via Arsenal Instagram
We did it. Arsenal finally broke their 5-year ‘WE CAN’T WIN AWAY AT A BIG 6 CLUB’ hoodoo (29 games). The last time we won away at United in the league was 14 years ago, I was like, 8 years old or something?! Make no mistake, that wasn’t a lucky win, that was the performance we’ve been waiting for in a big game. Arteta is the first Arsenal manager to win his first two games against United since Herbert Chapman. A super day for Gooners all over the world.
The starting 11 saw quite the reaction on the cyber terraces.
‘HE NEEDS TO GET OUT’
‘TOO NEGATIVE’
‘SERIOUS QUESTIONS MUST BE ASKED’
It’s quite a stretch to suggest that taking a pragmatic approach to United away was ever an incorrect way to think about this game. They absolutely destroyed RB Leipzig in the week. 5 goals against last seasons Champions League semi-finalists who have the best young manager in the world was a warning sign that things could go awry if we weren’t at our best… and at our best defensively we were.
I am rubbish at blow by blow football reports, but I’ll give you a list of things I really liked.
I thought Gabriel and Rob holding were absolutely excellent. Our new Brazilian centre back shaded it for me, he was unbelievable. He’s such a monster defender. He didn’t give anyone an inch all day. The performances of both were made all the more monumental by the fact they both picked up bookings around the 25-minute mark, Catnip for a ref like Mike Dean. Gabriel made 5 tackles, 4 clearances, combined with a 92% pass completion rate. Stunning numbers. It’s early days, but my word does he look like an incredible signing. Rob Holding also went a long way to justifying the faith Arteta has shown in him, rocking 91% pass completion in an assured return to action (after 1 training session). Also, side note, a massive shout out to the medical staff for getting him back ahead of schedule!
You need more than a good defensive pairing to win in games like that. Thomas Partey started his first big one for us and boy oh boy was he fucking unbelievable. The man is the coldest, crispest beer after running a marathon in the Sudan desert. How have we not addressed our midfield with someone this classy? He is such a difference-maker. If he loses the ball, he gets it back. If he breaks a press, he controls the ball out the other side. His passing is elite and he is so, so efficient. Most importantly, he gives us power in a place we’ve been weak. Watching him slug it out against Paul Pogba and win was special. Seeing him do it with 92% pass completion, with 12 of his 53 attempted passed heading into the final third was joyous. He had the most take-ons, he had the most ball recoveries, he made 4 tackles, 2 interceptions, and he had a shot on target. A superb game. What is even more amusing for me is there was actually a debate about his arrival because the Twitter spreadsheet merchants didn’t like his radar. It just goes to show you that data without good analysis is just a shit opinion.
My man of the match though? It was Mo Elneny. I give him the award mostly because he gets so much shit. People are having to face up to the reality that he’s actually a very tidy player. He’s been good all season. He was immense yesterday. His engine is outrageous, watching him lead the press in the 91st minute like Maradona after a bathroom break in the 94 World Cup was nuts. His passing has added some much-needed verticality, and it’s always fast and positive. He reads danger really well, he fouls when he has to, he plays with a smile on his face so he gets away with more. It already looks like he’s the bag man for Thomas Partey. Arteta says that the players love him and he transmits special energy in the dressing room. Good for him, that was his best performance in an Arsenal shirt, let’s see that consistently.
The game was won via a Mike Dean awarded penalty, which was super odd. Not sure many had that on their ‘how it happened’ bingo card. Auba buried the kick, he said after they practice a lot, which is nice to know. I think the biggest critique of our performance is that the players you need to be the difference makers aren’t firing on all cylinders yet. Auba isn’t taking his chances or gambling on balls like he was last year. Willian looks out of sorts, his composure is a little off, though he did show some nice moments. Saka was a bit overwhelmed by Wan-Bissaka. Lacazette had a better day, creating two chances, but he is still very easily overpowered by fridge like defenders. He had to drop really deep to involve himself and I wasn’t always sure that was part of the plan. It’ll come, but the fact we still won with that going against us made it more special
Still, you can’t argue we didn’t have the better chances. We tried harder to make things happen in the final third. The game was more Dundalk than Leicester. That part is important as well… Arteta used the Europa League as a live test run for what he did versus United. Mo was brilliant in that game as well. Our manager is young, he will make mistakes, but if he learns quickly from them, the fans will always forgive. He set out to make us competitive in big games, and we are exactly that.
