Aston Villa 0-0 Arsenal - Calm Down Wenger Out Brigade

Yesterday's game was disappointing. A game played in poor conditions where the pitch was saturated and slippery. A game where Villa deserve credit for pressuring us in the midfield and forcing us into errors. A game where we kept a clean a sheet. Unfortunately we just lacked a creative spark. Cazorla was quiet and it seems these days if you keep him quiet the rest of the team are quiet. Ramsey, who is usually the focus of so much stick was our best performer in midfield but he couldn't help us find a goal we needed.

We made three changes from our last match. Wilshere, Vermaelen and Sagna were rested with Ramsey, Gibbs and Jenkinson coming in. It was nice to see Gibbs back and he certainly gives us something more down the left hand side. He lacked a bit of sharpness due to his recent injury but I expect him to come good. Looking forward to having him and Sagna back together.

Villa were not much of a huge threat. Andreas Weimann had a goal disallowed correctly for offside, from a bizarre free kick which seemed to have been given after Szczesny slipped over outside the box. In the second half Holman (who?) had a cracking shot saved by Szczesny who's fingertips pushed it onto the post and wide. Our chances were very few and far between. Koscielny for some reason was in the box and unmarked shot over from about 8 yards. He was spinning on the ball and was always under it but you would have expected Podolski or Giroud in that position to have buried it.

Cazorla shot wide in the second half after some good build up play. We have upped the tempo a bit but we didn't really sustain it throughout the second half until the final few minutes. Arshavin and Gervinho were introduced and Arshavin almost found Gervinho with a great whipped in cross that Clark intercepted. Clark certainly performed very well for Villa on the day and made a couple of vital interceptions.

So it ended 0-0. Very disappointing from our point of few. Neither team played well and we will need to up our game at Everton. They are on a poor run but have a lot of talent and they will punish us if we play like this. Hopefully Jack Wilshere will return as we lacked his craft in the middle. Wenger's substitutions were questioned after the match. It was quite strange pulling off Giroud for Coquelin at the end when we were pushing for a goal and Wenger reacted furiously to the questions about his substitutions. 

"What is the thinking behind the substitution? I will not explain every decision I make.
I have managed for 30 years at the top level and I have to convince you I can manage the team?"

Pressure showing maybe? I don't agree with Wenger's subs on most occasions. I don't like our formation either yet I am still shocked at the reaction from a lot of our fans yesterday. The Wenger out brigade were in full force. Anyone would think we lost 6-0. A lot of our players were poor. There's no doubting their ability but it's unfair that Wenger should be at the centre of abuse all the time from such fickle fans. One week they chant 'There's only one Arsene Wenger' and the next it's 'You don't know what you're doing'. Lets face it, every move a manager makes is a gamble. They don't always pay off and maybe Wenger got it wrong with the players he rested and the subs he made but that's hindsight for you. Just because he got this wrong doesn't make our opinions on what he should have done automatically right.