The name of this blog, The Angry Gooner is meant to be ironic. I love my club and I'm not one of these Wenger out morons either but nights like this really frustrate me as an Arsenal fan. It's not often we see the team fail to score in successive matches (okay I know we started the season like that) but we don't see us lose two in a row very often either.
Once again the team look lethargic and laclustre, despite looking bright in the first ten minutes without much real penetration. Gervinho again was at the heart of much criticism and his night was summed up in the second half when he did an appalling dive in the Schalke box. Speaking of dives the referee booked Afalley in the first half for diving when he could have easily have given a penalty. What Mannone was doing was beyond me but I do think Afellay went down too early. Had he waited a split second later it would have been a nailed on pen.
Andre Santos had a torrid night. After about 30 minutes we saw Koscielny warming up and there were some shouts that he might replace Santos and Vermaelen would be pushed to left back. Steve Bould who took the managers role with Arsene Wengers touchline ban later regretted not doing so when Schalke scored two late goals, one of which saw Santos play Huntelaar onside and the second he allowed Farfan way too much space to cross for Afellay to finish at the back post. It's very frustrating when fans, commentators and pundits alike can see how much of a hard night Santos was having yet he was kept on the pitch. I know taking a player off for playing poorly can dent their confidence but at the end of the day who's fault is it that they are playing badly? Taking a player off shouldn't dent their confidence anymore than it should drive them on to do better to get back into the side.
I apologise for picking on certain players again. I will not try to make that a theme of this blog. I don't like doing it and the whole team should take equal responsibility for a loss. I must say that despite the result and the overall performance I was very impressed with young Francis Coquelin who was easily Arsenal's best player on the night. The youngster has started the season very well and has not put a foot wrong. Gnabry also made a short cameo appearance to add to his Premiership debut at the weekend and managed Arsenal's only shot on target in the whole match in the dying minutes. These young players are knocking on the door and the senior players need to pick up their game quickly or they could lose their places in the side. Maybe Wenger needs to be more ruthless and drop one or two of them to give them the kick up the backside they need.
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