Month: October 2024

I decided to take 24 hours to absorb this one. I figured it might just make for a more coherent, rationale dissection of yesterdays match. I’m not sure it’s made much of an difference.

Truth be told after the 30^th minute I found the game pretty pedestrian. We can debate the red card but, fundamentally, I want to be watching game where each team has elven players on the pitch. I’d been looking forward to this game for 2 weeks. I was excited to watch football that I care about. Where I care about the players, and care about the outcome. None of this stupid international crap between teams I don’t really care about and with players I consider the opposition.  But no, instead I was made to suffer 60 minutes of an unbalanced match that had a completely different trajectory because of the red card.

Was it a red card? Well Rob Jones did not think so. I didn’t either. It was a yellow. But, unfortunately, I can see why it was upgraded to a red. Not that I agree with it but I can see the argument. For me though, a red card is the ultimate sanction and should be used sparingly. My only grievance with this one is that VAR intervened in a situation where it was not a clear and obvious error. Yes, maybe it was a red card – there are plenty of people who thought it was. But the on-field referee decided it was just a yellow. So sure, you could look at it and think it could be a red card but how did this rise to the level of being a clear and obvious error?

Obviously this was the game changer. Instead of sending off Saliba the referee should have sent off Trossard. What was he thinking? This was one of those games where nothing he did came off. But, as we know, he does have a tendency to be over elaborate in our half of the pitch – often weakly giving up possession. But this pass was beyond foolhardy. Only he knows what he was thinking.

On the other side of the pitch we had Sterling instead of Saka. Look, there is no-one that can replace Saka. Sterling is, I suppose, an adequate replacement. But we saw a few occasions in the first half where he had chances to take on players in their box and put a shot in. Instead he dithered and passed off to others. Saka would have skinned them. By way of symmetry, he was replaced – as was Saka against City – after the sending off.

So lets look at this game as a match of two parts – before and after the red card. Before, we seemed somewhat slow out of the blocks. We were adjusting to Merino being on the right alongside Sterling with White at right back. In other words, a complete change to that part of our team which, most recently, has been the most creative part of the team. It took time for the team to find their balance and to control the game.

On the left Calafiori again shone brightly. He is dominant and impressive but always with the odd misstep. Rice was drifting around and Partey was actually quite impressive. But we were just about finding our gears when Trossard intervened. Saliba is a young super-star and we have to remember his lack of experience (on a relative basis). In hindsight he should realize that not brushing his arm/shoulder and getting a red is way more expensive than not breathing on the player and allowing them to proceed unimpeded. Even if Evanilson had managed to control the ball, there was still White to come back and defend. And even then he’d have to get past Raya and get the ball on target. And, even if he had managed to score, we’d have 60 minutes with a full eleven on the pitch to turn it around. As we have done many times this season.

Post red-card it was an initial onslaught. But unlike the City game where we dug in – to protect a lead – here we continued to play. After half-time and some internal adjustments, we looked more competitive. Bournemouth had no shots on target and missed one clear chance but overall we were not struggling under a constant onslaught. At this stage I could easily seeing this be a 0-0 draw. And something I could have accepted.

Unfortunately the substitutions changed the game. Not that, at the time, I complained about either. I was happy to see the end of Trossard; he still looked a little shell shocked. Martinelli immediately brought energy to the left-hand side. We were able to break more quickly. And then with a little press on their obnoxious goalie, the ball ended up with Merino who then set up Martinelli. Even with the red card, this was arguably the most important play of the game. And, even though Martinelli has rediscovered his scoring boots, he proceeded to fluff his lines. This was a horrible effort from him. It was just plain poor. It’s what you would have expected (and saw) from their forwards. He has to put this one away. If he did, the entire game would have shifted. Instead he wasted the most important chance we had.

That was the moment where everything changed. The inevitable next event was from them to score from a corner. To rub salt in the wound you could point out that Martinelli got caught between which of two players he should mark and he made the wrong choice. But this was also the consequence of having one less player on the pitch.

And then our other substitute, Kiwior, made the next mistake that lead to a penalty. And that’s game over. Two substitutes and two key mistakes. At last though we got to see another 10 minutes of Nwaneri. This boy is a joy to watch. It’s wonderful to see how fearless he is. He replaced Merino. This was a difficult game for Merino given the circumstances. But you could see flashes of what he brings to this team. He can defend and pass the ball out of tight positions. And he has the vision to create – for example, the chance for Martinelli. Merino, once he’s fully adjusted to the pace of the Premier League, will prove to be a great addition to this team.

In amongst the wreckage of this defeat there were some impressive performances.  This was one of the best games Partey has played in a long time. His distribution was nearly perfect. He did not dally on the ball in dangerous positions and helped to create chances. Alongside him Rice, who moved slightly backwards after the red card, played much more a box to box rule and drove the team forward. He looks so impressive. And then Gabriel, without his partner, took on more responsibility and marshalled the defense as best he could.

