Well, here we are. Another safe space special from Mikel Arteta and the boys. A fine win at home in front of 2000 Arsenal fans, playing stunning tika taka in the only European competition the people care about
Now, same as before, I KNOW IT IS THE EUROPA LEAGUE… but there hasn’t been a lot of joy around these parts over the last month. So let me give you some in this post.
THAT WAS EASILY THE BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE SEASON.
No question. That was the first time we’ve seen a game of football and gone, yeah, that is the sort of football I’d like to see us play every week at The Grove. After all the shit that went down last week, it was a pleasure to watch the players go out and rip a weak team a new one.
The team played with far more aggression than we’ve seen of late. The passing was faster, the midfield had more energy, and the players took risks. We had had 22 attempts at their goal and hit the target 11 times. Our passing accuracy was 86%. We dominated posession at 71%.
Arteta’s 4-2-3-1 system looked interesting. The only way it works is if it has energy and speed. He found that yesterday and it should be a lesson.
AMN was absolutely brilliant. He said after the game he ‘had a bit of legs in midfield, got about, made some tackles, I won the ball back and got up and down the pitch. Give us bit more… dynamics. It was good.’ Couldn’t agree more. He was everywhere, but it was more than a show of muscle power. He was smart with his positioning, he read the game well, and he moved the ball with purpose. I love the ambition of some of his one-touch passing. There was a moment when he danced through the middle of their defence and tried a chip shot. He duffed his lines, but that wasn’t the point. It was the first non-mechanical attacking action I’ve seen in weeks! He offered the game so much. If he can level that sort of confidence with the right amount of concentration, how can he not be starting in our midfield?
Mo Elneny had his first game back after the ‘rona. It wasn’t perfect, he had some covid brain moments, but it’s hard not to notice that his workrate changed the dynamic of the midfield. He never stops, he’s positive in his play, he keeps the ball moving fast with one-touch passing and he is industrious about winning it back.
We were also better in attack. Lacazette had his best game in a while. He let off a ripper of a shot to open the night. He needed that. However, it was his link-up play that was the standout. He moved faster, he made better decisions, and he was a handful to deal with. Eddie was also excellent, I’ve felt that he’s maybe banked on being a tap-in merchant over the last few months, hiding in the shadows hoping for a crumb. Not last night, he took the game by the scruff and imposed himself. I loved that he dropped deep, he ran the line, and he worked hard for his goal after missing with his first attempt. He also gave the assist.
Nicolas Pepe looked really good. Weirdly turbocharged, like someone told him to be more Neymar. I’ve not seen him have a game like that where his take-ons were coming off. He was all over the place, wide, inside, crossing, shooting… he looked the part. He was very interested, which was great to see.
We also have to hand it to Reiss, he’s refusing to let this club disrespect his ability. He used his pace to cause problems, his passing was much better, and he made a nuisance of himself all night. I loved that he hit a corner past the front post, finding Mari for an assist. He’s making a very good case to land minutes over Willian, who looked drossy again.
I was also really pleased for Pablo Mari. It’s a small point, but he’s one of the players everyone loves at the club. He has a big personality and I think everyone is hoping he can be more of a regular. I loved his perfectly executed header from a setpiece to score his goal. I like the way he runs with the ball. I love how big he is. Hopefully, his recovery continues at a pace and he adapts to the Premier League.
The good news didn’t stop with those names. Dani Ceballos had a free kick 30 yards out AND HE HIT THE TARGET. Wow wow wow. What a moment for Arsenal. I don’t think we’ve seen a keeper move for a freekick in 3 years.
There were some other nice moments, we also had our first glance of Cal Chambers after a long time out of the side. People forget he was looking really good before his injury and he was starting for Arteta in the Premier League. We also saw Balogun and ESR come on for cameos. I really like the look of ESR. He’s hungry, he moves powerfully and he scored his first goal for us after a lovely move. I also really like the look of Balogun, he moves like a 9. He’s powerful, he can act as a target man, and I think we’d do well to keep him and make him our Kun Aguero. Too far? No. Not today.
