Apocryphal stories were circulating after Arsenal's goalless draw away to Slavia Prague in the Champions League about die-hard Gooners channel-surfing during the game because it couldn't hold their attention. It is true that Arsenal's only attempt on goal came in the 85th minute, and considering that Arsenal had beaten the same side 7-0 a couple weeks earlier, and were just coming off league games against Liverpool and Manchester United, this game was relatively boring and Arsenal were poor by their own standards. It was played in the rain, which didn't help, but if this game had come in the summer after a couple months without football, it would have been absorbed with great interest.
Arsenal used an experimental formation, and few things whet a fanatic's appetite like an experimental formation. This was the 4-2-3-1 that France used to accommodate Zidane, with Arsene Wenger deploying Abou Diaby in the Zidane role. The experiment failed, it has to be said, but isn't necessarily doomed to always fail.
Diaby played much more as a midfileder than as a deep-lying forward, and he was heavily involved, repeatedly picking up the ball deep in the midfield and making runs into a dead-ends and losing the ball. He was never able to create anything with his teammates. Eduardo and Walcott on the wings did not get into the game. Based on their performances, you could imagine that their only instructions for their new roles was, "Stay out of the way."
Meanwhile, Diaby, in the middle, reminiscent of Patrick Viera and Inspector Gadget, was getting to everything, leaving Denilson and Gilberto little to do.
Diaby - Lots of takeaways, followed by runs that initially looked promising, but ended in giveaways (6).
Eduardo - If you're only going to get a couple touches, it would be great if they were two goals. At some point he should have said, "To hell with the pre-game instructions that I understood to mean that I should keep well out of the way: Give me the ball be-atch, this game needs a goal" (5).
Walcott - Red meat for his critics; lighlty involved, and usually brushed off the ball when he was (5).
Bendntner - At least tried to link up with Diaby and create something - abject lack of success is a concern though (6).
Deinilson - Couldn't find a way to make a useful contribution in this experimental side and had a couple giveaways that could have led to a Slavia winner. On the plus side, he did have a couple sweet slide tackles (6).
Gilberto - Couldn't get into the game. In his defense, he's the defensive midfielder, and Slavia didn't score (6).
Gallas - Suffered more than most from the wet conditions and couldn't stay on his feet, losing out a couple times to give Slavia a look at goal (6).
Song - Not a bad game, and got stronger as the game went on, and even came forward near the end to help the offense push for a goal. One sequence early in the game wouldn't have helped those with concerns about him as he conceded a corner when any other Arsenal defender would have probably conceded a throw-in at worst, and then blew his marking assignment for the corner kick (6).
Lassana Diarra - Vulnerable to long balls into the box when marking a much taller striker and his passing out of defense into midfield wasn't as good as it had been in previous appearances at right back for club and country, but the organization of his teammates didn't help (6).
Clichy - Wasn't thrown off his game too much by the rain and experimental set-up and made some strong runs forward including some late in the game trying to set up a winner (7).
Almunia - Made a save or two to earn a point for the Arsenal and send them through to the knock-out stages of the Champions League (7).
I like to see Arsenal trying a different formation and featuring different players, but the team performance will have most Arsenal supporters hoping to see the tried and true 4-4-2. Next up for the Arsenal in the Champions League is Sevilla away; a win there and they'll win the group.
2 hours ago
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