White was clearly off the pace. Twice, in the second half he was cleanly skinned. You don’t often see that. He’s been out for a while, and it showed today. Consequently, we were way more vulnerable down our right. Every time they took him on, I held my breath. Hopefully he uses this game and the next to find match fitness. Because we’ll need him. We sorely missed Timber today. Let’s hope he is back for the Liverpool match because I suspect White will have to move to center-half. You can’t move Calafiori there – not with Salah as their winger. And I don’t think you can play Kiwior.

Of course, we need Saka back as well. But, as we know, it’s a long season and we have to protect him. It should not go unnoticed that this is yet another cost of these aggravating International breaks. Not only do they consistently disrupt the rhythm of the season. They also cause harm to our best players. First we lose Odegaard (remember him) and now Saka. And I’m sure both will regain fitness just in time to be recalled to their respective squads for the next international break. It really is a ludicrous situation. Aside from the jeopardy, I want to watch the EPL each weekend. At some point they just have to move these pointless matches to the post season. But, because of the corruption at FIFA we know this won’t happen.

Talking about international breaks. We now have a Nazi managing the English team. How funny is that. After waiting for 60 years to win the WC, it could be a Kraut enabling England to win a WC after only winning it at the expense of the defunct West Germany. How nicely ironic. My hope had always been that Pep would leave City and take this role in the summer. I don’t have a profound reaction to a non-English manager. But at least take the best one. And the one that helps us (here, of course, I mean Arsenal) the most.

Back to the Champions league now. At least we will have Saliba available for that game. And let’s hope we can save Timber and Saka for the Liverpool game. I know all points are created equally, but this Liverpool match is a statement match. We can’t afford to lose this one – this was true before the Bournemouth game and is still true today. And we’ll need our strongest 11. And let’s hope it remain 11. Three red cards in 8 games is not sustainable. There is no way we will win the league with that type of record. Of course, all of these reds were borderline. Let’s hope the rules are being equally applied to all teams. No conspiracy theory here – yet. Let’s just hope that Van Dyke can get sent off today.

So, it’s not the end of the world – that might happen on Nov 5^th (and I don’t mean Guy Fawkes). We lost one game. We knew we would lose a game albeit not this one. But we have plenty of matches ahead of us. We just need to get some of players back and not let them go off to the international breaks. And we need Martinelli to consistently put chances away.

-LB7

This was Arteta’s game. His initial selection and then his substitutions. Without Southampton taking the lead I’m not sure we’d have won this game. It was only once we brought on Martinelli and Trossard that we finally we looked like our true selves.

I’d been looking forward to this game. It seemed ideal for us going into the useless international break. Southampton look like cannon fodder and we after the impressive PSG performance we were bound to slice them apart.

Yet when I saw that team sheet I recoiled. I hate the idea of Partey being right back. I would have switched Calafiori to the right and started Kiwior on the left. But that’s why I’m not the manager. From the onset we totally dominated. Saka was positively sizzling. They had to move over more players to cover him. On the other wing Sterling settled in quite nicely.

That left Jesus in the middle. And that’s where our issues began and ended. He was so ill-suited to this role. He barely held his position and was never in the right place at the right time. And nearly every decision he made was the wrong one. He’d pass when he should shot and shot when he should pass. He can’t score goals and can’t link up. Sure, we know he works very hard but, by now, all our players do that.

So many times in the first half Saka would create opportunities and he was never in the right position. With Partey at right back I thought that would be our weakness. Instead it was Jesus. Throughout that first half we controlled the game but actually created only a few half chances.

I suppose I understand Partey at right back. Missing the wonderful Timber and White still being in the stands. And I suppose Arteta had to give minutes to his peripheral players such as Jesus. In the last two years it’s the lack of rotation that has ultimately cost us. But today showed that Jesus is not really a viable alternative. He over complicates every situation. Refusing to play the simplest, cleanest pass. In the first half, during a rare moment of pressure from Southampton, the ball broke to him by the half-way line. As he turned, Saka made a run from deep on the right-hand side and was wide-open by the halfway line. But, No Jesus had to take an extra touch and slow the game down. Another missed opportunity. Anyway, he’ll surely pick up his regular knee injury soon.

Now I’ve exorcised my Jesus demon I can turn to every other part of this game. There was so much to enjoy. We know that Saka has, a long time ago, established himself as the first name on the team sheet. But surely Have-that must be the second. Today these two were shinning lights on the pitch. This was one of Sakas most dominate performances of the season. He created two goals and scored our third. He terrorized their left side of the pitch. And Have-that, operating in the Odegaard position, was involved continuously. He has developed into a confident player who drives us forward. And he scored the most important goal. That first goal was just so well taken. And it changed the entire game.