A lot of people after the game were snarking at the result. Well fuck them. If you can’t see that the football we played today was worthy of praise, you need to pull your head out of your backside. The big question, as ever is how it translates into first-team football. We won’t see a formation like that at the weekend, but the confidence of the win will filter through, and a few of the players staked claims for inclusion. It’s about time we had a little glimpse into the future, I liked it.
There were three key takeaways for me.
Firstly, it doesn’t look like the squad has given up. I loved hearing Ainsley say they were told to have fun, we need more of that in the side. I think Arteta still had plenty of buy-in with the players, which is important because that means when we escape the trough we’re in, we’ll be much stronger.
Secondly, we finally saw a glimpse of what Arteta has planned. The football was… good. We still have a lot of work to do, we could still lose on Sunday, but I like the shape of the starting 11 today, and with a good January window, we could start to move the aesthetics forward. Key attributes were speed, one-touch passing, combined with risk-taking actions.
Thirdly, we have to start prioritizing the attributes that will make the future system. Arteta has insisted on experience making it happen for him this season. It hasn’t worked. If we’re going to be bang average, I’d rather do it with young players that can improve and give us good days of football, versus opting for Xhaka and Willian stinking out the starting line up because we believe in their great qualities. Reiss offers more to the system than Willian right now, so play him. AMN cannot possibly be worse than Xhaka, so play him. LACAZETTE FORGIVE ME YOU NUMBER 10 HERO.
Right, that’s me done, have a fine day… I’ll be banging out a podcast later with a guest I am very excited to speak to.
CC if I have a choice to play xhaka or AMN I would certainly play AMN and that itself tells how bad xhaka has been.
As for Nketiah only Pierre thinks he is going to make it with Arsenal
I couldn’t watch theatch but reading the comments I want to believe that the players played a good game. I believe the way to get the best out of this present bset of players is to do it the Arsene Wenger way. Allow them to express and enjoy themselves without shouting instructions at them from the side line. That was the main reason the players are restricted and are always looking frigid. As I said sometimes back Arteta should get many types of Arsenal matches under Wenger and learn how attacking football is played. The main problem of Arteta’s game… Read more »
* Sorry, it should read, “tapes” and not “typed.”
* Sorry, it should read, “tapes” and not “types.”.
Vieira sacked from Nice, 2.5 years on a run of 5 straight losses.
8 points a drift.
No love loss in management, results or Vamos.
Xhakas biggest defender trying to lump AMN and Willock in the same group, hilariuos.
Offcourse everyone Partey included(if someone offers 70m or more) could be sold and no one would but an eyelid
Vieira worked after two managers (Claude Puel and Lucien Fabre) who despite the financial constraints had decent results and played attractive football. Under PV4 the football has not been as attractive, worse since they lost Dante their lynchpin CB the results have also dropped.
So the new management looked at it and thought, bigger budget, worse football and now worse results. All in all the Decision was not as unexpected as some here may thought.
AMN needs more game time…
I am sure he has not been late to training much anymore so why the non playing time
Joke Friday (mitch hedburg edition) –
They catch the fish and then let it go. They don’t want to eat the fish, they just want to make it late for something.
I haven’t slept for ten days, because that would be too long.
I’m against picketing, but I don’t know how to show it.
I was gonna have my teeth whitened, but then I said fuck that, I’ll just get a tan instead.
I know a lot about cars, man. I can look at any car’s headlights and tell you exactly which way it’s coming.
