Arsenal 0-2 Schalke – German joy at the Emirates

Arsenal lost at home to European opposition in the Champions League for the first time since losing 3-0 to Inter Milan in 2003. Arsenal were looking to recover from Saturday’s shock defeat to Norwich, but did quite the opposite.

Arsenal were poor throughout and Steve Bould stated that the team were “lacking confidence” since returning from the international break. In years gone by, Arsenal haven’t won any trophies, but they have at least been creating chances to win the games that they lose. The last couple of games have seen them lose without creating much.

I said I felt Gervinho should go back to playing up front after Norwich, but he proved he is just as useless up there when his confidence is down. I remember in the first half he was sent clean through after Santi Cazorla played him in and he just didn’t look capabale of scoring.

Arsenal’s defending was sloppy again yesterday. Per Mertesacker put in an impressive display and Carl Jenkinson worked hard, doing nothing wrong. Thomas Vermaelen and Andre Santos on the other hand did not have good games. Santos was all over the place, confirming what we all knew going into the season about him. He can go forward very well, he is attack minded and can’t make up for it defensively. The Germans saw that Santos was a weak link in the defence and exploited it by going down his side of the pitch. Vermaelen was sloppy and there was one incident where he bombed forward in attack and like many times in the past he was nowhere to be seen when he lost the ball and the opposition tried to catch us on the break.

Arsenal had many narrow escapes during the game and you could sense the Schalke goal was coming sooner rather than later. Before the game I highlighted two players that would cause Arsenal problems. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar I said was a player I have admired for many years now and Ibrahim Afellay is a talented player too (hence why he’s on Barcelona’s books). I also said that Schalke were certainly no pushovers and that Arsenal would have to play well to beat them. Well Arsenal didn’t play well. Schalke had talent all over the pitch. Huntelaar, Afellay, Farfan, Howedes, Holtby. Even on their bench they had names you recognised, like Barnetta and Draxler. This team certainly has good players in their side and Arsenal will struggle to top the group now unless they win away to Schalke.

There was a chance for Huntelaar that he should have buried in the second half but missed. I said then that if he gets another chance, he will take it, so Arsenal couldn’t afford to give him another chance at all. He did get another chance and unsurprisingly took it with 15 minutes left on the clock. You could tell the way the game was going that Arsenal were going to struggle to score an equaliser. Just prior to Huntelaar’s goal, Steve Bould introduced Olivier Giroud from the bench to replace the disappointing Gervinho. The way the game was going prior to the goal, Schalke were beginning to take control of the game, so a sub was needed. Lots of fans on my Twitter feed were calling for a sub. A lot wanted both Gervinho and Santos replaced at half time they were that bad, but when it got to about the 60th minute, it was very frustrating to watch and see no subs. Wenger usually waits until the 70th minute, turns out his new assistant waits longer. 75 minutes gone and the first sub was introduced. Just in time to see Huntelaar stick in Schalke’s first goal. The other man highlighted before the game, Afellay, sealed up Schalke’s win with 5 minutes to go.

Huntelaar celebrates giving the visitors a deserved lead.

One bright spark was that youngster Serge Gnabry was brought on in the 82nd minute to follow up his Premier League debut at Norwich. Gnabry had hardly any time against Norwich to make an influence and had a wild effort go way off the mark at Carrow Road (probably still the closest we came to scoring that day!). He managed to nearly set up fellow German Per Mertesacker who stayed forward in a desperate attempt to get back in the game. He also had a shot on target that was parried away by the Schalke keeper, before Cazorla fired over on the rebound.

That was that. Another disappointing display from the Gunners. Not many players can say they did much right but I felt Mertesacker didn’t do much wrong, Jenkinson can feel the same, Cazorla was good in spells but he drifted in and out and Coquelin deserves to retain his place in the starting line-up against QPR. Gnabry looked bright for the ten minutes or so that he came on. I hope to see more of him this season and it looks as if we will. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him come off the bench on Saturday and then start at Reading in the Capital One Cup next Tuesday.

Not much else to say, except I bet QPR and Mark Hughes in particular, can’t wait for their visit to the Emirates on Saturday. They need something to give them belief and a boost after a poor start to the season. They’re probably playing the right team in the right week.