The Arsenal doomsday boys are have been back out in force over the last 36 hours.
First real test of the season and they failed is their byline.
But really? Was Man U away really our first test of the season?
How about Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park? A team we had beaten just once in the previous eight attempts. Was that not a test?
And if Palace was not a test for us, were they a test for Liverpool? Drew 1-1 at Anfield.
then we have Leicester City. Ok, these were not really a test. They look in trouble. Will probably be relegated. And Bournemouth not much better.
Then we have Fulham and Aston Villa. Two sides we should beat. Two sides we did beat. Two sides Liverpool and Manchester City failed to beat respectively.
So they were not tests for us, but both took points off our title rivals. I would rather beat team that are “not a test” than draw with them.
And then we have Manchester United Sunday.
We played brilliantly. Were the better team. Lost 3-1.
Not the first time we have been to Old Trafford, played a poor Man U team, been the better team and lost.
We have actually had a fairly positive record against them under Mikel Arteta – before Sunday it was three wins, one draw and one defeat.
But a bit like last season, we lost a game we should have won.
It is not a disaster that we lost to them, no matter what the doomsday merchants are saying.
They will beat others in the “Big 6” at home this season (they have already beaten Liverpool) and are not as bad as the media made out.
Since that disaster-class against Brentford, Manchester United have won 4 from 4 including victories against Liverpool and ourselves.
Liverpool showed last season that you do not need to beat your “real tests” to challegen for the title.
They won 4 out of 10 Big 6 games – and gained just 3 points more than Chelsea. Liverpool finished 18 points ahead.
In 2021/22, they dropped just 10 points against the “other 14” – and 6 of those were defeats away to West Ham and Leicester who finished 7th and 8th respectively. And they drew against 9th placed Brighton.
They dropped just 2 points out of 66 against teams that finished 10th-20th. An incredible record.
Now I am not saying Arsenal will replicate it, but it just highlights that we mount a title challenge this year by beating the rest, not the best.
It is beating the best that turns you from title challengers to champions – Manchester City gained 5 more points than Liverpool in Big 6 fixtures and lifted the title.
So 6 games in, we have just suffered our first defeat of the season and are top of the league with 15 points.
Last season, we were 10th with 9 points…
So lets ignore the doomsday merchants. They call Arsenal “they” rather than “us” and are probably just excited about getting to watch Marseille play at the Tottenham Stadium tomorrow
Final thought: That Antony is basically the new Nani isn’t he? Annoying little shit that is not as good as he thinks he is. Will have a highlight reel of skills and tricks that lead to nothing.
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,
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 MartÃnez 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
There was a time when #MUNARS was the most important game in the race for the Premier League
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:
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.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 