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MATCH REPORT: Man U 3 – 1 Arsenal

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Manchester United (1) 3 Arsenal (0) 1

Premier League

Old Trafford, Sir Matt Busby Way, Old Trafford, Stretford, Manchester M16 0RA

Sunday, 4th September 2022. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Albert Sambi Lokonga, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard (c), Gabriel Martinelli; Gabriel Jesus. Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding,

Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Emile Smith-Rowe, Cédric Soares, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Fabio Vieira, (Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar) Marquinhos, Matt Turner.

Scorers: Bukayo Saka (60 mins)

Yellow Cards: William Saliba, Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 61%

Referee: Paul Tierney

Assistant Referees: Lee Betts, Constantine Hatzidakis

Fourth Official: Simon Hooper

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Lee Mason; AVAR Neil Davies

Attendance: 74,879

Here we are again, another year, another clash with Manchester United, this time at Old Trafford for the first time this season. Today will be the acid test for us, to see whether Mikel Arteta’s new signings and his tactics will hold up in this white-hot atmosphere.

Within minutes of the kick-off, despite the lively start from the home side as Diogo Dalot went on a wild run towards our goal, Arsenal cleared easily and Gabriel Jesus muscled Lisandro Martínez off the ball to win us a free-kick, just to the side of the United penalty area. Although the subsequent free-kick went nowhere, the spirit of the game was there for all to see early on. Gabriel Jesus hit his head on the ground after a firm Lisandro Martinez tackle, and because of the new rules surrounding head injuries, the match was stopped and he left the field to recover for a while. Christian Eriksen came close to scoring, but thankfully his attempt went wide of Aaron Ramsdale’s post after some work out on the right wing by United’s new signing, Antony. Despite some initial pressure on our goal, on the twelfth minute, Gabriel Martinelli ran through and scored, but after consultation with the VAR team at Stockley Park, Paul Tierney cancelled the goal because of a foul on Christian Eriksen by our captain, which was extremely soft, by anyone’s standards. The disallowed goal changed our attitude and resolve, with Arsenal fighting for every ball, challenging every tackle. Gabriel Jesus came close to scoring from a Bukayo Saka tackle, and as the match goes on, we are looking more and more comfortable on the ball. William Saliba was booked for a tactical foul on Lisandro Martinez and as the match goes to the half hour mark, Arsenal look the better side on the day (so far). After two corners in succession, we played some fabulous possession football that put United under pressure in their own penalty area in which we were desperately unlucky not to score. Unfortunately, totally against the run of play, ten minutes before the half-time break, Antony scored on his debut for the home team. Gabriel Jesus was being pulled all over the place by Raphael Varane and won a free-kick, but we could not make it count, and as half-time approached, we still put pressure on the home side despite being unjustly one down, which was the score going into the break here at Old Trafford, despite three minutes injury time.

We kicked off the second half here in Manchester M16, with the expectation of another forty-five minutes of intense action. The opening exchanges were dominated by us, with Gabriel Jesus still causing mayhem in the United defence, and after some exciting attacking movement by us which saw Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka miss some good chances, a penalty appeal was turned down by referee Paul Tierney unfortunately. A Bukayo Saka cross bounced off the top of the United crossbar and our pressure on them continued in earnest. On the hour, a Martin Ødegaard pass into the United penalty area towards Gabriel Jesus came off Diogo Dalot into the path of Bukayo Saka who wasted no time in introducing the ball to the back on the net to equalise the scores. The goal made us grow in confidence, but totally against the run of play, Marcus Rashford ran onto a ball from Christian Eriksen and scored United’s second goal of the day. Aaron Ramsdale made a mistake in his six-yard box, but managed to correct his own mistake when he made a superb save from Cristiano Ronaldo to prevent a third goal for the home team. Martin Ødegaard, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Oleksandr Zinchenko were replaced by Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah and Fabio Vieira with sixteen minutes of the match remaining; sadly a minute or so later, Marcus Rashford grabbed United’s third of the day when again, their passing movements split our defence in two, and with some of our players stranded up the field, the home team simply and clinically finished the job. Just after Gabriel Jesus received a booking for a silly incident, Ben White was substituted for Takehiro Tomiyasu with ten minutes of the game remaining. There was almost a big calamity when Granit Xhaka slipped, letting Fred grab the ball and his long-range pass almost let Cristiano Ronaldo in to score, but fortunately Aaron Ramsdale nipped out of his goal quickly to save the day. We had a penalty appeal turned down by Paul Tierney when Eddie Nketiah was brought down in the penalty area, and shortly afterwards Bukayo Saka became our third player of the day to end up being booked for a frustrating late tackle on Tyrell Malacia, which was not malicious, just late, that’s all. In the four minutes injury time, we still came forward, looking for chances to score, which showed great spirit and resolve, but despite all this and more all our efforts were in vain, sadly.