Arsenal fans do need to accept that we’re more Simeone than Pep G. That game was fine margins like Liverpool, City, and Leicester. All those occasions were battles of chess and we didn’t win out in the decisive moments. The United game was the first one that rolled our way. It was hopefully a watershed moment. The Halloween ghouls can go back in the cupboard for a few more games.
We need an Aouar like talent to really unlock those moments. In the meantime, we need to hope that Gabriel M can give us a focal point through the middle… and we need to cross our fingers that maybe ESR can be more than a star in the Europa League… but a good start would be to show he can start in the Europa this Thursday against Molde.
Last weekend people were calling time on the Arteta project, today, we’re 2 points off 2nd place, with Villa up next before the international break. We’ve also played 4 teams that’ll be in the top 6 this season. We have the BEST defence in the league after 7 games, pretty great, right? Things are starting to feel positive… let’s see how we handle the next two games, in the meantime, enjoy Zoom gloating to all those sad United fans.
See you in the comments. x
Leicester with 28% possession and 5 goals to the good vs City,
32% possession vs Leeds and 4 goals.
68% possession vs WH and on the end of a 3nil beating.
Vardy has his pace and directness but also his movement in and around the box is second to none, defenders don’t know where he would pop up from..
Compare that to our static strikers be Laca, Nketiah or even Auba, always hiding behind the defenders and never try to run in front of them .
With the talk of Poch going to Un**ed, there needs to be a concerted effort from all fans to #SaveOle.
Poch to United, no way? They have a modern and very intelligent manager according to a United fan I know.
Imagine loosing Emery then Ole in back to back seasons, very concerning with a couple posters in mind.
G8 “As been discussed our main problem is not about Leno or Emi, they both are decent keepers, it’s the clowns around them that dont do their jobs properly and obviously the coach who insists playing risk football at the back but refuse to do so upfront!” Great comment from the other day haha Also I really don’t know if this game was an Arteta masterclass. It was two boring managers going hung ho at boring. We somehow got lucky though. Love seeing a penalty for us at old toilet. And a fucking win. I’ll give it to the team… Read more »
Goobergooner,
This is a manager prerogative to decide how he wants to play.
Arteta has made the choice of playing from the back. In that configuration both Xhaka and Leno are two of our main problems.
Leno can’t play the quickly accurate 35 yards passes that the system requires. Xhaka lacks the mobility and explosivity to be able to handle the press.
Arteta seems to have make the decision to bench Xhaka for big games. So denying that there is a problem there is quite futile.
You can all hate Vardy as much as you like but imagine him instead of La-caca and we would be top of the league. Sigh… instead we’re stuck with timid strikers we all try to pretend are the business because they “work hard”.when in reality it’s just that they’re all limited mentally and technically. Might as well play Laca and Nketiah in midfield with all their so called hard working attributes. We either start playing Auba through the middle or buy a striker in January along with a playmaker because we can’t sustain playing this fine margins nonsense which is… Read more »
Sal, it’d be a tough one to take.
You heard about a player called Oyarzabal by chance?
Less than 24 hours now….
Val,
I agree mate.
And I know it was el neny who replaced xhaka. But as soon as I saw he wasn’t on the team sheet I actually felt better about the game. Just something different and it came up with the goods!
I still have le sauce’s back. But decisions like keeping xhaka benched is a great way to get fans back on your side.
Pedro that isn’t ozil’s alter ego trying to get back in the team?
Izzo
I like your viewpoint. I want a striker to score goal either with the foot or the head and not hard working in midfield. For that, we can pay much cheaper players like Elneny.
DM; :”Brighton ace Neal Maupay was axed from squad to face Tottenham due to concerns over Frenchman’s inflated ego – with manager Graham Potter keen to put him in his place despite having no other recognized striker available”
Maybe Guendouzi wasn’t really the problem after all.
The hunchback has issues man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWY69e8mQ3I
he will be back as playmaker
Gabriel on steroids
Guns of SF
Have you boarded up your silicon valley mansion yet?
The ANTIFA caravan is coming your way man.
Making a comeback from Highbury days and hoping some dinosaurs still exist?
Antifa is down the street man.
How about you? Close to the DC action?
Guns of SF
The election is a million miles away, no different from California. The three states on the metro area are contested states. Virginia used to be purple but then Trump came along.
I though tri states were blue mostly?
including VA
Anyhow, tomorrow Trump gets FIRED!
