressed. I was disappointed with Tonshend too, he seemed to resort to one too many touches, blind alley running and inability to not shoot on sight that plagued him in the youth team, he struck me as wanting to make a rose type performance infront of aresnal at the cost of everything else after proving me so wrong in the first few games, i was disappointed to see him change back as I honestly thought he had learnt. Would be happier seeing a fullback come in, even if its as back up to rose as I feel Fryers needs another year and rose needs someone to push him on. Although a darker quieter part of me hopes we roll the dice and pay whatever saints want for their young left back, just to see if lightning strikes twice.