Gunners defence not so bad after all

I was just thinking about this after the Liverpool match. The expectation usually is, that if you’re leading 4-3 with next to no time left, you should hang on. We didn’t. Major disappointment but then we had Almunia, Gallas and Clichy missing. Sagna returned but he was rather pushed into playing the Anfield game. I didn’t watch the game, but the general consensus was that Arshavin apart we got outplayed.

Perhaps we did get outplayed. Our boys only had 4 shots and we scored. Reina had no save to make. It speaks volumes of the finishing, well the finishing from our Russian star. But how awful were the pool defensively, in comparison? Weren’t they playing their preferred defensive combination? While the 4-4 result at the Bridge was understandable you’d think they would have hung on, if not gone on to win the game comfortably after taking the lead at 2-1. Instead they nearly lost the game.

And the pool aren’t the only one who have had shockers defensively. Chelsea shipped 7 in two games and we all know what happened to Utd once they conceded 4 against their arch-rivals from Merseyside.

Much of the credit for keeping Arsenal in the game went to and rightly so Fabianski. To me he’s a little Jens. He is either really good or really awful. Goalkeepers by nature are a little eccentric at times and the Pole is that. I just think though sometimes we should give the defence a little more credit than deserved. This game is more about mental “strengths” as Wenger puts it. May be if we believe in them, they might surprise us in a good way.

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