ricky1985
Established Member
Didn't get a chance to actually look at what I'd written earlier, had to shoot out, but you really see how relatively untroubled we were in the second half. Remember those are all the chances Blackburn had in the whole game.ricky1985 said:Watched the game again this morning. After the discussions yesterday, thought it would be interesting to keep an eye on a few things. So I jotted down the Blackburn chances throughout the match and who was at fault;
1st Half
7 (minute) - Short throw. Diaby switches off and moves out the box leaving Samba, Grella easily beats Fabregas and crosses to the back post, Clichy poorly positioned, leaves Song with Samba and M.Diouf to mark on the back post. Samba nods the ball down and Koscielny heads clear.
7 - Long throw. Really poor clearing header from Diaby, straight to Jones, Fabregas not switched on to the second ball and then can't stop the cross from coming in, Vermaelen heads out for a corner at the back post.
8 - Corner. Poor header away from van Persie at the near post, towards the penalty spot, Song switches off and loses Nelsen whose header towards the top corner is cleared off the line by Fabregas.
9 - Long throw. Diaby beaten in the air by Samba, whose flick-on towards the far post is tipped away by Almunia. The ball comes to E.Diouf, Song tackles him well and passes the ball riskily inside the box to Clichy, his clearance is really poor, straight at Jones, Vermaelen hacks clear.
15 - Corner. Samba out jumps Diaby inside the six yard box, but his header goes a yard over the bar.
18 - Long ball. Nelsen is given an eternity on the ball to pick his pass by van Persie, he plays a ball from left to right looking for E.Diouf, Clichy unnecessarily goes to challenge Kalinic in the air, the ball sails over his head and E.Diouf has time to pick his cross, Vermaelen clears for a throw.
26 - Blackburn goal. Arshavin's attempted through ball is cut out by Samba, who strides forward, van Persie and Song fail to close him down, and he plays the ball in behind a poorly positioned Sagna and a covering Koscileny, towards E.Diouf. Koscielny tries to win the ball early and fails, E.Diouf cuts inside towards goal, Vermaelen tries to close him down whilst also trying to cut off the pass to Kalinic, Almunia commits himself early, Clichy lets M.Diouf run off him 5 yards from goal, E.Diouf passes to M.Diouf who taps it into the empty net.
35 - Long free-kick. Clichy beaten in the air by Grella, easy save for Almunia.
39 - Long Ball. Grella hits a high ball out to the right wing, Clichy is poorly positoned and allows M.Diouf to whip a dangerous cross into the box unchallenged. Sagna clears.
45 - Counter. M.Diouf gets away from Song on the left wing and drills a low cross into the box. Koscielny clears low to Sagna, who then plays a dangerous pass back to an under pressure Song in the box, his clearance is poor and straight to Pedersen, who crosses towards the back post where Clichy is poorly positioned allowing E.Diouf too much space, he manages to get tight to E.Diouf, but is then beaten easily allowing E.Diouf the shot at goal. He blazes over the bar.
2nd Half
55 - Long ball. Jones hits a hopeful ball forward, Vermaelen tries to pass it to Koscielny rather than clear it and gets it wrong, gifting Kalinic the chance to shoot on goal. He blazes over.
60 - Long throw. Almunia with a really poor punch under pressure, straight to Salgado, Arshavin and Fabregas not switched on, both standing off Salgado, Salgado shoots, Song blocks and clears well.
74 - Counter. Poor free-kick from Walcott, cleared by Pedersen to E.Diouf, hit long towards M.Diouf, who easily holds off Clichy and then plays it back to E.Diouf, who Song has let run off him, who crosses for M.Diouf, Sagna comes across on the cover and clears.
81 - Long ball. Hoofed forward by Salgado, at first Koscielny and Sagna leave it to each other, Koscielny then panics and makes a mess when trying to deal with it, Dunn gets a lucky bounce which takes him past an unbalanced Koscielny, Vermaelen hurls himself at the ball and the shot goes tamely at Almunia.
82 - Long throw. Diaby with a poor headed clearance straight into Samba, the ball drops to Salgado who fires over the bar from an acute angle. Arshavin ball watching allowing Salgado to get away from him.
87 - Long ball. Nelsen hits a long ball up towards Pedersen, Sagna wins the header, but the ball drops to Olsson, Walcott has switched off and let Olsson run off him, leaving Sagna facing a 2-on-1. Sagna closes down Olsson who plays it to Pedersen in space, who crosses towards the back post, where Clichy nervously chests the ball out of play under no pressure.
88 - Corner. Pedersen whips it in near post, Diaby with a great header away, some head tennis and then the ball drops to Clichy whose attempted clearance is blocked, it drops to Wilshere on the edge of the box, his touch is good but he looses the ball when he tries to dribble clear of the challenge, and Dunn floats in a cross towards the back post, Samba beats Vermaelen in the air and the knock down falls to Givet, whose weak shot is blocked by Song, who then clears.
90 - Long throw. Well cleared by Song, the balls is crossed back in and hits Song awkwardly, the ball rebounds to E.Diouf who gets momentarily the wrong side of Koscielny, Song tackles E.Diouf and Diaby clears.
We had trouble early on getting to grips with their aerial bombardment. Diaby, in particular, struggled to cope with Samba - which is understandable. We improved dramatically when Chamakh came on and took over that responsibility. We also seemed to make a tactical change at half-time, with a man positioned in front of Samba, to help the man marking him. It worked well, Samba didn't cause us any problems second half.
Everyone got better second half, whether that was a result of us keeping the ball better and playing our game - Arsène said "we were calmer in possession" - or because we were more switched on defensively, is hard to say.
Of the back 4, as you can see the centrebacks didn't do much wrong at all really, especially considering the sheer volume of balls they had to deal with. Sagna made a few small mistakes here and there, but was generally very solid, by contrast Clichy made a lot of mistakes. His positioning was constantly off, and he was frequently unaware of what was around him when balls came into the box.
Song improved dramatically in the second half and went from being at the root of a lot of our problems in the first half, to someone who was near faultless defensively for the second 45. There were some issues with players switching off for the second ball, or when the ball had been cleared from a long throw or corner and then lobbed back into the box. Also some issues where our man marking didn't stand up to a bit of movement from the Blackburn players. Too often at least one man had managed to wriggle free of his marker, but we got away with it for the most part.
All in all, though, we coped very well, especially second half. Chamakh was a godsend. He won nearly every header he went for in all areas of the pitch, and when defending against Samba, he, without fail, either won the ball or stopped Samba from winning it. Room for improvement, but some positive signs of improvement on recent seasons.