Arsenal’s unbeaten Reserves returned to action this evening as they welcomed their Portsmouth counterparts to Underhill knowing a win would see them go top of Reserves League South.
With the core of the side being involved in the Carling Cup win over Liverpool last week, Neil Banfield’s charges returned to their usual rigours with a real buzz after that superb result, and nine of that squad started tonight including man of the moment, Craig Eastmond.
On the bench Nicholas Yennaris was included in the second-string for the first time while Roarie Deacon, Luke Freeman and Rhys Murphy added an attacking flavour to the bench. Conor Henderson was also named but Banfield’s goalkeeping problems meant he had no second choice stopper to call upon.
Szczęsny
Gilbert – Bartley (c) – Miquel – Evina
Randall – Eastmond – Coquelin
Frimpong – Sunu – Watt
Subs: – Yennaris – Henderson – Deacon – Freeman – Murphy.
Match Report – Arsenal 0-2 Portsmouth
In front of a fantastic crowd of 682 – which included Arsene Wenger, Pat Rice and Giles Grimandi, Portsmouth began the brighter of the two looking to stamp their authority on proceedings. Trialists Eugen Bopp and Gianfranco Apicerni linked up well with the latter having a shot blocked by Ignasi Miquel, before the move came to an end after Bopp smashed Kerrea Gilbert across the face with a wild left arm.
Arsenal then got their game together and a flowing move involving Francis Coquelin, Mark Randall and Sanchez Watt opened Portsmouth up. Watt then rolled the ball into Emmanuel Frimpong on the edge of the box but as a cry for a shot rained down, he gave possession away with a slack pass into the box. Craig Eastmond had a shot blocked after a powerful run from Gilles Sunu down the left, but Pompey hit back when Apicerni worked space on the right and drilled a shot at Szczęsny who saved well.
Frimpong and Eastmond then went for the same ball and resulted in missing the header and crashing into each other in a painful coming together. They appeared shook up and so did the whole team as both Watt and Bartley gave the ball away in quick succession.
The Gunners then had a mild cry for a penalty when Miquel exploded out from the pack and picked a long ball over the top for Frimpong in the box. He twisted and turned and appeared to have been fouled by Mike Williamson but nothing was given. Williamson was then going head-to-head with another Gunner as Sunu bullied his way through after Frimpong’s excellent cross-field pass but the Frenchman lashed wide.
Banfield looked disappointed and just 30 seconds later his disappointment would turn to anger as Arsenal switched off defending a deep free-kick. Bopp lashed it into the penalty area and Tom Kilbey rose unmarked to head beyond Szczęsny. Coquelin had failed to pick up his man and the hosts had not read the danger. Very poor.
Goal – Tom Kilbey (18)
Portsmouth’s physical tactics continued as Miquel was on the receiving end of another elbow which went unpunished. Sunu and Evina both jinked forward and had shots but neither looked like scoring in a frustrating spell for Arsenal. Kyle Bartley then survived a penalty claim on former young gun Lennard Adjetey Sowah – who was released a year ago – the offside flag came to his rescue.
A lovely move then followed as Arsenal kept the ball at the back for over 2 minutes before four neat one touch passes unlocked Portsmouth and allowed Evina space on the left, his cross was poor however and Pompey cleared.
Eastmond, Frimpong, Watt and Randall all gave the ball away as Arsenal searched for a way through. Portsmouth stuck XI men behind the ball whenever the hosts advanced over the half way line and the space became difficult to find. Frimpong seemed slack and was caught offside twice, the latter was the final action of the first half. Must do better.
Half Time – Arsenal 0-1 Portsmouth
Arsenal kicked off the second half with a real determination to get that equalizer. The long cross field diagonal passes continued and after Sunu picked one out for Randall, he got the beating of Adjetey-Sowah but couldn’t pick a pass to the arriving Watt. A good start though.
A Randall free-kick from near the corner flag picked out Eastmond on the edge of the box, a pass instead of a shot proved to be the wrong option and despite a scramble, the move came to an end. Banfield tried to keep his side from getting frustrated by issuing various instructions but they fell on deaf ears.
After a solid spell from Portsmouth Arsenal eventually got their game going. Watt’s break away and pass found Sunu who forced Niemi into a low down save before Frimpong sliced an effort wide after good work from Randall down the right. The Gunners were starting to become dominant and with Gilbert and Evina getting forward well, Pompey were starting to become over run.
