Shakhtar Aren’t That Bad, You Know

We don’t live in a perverse reality where it rains cotton candy, dogs make political decisions and losing 2-1 gives you three points. So naturally, disappointment follows any defeat. I usually try to find things that temper the disappointment. And while the big, accusing zero in the points column always makes it difficult, there are many factors that tell us this is far from the most damaging defeat Arsenal will suffer this season.

First off, Wenger’s comments of Shakhtar being one of the better teams in Europe will elicit very few laughs after yesterday’s performance. I think most of us knew we were going to see a different Shakhtar at home, coming off a 5-1 shagging session at the Emirates and in front of rabid fans drooling at the mouth. Sure enough, they lifted their game yesterday, endlessly nipping at our players, passing the ball fluidly when they got it and looking very dangerous on the counter*.

This team won the erstwhile UEFA Cup a couple of seasons ago and made Barcelona sweat blood twice. Plus, they have oodles of Brazilian talent and I have long since learnt to be wary of Brazilian talent.

*Speaking of dangerous counters, Theo Walcott roughly doubles our threat in that regard. The collective speed of our team has decreased since the Invincibles when we had speed demons like Henry, Ljungberg, Reyes and Pires with Dennis popping off passes like a bartender pops off bottle caps. Theo is one of the few genuinely quick players we have now and his runs off the last man have been more intelligent this season. This coupled with an almost shocking calmness in front of goal means he has scored three goals in the last two games he has started, all from counters.

That was perhaps the only positive moment of the first half though. Shakhtar practically ran the game the entire time and we rode our luck on more than one occasion as they hit the post and Fabianski made two saves. But unlike Arsenal, our opponents almost always follow up periods of sustained pressure with a goal. Eboue, who is really irritating when he has a bad game, made a brainless foul and Craig Eastmond inadvertently headed in from the resulting free kick.

Speaking of Eastmond, the relatively weakened side we put out is another disappointment-temperer. Four of our midfielders were out including Cesc Fabregas who must loathe his hamstring by now. So we had Wilshere and Eastmond in the middle, plus Nasri and Rosicky who I think are too similar to play together. It wasn’t that big a surprise when we struggled to find fluency for large parts of the game. Bendtner is far behind Chamakh as far as ball-holding ability goes and he found it difficult to bring others into the game. And just as we were heading towards half time with a chance to regroup, Gael Clichy decided he wanted more cameras on him and dropped his customary time-bomb.

He has had a few solid games this season but nothing spectacular and he’s always liable to drop a clanger. He sometimes loses his bearings completely and runs around like a punch drunk boxer, which is not funny despite how it sounds. I have no idea what he was trying to do for their goal yesterday, and I suspect neither does he. He had already touched the ball so letting it run out of play would have been daft. He should either have cunted it back up the field or at worst booted it out for a throw. Instead he just inexplicably tried to shield the ball, shimmied and tripped as Srna fed the ball to another specimen of Brazilian talent to prod home.

Not celebrating a consolation goal away from home is one thing, but staying stoic after putting your team in the lead with the entire stadium going bonkers is something else altogether. Props to you Eddie.

I honestly never really expected us to come out all guns blazing in the second half and we didn’t. We were more organized and disciplined, but the only two chances I remember are a Squillaci header and a Wilshere chance. The game petered out, Shakhtar held on and consolidated second place in the group.

Which brings me to the last disappointment-temperer. The group is still eminently winnable. In fact I would be really surprised if Arsenal didn’t end up topping the group. We have a towering goal difference which will only get better with a game against Partizan at home coming up. The visit to Braga before that has taken on an added importance though and we cannot afford to lose that one.

Newcastle at home awaits. Joey Barton will start and that should give us enough incentive to win it.