Arsenal lost yesterday due to two horrific, glaring, awful, facepalming, grade-school-level mistakes. This we know. But what gets lost in that is that Arsenal actually played well for about 60 of the 90 minutes - I'm not a guy that takes solace in moral victories, but the game wasn't as awful as the two goals that were given up made it feel. Losing blows, don't get me wrong, but I'm much calmer now that I have had a chance to think about it a little bit.
And it was as a result of said think that we decided Carl Jenkinson was the Man Of The Match from Sunday. In a game where it was really easy to point out everything that the Arsenal defense did wrong, Carl Jenkinson gets the Faint Praise Trophy as "guy who didn't really do anything all that badly". He wasn't stellar, but considering that the rest of the Arsenal defense made Arsenal look like a fifth-grade Saturday morning YMCA team, "not stellar" and "didn't make any huge mistakes" are good enough to earn Carl our prestigious award.
Carl tried. He really did. He tried to keep things organized, he tried to shut down attacks, but when you're the only guy trying, it doesn't work so well. So here's to you, Carl - next time out, may the rest of the Arsenal defense try as hard as you did on Sunday.
Your certificate, commemorative coin, and TSF beer cozy are in the mail.