What a windy night that was! Hope everyone is safe and well!
I had a hellish drive from up the Midlands after seeing family. A 2 hour trip from Burton-on-Trent took me over 3 hours due to the wind, rain and pure weight of traffic. Was not a nice drive in the dark!
Arsenal were back (temporarily) for the weekend, winning 5-0 against Crystal Palace. We now embark on another 10-day break.
We lost both of those home games, yet destroyed Palace 5-0, but the performances were not too dissimilar. The main difference was Saturday we scored our chances.
I commented in the pub after the game “against West Ham, the headers were going over, Leandro Trossard would have fired into the keeper and Gabriel Martinelli would have shot wide. Twice.”
Whilst all this might seem a bit negative, it is not. I did not join others in the pit of despair during our run of 1 win in 7 games. Bar Fulham, the performances were decent. Saturday against Palace was also decent.
The victory took us to 3rd in the league, level on points with Manchester City and just 2-point behind Liverpool (who repopened the gap to 5-points yesterday). After 21-games, we are in the title race.
A couple of side notes now.
Liverpool: After 21 games, they are 5 points clear. After 21 matches last season, we were 3 points cleasr. If Liverpool do not win the league from here, will they face the same accusations of bottling from the media we got? Or as always, will those media outlets be too scared to paint Liverpool in a negative light for fear of boycotts and cancelling.
Tottenham: After 21 games last season, Spurs were 5th. After 21 games this season, Spurs are 5th. It is a myth that Ange has massively improved them.
Gary Neville: Neville has blamed Arsenal for Nottingham Forest writing to the PGMOL over what they perceived to be a poor decision at the weekend. It is all Arsenal’s fault that teams are openly criticising the PGMOL, despite Everton writing an open letter first, then Wolves, then Liverpool (twice). Just shows again mentioning Arsenal get the hits, impressions and generates that ad revenue.
Not much else happning out there. I still do not think we will sign anyone.
Saturday, 20th January 2024. Kick-off time: 12.30pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Reiss Nelson, Reuell Walters
Scorers: Gabriel (11 mins), Dean Henderson (37 mins o.g.), Leandro Trossard (59 mins), Gabriel Martinelli (90+4, 90+5 mins)
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 61%
Referee: Paul Tierney
Assistant Referees: Scott Ledger, Dan Robathan
Fourth Official: Andy Madley
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Stuart Attwell; AVAR Steve Meredith
Attendance: 60,284
After the disaster surrounding the Christmas 2023 fixtures, we are back to Premiership action today, in a hotly contested London derby against Crystal Palace. It goes without saying that we need to get back to winning ways now, especially after the mid-season break, in which we sincerely hope that the lads return rejuvenated and inspired to start the second half of the season in fine fettle in the only way we know how, with a victory this afternoon.
The match started quickly with our chaps pushing the ball around with confidence and positivity, although as early as the third minute, Eberechi Eze managed to get the ball to Joachim Andersen whose header went wide of David Raya’s post, which was a near miss in anybody’s book. Their early attempt appeared to spark us into life, and over the next few minutes, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz came very close to opening the scoring. However, our joy was obvious in the crowd when, on the eleventh minute, we took the lead when Declan Rice crossed the ball for Gabriel to head the ball into the bottom right corner of the net. We continued to pressurise the visitors very well, and Gabriel almost grabbed a second goal when Bukayo Saka crossed a beautiful ball from the wing, which found our man’s head perfectly, but unfortunately the ball went wide. Despite some interesting midfield play from both sides, it was us that provided the more concrete chances to score out of the two teams. Martin Ødegaard slotted the ball to Leandro Trossard, whose right-footed shot from outside the box was blocked by a defender, and despite the visitors doing their best to make a difference, it was us who had the better chances to score. Thirteen minutes from half time, we grabbed the second goal of the game when Palace goalie Dean Henderson scored a ridiculous own goal, and shortly afterwards, Oleksandr Zinchenko’s left-footed shot from the left hand side of the penalty area flew past the right hand side of the goal, and during injury time, Gabriel Jesus slotted a superb through ball to Leandro Trossard, whose left-footed shot from the centre of the penalty area went very high and wide to the left of the Palace goal.
