Category Archives: Arsenal

Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 0 Brighton

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Arsenal (0) 2 Brighton and Hove Albion (0) 0

Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Sunday, 17th December 2023. Kick-off time: 2.00pm

(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, Leandro Trossard, Reiss Nelson, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Reuell Walters.

Scorers: Gabriel Jesus (53 mins), Kai Havertz( 87 mins)
Yellow Cards: Ben White
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 49%

Referee: Tim Robinson
Assistant Referees: Eddie Smart, Nick Greenhalgh
Fourth Official: Darren Bond
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Paul Tierney; AVAR Neil Davies

Attendance: 60,257

Firstly, Happy Birthday to our captain, Martin Ødegaard, who is twenty-five years old today! Secondly, there is the small matter of gaining three points from this afternoon’s clash against Brighton and Hove Albion at the Emirates.

Every point is valuable, every match needs to be won, especially with Liverpool being top of the tree, and ourselves lying in second position, just one point behind them at the time of writing.

Additionally, Aston Villa are a mere point behind us as well, and none of us need reminding of what could happen if the Villains are victorious against Brentford (whose match kicks off the same time as ourselves) and we are unsuccessful today. All to play for, chaps.

We started the match rather speedily, and within no time at all, Bukayo Saka was turning James Milner inside and out, out on the right wing, and a couple of minutes later, Bukayo Saka cuts inside the veteran player but his shot was weak and a simple save for goalie Bart Verbruggen.

We kept coming forward, with Martin Ødegaard cutting in from the right wing and curling a shot just wide of the far post, and then Gabriel Jesus skipped in between two defenders and had a shot deflected wide of the goal.

Bukayo Saka was constantly getting fouled out there now, firstly by James Milner, whose frustration has spilled over, and then other BHA defenders bringing down our man. Is there no protection by referees against this kind of systematic fouling on flair players anymore?

We were desperate to get the opening goal at the Emirates, and just after the half hour mark, Bukayo Saka ran onto Martin Ødegaard’s through ball and cut it back to Gabriel Martinelli, whose snap shot flew over the BHA crossbar.

Ben White picked up a pointless yellow card for pulling the shirt of Kaoru Mitoma, and then Gabriel Martinelli absolutely flew like a harrier down the left wing and forced a save from Bart Verbruggen at the near post, but sadly the follow-up shot by Kai Havertz was blocked.

Eventually, just before the half-time break, our man between the sticks, David Raya, who truthfully, has had nothing to do, almost dropped the deep cross from Simon Adingra’s cross but eventually gathered it up confidently. Shortly afterwards, referee Tim Robinson blew the whistle for the half-time break and it is to be noted that not only have we completely dominated the first half, but the visitors have yet to have a shot. Surely it must be a matter of time before we score?

The second half started in very much the same way as the first ended, with our forwards prowling for that elusive opening goal. The visitors almost got caught out playing from the back twice in just a minute but Bart Vebruggen somehow managed to get to Martin Ødegaard’s ball before Bukayo Saka did, which was lucky for them!

Just eight minutes after the restart, we finally took the lead when BHA defender Jan Paul van Hecke accidentally flicked on a Gunners corner with his head, and who should be there, but Gabriel Jesus, who somehow stooped low at the back post to head the ball into an empty net.

After the restart, during an attack, Gabriel Jesus headed the ball down for our captain, and he shot wide of the mark, unfortunately. This match is so one-sided, it is a miracle that we have not scored another goal yet! Time and time again, our build up play suggest that we could score, but it was really not happening.

The visitors brought on ex-Gunner Danny Welbeck to good applause from our fans, and then Mikel Arteta rang the changes when Leandro Trossard (a BHA old boy) and Eddie Nketiah replaced our goalscorer Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli in order to pile more pressure on the visitors from the south coast.

