TOTL. Again. But surely not for long. This seemed destined to be a draw until Have-that sneaked in at the back post. The goal cost $65m; money well spent. More than the value of the entire Brentford team.
We waited two weeks for football to resume after another dreary international break and we had to witness a pretty dreary game. Brentford offered little and we offered just a little bit more than that.
Naturally we have to start with poor Aaron. This was like watching a public lynching. The man seemed to disintegrate before our very eyes. He literally oozed uncertainty. All his prior confidence had evaporated. This was a hollowed out Aaron. He did not seem to know whether he wanted to be Aaron in goal or a copycat Raya. Instead, he was neither. At times it was so painful to watch. This guy was, arguably, the core of the team in his first year with us; the soul of this team. Personality and leadership. And here we are now, and it was hard to watch. It was so sad.
Every time he received the ball Brentford pushed up to pressure him and he was riddled with indecisiveness. From basically complete control of a somewhat dull game, Aaron created their best opportunities. The first one was like watching, in slow motion, a trainwreck. You could see it develop but could do nothing to stop it. Thankfully though we had Rice there to save the day – and his career. If that goal had gone in it could have been terminal for Ramsdale.
Even after the first instance of dithering on the ball he then proceeded to have a mid-throw change of mind and ended up gifting the ball back to them. And all in the first half. Ironically, when Arteta brought Raya in, he famously claimed that, in addition to there being a goalkeeper rotation, he (Arteta) had often regretted not being able to change his goalkeeper during the game. This was the game in which he should have made a change because Aaron was a liability in that first half.
The second half was less painful. But then most of the time Aaron just played it long. Their no-name goalie looked to try and emulate Aaron when he nearly gifted one to Eddie. Apart from that, Aaron seemed to calm down in that second half. Which begs the question. Why did he perform like this? It’s pretty obvious. This was a disaster of Artetas making. From the moment we had the reality distortion of claiming there was a goalie rotation, Aaron quickly figured out there was no belief in him. Raya is the goalie of the future Arsenal and there is no place for him. If there was ever any doubt, then the news leaked just before the game that Arsenal will pick up the Raya option to sign him for £27m in the summer. Just in case Aaron thought he could put in a performance to show everyone that he should be the #1, AFC managed to further undermine his dwindling confidence.
This, in all likelihood, will be the last time we see Arron play for Arsenal. I don’t know I could take another performance like this. That first error was so egregious – it’s just remarkable that Brentford could not manage to score. Against any decent team we’d have been 1-0 down. And you know that every other team will now target him. Of course, I feel so sorry for Aaron. He did not deserve this. He’s been undermined by our own staff and put in a lose-lose situation. And, Aaron lost. Next year I could see him playing in goal for Brentford.
At least though we had Rice. He is the fulcrum of this team. He is the difference. Saka and Martinelli continue to create down the wings, Jesus flutters around. The defense remains solid – even though they were barely tested today. But the difference compared to last year is Rice. When you think back to the bleating about the size of the transfer fee, you now realize how fortunate we are. He provides the platform for everything good about this team. And, as Super Rice, he can also cover for Aaron and clear balls off the line. Today, again, he was the best player on the pitch.
Saka’s performance has waned of late. As much as a love Tomi, I think the absence of White has impacted Saka. The balance on our right is just not there without White. Tomi is an effective defender and a talented player but he does not have the attacking, overlapping instincts of White. And I think that makes it harder for Saka to find space as White is not there to drag one of the defenders away from him.
Odegaard is also suffering from the lack of White. As captain, he seems to be able to convey Arteta’s message on the pitch but he’s not really asserted himself. And did not today. Most of our creativity came down our left. Zinny seemed to be a little bit less inverted than normal. But he feed Martinelli, who looked our most promising outlet. And then Trossard continued to float around the pitch. He was not always able to track back but does have a good rapport with our two Brazilians.
As quiet as Saka was though he created both instances in which we got the ball in the net. The first one, I suppose, was off-side, but by a toe-nail. I just don’t understand why it took VAR so long to rule it out. It really does not inspire confidence when it takes this long; it’s feels random. Once you saw the lines, it made more sense. But why can’t this be automated. It really does take away the fundamental enjoyment of watching games and celebrating any goal when you’re left in suspended animation as the grinch of VAR runs its eye over every facet of a goal.
Thankfully in the second instance the goal stood. Have-that finally had his moment of glory. Saka had swung over a few of those crosses in the second half for Martinelli. Each time there was a little panic in their defense. But Martinelli is not going to win headers. The substitutions worked again today. Eddie, though he made a few mistakes was more involved that Jesus. And Have-that linked up play well and then delivered the most important header of the game; care of Saka.
As Brentford offered nothing, we deserved to nab the three points. But it was a little painful to watch. Especially with Aaron. At the games end our players all flooded around him. I think mainly out of sympathy. He is clearly loved by everyone at Arsenal. Apart that is from our goalkeeper coach and Arteta. I think the also realized this was likely his last game for us.
So, we return to the top of the table. And yet we’ve still not found our rhythm of last year. Today we were just a little ponderous and lacking an established pattern of play. Unlike last year, we have the defensive solidarity we lacked but maybe at the expense of our creativity. And, unlike last year, no-one can accuse us of peeking to early. If we were only able to get Partey back to then have our ideal midfield of Partey-Rice-Odergaard. But I suspect we won’t ever see that happen. But at least for the next two games we know we won’t have to suffer watching Vieira.
It’s important for us to be able to eke out wins such as this. Away at Brentford has been the type of venue where, in prior years, we’d have lost let along alone drop two points. Today was another sign of our incremental progress. Less scintillating but equally important. We dominated for large periods of this game. And, in that last 15 minutes, once the substitutions had been made, it was wave after wave of attacks. It just never looked like we’d score. Until Have-that turned up at the back-post.
Before looking ahead though let’s review the only item of significance from the last two weeks. How is it possible for the inept FA (along with their incompetent PMGOL) to deduct 10 points from Everton? Are they too stupid to realize the impact of this decision? How we will all now naturally look in aghast at the clear distortions at Man City and Chelsea and struggle to understand how it is they are avoiding any retribution for their financial sins. Of course, their cases are separate and distinct. And City have not admitted to them. All 115 of them. But, surely the FA must realize we now expect some action on this front. To have set the threshold at 10 points and combined with the speed of this decision has now created a rod for their own back regarding these two other teams. The longer this now drags on the more the reputation of the FA will get dragged into disrepute. Given that their reputation is already a shambles if they delay too long or capitulate to City, they will end up with the same credibility as FIFA.
I feel a little sorry for Everton. Not that I’m against them getting relegated. But their sin was a mere £20m whereas City – and Chelski – have engineered financial doping at the most extreme levels. Maybe the impending Independent Government Regulator is finally causing the FA to finally focus on these cases. But if Everton are the only team penalized then it really will be beyond a joke and will just make a mockery of the corruption in our game – which must be, finally, rooted out.
In the meantime, we have Lens during the week. It would be nice to win this one and finally put the group stage to rest. As we need to rest Rice and others. There are too many important games ahead and too few players that we can truly rely on. With Partey and ESR unavailable, we need to protect the spine of our team. And the best way to do that is to be able to rest players for the final group game. At least we won’t have to suffer any stupid international games until March. We can focus on the league. We need to watch out for Liverpool as well as City. But this will, as last year, depend on our performances in March and beyond. So, we have time to find our rhythm. But in the meantime, it’s sure nice to be back where we belong. TOTL.
-LB7