Banfield looked a happier man but still he turned to his bench to look to deliver the killer blow. Roarie Deacon and Rhys Murphy replaced the tired looking Eastmond and the slack Frimpong. The 4-3-3 was abandoned with Murphy joining Watt up front, Deacon and Sunu playing as wingers and Randall and Coquelin holding the midfield.
Deacon and Coquelin had shots before Portsmouth grabbed the second on the break. Cowen-Hall out paced Miquel and shot inside the box but Szczęsny saved well, only for the rebound to fall to Bopp who composed himself and lashed into the corner.
Goal – Eugen Bopp (77)
Luke Freeman replaced Sanchez Watt and although 2-0 down, Arsenal continued their rally looking for a goal for the mass support. Roarie Deacon’s superb run past 3 players opened the play up but Freeman couldn’t reach Roarie’s through ball. Freeman himself was next to try his luck but he lashed miles over the bar from inside the box, and then Bartley had a header cleared off the line in a frustrating spell.
The final whistle saw the Reserves unbeaten run come to an end this term and they miss out on top spot in the Reserves League South table. Instead Portsmouth go joint second with Neil Banfield’s boys. Lessons to be learnt indeed.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Fuck me that was fast. :)
Hahaha!
Just like the Villa performance last season after the 3-0 Wigan Carling Cup game, flat performance.
Very much so Super but this would be a good lesson for them. They can’t rest on their laurels and have to fired up for every game, no matter what level it’s at. To be fair to them Pompey just camped out in their own half and relied on the counter-attack which they caught us on for their second goal. We didn’t have the relevant creativity to break them down. Eastmond is a very neat and tidy player but he can’t play that playmaker role which he was asked to play today.
Anyone knew nay more news on Benik and Chunks? J.Sanderson think they will leave? Give us yoru view?
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top work mate, any information on randall’s performance? doesn’t seem to be growing much to me. (how about a player rating j?)
and any idea as to why frimpong was on the right of the front three? don’t believe he’s a rwf if i recall right.
cheers.
The problem that i saw was too much square passing and not looking forward for forward passing and no variety on flanks [playing on the shoulder, dribbling in-field as well as outfield] to keep fullback guessing.
@ ds goon, no one really got more than 6 at best.
Player ratings and analysis will follow in the morning mate when I’ve sat down and really thought about them correctly. If you do them straight after the game they never turn out right because you’re a little hyped up. Right now I’d say..
Szczesny – 6
Gilbert – 7
Miquel – 5
Bartley – 6
Evina – 5
Frimpong – 4
Randall – 5
Coquelin – 6
Eastmond – 6
Watt – 5
Sunu – 6
that bad a performance eh?
didn’t particularly like the balance as well. the cog, eastmond and frimpong don’t really strike me as goal threats. would have liked to see rhys get a go and can’t wait till little jack is back
J sanderson can you please tell me if arsenal will be doing anything about this?
Obviously i understand that they cant break the bank for afobe then every other youngster would want the same
but i would very much like too know your opinion.
The balance was all wrong and players like Frimpong and Randall didn’t look bothered and slowed the play down with lapse and sluggish passes.
With the Afobe thing, he is on scholarship forms, if he decides he wants to go to Barcelona then it will be like any other normal transfer. They would have to pay Arsenal for him.
I think coquelin and bartley especially deserved a better rating. However it was a very flat performance.
seems like a strange balance in that line up. not surprised we couldn’t get our game going. also a few of those players are still inconsistent and are liable to put in a few bad performances.
I think the keeper, Bartley and Coquelin are my big tips for the future, and I am glad to see they all at least had decentish games.
Szczesny – 6 – Did what was needed, couldnt stop both goals
Gilbert – 6 – Good defending in 1v1 but wasnt clinical in the final third when he overlapped
Miquel – 5 – he should know is limitation is pace thus he should have been on the move backwards instead of trying to outsprint Cowarn from static position & he should be using his arm leverage on Cowarn’s chest to slow him down.
Bartley – 5 – won some headers however poor organisation from the skipper as Coq [5ft 10] is left with Kilbey [6ft 1 plus]. Attacking point of view, he & Miquel need to step into midfield with the ball to create overload against opposition midfield.
