Arsenal (0) 1 Norwich City (0) 0

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Saturday, 11th September 2021. Kick-off time: 3.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Albert Sambi Lokonga; Nicolas Pépé, Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Thomas Partey, Alexandre Lacazette, Emile Smith-Rowe, Cédric Soares, Nuno Tavares, Calum Chambers, Pablo Marí, Gabriel Martinelli.

Scorers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (66 mins)

Yellow Cards: Ben White, Thomas Partey

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 52%

Referee: Michael Oliver

Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt and Simon Bennett

Fourth Official: Gavin Ward

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Mike Dean; AVAR Eddie Smart

Attendance: circa 60,000

Today is the day that we need to restart our season, and urgently too. We should forget the appalling results of August, the amount of money that has been spent on new players, and the wild and sometimes ridiculous opinions of all sections of the media. Thanks to the hiatus of the international week (which may just have been our saviour), we should start again with today’s match against Norwich City. Nothing else matters; the past is gone, the future has not happened yet, so all we have is today. So let’s just live in real time, on a match-by-match basis, and worry about our opponents as they arise. Best foot forward now, chaps, no messing around. Or else.

We started the match very much on the front foot, pressing the visitors into their own half. Gabriel and new boy Takehiro Tomiyasu were both unlucky not to score within the first ten minutes, as was Kieran Tierney and in both cases, Ben White (another new signing) was instrumental in assisting the two full backs in their goal attempts. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s shot from outside the Norwich City penalty area went narrowly past the post and just after a quarter an hour (and another narrowly missed header by Albert Sambi Lokonga), the visitors broke out and we had a close call when Max Aarons crossed the ball into our penalty area and thankfully the header by Kenny McLean went wide, which was a blessing. The match started to calm down and although the visitors were having their chances, and appeared to look more confident, our defenders managed to hold them at bay. Both Teemu Pukki and Kieran Dowell had their chances, but thankfully, our defence was able to block their shots before Aaron Ramsdale could spring into action. With just three minutes left of the first half, Max Aarons fouled Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and the subsequent free-kick, which was taken by Nicolas Pépé, went narrowly wide. On the cusp of the break, Kieran Tierney crossed the ball into the Norwich City penalty area, and Takehiro Tomiyasu’s superb volley went just over the bar, which was extremely unlucky.

And so the second half started, with both speculation and trepidation permeating the North London air in equal measure. Despite a couple of half-hearted goal attempts from the visitiors, we managed to regroup and apply pressure on the Canaries’ goal, and as in the opening stages of the previous half, our desire to score became more and more evident with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Gabriel, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Kieran Tierney being unlucky not to score. Almost pendulum-like, the match started to go back into the visitors’ favour with Norwich City winning possession quite easily in our half, and in a classic breakout movement, Bukayo Saka’s quick thinking saw his shot blocked by Brandon Williams just before Nicolas Pépé could pick up the rebound. So close. On the hour, Thomas Partey and Emile Smith-Rowe replaced Albert Sambi Lokonga and Takehiro Tomiyasu in order for us to push up to score; Ainsley Maitland-Niles dropped back to the right-back position in order to accommodate the substitutions. At last! A goal! Twenty-four minutes from the end of the match, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s right-footed shot from very close range ended up into the bottom left corner, after some sterling work by Nicolas Pépé. Although the visitors claimed the goal was offisde, the VAR check by Mike Dean at Stockley Park gave the green light for the goal to stand. Nothing like a goal to spark up a match, and within a few minutes, both teams had good chances to score, and the goalkeepers at either end made superb saves. With ten minutes of the match remaining, Cédric Soares replaced Ainsley Maitland-Niles in order to press up to finish the match; within a minute of the substitution, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came extremely close to scoring a second goal when he slid in to try to finish off a clever Nicolas Pépé cross, and as the match came to the final stages, the visitors started to look fatigued, and recognising this, we pressed their goal harder. Emile Smith-Rowe received a pass from Bukayo Saka, lost his marker and his clever shot went just inches wide. In injury time, Emile Smith-Rowe ran through and slotted an accurate pass to Nicolas Pépé, whose left-footed shot went narrowly wide. Norwich City started to wake up and although it looked a bit touch and go, we held on for our first win of the season.

Okay, it wasn’t brilliant, but it is a much-needed win, when all is said and done. The new boys all played well, Nicolas Pépé, Emile Smith-Rowe and Bukayo Saka all played extremely well also. The match itself will not be remembered as a classic in any way, shape or description, but that is not the issue today. We desperately needed three points to kickstart our season and thankfully, that is exactly what happened. A better test will be next Saturday afternoon at Turf Moor when we meet Sean Dyche’s Burnley. Three points there, and that will give us a massive confidence boost going into the North London derby later in the month.

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: Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday, 18th September at 3.00pm (Premier 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.

League Cup Tickets

If you were not aware, you have until 8am Thursday morning to reserve your season ticket seat.

The club have failed to email fans about the deadline and the deadline was buried half way down the news article about the fixture. It should have been the first line.

The date of the game was only officially announced yesterday which is why the news on ticketing is so late.

Questions need to be asked of clubs, authorities and TV companies as to why a draw which took place 2 weeks ago only had the exact day of fixtures announced yesterday.

Sky et al spent a long time earlier this year making a point about how fans mattered; but clearly now things are returning to normal, they have also returned to normal.

Taking 2 weeks to decide when a fixture takes place is clearly not good enough and not fair on those fans who need to make travel arrangements.

Mohamed Elneny & Sead Kolasinac Exits

Today the Turkish transfer window shuts. It will be the last realistic chance for either Mohamed Elneny or Sead Kolasinac to depart the club before January.

Reports were yesterday that Arsenal had rejected an approach for Elneny from Galatasaray.