We deserved so much more from this game today; with sixty-one percent possession and sixteen shots on goal (three on target), this scoreline was not representative of the match at all. We showed our worth time and time again throughout this match, with Gabriel Jesus leading the line superbly with Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka backing him up with exellent passes and dynamic play, and but for a ridiculous VAR decision that cost us the lead so early on in the match, who knows what could have happened here? However, the good news is that we are still top of the league, going into the European fixtures week, which means that we are still the team to catch.

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: FC Zűrich at Stadion Letzigrund on Thursday, 8th September at 5.45pm (Europa League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon

Saka warming into the season

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The g/a merchants are still piping up about Saka’s “slow” start to the season.

Obsessed by goals and assists, they seem to be unable to see beyond these to establish how a player has influenced a game.

The criticism gets to a point where you actually have to wonder whether these fellas watch the game. Or do they just check the goal scorers at full time.

Against Aston Villa, Saka missed a golden chance; it came at him fast, on the half volley and weaker foot. But he still should have finished it. And it is that moment that his detractors seemed to focus on.

Yet Saka was electric against Aston Villa. Always a threat. Always committing opponents. Always trying to make something happen. And that was shown in his WhoScored rating – the websites algorithm had Saka as the 2nd best player on the pitch (behind Gabriel Martinelli).

Now whether you beleive algorithm driven ratings like WhoScored is another debate.

They are based on lots of different statistics being filtered in to come up with a rating. In comparison to the “eye test” most news outlets use where a journalist gives his rating.

The eye test always leads to journalistic bias – often over-scoring players the journo liked and under-scoring players they did not. It also leads to players get high scores for single moments (Harry Kane could have a stinker for 89 minutes, score a goal, then get given MOTM).

Meanwhile algorithm scores are objective. But they are also flawed if a player “games the system” – an example is a player that gets 100 passes at 100% pass completion could get a high rating even though those passes were 5-yard sideways and backwards.

So against Villa, WhoScored had Saka as the 2nd Arsenal best player on the pitch. Considering many claim he has had a slow start, how do they rank him in the opening 5 games:

Villa – 7.38/10 (2nd best)
Fulham – 7.21 (3rd)
Bournemouth – 7.14 (4th)
Leicester – 6.89 (5th)
Crystal Palace – 6.65 (11th)

It is interesting that the WhoScored ratings actually agree with my eye test (as someone who has been home and away this season).

It shows a slow start but a gradual improvement as the season has progressed; each game his rating has gone up and each game he has been a more influential player than the game before.

This is his toughest season to date as he is no longer a “young player with potential.” Opponents see him as a huge threat and that leads him to being double and tripple marked.

But that frees up space on the other side of the pitch – and space that Martinelli is taking advantage of.

With 3 goals in his opening 5 games, Martinelli has been our best player this season.

At some point opponents are going to see him as the threat he is. That will lead them to marking him more aggressively; which in turn will free uo more space on our right hand side.

With such a balanced attack, teams do not know which side to overload defensively. And that is a good place to be.

Whilst Saka might not be getting the headlines (although he did get the assist for the winner on Wednesday), he is returning to his best. Expect him to get double figures in goals again.

Keenos

Arsenal squad review – 2022/23

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With the transfer window padlocked up until Christmas, it is time for a little review of the Arsenal squad.

Now I have seen some on social media claim that “Arsenal have a paper thin squad” after missing out on Douglas Luiz and deciding not to pursue Youri Tielemans.

I must point at that these fans are mainly the Arsenal-incels that I have describe previously.

They spent Friday posting up picture of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. They hate that William Saliba is still at Arsenal. They spend more time supporting Matteo Guendouzi (and Nuno Tavares) in Marseille than they do Arsenal.

Despite us being top with a 100% record, they have moaned about Ben White, about Martin Odergaard, and lately about Bukayo Saka.

Largely, their viewpoint can be ignored because they take a position to be negative no matter what the situation is. It is all about hits, clicks, RTs and attention.

It gets to a point where you have to feel sorry for them.

Their “online negative persona” will transfer into real life and they will end up very unhappy people.

But how does Arsenal’s squad actually look?

Goalkeepers (3)

Aaron Ramsdale
Matt Turner
Karl Hein

It feels like we have returned back to the “old school” method of squad building with our goalkeeper.

Rather than trying to accomodate two international keepers – utilising one in the Premier League and one in Europe – we have a clear first and second choice.

I expect Ramsdale to play every Premier League & FA Cup game. Turner will come in for the League Cup and might get the group stages of the Europa League. But expect Ramsdale to come in as cup games become more important – no more playing the 2nd choice keeper in a final.

Hein ticks the boxes of not requiring registration which would free up spots elsewhere (if required).

Summary: Turner might be a drop off from Leno, but I would be surprised if he plays 10 games this season. More than happy.

Defenders (8)

Takehiro Tomiyasu
Cedric Soares
Ben White
Gabriel
William Saliba
Rob Holding
Kieran Tierney
Oleksandr Zinchenko

Jose Mourinho always spoke about having two quality players for every position.

Now we are not Manchester City so can not afford to have £50million centre backs sitting on the bench.

At right back, we have 3 solid options in Tomiyasu, Soares and White.