Somehow before that Southampton managed to take the lead. Maybe Saliba should have been closer to Archer but it was a well taken goal. But clearly they did not deserve to win this game. Instead it woke up Arteta. And immediately the introduction of Trossard, Martinelli and Merino rejuvenated Arsenal. The worst thing Southampton did was score. Until then there was a chance they could sneak a goal. Once these changes were made we rediscovered our fluency in the last third.

Though Sterling was half way decent Martinelli added that extra pace and energy. And Trossard and Marintelli enabled Have-that to move further forward. Oh, my last Jesus comment. Right from the start of the second half when Sterling won the ball back in their half and charged forward. It was Jesus that took the ball off his feet. And then proceed to shoot meekly at Aaron in goal. OK, no more Jesus (for the moment).

What a transformation to the team though. The energy flowed and Saka finally had people alongside him of a similar caliber. Those last 30 minutes where what I’d been waiting for post PSG. As soon as they arrived it just seemed inevitable that we’d turn the match around.

I don’t understand Southampton. They are just so naïve. Why do they play the way they do? From the first minute they insisted of playing out from the back. Arsenal are one of the best pressing teams. And they just don’t have the talent or skill to pull this off. Countless times they would lose the ball under pressure in dangerous positions. Yet they just continued to do the same thing. I’m sure we’ll heard the usual crap about how this is their style, their identity. But this will, as night follows day, result in them being relegated.

This is what Burnley did with Kompany last year. Until the last 3 months when they reverted to a sensible team. Southampton can’t survive playing like this. And certainly not against us. Without the skilled players to execute this approach they can’t possibly succeed. If we had started with the players that finished the game (you know what I mean – no Jesus) we’d have won this game before half-time.

It was nice to see Aaron back in goal. But now I’ve emotionally recovered from his departure, you really could see the difference between him and Raya. Sure he had a kamakazi defense in front of him but his passing is just not the same. Nor his control of the game at the same level. He just lacks that calmness. I can see it now. It just took me a year or two to accept.

Another benefit of the initial substitutions was that Rice dropped into a more defense role. It suits him so much better. He would be my fourth name on the team sheet, after Saliba. But I like the look of a Rice and Merino partnership. And behind them we saw yet another impressive performance from Calafiori. He really looks a special player. Sure, he got beaten twice by Dibble (what a classic English name that is) but his forward play and roaming around the field is to additive to this team. And then there’s his physical presence and skill level. We are so lucky to have added him to this team. He is going to a genuine star.

And we had the surprise of seeing Tommy come on towards the end to replace Partey. Again, I can’t believe that, not once, did Southampton try and use their pace to run against Partey. Partey really played quite well but they never once tried to take him on in our defensive area. We also saw what the lack of Timber and White meant. There was not a single overlap for Saka today which makes Saka’s performance even more impressive. All his passing was with Have-that. Partey can’t overlap. He can’t speed forward or backwards. He’s really like one of my older cars that basically had two speeds and limited milage capability. But to be fair it wasn’t him that chose to play right-back; that was on Arteta.

The team that ended this match looked like the real Arsenal. With both full-backs in place and a midfield that controlled the game we finally had players up front who could take advantage of the opportunities that were created. Did I mentioned how good Saka was today. He was unplayable – and clearly enjoyed himself. Everything good ran through him. Well, until Martinelli fired up the left hand side. Another goal for him. Hopefully his rediscovering his past form that we’ve missed this year.

So we enter into another international break in a great position with a great team in place. This team is better than last year. The addition of Calafiori and Merino and the return of Timber might be the final pieces. We now have an established spine of Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Have-that and Saka. And we can add Calafiori and Timber to that. That’s 75% of the team accounted for.

And that’s all without Odegaard. Going into this run of games who’d have thought we survive his absence with this run of results. Certainly not me. Arteta rejigged our tactics and approach to compensate for his injury and we’ve still thrived. I’m sure we still won’t see Odegaard for another month or so.

So, let’s hope during this international break, that no-one – in particular Saka – pick up any more injuries. I don’t see why England need to play him for 90 minutes in both games. They already know he’s irreplicable and one of the first names on their team-sheet. So protect him, please. It’s just a shame Brazil don’t pick and play Jesus.

Now we have to find distractions for the next two weeks before we can resume our battle for supremacy in this league. But so far, we’re looking very impressive. We’ve matured, developed a backbone and improved this team. Arteta – aside from his initial selections today – has continued to develop as a manager. I’ve mentioned this before. But he’s noticeably more calm on the sidelines. He has more faith and belief in his own team. He is, like us, a supporter. And he sees what we see. A team that can genuinely compete. That’s not too shabby.

-LB7