ARSENAL CLOUDS START TO CLEAR
2 DROPPED POINTS, BUT A PERFORMANCE WORTHY OF PRAISE
I’ll start with a concluding point. Arsenal are good enough to win the Premier League, but so far this season, we’re nowhere near lucky enough.
The seasons you win, everything goes your way. You don’t get red cards, you don’t lose your best players to big injuries, and you kill off games you deserve to win in the last minute.
Right now, we’re missing the mark in the title-challenger margins. The question is: Can we turn that around in the next phase of the season?
Arsenal drew against a very good Chelsea side, and the performance felt like a ‘we’re back’ kind of afternoon. We were competitive in the duels, created enough chances to win, and asked a lot of questions of a strong Chelsea side, but we faltered in the margins.
In games against the top six, the attack has done its job if they score. Arsenal produced a wonderful goal when Thomas Partey and Martin Ødegaard combined nicely on the right side of Chelsea’s box. Ødegaard cut into space, picked out Martinelli at the back post, and the Brazilian bet on himself with an audacious near-post strike—and won the lottery.
This team, with that defense, in year five of the project, should not have let Pedro Neto get the better of us by ghosting past a static Kai Havertz and smashing home from outside the box against one of the best keepers in the league. I’ve seen criticism of Thomas Partey, but he’s in defense because he’s covering. Arsenal are better than that goal. Our defense hasn’t kept a clean sheet in a while, and that was an example of why we haven’t.
Teams that have Lady Luck carrying a Premier League dream on her shoulder create dreamy moments late in games.
This was the scenario:
Trossard fluffed his lines with Kai coming in behind him. Last season, maybe we score that. The season before, Reiss Nelson would have scored that. In the first three phases of this season, big things like that haven’t happened for us—they’ve gone against the boys.
How do we want to think about that?
You could be very obvious and respond to me with: PEDRO, WE DIDN’T WIN THE LEAGUE WHEN REISS SCORED THAT GOAL. And you’d be right. These moments haven’t cost us a title yet. There are 27 games left.
We keep saying the margins are fine, assuming the Premier League will be won with 90 points. I don’t think this is the year for that. Liverpool will likely collapse at some point, and then we’ll see what Slot is made of. Man City are going to continue struggling to replace Rodri’s presence, and the media is already hinting at Pep G’s exit. They haven’t even got to the steamy leaks about guilty verdicts. This season is going to be about who handles their injuries the best and who deals with the distractions.
I also need to remind those with misery-nesia of what happens to early favorites.
2 season ago, the hot team in November was Arsenal. Arsenal had won 11 of 13. Our season collapsed when we returned from the World Cup.
2021-22, Chelsea were top at this phase of the season and West Ham were 3rd. Chelsea finished 3rd and West Ham finished 7th.
2020-21, Leicester were 1st, Spurs 2nd, Liverpool 3rd, Southampton 4th. City were 10th.
Last season, Spurs were being spoken about as title challengers. They broke the record for a start to the season. They finished outside the Champions League places.
What do all of these seasons have in common? Man City have only been top at this phase of the season once in 4 years. All the other pretenders at this phase fell away hard. Making predictions *now* is a fool's game, but there is no jail time for indulging in this yearly tradition, so the problem persists.
Let me also remind everyone that the order of fixtures is something we overlook every season but ONLY when it’s Arsenal with the hard fixtures.
Arsenal have played eight of the top 10 teams, two at home, seven away. That is extraordinarily freakish punishment from whoever’s pulling the schedule together.
Liverpool have played five of the top 10, one away.
Please don’t bore me by banging the table and shouting ‘YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT,’ because we have, and we will.
Which is why I’m looking forward to December. The month is pretty damn kind. We have the chance to sneak up on our rivals as they seek to destroy each other.
November 23, Nottingham Forest (Home)
November 30, West Ham United (Away)
December 4, Manchester United (Home)
December 8, Fulham (Away)
December 14, Everton (Home)
December 21, Crystal Palace (Away)
December 27, Ipswich Town (Home)
January 1, Brentford (Away)
January 4, Brighton & Hove Albion (Away)
January 15, Tottenham Hotspur (Home)
You know how I’m feeling about that phase of games? Sexy. I’m wearing something lacy under my jeans. I’m at the bar ordering Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti Grand Cru in a perfect French accent before lighting a slim cigarette. No one challenges me—the aura is strong. Don’t walk too close to me in December; I might flirt with you, because in my mind, I’m feeling ‘Thierry Henry in that Renault ad’ confident about our chances of getting back into the race.
Back to the game.
