My Man of the Match against Watford was Nuno Tavares.
The Portuguese left back has been fantastic in the last 3 Premier League games since coming in for Kieran Tierney.
Such has been the level of his performances that against Watford, fit-again Tierney spent his time warming up in T-shirt and shorts.
12 months ago Tierney would have been rushed back into the starting XI when clearly not fit
As it stands, the left back position is in Tavares’s hands and it wil lbe down to the Scot to get his head down, work hard in training and take his opportunity when it arises.
Against Watford Tavares never stopped running up and down the line.
He has the lightning pace which allows him to join any attack, whilst also getting back to cover in defence.
He is also a strong boy, capable of getting involved in the battle.
As for his distribution, he put in a couple of dangerous crossing against Watford and his short passing is also very good.
With Liverpool up next, Mikel Arteta might opt to return to the more experienced Tierney against Mo Salah. This would perhaps be unfair on the younger man; but also a decision I can understand.
If Salah rips Tavares a new one (which he does to almost every fullback), Arteta will be criticsed for playing him and it could put back Tavares’s development.
Another option could be to play Tavares further up the pitch ahead of Tierney to cover Trent Alexander-Arnold.
With the ages of both Tierney and Tavares, it feels like we have the left hand side of the defence covered for the foreseeable.
Keenos
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A lot was made about the signing of Benjamin White when he joined Arsenal.
The clubs criticis would have you believe that we had spent £50million on a fancy-dan defender who, whilst great on the ball, could not head and was suspectable defensively.
After a tough start to his Arsenal career in that performance against Brentford, White has been nothing short of brilliant.
Against both Burnley and Watford, he showed his rumoured weakness under the high ball was no more than a myth.
Each game he is growing in stature at the back as part of a defence which has now kept 5 clean sheets (only Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City have kept more).
He is also the best ball playing defender in the league.
His ability on the ball, both running out with it and his passing, is adding another dimension to our attacks.
Like with David Luiz in his prime, when White gets up a head of steam he quickly beats the press and dissects through the middle of an opponents midfield.
With these runs, he quickly transitions defence into attack and creates space for others.
He was unlucky to miss out on a place in Gareth Southgate’s England team as Conor Coady was picked ahead of him.
Southgate will not be able to ignore him for much longer.
Glorious Gabriel
The other half of what is quickly becoming one of the best central defensive partnerships in the league is Gabriel.
Gabriel is the leader at the back. The commander of the back 4.
The Brazilian barks the orders, sets the line and the others pick their position off him.
He is a huge reason why White is looking so comfortable in defence. And why Nuno Taveras is looking like a player 100 appearances for Arsenal under his belt, not just 10.
Gabriel is cool and clam. But he is also a powerhouse. A force to be reckoned with.
At one point on Sunday the Watford players were surrounding the referee complaining about something. In stepped Gabriel, arms out wide, positioning himself between the ref and the Watford players.
A one man army, Gabriel had taken control of the situation without the need for other players to get involved (and potentially talk themselves into trouble).
I do not know what level Gabriel’s English is as he does very few (if any?) post-game interviews. But if over the next 18 months he becomes fleunt in the Queen’s, he will inherite the armband from Aubameyang.
Gabriel is everything people think Virgil van Dijk is. And more.
Excellent Emile
Last season Arsenal suffered from a lack of goals – and no more so than from midfield.
Nicolas Pepe was our highest scoring midfielder with 10 in the league, Saka scored 5.
Emile Smith Rowe, Martin Odergaard, Granit Xhaka, Dani Ceballos, Thomas Partey, Mo Elneny, Joe Willock and Willian scored 6 league goals between them. A frankly embarassing return.
We needed someone to step up to get close to hitting Aaron Ramsey numbers. Makign those late runs into the box. Getting double figures in goals.
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When we sold Willock, the clubs critics said we had sold our only goal scoring midfielder (the Halen End graduate scored 8 in 14 whilst on loan to Newcastle). Some felt he deserved a chance back at Arsenal. That he would have played this role.
Willock is yet to score for Newcastle this season; highlighting that last season was perhaps a hot run of form and his real ability was the 1 league goal in 40 games for Arsenal.
So somone needed to step up from midfield – and that man has been Emile Smith Rowe.
He is playing left side of midfield but very much has a license to drop inside. This has led him to picking up some very good positions in and around the box.
Arsenal’as fluidity in the front line is what is opening up space for Smith Rowe.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang drops outwide dragging a centre back with him. Lacazette then fills the space ahead of him left by Aubameyang. This pulls back the opposing defensive midfielder marking him.
That then leaves a big load of space between defensce and midfield that Smith Rowe is utilising. It is a clever tactic.