Evina – 5 – positioning & his 1v1 defending needs work and ineffective in the final third, no combination with Sunu
Frimpong – 4 – needs get his head up for vision so he can play forward passes plus his technique/ball manipulation is tight spaces is still suspect
Randall – 5- some good angled forward passes but not enough & needs to quick up the tempo.
Coquelin – 5 – some good forward runs however didnt get his head-up like Pong in the final third
Eastmond – 6 – good follow performance to last week, some good movement plus some ineffective ones as well tired towards the end.
Watt – 5 – Inconsistent 1st touch [some good some bad] didnt give the platform to join, better movement and anticipation of clearance down the line needed.
Sunu – 5- Expected better variation than he showed, [playing on the shoulder, dribbling in-field as well as outfield] to keep fullback guessing plus playing combination with full back is needed next time. Close control was off.
Subs
Deacon 6- injected direct dribbling to the preceedings plus his ball manipulation in tight space is always a welcome especially against deep opposition.
Murphy 5 – not great service on the floor to maximise his movement
Freeman 5 – got in danger but nothing much really happened, to late to really affect the game.
@ J. Sanderson, i dont think it was attitude problem in the performance, i was more technical/tactical problems.
CBs didnt step out enough
when the diagonals was played the winger where receiving it too wide instead of receiving it tighter to the inside so that porsmouth cant shuffle across quickly.
No combination between full backs and wide players until Randall went wide & did it with Gilbert but he wasnt efficient with his final pass
No much forward passes and positional rotation wasnt simutaneous to drag opposition out of position.
from the pompey website:
But Pompey secured all three points on 76 minutes after Mark Randall had been dispossessed in the middle of the park.
That allowed Cowan-Hall to fire in a shot and although his effort was saved, BOPP was following up to drive the ball home.
Randall dispossessed – is there a reason this guy still plays for us?? I can’t understand it as surely he is NEVER going to be part of the 1st team setup – everybody can see that, right?!
@ ASHGOON, he was fouled not dispossed but the ref didnt give the free-kick.
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@ ASHGOON – every time ive seen randall in the 1st team he has looked at least a competent footballer. Very impressive at times in fact.
ASHGOON, man you should watch the game yourself and not base your opinion from others. I don’t think he was that bad today and did a pretty good pass to Freeman but freeman missed the goal completely. And Randall was in a good position in the box but Gilbert crossed the ball to the other side instead. Randall was almost unmarked and should had got the ball. And I think he was acctually fouled but I missed the reply. Evina was nowhere near what he should have been at that moment either.
I agree with supergunner about the lack of forward passes, but they didn’t have the players to do thoses passes. Deacon should have been brought earlier IMO. Frimpong did what he could but he is not a right winger.
The team clearly lacked creativity : Eastmond + Frimpong + Coquelin + Randall is not creative enough. I guess those were the players Wenger wanted to watch tonight even if they all play CM.
6 for eastmond is generous IMO
@ Sharpovic, Eastmond did get involve with some of the one-touch combination in the 1st half plus some decent movement, he also didnt play enough forward passes however positional rotation from the team wasnt done or wasnt simutaneous enough
Yeah i don’t really rate Randall too much and like you ASHGOON, can’t see him making it here but it’s true what Supergunner says, it really looked a foul to me. Stuart Robson said Bopp got the ball but that’s not the point, he came in from the back of MR and it should have been a free-kick. Still MR is too lacklustre in his play but i will say he had a half decent first half playing in CM with Frimpong out wide on the right.
Also, i bet my house we would have won this game if Deacon had started in Frimpong’s position. His direct running, skill and ability to beat two three players at a time gave us some extra umph. I realise at this stage it is all about their development but playing CM’s out wide really kills the game for us and drains the fun out.
I kinda agree with JS’s and Supergunner’s ratings but i believe it was more like this.
Szczesny – 7 – Probably our best player on the night although he didn’t have much to do. No chance for either goal. Commands his area really well, good hands, alert and has great distribution. I seriously believe he’s Arsenal’s best keeper, even now, and i know i’m not alone in thinking that.
Gilbert – 6 – Good defensive work and good positioning the majority of the time but has poor technique for an Arsenal player and should have done better with a couple of his final balls but overall, decent outing.