Martin Ødegaard dropped into the starting 11 and gave Arteta a full 90 minutes. That is staggering. He didn’t look tired; he was sharp, and he influenced the outcome of the game. Arsenal need to use the next two weeks to get him into some behind-closed-doors activities and have him ready to go against Edu FC right after the break.
Thomas Partey faced some criticism, but I thought he had a fantastic game. He’s in the best form of his life. He tracked well all game and was a big part of the reason we limited Chelsea and the sauceless wonder they had upfront. I’m so happy he’s staying back this break. Wrap him up and get him fresh for the crunch.
Gabi Martinelli needed a goal. It didn’t matter how good his defending was, how many crosses he floated into good areas, or how many nearly-moments he had—he needed a breakthrough, and he landed it with a brilliant goal. He needs to use that to kick on to better. Fifteen goals this season; if he doesn’t get there, he’s going to get replaced by Williams next summer.
Mikel Merino has been hammered so far this season because no one really understands what he’s here to do. Is he the new Big Mo? Is he a 6? An 8? What’s he supposed to bring to the team? Well, we got a big glimpse after a really good cameo. He nearly got on the end of a teasing cross—late runs seem to be his thing. He showed some incredible footwork in midfield, dancing through like he was delicately working his way through army obstacle course netting. The calmness on the ball was really exciting to watch. He was also great in the duels. He’s dogged, strong, and a powerful runner. That could well be his breakthrough moment. Fans need to back off; the stock is rising. We have a player, finally.
The main negative of the afternoon was the introduction of Jesus and Trossard. The Belgian is just not at the races, and Gabi Jesus looks off the pace—it’s so bad, it looks like he’s been told to clear his desk and find a new club. He has no confidence, no identity, no ability to impact the game right now. It’s actually really sad.
That does lead to a criticism of Arteta—what is he seeing in Jesus that’s better than the cameos we see from Ethan? It’s easy to beg for the thing you haven’t seen, but we’ve seen Ethan. It’s better than Jesus right now.
Kai Havertz is getting hammered for his contribution, which I guess is fair because he hasn’t been putting up numbers. But he was very close to being decisive after some quick thinking in the first half saw him score a goal narrowly adjudged offside. We’ve gone from thinking he was the best thing since a Piebury Corner dish, to being absolutely sure anyone—and I mean anyone—would be banging in 1.4 goals a game. I’m not cancelling my Kai subscription right now; there’s more good content to be viewed. But it is killing me that we didn’t get Sesko over the line in the summer—or a Gyokeres-like signing. I have to go back to what I wrote the other day—sometimes, what you want isn’t available. Or what you desire requires a wait. I think Arsenal gambled on Kai because they want Sesko next summer. Right now, that gamble looks like a bad one… but let’s see how that changes when Martin returns and we get back to a regular starting 11.
I’ll end on some love for David Raya. I thought he was excellent. His safe hands from crosses are so valuable to the way we play and defend. I love his bravery and his refusal to punch crosses. I thought he marshaled his area well, and that save from Cole Palmer was world class. What a deal we landed with Raya.
So how do we finish the post? As we started. The result wasn’t perfect, but we’re four points off the best team in England, our horrible run of away games is over, our best players are returning, and that performance against Chelsea was hopefully a shot of oxygen into a smogged-out first chunk of the season. I can breathe again. I think the manager knows the problems, and we have the tools to deliver in Phase 4 of the season.
We bought Rice for 6 only for him to end up at 8.
We bought Havertz for midfield only for him to end up at 9.
We bought Ben White for central defence only for him to end up at right back.
We bought Aaron Ramsdale for goalkeeping only for him to end up at Southampton.
That's over £200 million in purchases and none of them is playing the position Arteta bought them for.
But let's blame luck and Pep Guardiola.
It's always jam tomorrow with Pedro. For the last five years, and probably the next too. Putting dropped points down to 'luck' is feeble sauce. There are plenty of reasons we are all too well aware of, and clinging on to a straw called luck is just ignoring them. As is your misleading stats about who is leading the race in November, because you miss out the crucial point that none of those early leaders who then folded led by five points. In fact of the few who have led by five points this early they all went to win it. So it's Liverpool's to lose, and just assuming they will fold at some point is wishful thinking. Sure, they might, but I wouldn't bank on it. We will recover of course, but the league, even for the top four is far more competitive than the last two years when Arsenal were able to mount a clear challenge. What we do know is that we have a thin squad which struggles when a key player is absent, despite the £800m spent or whatever it was. We don't score enough, we haven't got a plan B and Arteta is a one system man. We'll see, but no doubt there are plenty of twists and turns to come. But sticking to the 'project' script is a mug's game. There is no script. That, in a way, is the beauty of the game.