Suddenly, the visitors caught our defence cold in a complacent moment when, literally, out of nowhere Pascal Gross slid the ball wide from seven yards out, which was a huge warning for us. It was then Declan Rice’s turn to put the match beyond the visitor’s reach when he ran down the left wing, burst into the penalty area and forced an amazing save from Bart Verbruggen.

Finally, three minutes from the end of normal time, Eddie Nketiah slotted the ball beautifully to Kai Havertz, who ran into the penalty area and stroked the ball past the outstretched arm of Bart Verbruggen for our second goal of the day. At last!

Just as the six minute injury time sign was introduced to the crowd, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka were replaced by Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith-Rowe, and just a minute or so later, our substitute Emile Smith-Rowe hit a fabulous volley goalbound, but Bart Verbruggen somehow saved it.

After some pedestrian play by our boys to preserve the score, the final whistle was blown and we were victorious, and more importantly we are top of the Premiership again!

A well-deserved victory by our boys today, and everyone played well. Declan Rice was absolutely immense, covering a lot of ground out there, and the defence were rock solid, keeping out BHA throughout the game. With twenty-six shots on goal, nine on target, two of them being goals, it was truly a good day at the office for us. All in all, it was an incredible performance overall, with our domination of the game being there for all to see. 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: Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday, 23rd December at 5.30pm (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

Arteta’s Arsenal look to return to the top (and 5 clear of City)

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Morning all and happy Sunday!

When I blogged yesterday that I thought Liverpool were our main rivals for the Premier League title this season, I was not expecting to be proved right by the time the sun set.

Manchester City do not look the team of previous years, and throwing away a 2-0 lead against Crystal Palace shows just how vunerable they are.

Their “demise” started 18-months ago, and whilst they won it all last season, the fact tha The Arsenal led the way for so long showed that maybe they Pep Guardiola was entering his “last dance” phase of his time in Manchester.

City’s issue is in the last 18-months, they have let a lot of experience go out the door. A lot of players that were leaders of men.

In 2022, Fernandinho, Gabriel Jesus, Olexsandr Zinchenko and Raheem Sterling all exited. They were proven winners and the types of players who would step up and put in a performance against a Crystal Palace. They were replaced by Erling Haaland, Kalvin Phillips, Manuel Akanji and Sergio Gómez.

Only really Haaland of those incoming has proven that he is better than what he replaced.

Than summer just gone İlkay Gundogan departed, alongside Riyad Mahrez and Aymeric Laporte. Laporte replaced by Josko Gvardiol, Gundogan by Mateo Kovacic and Mahrez by Jeremy Doku. They also signed Matheus Nunes following the failure of Phillips to sufficiently replace Fernadinho.

Losing Fernandinho and Gundogan in a period of 12 months, to be replaced by Phillips, Kovacic and Nunes is a huge drop off in not only ability but also leadership. The midfeild generals did the dirt work that allowed others to flourish.

Jeremy Doku is a raw talent, but Mahrez and Sterling were the finished article. And they certainly knew how to win things.

You also have Pep Guardiola who looks like he is bored, and that has resulted him trying to re-invent the wheel to prove his tactical genius. Playing defenders in midfield, full backs at centre back, and continuing to play Phil Foden and Rico Lewis despite neither really good enough. It is all to show he cares about youth!

City might prove me wrong. They might go on another 13 or 14 game run and win the league, but it does just feel different these days.

Maybe this is there off year to allow their bodies to recover from whatever the Manchester City doctors administer…

We now need to take advantage of Manchester City’s slip ups.

I have been confused in the last week when opposing fans have said “Arsenal are bottling the league earlier than usual this year”. Firstly, we can go top today. Secondly, I do not really understand where our reputation for being “bottlers” has come from.

We are the 3rd most succesful team in English football history. We have won the most FA Cups. We do not have the trophy haul of that supposedly regularly bottle things. But I guess that is the world we live in. All about impressions from memes without a care in the world if they are true.