I hope Biden actually says that sound bite tomorrow!lol “your fired”
Guns of SF
I meant to write ‘uncontested states’
Sleep beckons
goodnight man…. its already election day in your neck of the woods.
Gonna be a great day Nov 3!
Guns so excited and optimistic. I hope it’ll be a great day as well.
Raptora whereabout do you live?
Raptora is a raptors fan, he is on the east coast
where you live Sid? I see your part of the night crew here most nights…
Sid lives on the internet
Are those leaves ital?
Ryan Giggs arrested for domestic violence
Lets solve our lack of midfield creator with Paul Pogba and for once rectify hithero the one way
course for our talent going their way excl. sanchez .. Use Özils departure to fund the move..
Rich
Ian Wright learned his craft playing on crappie pitches on Hackney Marshes against guys trying to kick lumps out of him.
I doubt Eddie has ever played on a substandard playing surface or had opponents trying to stop him at all costs.
That’s where characters are formed.
^and then you get real and operate in the real world and not stupid fantasy
Pogba? Some of you are not from planet earth
If Ozil is leaving in January we’ll save 9m, is that enough for Pogba? Because no one is paying a fee for him. It’s enough for the first installment in Szoboszlais release clause though. I’d take that instead. I don’t think we have to spend 200m to start competing with the top teams, a couple of strategic buys like Szob and Thuram/Edouard coupled with getting our top young talent to realise their potential like Martinelli, Saliba, Saka and we have a very competitive first XI. Oh, and Pepe needs to step up too, would probably help if he wasn’t benched… Read more »
Never been a Mertesacker fan myself He was good. Make no mistake. But he was one half out a pairing that honestly let us down on the regular Kos as well. Great in many ways and sometimes looked world class, but it’s not a coincidence that he was an ever present in a defense that was reliable over several years. Gabriel is the only CB we’ve had in over a decade who looks an elite player. I know I may be jumping the gun on this as it’s early days but he really does look all that and a bag… Read more »
Was not reliable over several years*
Our defense in the second half of wenger a tenure was typified by good individual performances but highly predictable and bafflingly weak goals getting conceded on the regular
Kos mert mustafi all culpable as well as everyone else
In fact the only excellent and dependable defenders we’ve had in the last 8 or so years were Sagna and Monrealwho come rain or shine would show up and play well. The rest of our defenders over the last 10 years all deserved binning many years ago
Gabriel is the one who will be different
Gabriel is gonna dominate his position for many years to come now. I’m convinced of it
Kos was a great player for us, no doubt. But a player who fucks up multiple times in the most important games of his teams, cannot be world class. It’s exactly where you are supposed to show you are better than the rest and he multiple times bottled it.
Vs Birmingham in the League cup final.
Vs Portugal in the World Cup final.
Vs Atletico Madrid in the Europa League semi final.
I’m probably missing more of his blunders.
Vs Portugal in the Euro 2016 final.***
Looks like Barcelona is really financially fucked. They have until November 5, to find an agreement with their players and staff to reduce their wage bill by €190 millions otherwise creditors can force them into administration.
I wouldn’t have put money on France winning World 2018 if he was playing for them.
I expect city to beat liverpool this weekend as Pep has slightly changed to a more pragmatic style. Open expansive football is not on his agenda in the league atm….i expect a similar game to the United/Arsenal match …very tight. It’s a weekend where we could make a statement in the league, it is a very open title race if teams can take points off of liverpool … Villa have reverted to type and are leaking goals, it’s a great time to play them The worry is that grealish could turn Bellerin inside out, maybe it’s a game for AMN… Read more »
I think that there are currently SEVEN players in the starting lineup of Arsenal which are more or less decided when we play in EPL allowing for injuries and resting. These are: Leno [GK] Bellerin [RB,RWB] Gabriel [CB] Tierney [LCB/LWB/LB] Partey [DMF/CMF] Saka [LWB/LMF] Aubameyang [LW] Luiz, Holding and Mustafi are competing for the remaining place in central defence. Elneny, Xhaka and Ceballos for the remaining place in midfield Lacazette and Nketiah for place in centre forward position Pepe and Willian for place in right wing position. I would hope that by the end of the year the number of… Read more »
Versus Villa I’m more worried that we’ll be hangover from our big win and we won’t be up for it.
This is where managers have to earn their keep and make their team fire on all cylinders. If we show up at 80%, we might not get a single point even.
New post I guess…