4 goals in 11 Premier League games makes Smith Rowe our top scorer this season alongside Aubameyang.
Like White, Gareth Southgate can only ignore this form so long.
And 10 munutes after this blog was completed, it was announced that Smith Rowe was called up into the England squad.
Auba’s Anguish
Whilst everything about Arsenal is wonderful right now, Aubameyang will not be in a rush to re-watch the Watford game; his performance costing Arsenal 3 goals.
the officials were completely correct to rule out Bukayo Saka’s goal for offside. But the situation would not have risen if it was not for Auba.
Alexandre Lacazette had done all the hard work, finding a pocket of space and chipping the keeper.
Ben Foster’s touch landed at the feet of Aubameyang with the goal at his mercy.
An inform Aubameyang would have hit it first time. Out of form he takes a touch and then slots it home. What ended up happening is he completely misscontrolled it the ball. It then bobbled to Saka who stuck it away but was clearly offside.
Arsenal then won a penalty after Danny Rose clotheslined Lacazette. Upstepped Aubameyang who failed to convert from the spot.
I have never been a fan of Auba on penalties. It feels like he is not very good at them.
He never seems to put his foot through the ball, rarely finds the corners or side netting. Every penalty he takes is saveable if the keeper guesses the right way.
And it feels like that is Auba’s tactic when it comes to penalties – hoping the keeper dives the wrong way.
When someone like Harry Kane takes them, you feel even if the keeper guesses right the ball is beyong him.
Aubameyang missed against Aston Villa a couple of weeks ago and has now failed to score from 4 of his 13 penalties. That is a poor record.
The Villa, Tottenham and Watford misses were also very similar – all to the keepers right.
Auba’s anguish peaked when he got the last touch on a goal bound shot from Martin Odegaard – sticking the ball in the night from an offside position.
At this point he was desperate to get his name on the scoresheet following the poor touch and the penalty miss.
Odegaard’s shot was bending inside the far post. there was no need for Aubameyang to touch it. But he stuck out a big toe and the goal was ruled out for offside.
Aubameyang has 7 goals from 11 games this season. The Watford performance was just one of those games where nothing went for him.
Arsenal were completely right not to give the ball back to Watford on Sunday.
“Oh but you’re an Arsenal fan so yo uare always going to say that”. And you are right. But then it is also not just me saying it.
Ashley Williams on MOTD2 gave a brilliant analysis of the situation.
The Watford player lost the ball in the middle of the park, went down and stayed down. It is a tactic players often use in the hope that the referee will stop play, and therefore stop the attack.
The ref, rightly, did not stop the play and Arsenal played on. We had no duty to kick the ball out as the Watford player was clearly not injured.
Watford won the ball back and Danny Rose, under pressure near his own corner flag, rolled the ball out of play.
This was not an action to allow his team mate to get treatment. It was an action to try and relieve pressure.
Rose’s hope would have been that by putting the ball back, the ball would be returned to the Watford keeper and pressure would be relieved.
But as Rose put the ball out of play, the “injured” Watford player was already up on his knees and getting up.
Rose realised he made a mistake and started shouting at his team mate to “stay down” so that the physio would come on and give him treatment. Had he done so Arsenal would have given the ball back to Watford.
But instead the “injured” Watford player stood up and started jogging.
At this point it was clear and obvious to everyone that Rose had not put the ball out to allow his team mate to receive tratement but to try and halt an Arsenal attack.
Arsenal new what was happening, did not give the ball back, and a few phases later scored the only goal of the match.
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If he had the ball near Arsenal’s corner flag and a team mate was down near the halfway line, would he put the ball out of play or continue with the attack?
I think we all know that he would ignore his stricken team mate and would do his best to put the ball into the box.
Players only seem desperate to put the ball out of an injured team mate when they are defending, not attacking.
What Arsenal probably should have done is put the ball straight back out of play, near the corner flag, for a Watford throw in then boxed them in. That would have been the fairest scenario.
But as soon as that Watford player is up and clearly not in need of treatment, then it is “game on” as Ashley Williams stated.
Mikel Arteta was spot on that in years gone past Arsenal were a little naive.
Under Arsene Wenger, I used to get frustrated about how quick we would put the ball out of play, even in attacking positions, as soon as an opponent was slow getting up.
Countless times I have screamed “play on” at Arsenal players. Because it always ended the same way – the opponent getting some fake treatment and the ball back with our goal keeper.
I am all for players putting the ball out when a player is actually injured and in need of treatment. But we know 95% of the time a player stays down in the hope of getting play stopped.
Hopefully Arsenal have set a standard that the rest of the league will follow.
Stop giving the ball back when an opponent puts it out of play as a defensive tactic.
