Match Review: Arsenal 1-0 QPR
Just another routine week at QPR. Once again they looked like a half decent team that can compete at Premier League level for much of the game, only to go on and lose through being their own worst enemies.
The form book suggested that for the first time this season, Arsenal were having one of their wobbly spells where people start to question Arsene Wenger and his signings. Unexpected defeats at Norwich away and at home to Schalke will have given the R's side cause for optimism and there was genuine belief among the travelling support that they could take something back across London at 5pm on Saturday evening if they played as they had done in some of their better moments this season. And they really should have done, because Arsenal were here for the taking. And surprise, surprise, they only have themselves to blame for not doing that...
The game began with fairly even possession - not something many teams achieve against Arsenal on their own patch! But QPR's passing game has been one of the few things to take heart from this season; the midfield can push it around quite nicely at times. Most of the R's play was deliberately down the right hand side, which Hughes had clearly identified as a chink in the Arsenal armour, given Andre Santos' inability to defend and tendency to maraud into and hover in the opposition half. However, this tactic was blighted by Jose Bosingwa's dreadful delivery into the box, Bobby Zamora being in the wrong places at the wrong time and unable to win a header when he was and the general shite that Shaun Wright-Phillips produces. Quite how the latter manages to continue to be in Mark Hughes' first team plans when it is so blindingly obvious that he can't take men on, cross or shoot, is just unfathomable.
For the home side, there was the welcome sight of Jack Wilshere on the Haemorrhoids Stadium pitch for the first time in 17 months and his every touch (some quite impressive actually) was greeted by a cheer in the otherwise library-like arena. Lukas Podolski also impressed early on with some skilful touches and powerful runs, and the Gooners did test the R's keeper on a couple of occasions. Cesar made a few nervy saves, parrying on a couple of occasions but fortunately into safe areas. All in all, it was an even and fairly uneventful first half which, given how chaotic first halves have been for QPR defensively this season, was good news. Disappointingly, though, for all their decent defending and possession, QPR hadn't carved out any clear-cut opportunities, which reaffirmed the story of their season in front of goal so far.
Despite SWP's best efforts to replicate the goal QPR conceded here last year (where he played a stray pass to Van Persie and you can guess the rest), the R's held out thanks to the heroics of a now well occupied Julio Cesar. Arsenal just didn't look like scoring and were clearly annoyed by the fact that they weren't in control (as QPR were seeing plenty of the ball, just not doing a lot with it). This frustration clearly got the better of Olivier Giroud who took out Armand Traore's bad leg with a cynical foul (I reckon he knew that he could wipe the glass man out with a tackle like that).
But then, just when the Arsenal frustration was at its peak and the game looked as though it would fizzle out for a creditable away point for the Hoops, defensive suicide was committed. I've warned in previous match reviews that Stephane Mbia looks like he has it in him to be as mental as Samba Diakite and this week my worst fears were realised when incredibly and inexplicably, after winning a free kick, he elected to kick out at Thomas Vermaelen. Unbelievable! It seems in recent weeks we've crept back into our old ways which blighted the early part of the Mark Hughes era with a series of sendings off and now we go into a crucial run of what you might call 'winnable' fixtures (well, Reading at home, Stoke away and Southampton at home is not quite as daunting as some of our early games) with injuries and suspensions we could really have done without.
The sending off galvanised Arsenal and suddenly Rangers were under siege. Cesar was producing Houdini-esque miracles between the sticks to keep them at bay but eventually parried one shot too many to an onrushing (and offside) Mikel Arteta, who, after heading an initial effort against the bar, was on hand to tap home the rebound beyond the helpless R's custodian who hadn't had time to recover from the initial wonder-save he made. This was a poor decision by the officials but I'm sure had this one not been given, they would still have found a way through the fragile R's defence. Hughes bizarrely went on to claim that the goal changed the game, but to me it was clear that he only has one idiot to blame for the latest in a catalogue of individual errors.
Amazingly, there was still time for QPR to enjoy their best three chances of the game, two in one-on-one situations with Vito Mannone, who had had a very quiet afternoon up to now. It seems to me that the Superhoops have developed a bit of a habit of turning up the heat and actually taking risks after going a goal behind - they did so against West Ham and West Brom and attempted to do it again here. The first of the trilogy was spurned by Esteban Granero, who dragged his shot wide when all around him expected him to put the ball away after being allowed to escape the attentions of the Arsenal back line. The second was from substitute Jamie Mackie, who must have had the famous goal he scored at Derby County in 2010 on his mind as he weaved his way through the Arsenal defence, only to hit the ball straight at the onrushing Mannone. The third golden chance was an excellent free kick from Granero which had the keeper scrambling but ended up hitting the side netting. On reflection, if any of those had gone in then it would have been a deserved point, but only in the sense that Arsenal were no better than QPR on the day.
Still, it's never dull supporting QPR and you just don't know what's going to happen next - but you can at least say with some certainty that they will press the self destruct button at some point in any given game. If you're reading Sparky, I've two things to recommend: 1) Anger management classes for the whole squad and 2) Beat Reading or you're getting the tin tack...
Man of the Match: There was one stand out performance in the QPR side here: Julio Cesar. But for his heroics at various points in the game, especially after the R's went down to ten men, the score could have been a lot higher. You still have to wonder what the hell he was thinking when he put pen to paper at Loftus Road.
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