Well, that was fun. Or not. I’m ambivalent. Yes we lost. But the good news is we don’t have to worry about a stupid competition we never seem to win and in which we always seem to pick up impactful injuries.
If we have played for 900 minutes I don’t think we’d have scored. Some players were simply awful (hmm, I wonder who – more on that later).
It’s a good experience for our younger players and gives us a chance to see who has the potential and how flatters to deceive (unfortunately more the latter then the former). It also gives the fringe players time playing time. But, honestly, after tonight’s viewing that are certain players who just don’t deserve any (hmm, I wonder who).
There are some reasons to be happy though (I think). Iwobi looked very sharp. He’s final decision-making is still lacking. But, at least, he brought energy and drive to his play. He tried to create. It was just that certain players (hmm, I wonder who) were static and this provided no options.
Also, Maitley-Niles-whatever does look like a good prospect. Calm on the ball and skillful. There’s no expectation that he’s a full-back but he did OK when he came in. I do like the look of him. He is the beneficiary of this type of competition and now he’s going to get even more reduced playing time.
Chaka can. Elneny can’t. Our momentum changed with this enforced change. Elneny is a steady Eddy but we already had one sideways and backwards passer of the ball in the team (Hmm, I wonder who). So though it’s not good to see him limp off we improved once Xhaka came on. He’s more direct and picks out better forward passes. Yes. Actual passes that move the ball forward. We can’t afford though to see him injured. The balance in midfield was way better with him and the Coq. That should be our base pending Santi’s return.
I was not impressed with Jenkinson today. He was out of position for the first goal and was at fault with his distribution and strength (or lack of) for the second goal. Along, of course, with a certain other player. Jenkinson seems like a player that plays better when he’s got better players around him – he rises to their level but here he sank to the level of BigEars. Either way he can’t be proud of his performance and we need Bellerin to heal more quickly. In fact, we need some Spanish magic potion.
I was not impressed either with our goalie. Maybe he’s good enough to be our number 3, and I know he’s young, but he feels like another Flappyanski. Not that that’s so bad – just not good enough for us.
Overall our first half play though was so turgid. So much sideways movement and no incisive passing. All so slow. We dominated possession without any clear idea as to what we wanted to do with the ball. Lucas was way off his game. He was very poor tonight. But, given his recent return from injury that’s not too surprising. He needs a lot more playing time. There is no doubt that he’ll never be at the Alexis level of play but he’s certainly better than he demonstrated this evening.
It’s quite a feat that I’ve not written this season about what I would have bet anyone I would have by late November. At season start I would have sworn blind that I would be bemoaning the inconsistency of Theo, the inadequacies of the Ox and the incompetence of Ramsey. Tonight I get to correct one of these three.
Who would have guessed that this would be the night for Ramsey to have one of his all time worst performances an Arsenal shirt. This performance harkens back to a few years ago. I really didn’t expect this one today. He was playing in his preferred position. Maybe he thought the competition and the supporting cast was beneath him. On the evidence, today I think the others could feel that way about him.
Where to start? He’s positional play was terrible. In the second half, how many times was he positioned so close to Xhaka that he could not receive the ball and help our movement. He did not move around to be in a position to offer an option. He’s overall passing was predictable, slow and passive. I don’t have the stats (of course) but I don’t need them. He passed the ball sideways and backwards for most of the game. And then when he was on the ball he held on to it for too long. He took any momentum out of our play. He’s passes we’re off and his shooting was pathetic. His movement was limited and his vision was nonexistence. Apart from that he was fantastic.
This was his chance to shine in the Ozil position. Unfortunately, someone forget to plug him in. He was lack-luster and slow. He was the most experienced player we had out there. This was his chance to lead the team and he failed miserably. In fact, he looked lost. He wandered around the pitch but did nothing. The best plays we had in the first half was when Iwobi drifted into the central midfield position. But then again Ramsey would be standing their blocking any progress. And of course, like Jenkinson, he was at fault for the breakdown that lead to their second goal. He has no speed to recover nor did he show any desire to recover. In the second half Xhaka tried to drive us forward but Ramsey was just not linking up the play. We missed a number 10 today (or a number 8). It was though good to see this in a match that does not mean that much. This should put to rest the idea that he can play the Ozil position. The problem is I don’t know what position he can play. Because he can’t play on the wings either. If you consider the experience of Ramsey – captain of his national team, player at important international tournaments – and then objectively try and identify that player on the pitch today, I think you’d have picked 10 others first (and most from Southampton). It’s very worrying that at this stage of his Arsenal career, that he’s not made any progress. Maybe we should have sent him to Bournemouth and kept Jack. Anyway, I pray that against West Ham he’s on the bench.
Did anyone notice whether Adelaide was on the pitch? I barely noticed him. Again, I know he’s a youngster. But this was a rare chance for him to step up and lay claim to more playing time. He also failed. Again, I don’t mind too much. It’s not the end of the world. He was never going to be a mainstay of our team this year. It’s just – on his part – a wasted opportunity.
I was not overly impressed with our central defenders today. I thought Holding could have done better on their second goal. Also, some of his distribution was off. He needs to keep to more simple, short passes and not try that long ball stuff. Beside this he was not too bad. I still like him and think he’s and upgrade of Chambers. BigEars though is a worry. There is so much to like about him. But he just seems off in his judgement (though not as off as Ramsey). He losses the ball in important places and gets caught out of position. But, maybe, for a 3rd or 4th central defender he’s not so bad.
What a penis the ref was today. It seemed like for every mistime tackle he gave a yellow card. He was unquestionably not the reason we lost but he was still very annoying. Watch out for Kevin Friend. He will definitely disrupt some important games in the future – just hopefully not ours.
BTW, it should be said that Southampton were the better team and deserving of their victory. They were far more direct going forward. They had pace and quicker interplay.
So I don’t really care about the result. Honest. I’m not too upset. It was just so boring and predictable to watch (until Xhaka came on) and then slightly depressing to see us waste so many chances. It does tell us though that we really are dependent – squad-wise – on a couple of key players; our superstars. If they had played we would have won. But that’s not good enough. We should have expected more from our senior players. Lucas and, of course, Ramsey.
But I’ll take the reduced fixture list and the optimism that Iwobi, Xhaka and Nileyperson performance generated.
– LB7