February 19th – Arsenal 2 Brentford 1

That’s how it goes when you don’t have COVID. And it’s not the first game of the season away against a newly promoted team. Compare this team to that that we put out. Night and day. And it showed today even if the scoreline flattered them.  Even with Jon Moss as the referee, there was little angst. Of course, there were no penalties for us but then we only received one yellow. And no red cards either. So, that’s what it’s like to finish the game with eleven players. And with three well deserved and well earned three points.

We should have scored in the first half and, in terms of timing, fortunate that we scored early in the second half. ESR was involved in the first half but was not penetrating enough. In contrast to Martinelli, he plays deeper and but works back better. It’s when he – and Saka – start to drift along our frontline when our creativity improves. Though it also felt that Tierney was more involved in the creative side today. He actually passed the ball forwards on a number of occasions. But that first goal was the game changer. Whereas we’d seen Odegaard – who was generally bright, lively and excellent today (against mediocre opposition it has to be said – and there, I’ve said it) spurn the chance to shoot and we’d seen Cigarette manage to stray offside for our disallowed goal – ESR was direct and confident and resulted in a great goal – even if their goalkeeper could have done better.

BTW, remember a couple of years back when we were looking to buy him before we picked up a random Icelandic goalie instead? I’m glad we left him where he was. Too many poor passes and not real presence. Whereas in our goal Ramsdale continues to lead that defense and even if one or two passes were dubious there was a number of long passes to ESR that were outstanding. But back to ESR and Saka. How energizing are these two? They demonstrated the lack of fear that seems to be overwhelming Cigarette. I’ve always been a believer in Cigarette. But I fear now he’s decaying rapidly right in front of our eyes. Today was one of the worst performances I’d seen him put in. His touch was awful, his possession was limited and his inability to score is undermining this team. Today his play defined his role – he has become our own false 9. We now play without a real center-forward but just choose to give that number of a person to randomly occupy the space a center-forward could occupy if they were in fact a center-forward. Arteta has not just emulated but transcended his mentor Pep. Arsenal have now taken the concept of a false 9 to a whole new level. None of this placing a creative attacking midfield player into a slightly withdrawn role. Nope, just put Cigarette out there and have him produce nothing and miss any chance that comes his way.

Within 40 minutes I wanted to see Eddie out there. That’s the definition of going out of the frying pan into the fire. Which, given ESRs performance, leads into an interesting conundrum. With Martinelli coming back from suspension, does ESR return to the bench? Todays performance argues for replacing Cigarette with Martinelli. Arteta won’t do that. That would remove one of our three grown-ups from the team. And at least one of the other two will get sent off in the next game and that would leave us with a child care issue for the remaining players. I think there is some FA rule about leaving unattended kids playing, unsupervised, in such a large space. So, I fear our False 9 will continue. When Eddie came on with the armband Xhaka refused to take it, so we have a false 9 and a false captain.

Brentford were boring – though not in a Burnley way – just devoid of creativity or threat. Nonetheless we handled them perfectly. Out midfield was strong. This was one of the easiest and strongest performances from Partey today. He even managed to last the entire 90 odd minutes. His passing was constructive and his tackling was perfect – and no yellow card. Xhaka, alongside him, was barely tested and seemed to coast through linking up well with Tierney and ESR.

The center-backs, like Ramsdale, were barely tested. Gabriel of course had to get one yellow for a last ditch challenge but overall they remain a pillar of defensive stability. Contrast that with the first game of the season! Alongside them Cedric remains passable but only barely. This was not his worst game – a low bar indeed – but he has a nasty habit of drifting backwards to be the deepest in our offside line of defense. We saw this against Wolves and again today. It was him that kept them onside for their token goal. But too often he drops too deep and then keeps their center-forwards onside and undermines the high line of the rest of the defense. Hopefully Tommy will be pushing Cedric back to the bench in our upcoming games. Better opposition will expose that weak link.

It’s a shame we went into containment mode after 70 minutes and allowed them some space to grow into the game. But even then I can’t remember Ramsdale having an actual shot to save. And then it became time for our favourite, most expensive player to make an appearance. Which, conveniently lead to Saka swapping sides and then dispatching our second goal in somewhat similar circumstances to ESR. Though, in this instance with a little more authority. It makes for nice headlines I’m sure – the two kids from our academy scoring both goals. It’s not fair to say the two were the difference today. With Odegaard, Partey and Xhaka we clearly controlled the game. It is fair though to say they were the only two who looked likely to score for us. They are our top goalscorers now. Pretty amazing fact. And as the season progresses, jut a little worrying.

It again highlights the paucity of goals from our main striker. But maybe it’s time to rename that position. Technically he would remain a forward by virtue of being further run the pitch. In cricket, he would be called the non-striker – up the other end of the pitch as the no-facer to the bowler – so that does not work. Maybe we could call him our Misser or our Mister Misser. Our double M. Our own M&M if you will. At some point, but surely next season, we’ll have a player who can feed off all the crosses that are put into the box. Someone who can win a header and/or even shoot on target. But a man can dream, right?

Another week then to idle away until our next game. The rhythm of this season is so different given our lack of European football, COVID cancellations and these annoying international breaks – of which we still have one more to suffer through. In a funny way, the lack of mid-week football allows time for other parts of life to creep in. But, as we know, that’s really not a healthy or good thing for anyone. No football does not equate to a real life. But it does mean that the tension, fear and worry is at least not present mid-week. And it allow our players to rest up in anticipation of their next red card or missed goalscoring opportunity. And it allows me time to rest up my weary fingers from all this typing. Maybe I can find a substitute typist. Or seek a postponement because of my other European obligations. Or maybe I’ll be called up to some international team of lost souls. Nope. Much better to stay focused on the next game. Which, it turns out, is next Thursday against Wolves. So, in fact, not an entire week before the next one. But, surely a match in which we’ll have a player sent off. And then we’ll watch to see how much they celebrate any points they might gain against us. I used to quick like that team. But after all their moaning and crying after the game at their place I developed quite a strong dislike for them. Not up there with United and certainly not with another team in London, but a strong disdain nonetheless. This will be a game unlike today. Where we will need someone to help score goals. So, lets wrap up Gabriel and be thankfully we’ll have Martinelli back. Now I’ll just telepathically try and convince Arteta to leave Cigarette on the bench for this one.

-LB7