Details of the offer have not materialised, but Arsenal should not sell him “on the cheap”.

Yes, he only has 1 year left on his contract, but it is not true that “any transfer fee is better than no transfer fee”.

Elneny is only on £52,000 a week, so we are not in a huge rush to get his salary off the wage bill. Any transfer would have to suit us.

It would be better to keep Elneny as part of the squad for the next 12 months rather than lose him for a couple of million (or even a loan deal).

I would imagine Galatasaray would have to offer us at least £5million for the deal to be financially worthwhile (including the wage saving Arsenal would end up around £7.5million up).

Kolasinac is a bit different as he is set to cost us around £6million this year; and is also less likely to play than Elneny.

The Bosnian is 3^rd choice left back so really will not see any game time this season.

I would imagine if a loan offer for him came in today we would accept it.

Charlie Patino

There is a lot of hype around young Charlie Patino this morning.

Sean O’Connor, the scout that discovered Jack Wilshere, has claimed the Patino is “the best player who has ever walked through the doors at Hale End”.

Regular readers of my blog will know how much I try and protect young players from being overhyped.

We have seen it in recent years with Jeff Reinne-Adeilade & Gedion Zelalem. Both hyped up as Jack’s heir apparent. Neither went on to fulfil the potential they showed in pre-season Emirates Cup games.

We also have Miguel Azeez.

12 months ago he was the next golden boy of the Arsenal academy. He has yet to have his opportunity and some fans have already moved on to Patino.

Before Patino gets his chance to show what he can do in the first team, Azeez will get his opportunity.

If you want a view of Patino from someone who has actually seen him, this is a great blog from friend of the site Willow.

Folarin Balogun has shown how big the step up is from youth football to senior.

Patino is just 17. Let’s not stick rush him into our first team plans.

Keenos

So that is the transfer window shut. Some highs and lows. Probably the right players bought, but not really the right players sold. But that is another blog for another day.

With the players we still have at the club, how will Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal line up (with everyone fit?):

Most Logical – 4231

4231 is the most logical line-up with the players we have.

I have excluded the keeper on all of these as I do not want the Leno v Ramsdale debate to side track the discussion of the 10 outfield players.

On that, Bernd Leno will be first choice this season with Aaron Ramsdale given some game time in the cups.

This would be Arteta’s most balanced side.

A proper back 4 with all playing in a natural position. Balance in midfield between Thomas Partey’s power and pressing alongside Granit Xhaka’s passing and control.

Further forward we have the creativity of Martin Odegaard in the middle with Nicolas Pepe and Bukayo Saka either side; and upfront Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Whilst it is not the perfect XI, and will create a debate over Pepe and Xhaka (see Alterative XI), this is the time that I feel Arteta will play if all fit.

Alternative XI – 4231

The 2 debates over the most logical XI is Pepe and Xhaka.

Had business gone as we wanted this summer, Xhaka would no longer be with the club and would have been replaced. But no significant bids came in and he ended up staying, getting a new contract and getting the captains armband in the opening game.

Some will argue that Albert-Sambi Lokonga should start ahead of him. I am against this for 2 reasons.

The first is that Sambi is just a youngster. It is clearly too early for him to come in and be expected to play week in week out. Let him develop and get up to Premier League standard.

Secondly I think a midfield of Partey and Lokonga will lack any real control.

Both are power and pressing; neither are great passers. You need a Xhaka in there to maintain the balance.

The second change is moving Saka over to the right and playing Smith Rowe on the left.

I have seen a lot of XI’s produced with the pair in the team ahead of Pepe.

Whilst it does excite me, I do question if an attacking midfield of Saka Odegaard Smith Rowe will have enough goals in it.

Last season in the Premier League, Pepe scored 10 goals. Saka, Smith Rowe and Odegaard scored 8 between them.

Taking into account scoring was a huge issue for us last season, removing our highest scoring midfielder will only compound the problem.

We would need a drastic improvement from Saka, Smith Rowe and Odegaard in the goals department, and I am nut sure if any of them have it in them.

A Complete Change – 343

If Arteta decides to implement a complete change and move to the 343 that saw us lift the FA Cup, he would have plenty of selection headaches.

343 would see new right back Takehiro Tomiyasu slot into the right hand side of defence with Ben White and Gabriel making up the back 3. But would this be our best line-up?

As I write this I wonder if Rob Holding would be best off playing in the centre of the 3 with White to his right; therefore ensuring our best header of the ball is on the pitch and in the middle of the back 3.

So then what was the point of signing Tomiyasu if he would not play in what is perhaps his best position on the right hand side of a 3.

Cast aside Ainsley Maitland-Niles also returns. He is our best wing back and his defensive frailties are not exposed with a back 3 behind him. Tierney would start left.

In the middle we have Xhaka and Partey. Read the debate above about Lokonga if you wished to play the Belgium over Xhaka.

The front 3 was a headache.

You have no natural number 10; so Odegaard would either have to play deeper in the midfield 2 or out wide. Neither of these positions suit him.

Would Odegaard be better out wide then Pepe, Smith Rowe or Saka? I think not. So why sign him?

You also have the Aubameyang / Alex Lacazette factor that we have not yet discussed.

Aubameyang looked deadly in a 343 when we played it; so does he come on the left with Lacazette in middle? But this then leaves just one Saka, Pepe or Smith Rowe playing on the right hand side.

I think if we went down this route, we would see Pepe, Aubameyang and Saka in the forward 3 positions.

I think we will see 4231 with everyone fit.

Hopefully Arteta works out his best team and sticks with it.

One issue under Arteta has been the chopping and changing of personnel and tactics. This leads to lack of continuity in play.

Pick your tactics, your best XI, and play them.

Keenos