What a chaotic first game of the season!
The madness started before a ball was even kicked as the teams were read out.
Standing in the concourse, we saw Mikel Arteta’s first team selection of the season simultaneously on Sky Sports News and TNT Sports (formally BT): Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Rice, Timber, Partey, Odergaard, Havertz, Saka, Martinelli, Nketiah.
When it appeared on the screens there was almost mass “EH?” from everyone in the ground as it was an XI no one could have predicted.. Then Sky and TNT put their versions of the line-up up.
Sky went for a back 4 of White, Saliba, Rice and Timber. TNT went for Partey, White, Saliba, Timber. BBC went for the same. And then a couple of other apps showed Arsenal playing a back 3. All very confusing.
At this point, a pal turned round to me and said “the bars are quiet today” and quickly grabbed us all another poor, overly priced beer. It was about 12:10. As he came back, it was then announced why the bars were empty – the game had been delayed due to chaotic scenes outside the ground.
Arsenal had suffered a technological failure that resulted in the turnstiles not working and fans being able to get into the stadium.
The failure was not to do with the new digital passes, and all to do with the software that sits behind the turnstiles crashing.
When you swipe your pass (or previous membership card), a message is sent from the toughpad to a computer that then responds with a YES or NO. YES being for valid ticket, NO for invalid. If the answer is YES, the system goes green and lets you in. If NO, it means you get a red signal and can not get in.
Often the NO is due to you not holding your pass on for long enough and if you re-touch it, access is then granted.
The system went down, meaning that the card readers were not able to assess whether you had a valied ticket. The only way to resolve this was to reboot the system, which takes time. The old “turn it off and turn it back on”.
My understanding is the error in the system could have also happened with the membership cards, as it is the exact same process – think about paying for something with your phone or bank card, it is no different.
We live in a technology driven automatised world, and these sort of failures can happen anywhere.
I have been in pubs before where their wifi has gone down, and in turn that means they are unable to take card payments. Likewise I have been in supermarkets where the self-checkout machines go down and all need rebooted. This leads to long queues at the few remaining staff run checkouts whilst the system re-starts.
Arsenal did their best to control the situation, delaying the game and ensuring the safety of fans outside the stadium. Once the system was back up and running, fans begun entering the ground again.
Everyone got into the ground safely before kick off and no one was hurt. Whilst it was a confusing, chaotic situation, the stewards did the best they could. The important thing is we learn from it, and come up with a better plan on how to react if it happens again.
As always, some took the situation to promote themselves on social media, highlighting a few fans that got in without tickets, calling it “potentially another Hillsborough” and sharing pictures of the Ambulance services tending to a man who collapsed away from the crowds. These folk were just desperate to share negative news for their own promotion. Probably to try and boost their own failing blog or Fanzine.
Once the game kicked off, the chaos of the starting XI translated into chaos on the pitch.
You had Partey playing at right back with White inside him. Then Partey was at the right sides centre back position with White at right back. Then Rice was in the left centre back position with Partey in midfield. It led to a very disjointed defence, and one which Nottingham Forest nearly took advantage of.
Having consistently played a version of 433 / 4231 / 4141 throughout pre-season, I think Arteta risked trying to be too clever for his own good with a “fluid defence” on the opening game of the season.
Personally, with Gabriel not fit to start, I would have preferred Jakub Kiwior to come in. The Pole was solid last season and had a decent pre-season.
Despite the chaos in defence, we went two-nil up before half time with goals from Eddie Nketiah and Bukayo Saka. We then dominated play for most of the season half and only a couple of good saves from Matt Turner stopped Declan Rice getting his first Arsenal goals.
On a side note, what a player Declan Rice is. A proper all round midfielder. A Ruud Gullit re-gen.
Forest then made some changes, brigning on some power upfront and pace outwide, and almost immediately benefited as our fluid defence was exposed by Anthony Elanga electric pace.
We had overcomitted in attack, and Elanga found himself without a right back in-front of him and the length of the Emirates pitch to run into. He was direct and quick.
With only a single centre back, Taiwo Awoniyi showed great movement to get infront of William Saliba for a tap in.
6 minutes of normal time to go, plus whatever was to be added on, Steve Cooper bought on Chris Wood and Cheikhou Kouyate to add further height. The aim would have been to win corners and free kicks and create chaos in our box.
Arteta bought on Gabriel and went back to a flat back 4 with Rice and Partey covering them. This saw us regain some sort of control on the game, but Forest still looked a threat everytime they had an opportunity to pump a ball into the box.
We hang on for a 2-1 win and 3 points in the bag.
On to Crystal Palace next Monday, and hopefully less chaos in team selection, getting into Selhurst Park (although their away end is notoriously chaotic) and in the on-pitc performance.
You do not win the league in the opening 10-games of the season. But you can lose it. For now it is about results rather than performances.
UTA
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 