Match report – Video –

It’s interesting that even this morning the focus appears to be on a controversial substitution when the bigger issue is the fact we’ve just lost our third league game in a row, taking our total of defeats in the league this season to eight.

When Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s number went up in the 74th minute many of the 60,000 at the stadium made it quite clear what they thought of the decision. The youngster had been Arsenal’s best attacking player and had, just minutes before, set up Robin van Persie for Arsenal’s equaliser. The boos turned to cheers when his name was announced and back to boos when Andrei Arshavin took to the field.

It felt huge. Not just from a footballing point of view, as in the heat of the moment the substitution was hard to understand, but the reaction itself was aimed not at Arshavin (who suffered collateral damage) but at Arsene Wenger. Never has there been such a display of outright mutiny towards the manager. And the effect it had on us was palpable.

It killed our momentum in all kinds of ways. The team suffered, the fans suffered, and in the end it’s hard not to think it had a bearing on the result. Afterwards the manager defended his decision, saying:

Oxlade-Chamberlain had started to fatigue, started to stretch his calf, and was not used to the intensity. He was sick during the week. Arshavin is captain of the Russia national team. I have to justify a guy of 18 who’s playing his second or third game? Let’s be serious. I have to stand up for the substitutions I made. I’ve been 30 years in this job and have made 50,000 substitutions and I have to justify every time I make a decision? I do not have to explain to you every single decision I make.

It’s cold light of day time and I still can’t quite get my thoughts clear on this. On the one hand, the logical part of me says that there must have been a reason Wenger took him off. He was aware enough of Arshavin’s shortcomings to start Oxlade-Chamberlain in the first place, and after a display in which he caught the eye and presented a real threat to the United defence, what would make the manager decide to chuck on a guy he unceremoniously dropped for an 18 year old in the first place?

There was talk that he was beginning to cramp up and if that is the case, and with none of us being privvy to the physio, medical team and behind the scenes info like his sickness during the week, then it makes a lot more sense than Arsene Wenger deciding to take off our best player and replace him with a guy whose form and motivation have been in the toilet for a long time now.

On the other hand though, it’s hard not to wonder if this wasn’t just a decision Arsene got really, really wrong. Such is the mood at the moment that he has no wiggle room at all. People who questioned why on earth The Ox was taken off were in no mood to accept what appears to be a perfectly logical explanation. And that in itself is telling.

Again, I don’t think it was the introduction of Arshavin that sparked the reaction. Had the board read 14 : 23 I don’t think there would have been anything but polite, but muted, applause for the change. Yet what happened wasn’t just about taking Oxlade-Chamberlain off. It was a symptom of a wider malaise, a sign that the trust in the manager is being eroded and that our fanbase is become increasingly polarised and disaffected, which is never a good sign.

If the Oxlade-Chamberlain decision sparked ire like never before, there’s little talk of the manager’s decision to withdraw Johan Djourou at half-time for Nico Yennaris. We know he rarely makes half-time changes, but Djourou’s torrid first half left him with no choice and the move was a good one. In a way I feel sorry for Djourou, he’s not a right back, and ask any centre-half if they like playing full back they’ll tell you no chance.

Without trying to make excuses for him, because his performance was poor and he should have done better, he was hardly helped by having the defensively raw Oxlade-Chamberlain and the ineffectual Walcott switching wings throughout the first half. By 25 minutes in it was obvious that United were targetting him, often he had both Evra and Nani to deal with, so why didn’t our management do something about it? Why, when we’re playing guys out of position, don’t we do more to help them when they’re struggling rather than make them scapegoats?

Once again our full back issues came back to haunt us. Djourou was poor for the first, he didn’t close down Giggs well enough, but Vermaelen was at fault too, losing Valencia who headed home to make it 1-0. As for their winner, in some minds this morning it’ll be Andrei Arshavin waving Valencia through, clearing a path for him to square to Welbeck, but Arshavin’s admittedly piss poor attempt at a tackle happened well outside the box.

He then skipped through Song and Vermaelen as if they weren’t there so blaming the Russian is easy but it was hardly all his fault. And I’m not trying to be critical of Vermaelen, he’s just back from injury, you can see by the way he moves around the pitch he naturally gravitates to the centre of defence, and once again we haven’t set ourselves up properly to help get the best from a player out of position.

But it all comes back to that moment when Oxlade-Chamberlain went off. The debate as to whether it was a medical necessity or just a terrible decision by Arsene Wenger will roll on and on, I’m sure. Robin van Persie’s reaction has become a talking point too but I’m sure we’ll hear more about that from the captain in due course. He’s a conscientious man, not one for open dissent, and will realise what inferences will be drawn from it. To me his reaction was no different from that of many of the fans who were dismayed to see our most effective attacking player come off but I suspect he’ll be more inclined to believe what the manager, who he trusts and respects, tells him.

As I said at the beginning though, the substitution is a talking point but not the real issue. The real issue is that we’re now 5 points behind Chelsea, we’ve lost three league games in a row, we’ve lost eight games already this season, and I that is clearly the source of the underlying frustration. Before the Fulham game Arsene said, “it would be stupid to lose points because we don’t have a left-back.” We’ve now lost 9 points since then and our lack of a recognised left-back and a right-back has been a larger factor in that than any misguided/unfortunately enforced substitution.

It is a tough position to be in. We have all 4 full back at the club out medium to long-term and players available on loan are generally damaged goods in one way or another, but our attempts to get through with the players available have not worked. The solution? I wish I knew. Do you buy and find yourself with a squad overloaded with full-backs or take an inadequate player on loan? There’s nothing to say results would have been any better with someone like Wayne Bridge in the team.

So while I feel for the manager in that regard the way last summer was handled, along with results so far this season, brought about yesterday’s reaction. I maintain the only thing you should ever judge a manager on is results. If he signs players you don’t like or don’t rate, or makes changes you can’t understand, but the team rack up the points, you’ve got absolutely no cause for complaint. This season, however, results mean that Arsene is open to criticism like never before.

Above all else this morning though, I can’t help feel sad at what we saw yesterday. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, a kid making his first Premier League, had a game he’ll never forget for all kinds of reasons, not least of which was the open hostility to his removal from the game. Arsene Wenger, a man I have enormous respect for because of all the great things he’s done for this club, was the subject of that hostility and it wasn’t at all nice to witness.

I fully accept there are people that would like to see a change in management. I suspect after yesterday that number has grown, but for all his stubbornness (which used to be one of his greatest assets, let’s not forget) to see the crowd turn on him like that was unpleasant. It felt like something of a watershed moment. End of days, kind of stuff.

The reality is there’s a lot of football left this season and we’ve got no choice but to pick ourselves up and get on with it. You do wonder if a line has been crossed, if it’s gone too far to ever be the same again, but in the short-term winning some games would make things a little better. That’s where we’re at.

Till tomorrow.