Some might question why Soares is still with the club (the same people who moan that the squad is too thin!) but it is due to the potential of Brooke Norton-Cuffy.

Excpect BNC tp prove himself in the Championship as being as good – if not better – than Djed Spence last season. No point spending big money on right back cover when you have a potential £20million teenager out on loan getting experience.

Centre back excites me.

Whilst some were arguing over who starts between White, Gabrial and Saliba, I was just delighted that we have 3 top class central defenders.

Yo udo not see Manchester City fans arguing over Laporte, Stones, Dias and Ake. Or Liverpool fans with VvD, Ibrahima Konaté and Joel Matip.

With 50+ games to play, we need 3 quality defenders. We now have that. And in Rob Holding we have a 4th solid option who should allow us to rest 2 in the Europa League.

Left back we have improved dramatically with Olexsandr Zinchenko coming in for Nuno Tavares. Real competitionm for places there.

Summary: Arguably the best defensive options since the invincibles.

Midfield (6)

Thomas Partey
Mohamed Elneny
Granit Xhaka
Albert Sambi Lokonga
Martin Odergaard
Fabio Vieira

Like in defence, we have 2 players for every midfield spot.

The elephant in the room is that Partey and Elneny are both out injured. Should we have addressed this in the summer?

This is where I take a leaf out of Jurgen Klopp’s book – you should only be buying players to cover an injury if they were a player you wanted prior to their injury. You should not be bringing in a player on a 5-year deal to cover a player out injured for 6 weeks.

At the moment – with the pair out injured – we do look a little short. However, Lokonga played well as the deepest midfielder against Fulham and we also have the option of Zinchenko there (if he is not required at left back).

Moving forward, it made little sense to sign Youri Tielemans this summer whilst Xhaka is at the club – we blogged on this a few times.

Xhaka has shown himself to be undroppable, and is covered by Lokonga, Zinchenko and Vieira.

On the other side, we have signed some class creativity to cover Odergaard.

One of our issues last season is we did not have adequete cover for our star players (Odergaard and Saka) which led them to be over played.

Signing Vieira has resolved this for Odergaard.

Summary: It might feel like now, but Partey will only be out for 3-4 weeks and we have plenty of cover for him. With Elneny longer term out, we could have covered him in the summer window but were right not to over pay. Expect someone to join in January.

Forwards (6)

Gabriel Jesus
Eddie Nketiah
Bukayo Saka
Marquinhos
Gabriel Martinelli
Emile Smith Rowe

If we are short anywhere, it is in the worward line.

Martinelli, Jesus and Saka is top class, but the drop off to ESR, Nketiah and Marquinhos is too large.

Arteta expects his front line to work hard – pressing, harassing and closing down. But over the course of the season this will take its toll and if workload is not managed properly will lead to their explosiveness diminishing.

What we needed was another top class winger to give us 3 options outwide (like we have at centre back) so we could rest and rotate Saka and Martinelli.

I am also unsure if Nketiah is the top class cover for Jesus – although we have seen with the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham in recent years that “2nd choice striker” is not an easy position to recruit for. And can be expensive.

What we needed was that 3rd top class winger which would have allowed Martinelli to be an option through the middle.

ESR had a great season last year and needs to back it up, whilst no one really knows anything about Marquinhos. I would be surprised if he would be ready to replace Saka in case of long term injury – but I have been wrong before.

Fabio Vieira is an option outwide, but it gets too a point where we have too many players covering too many positions.

Summary: We are one short out wide.

Overall Summary

We have a 23 man “senior squad” – Two players for every position and a 3rd choice keeper.

Due to the ages of some of the players, we will only have 18 registered in the A list for the Premier League; so there was plenty of space to rectuit had we wanted too.

How does a 23 man senior squad compare with our Big 6 rivals?

Liverpool – 27
Manchester United – 27
Tottenham – 26
Chelsea – 25
Arsenal – 23
Manchester City – 23

Alongside Manchester City, we do have the smallest squad of the top 6. But these figures can be missleading.

Manchester United’s 27 man squad includes the likes of Phil Jones, Brandon Williams and Axel Tuanzebe. they are only still with the club because no-one else wanted them – even on loan.

Whilst Tottenham’s squad is boosted by Bryan Gill (who they tried to get rid of on deadline day) and Harvey White (who?). They also have 3 right backs (Matt Doherty, Emerson Royal, Djed Spence).

Chelsea had a 23 man squad going into deadline day and secured Denis Zakaria and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang late Thursday evening.

The reality is, Liverpool aside, every club has a core group of around 18 senior outfield players that they will rely upon throughout the season. The rest of their squads are players they do not really want – but could not sell.

For the first time in a long time we have a squad where everyone is wanted. Everyone will get game time. We are not carrying everyone.

Yes, I think we needed a winger. And we could have signed another central midfielder. But if the primary targets were not available (especially in midfield) then we are better waiting for January to get them than spending big on temporary cover.

Will our squad be good enough to challenge for the title? Manchester City look imperious.

Will it be enough to be Top 3? I think so.

Now it just depends whether those incels move their goalposts to continue moaning…

Keenos