Those same fans that are saying we have bottled it again are still talking about Spurs being in the title race. They are the fans who are talking about Richarlison’s sparkling form (5 league goals in 18 months), and Newcastle United being a force to be reckoned with (currently 6th). But I guess that is what happens when you are a team like The Arsenal. Higher expectations than tin-pot clubs.

Win today and we go 5 points clear of Manchester City. Certainly not a huge gap but we all would have taken being ahead of them on Christmas Day.

Liverpool are our main threat. But for now we just need to concentrate on ourselves. Get the 3 points. And then focus on Anfield. An early season title decider? Perhaps.

UTA.

Keenos

Are Liverpool Arsenal’s main title rivals?

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Morning! The lead up to Christmas is now in full swing. Today is a rest day before the big game tomorrow. A chance for a 24 hour detox before the last home game of the season.

We have seen this season how quickly things can change.

It was not too long ago that Spurs were 5 points clear, which was the biggest lead they have ever had in the Premier League. One defeat turned into 3 in a row, and ended with them getting just a single point in 5 and tumbling down the league and out of the title race.

Manchester City have also suffered a bad spell – 3 draws in a row and a defeat to Aston Villa saw them take just 3 points out of 12. Newcastle are another team on a bad run with back to back defeats.

After the defeat to Aston Villa, it is important we get back to winning ways tomorrow to avoid ending up on a long winless run.

Brighton is followed by a trip to Liverpool before we then face West Ham and home and then Fulham on New Years Eve. The upcoming trio of games will take us to exactly half way through the season. We need to stay on Liverpool’s coat tails. They are our biggest threat.

We all know Manchester City can go on a 15 game winning run and canter away from everyone else. For Arsenal and Liverpool, they are battling to be “best of the rest” and be that team who grabs a league title when City have an off year.

The year Liverpool won the title during Covid, Man City got just 81 points. I have a feeling this could be a similar season for them, which leaves Liverpool as our main title rivals.

We beat Brighton on Sunday, we go back top of the league. We can then watch Liverpool v Manchester United in the late-afternoon kick off in the knowledge that we have not lost any ground.

Mikel Arteta has spoken about how Brighton are a very good, well organised team, and that to beat them we need to be very efficient. They might be 8th in the table, but that upper-mid table is so compact with 3 points covering 6th to 8th.

For once, we play after a European mid-week against a team that have had it tougher.

Whilst we rested and rotated for the short trip to PSV on Tuesday, Brighton had their first XI out for a tough game against Marseille which they won in the 88th minute. We have had 5 days rest against their 3.

Hopefully we see the fatigue of playing Thursdsy and Sunday creep in, whilst the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are fresh as a daisy.

Arteta also provided an update on Thomas Partey saying “He’s getting a very good evolution in the injury, but it’s a bit early for the time frame” when asked if he could be available to face Liverpool two days before Christmas.

When we signed Declan Rice, I was excited about seeing him and Partey in tandem for tough away games. I do wonder whether those results against Newcastle and Aston Villa would have been different had Partey have been fit. Getting him back (or replaced) will be important in January.

In other Arteta news, he spoke breifly on his hearing following the comments made after Newcastle. Whilst he did not go into everything that was said, he did hint about the approach Arsenal took:

“It’s not about them, it’s about ‘we’. Arteta said “We want to [make] the game better. How can we improve on the touchline to make life easier from the player side, from their side, technology-wise?

“It’s all about us – we’re all in this together. It’s not about separate people trying to do their bits – [that’s] not going to work. We have to do it together.”

I was surprised by the criticism Arsenal and Arteta got for saying that refereeing in this country was not good enough, and they we had to work together to improve. I really did not see how anyone could disagree with that standpoint. And it would seem that the FA did eventually agree.

The PGMOL and clubs need to come together to improve the standards of refereeing, with the result being a much better, fairer game. Clearly the FA agreed with Arteta and Arsenal on this point and that is why he was not punished.

Finally, our friends over at Kick Off Merchants are still able to get you a set of their popular Arsenal beer mats for Christmas! Order this weekend to make Monday’s post!

Keenos