Last night was one of the most frustrating games I've watched. Just before I carry on rambling on here, just take a second to remember this interview in August:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33857446 This was when our players tricked us into thinking they actually wanted to win the league!
So we go from August, where our players are right up to prove our critics wrong and to go on to win the league, to where we are now.
Yesterday, I was incredibly confident looking at our line up. A team with Hart, Kolarov, Toure, KDB, Aguero should have bags full of experience for these big games. We've been here before and taken points off Arsenal so it shouldn't be too difficult to
not get beat.
We started the game off very slowly, Arsenal had a good 5 minutes of possession and territory and instantly you got an impression as to who was and who wasn't up for the game. We eventually forged out a couple of half chances and long range shots, but nothing to really panic Cech. Then, almost like clockwork, we concede a goal mid way through the first half. Fernandinho couldn't be bothered to make a 5 yard sprint, KDB suddenly becomes the slowest human being on planet earth when we're out of possession and Toure was being Toure, off somewhere else on the pitch with his finger up his backside. Ottamendi and Sagna get dragged around like a couple of puppets as a result and Walcott, with all the time in the world curls an unstoppable shot into the top corner. Something he seems to do against us quite often now.
So it's 1-0, we continue attempting to press them. Kolarov gives the ball away 6 times in the next 15 mins, usually by hoofing the ball up towards Aguero who's being marked by 1.98m tall Per Mertesacker, I wonder who was going to win that one. 1 minute of added time comes on the board and we have a free kick in their half. Any half decent player here thinks 'well we've struggled to break them down all game, we've got a chance now, let's get the ball into the box and try our luck before half time', but no, we rush to take a 1 yard free kick, get tracked down quickly, play a hospital pass across the pitch and stand around blaming each other when arguably the quickest team counter us. I still can't fathom what Mangala was thinking, that pass wasn't even Sunday League standard, how he's getting in the team ahead of Demichelis is beyond me. I think someone must have told him he's actually good at football once, surely not, but it does look that way. So from having 1 minute to go, with an attacking free-kick we finish the half 2-0. Great.
I can only imagine Manuel's half time team talk was possibly the most uninspiring conversation that's taken place in history. Similar to the game away to Stoke, we came out in the second half looking less interested than the first. He replaces Delph, the only player who looked interested, with Sterling.
We showed a great winning mentality when Aguero goes down on the pitch, the referee allows play to go on despite a head injury. Once up he's walked off to the sideline. Pellegrini says, 'well it's the 60th minute and I'm going to put Bony on in two minutes', so Aguero goes and takes his place on the bench and we're left with 10 men. Let's be honest here, if that's Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo, Messi, Suarez, Gerrard etc they are all telling Pellegrini to fuck off and get Bony warmed up before you take me off - or at least go back onto the pitch and feign an injury for 2 mins which gives us time to get Bony ready - surely I can't be the only person who's infuriated by this every time we do it? This followed Ottamendi earning the poorest yellow card we'll see all season.
Eventually, after two clear goal scoring chances for Arsenal (again created by our lack of effort/desire and sheer complacency at the back) we break through. Navas burns Mertesacker and we have our best chance to work the keeper. He enters the box, the ball lines up nicely for a right footed strike, low and hard past the keeper surely? He doesn't even try. He attempted to pass the ball to Bony who was waddling 10 yards behind him rather than shoot against Cech who'm he was one on one with. I don't think anyone would complain at Navas if he shot and Cech saved it, but not trying is unforgivable. Is this the instruction from Pellegrini or does he have such little confidence in his own ability? Probably the latter.
So we go into the last 10 minutes, and suddenly we start showing the intensity a team like Bayern or Barca show for 90 mins week in week out. Toure nearly fools everyone present into thinking he's had a decent game by cracking an absolute screamer into the back of the net and suddenly Arsenal are gone. But, we've left it too little to late. I almost believe Pellegrini told them 'don't try until the last 10 minutes, they'll shit themselves'. We had a few more half chances until we run ran out of steam on the 90th minute.
So where does that leave us? We're not just 6 points off the top. We've lost 5 games, dropped points in our last 5 away games, our home performances have been atrocious yet Pellegrini is still coming out, as calm as anything. It's almost as if he doesn't give a shit, maybe he's off in the summer, maybe he knows who his replacement will be, perhaps the players do too. Maybe they get a buzz out of seeing how little they can do, whilst still picking up £200,000 per week. I want passion, I want 11 Delphs in my team who will run through brick walls for the entire game. I don't want players who save themselves for the last 10 minutes and offer nothing for the 80 prior to that. I wan't a manager who can change things, throw players in and switch formations mid way through the game to prevent their best players from ripping ours apart. I know a happy clapper will probably say, get a bit of perspective but regardless, from a fans perspective, it's just not good enough.
This is the best chance we will EVER have of winning the league and we're going to piss it away because Pellegrini can't motivate our squad anymore.
