Arsenal Vs CSKA Moscow: Utterly unsurprising defensive shortcoming

Arsenal conceded two goals in a very similar fashion against CSKA Moscow on Thursday night. Predictably, they came from an utterly unsurprising defensive shortcoming: Attentiveness.

It was never going to be easy, was it? After half-an-hour, I was actually ruing how boring the affair was. Five minutes later, I was begging for that boredom back. Predictably, Arsenal made us all sweat, but, eventually, they squeezed their way past CKSA Moscow to make the semi-finals of the Europa League.

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The reason why they were in such a tiff was because, obviously, of their inability to defend. Even with a three-goal lead, Arsene Wenger still watched on as his players did their best to throw it all away with a truly insipid and lapse defensive display.

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And there was one running theme through both goals that, if you are aware of the Gunners’ defensive shortcomings for any length of time, is not all that shocking: Attentiveness. Both came from rebounded efforts during which the respective CSKA attackers were far more aware and alive to the possible chance that could arise.

The first came from an excellent Petr Cech save, down low to his left to parry a header clear. Unfortunately, the ball bounced back into the six-yard box. Low and behold, neither Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi were remotely aware of the danger, both stood with their hands in their, desperately begging for an offside as the ball slammed into the back of the net. The second was much better.

This time, some blame can be attributed to Cech. The shot was from distance, was undeflected, and while it swerved in the air, he should have been able to either gather the ball or parry it to safety. He did neither. That, allied with Nacho Monreal sleeping at the far post, allowed Kirill Nababkin to steal in and slam home a composed and well-controlled volley.

For how long has Arsenal’s numbness to danger been a debilitating trait? It is something that has plagued this team for many year, something that continues to undermine any progress that they seemingly make. It is a good job that they scored four in the first leg. They would have been in an almighty hole without such a creative, attacking performance.

And these defensive lapses come after Mustafi was maddeningly waiting for Petr Cech to collect a cross that he had no right in coming to collect, only for Shane Long to nip in ahead of both and poke the ball into the net for the game’s first goal. There are a million other instances of where Arsenal have fallen asleep in defence to allow the opposition to either score or, at the very least, get a shot off on goal.

Next: Arsenal Vs CSKA Moscow: 5 things we learned

These defensive shortcomings are utterly unsurprising. In fact, they are now expected, and that is a major indictment on Wenger, his coaching staff, the players, and the culture at the club. This is a problem that is not going away any time soon.