Bartley – 6 – Poor outing by his usual high standards. Poor heading tonight and lucky not to give away a penalty after the speedy Cowan-Hall had crept in on his blind side only to be flagged offside before being scythed down by Kyle. Only gets a 6 because he commanded the defence reasonably well apart from that and sprayed a couple of his customary crossfield balls with great execution. Fully agree with Supergunner’s assessment that he needs to step out of the back four more often to make up the numbers in midfield against teams that come to ‘park the bus’.
Miquel – 5 – I thought this before and i’ll say it now – he isn’t quite ready for this level. He’s still young and has great potential but he’s slow and hasn’t got the necessary positional sense to make up for it. At fault for their second goal. He’s very neat and tidy though.
Evina – 4 – Arsenal’s worst player on the night. Atrocious end product, poor positional sense, poor link-up play and passing. I can’t remember him making any tackles either. He just has a bit of pace and works hard. That’s all i’ll give him. I also believe he’s one of the reasons why the under 18’s are struggling a bit this year. I’ve seen him for the best part of two years now (maybe more) and even though he was rated highly before, he seems to have stalled in his development. Needs to step his game up.
Coquelin – 7 – Along with Szczesny i think he was our best player out there tonight. He seemed the most likely to give that killer through ball but he was asked to play the DM role so rarely ventured forward. When he did, he usually did to good effect. At one point he even gave a nice slide-rule ball to Watt who’s shot was saved with the rebound bouncing to Sunu who put it into an empty net. Disallowed but it didn’t look offside against Watt on the replay. Apart from that i don’t remember him giving the ball away and he even won it back on a few occasions.
Randall – 5.5 – Better than usual. That’s just how poor i believe he’s been since we went out of the CC last year. He was mostly neat in possession and seemed to be working harder too. That was when he was playing as a CM in the first half. In the second he played RW after swapping with Frimpong and looked his normal disinterested and sloppy self. He was supposed to be our most creative player out there but he gave us nothing in that respect.
Eastmond – 6 – Very neat and tidy in possession. He never panics under pressure and usually uses the ball really well. He works hard and puts himself about. He was asked to play the AM role today which is good for his overall development but not his best role, clearly. Tired towards the end.
Frimpong – 5 – I’ll give him credit for making a right go of the RW position after making his first reserves start of the season. However, he was quite poor. He made a few good tackles and worked quite hard before tiring and getting subbed off in the second half. Hasn’t got the quality to play in any sort of attacking role but has the potential to be an absolute beast of a DM. However, he needs to improve his passing accuracy, big time. He makes a right mess of the simplest passes sometimes.
Sunu – 6 – Worked really hard. Needs to be more direct sometimes though. He turns back far too much when he should just go at the full back. He’s much better on the left hand side and i see that being his main position in the future. Needs to improve his link-up play and end product but we could have another gem on our hands here. He has already improved a lot in his time at Arsenal.
Watt – 5.5 – Worst performance of the season by my fellow Hackney native. Needs to improve his first touch, movement off the ball and shielding of the ball. Has great potential but just needs to fulfil that now. Works his socks off every time and has a great winning mentality. He was neat on a couple of occasions tonight but needs to get more involved like how RVP does in the first team when he isn’t seeing that much of the ball.
Subs:
Deacon – 6 – Gave the team some gusto and direct running. Not much time to make an impact.
Murphy – 5 – Hardly touched the ball. I hope he can sort out his injury problems and get back to the player we all know he can be.
Freeman – 5 – Didn’t have much time on the field and like Murphy he hardly touched the ball but he has this great battling quality i like (like Rooney but without the dirty-bastard-ness) :)
Overall you have to give Pompey credit. They came with a game-plan and executed it. It was up to us to break them down but we couldn’t.
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arsenal don’t have creative player in the starting 11. so this formation won’t work. if merida or wilshere play in the middle, we could have control the game and final ball would have been better. instead, brady put 3 combative CM with little creativity. its a shame gilbert have very limited technical ability. his defending 1st class but his technique let him down.
Strange lineup. Without wilshere, Merida and Ramsey our reserves
lineup looks strange (Eastmond, Coquelin, Randall)
Strange lineup. Without wilshere, Merida and Ramsey our reserves
lineup looks strange (Eastmond, Coquelin, Randall)
Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!
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Go Arsenal!