Lol at Pedro for first acknowledging that it was only a Europa league game but then going full speed ahead with how everyone looked good, how the football was great, and essentially saying that we just about turned the corner and Arteta is still the guy to take us forward. What a bunch of BS. If we didn’t have these Thursday night games Arteta would’ve been sacked by now. Nice just fired Vieira after 11 games and 17 points. We have 13 after 10 games. Do the math. Oh, and if anyone thinks we’ll have more points after Sunday, they… Read more »
Maybe as a former captain, Vieira could offer something in a coaching capacity, but he too rushed into management without serving any real apprenticeship in a competitive European league. The idea that a great player makes a great manager is complete nonsense. In 1973-74, two of our celebrated WC winners Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles were joint managers of Preston NE in Division Two (now the Championship), and took them down, in the same season as Bobby’s brother, Jack, won the same Division with Middlesbrough by a massive 15 points. They swapped places in the First Division with Charlton and… Read more »
I would have assumed that having worked under Wenger, his former protégés would have picked up something about man management, but most don’t seem to have. Maybe because they were so brilliant players, they don’t seem to be able to relate to less dedicated and/or less talented players. Vieira who was Arteta predecessor before he managed New York FC was groomed by the group to be Guardiola successor. Good thing that Guardiola just signed a contract extension because I don’t think that PV4 could take the job. Henry after his initial bad experience at Monaco seems to have recovered. Maybe… Read more »
Herbs, The thing is Vieira did his initial apprenticeship at New York FC, however as he explained in an interview a year after he took the Nice job the structure in the MLS is so different that it did not really prepare him for the cutthroat environment of the European club. No relegation, meant that once a club knows it can’t reach the play-off the pressure is off. In Europe, it is the opposite. Bad results means threat of relegation and the threat of relegation ratchets the pressure. Also there was such a gap between star players and regular players… Read more »
It might have been our best result of the season — shame it was against a vastly inferior side.
I do hope Arteta gets his head out of Willian’s backside though… both Nelson and ESR look more up for it than Willan does.
He’s looks annoyed that he is actually being asked to do some work for his living… 200k a week and he doesn’t understand why he isn’t being left alone to relax and play Fortnite like Mesut.
He came to the Arsenal to retire… for goodness sake!
I love the fact that Arteta pretended to value the players frank opinion and input and then told them he was still investigating the leak. Tell me what you really think of the process. Trust me I will not keep any personal grudge for any negative things you may say about and my staff. BTW whoever leaked the fight between Ceballos and Luiz is a dead man… Inspirational man management at its finest… Anyway, I hope that the clear the air meeting between players will have the same positive impact that the one during the 97-98 meeting but in view… Read more »
A poster mentioned previously that Rapid Vienna themselves put out a weakened side. Their manager made seven changes to the first team side that played Arsenal at home resting players for their upcoming league match and following european tie at home to Molde which they think they could win. Considering Rapid Vienna putting out their first team are no great shakes either this latest result from Arsenal has to be seen in the context of this reality. We all hope for a better display against Spurs from previous EPL matches but smacking a Rapid Vienna reserve side will have no… Read more »
This Arsenal side have shown how dangerous they can be when afforded the chance to play on the break. Last season’s FA Cup wins over Manchester City and Chelsea stand out in that regard. But it’s a different story when they are faced with deep-lying opponents. This is largely down to how ponderously they move the ball. Often, it appears Arteta’s men are instructed to wait for openings to appear rather than seek them out themselves. They are passive rather than proactive and the statistics bear it out. According to Opta’s advanced metrics, only Southampton and Burnley progress the ball… Read more »
That’s Xhaka giving us “control” in the matches.
Leeds
“I do hope Arteta gets his head out of Willian’s backside though”
Do tou mean the same way Champagne Charlie has his head up Arteta’s backside .
The list is getting longer of the players that he is critical of, Pepe, AMN , Willock , Nketiah , Ceballos and now even Xhaka .
What is the common denominator with those players….not one was signed by Arteta.
Why doesn’t that .surprise me ..
Calypso
Thanks for putting numbers to highlight what a lot of us here have be going on about for ages.
Having the two together in midfield is a disaster.
Our manager doesn’t seem to recognize this which is a worrying fact.
Mustafi and Bellerin do the same regardless of the movement in front of them.
I don’t see Arteta having the balls to be more positive
No excuses for being 14th even with shit players, the buck stops solely with the Spanish Pulis.