We started the second half in the same manner that we finished the first, with lots of pressure on the visitors’ goal. Declan Rice’s right-footed shot from outside the penalty area was saved in the top left corner by Dean Henderson, following a superb pass from Bukayo Saka, and then Leandro Trossard was unlucky not to score with a strong shot from outside the penalty area, which was blocked by a Palace defender. Attempt after attempt by our players to score was met by clearances and blockages by the Palace defenders, but they could not keep us out forever. A minute before the hour, we scored our third goal when Gabriel Jesus played provider for Leandro Trossard, whose right-footed shot from the centre of the penalty area ended up in the top left-hand corner of the net. Now we were truly coasting. Have a cigar, chaps. Although to be fair, the visitors were trying to make an impact, but we managed to stifle their attempts quite easily. With twenty minutes of the match remaining, Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith-Rowe replaced Leandro Trossard along with Kai Havertz and the pressure continued. About five minutes later, Declan Rice looked like he picked up an injury, and to be on the safe side, he was replaced by Jorginho, and we managed to consolidate, pass the ball better and advance up the field on the hunt for yet more goals. Bukayo Saka was desperately unlucky not to score when our captain set him up perfectly to shoot for goal, and then, within the space of two minutes, both Jorginho and Martin Ødegaard’s attempts to score our fourth were stymied by the Eagles’ defenders, and with nine minutes of the game left to play, Mikel Arteta decided to make two final substiutions, Eddie Nketiah, who replaced Gabriel Jesus, and because of injury, Jakub Kiwior took the place of Gabriel with just minutes of the match to go. In the seven minutes injury time awarded, we still had time to score a couple more; firstly, we broke out of our half, and Eddie Nketiah deftly slotted the ball to Gabriel Martinelli, whose right-footed shot from the left-hand side of the penalty area ended up in the bottom right-hand corner of the net, and just a minute later, the same man grabbed our fifth goal of the day when, after another smash’n’grab movement, Jorginho passed the ball into the path of Gabriel Martinelli again, whose exquisite right-footed shot from the centre of the Palace penalty area ended up in the bottom right-hand corner of the net, to finish the match perfectly. What an afternoon for the Gunners!
A superb victory, just what the doctor ordered. Obviously, as expected, the winter break invigorated them, and they cruised to victory today against a demoralised Crystal Palace side, who to be fair, were never at the races at any point in this game. This much-needed win moves the boys up to third in the Premiership table, two points behind the leaders Liverpool but having played a game more than Jűrgen Klopp’s side, but all in all, a grand return to action for our team. Well done chaps!
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Nottingham Forest at The City Ground on Tuesday, 30th January at 7.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Shorter blog than normal today due to the 12:30 kick off. Still need to smash a couple more coffee’s and have a fry-up before I head out to todays game.
The early Saturday kick off is easily my least favourite over the weekend. It is just shit having to wake up, get dressed and head straight to the game. Will be lucky to get a couple of pints in before the game, which often explains why the atmosphere in these early games are subdued.
Mikel Arteta’s pre-match interview was a day later than normal due to the trip to Dubai, on which he said:
“We worked really hard on things that we wanted to do, and we recharged our batteries. The context and the change in environment in beautiful weather helped, and the togetherness and the moments that we shared together were great. We feel fully recharged.”
What is now important is that the fans also used it to reset their brains.
Before the break, some of the old boo boys and moaners had begin sharing their views again. Today we all need to get behind the team and allow our behaviour to positively impact the players. not negatively.
On injuries, Arteta said “we are touch and go with a few”. Those few will be Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus. I would not be surprised to see both start.
One interesting quote to come out of the press conference was Arteta speaking about how it is important not to overreact after a run of defeats: “defeats cannot make you lose who you are because if you do that, then you were never who you said you were.”
He is spot on with this.
You can not keep chopping and changing tactics after a few poor results and expect to consistently perform. Liverpool are the perfect example of this.
Jurgen Klopp teams have played pretty much the same way throughout his management career. Even last season when times were tough, he stuck to his principals.
Football is becoming a lot more “formalised” on the pitch, with more set plays in open play. Players know where they need to be before the ball is passed, and this gives sides a huge competitve advantage. 7 tought games does not make Arteta a bad manager, nor does it mean that he should undo the great work he has done over the last 18-months.
In other news, we were approached yesterday by West Ham United for Emile Smith Rowe. Both player and club rejected the deal.
Arsenal would have rejected the deal because it was a loan offer. The door is open for Smith Rowe to leave on a permanent transfer. Probably anything north of £30m. We have learned from the Ainsley Maitland-Niles saga that loan deals only devalue a player.
West Ham fans have been up in arms saying “Smith Rowe thinks he is bigger than us” and then thrown abuse at the young England international. Lets get things right, ESR does not think he is bigger than West Ham, he just wants to have one more opportunity to resurrect his Arsenal career.
Smith Rowe joined Arsenal at the age of 10. He finally had his breakthrough season in 2021–22, and what has followed is 18 months of injuries. He clearly wants to give it another 6-months of trying to make it at Arsenal rather than be loaned out.
If Smith Rowe fails to make an impact in the 2nd half of the season, he will know his time at Arsenal has come to an end. Then I expect him to join someone like West Ham permanently in the summer.
We all know West Ham fans are a little fragile, but them abusing a player for trying to make it at a higher level, for the club he has been at since he was 10, just shows they are knuckle draggers.
Little over an hour before I need to get on the Central Line. Time for coffee number two and to stick some sausages and bacon in the air fryer.