‘The Swiss midfielder has made 440 passes in the Premier League this season, but remarkably, only nine of them have gone into the opposition’s box and only 65 of them have even made it as far as the final third. In 580 minutes, he has only created one scoring chance.The numbers are damning and Xhaka is not the only one directing the vast majority of his passes sideways or backwards. In fact, Dani Ceballos, his central midfield partner against Wolves on Sunday, has sent even fewer passes into the final third – just 58 out of 468.’ I have been… Read more »
Ceballos is a good technician and perhaps should not be lumped together with Xhaka but he has no directness in his game and thus not suitable for our purpose.
http://7amkickoff.com/index.php/2020/12/04/arsenal-beat-limp-wieners/
Some excellent & well grounded analysis of the match (if we can call it).
So much of a positive spin for playing against a pub team.
Just wait until Sunday for the real Arsenal to show up.
TR7
“Ceballos is a good technician and perhaps should not be lumped together with Xhaka but he has no directness in his game and thus not suitable for our purpose.”
He dribbles too much on the ball in deep positions and his passing from deep can be erratic as well with him giving the ball away.
He has had some better displays than Xhaka in regards overall influence in matches but the decision to extend his loan doesn’t look the best decision.
“Tell me what you really think of the process. Trust me I will not keep any personal grudge for any negative things you may say about and my staff.
BTW whoever leaked the fight between Ceballos and Luiz is a dead man…“
In what world are these two the same?
Because ‘gaffer I think we’re not doing X right’ is the same as leaking that there was a fight on the training ground isn’t it Val….
Raphael Guerrero of Dortmund is a quality left side midfielder, the guy can become a real top player in a few years.
Encouraging stuff yesterday with good performances out of plenty of out of form players namely Laca, Pepe and Eddie.
Counts for nothing though if we go and get pasted by Spurs at the weekend. Few are getting too overexcited by a win over a very poor and second string Rapid Vienna side.
Is he not 27 already TR7?
Very good player.
Evening, A great game yesterday, the players played with no pressure the youngsters looked good. Everything was rosy again. But………………. Those are the games we’re expected to punish inferior teams. Yes you can only beat what’s put in front of you. In this case a pretty weak side. The problem as we all know is in the league The good thing about sunday is it’s the NLD where form goes out the window. So we have a chance. I said I’d give arteta the next five games, if we revert back to our league form though it wont be pretty.… Read more »
Yeah checked WE, will turn 27 in a few weeks. Still 3-4 years of football in him I would imagine. Solid player, technically sharp in attack and defensively aware too.
Why is Marko still binned ?
Xhaka has been brutally trolled for his inability to defend Traore. As if it was sb else he would have performed better. I hope the joker gets benched on sunday.
Elneny is back, even if Partey doesnt make it, start AMN. Can’tcafford to see same mistakes in a NLD. Arteta needs to learn from his mistakes so we move forward
I ve started believing also regardless if we buy a creative midfielder in january, ozil will come back to the fold
If XHAKA steps on that field on Sunday I won’t even bother watching …
Good result, didn’t really need any analyzing considering the opposition and the hectares of space they afforded us
Son and Kane vs Gabriel will be an interesting battle, a real test for Gabriel.
TR7 I fear he might dive in if either isolate him, they are both cheats too
Receeding
All depends on how we play and if he’s left isolated. If midfield and the other defenders are doing their jobs it shouldn’t be an issue.
Receding, we will need someone in defensive midfield who can put in tackles and closely mark Kane. Gab will be left isolated if not given defensive cover.
Xhaka will play guaranteed.
He will be slow , bumble around , stop running waiting for the ref to blow etc.
Total liability which sums up our manager.
He’s been doing this for five years with three managers ffs
In the NLD, I would put Elneny on Kane and AMN on Son. I’ll try to stop them before they reach our back line.
Guen wears the #8 shirt. I’ll check out how he plays.
New post, you should finish it by the morning!
Looks a lot like folk are getting their excuses in early with talk about Xhaka starting the NLD.
Partey and Elneny started at home against Villa and we were utterly embarrassed. Do wonder what will be the chatter should they start against Spurs and drop another disaster.
Xhaka is the most boring scapegoat at the club, him and Mustafi need gone so some people can get over themselves.