If Carlsberg did Saturday’s, then yesterday was not a good for The Arsenal.
It started with two late-ish goals for Erling Haaland as Manchester City overcame a stubborn Everton 2-1 and finished with Tottenham scoring a 96 minutes to beat Brighton 2-1. In between, Liverpool were pegged back to 1-1 before romping home 3-1.
With all 3 teams playing at home, a trio of victories was expected, so we can not get too disappointed with the results that transpired and ultimately we need to focus on ourselves.
As Saturday’s went, mine was actually fairly decent. The highlight being a cheeky visit to Palm Bay in Debden which sent me into a food coma! Today it is a short trip on the Central Line to what is now my “local club” in West Ham.
A lack of trains in East and North London will mean today is a bit of a nightmare for many to get too. No Elizabeth Line and no C2C Line is a headache for those coming in from East, and no London Overground means those from Islington will have to go into London to come back out.
Luckily for me, the Central Line is running. It will be a quick trip into Stratford, trek across the park for a few pre-game beers in Hackney Wick. Then onto the London Olympic Stadium to watch football.
We have already been beaten twice by the Mockney Essex Boys this season, and have now not won in 3 outings.
The League Cup was one of the worst performances I have seen from us in a long time, whilst the home defeat between Christmas and New Year was won of those that we win 9 times out of 10.
That game still grates a little. We dominated play and should have scored 3 or 4. Meanwhile, their opener came when the ball clearly went out of play. But we move on.
Win today and we are back level on points with Manchester City, and just 2 points behind Liverpool. We will also increase that gap on 4th.
A quick final thought on yesterday’s games.
Tottenham beat Brighton 2-1 with that 96th minute winner. Fans and players celebrated like anyone would scoring with the last kick. It will be interesting to see if the media spend the next week condemning the scenes at White Hart Lane. Or will the lack of noise just prove once more that it is only Arsenal that are not allowed to celebrate victories (alternative theory: it will show Tottenham are a small club that are not newsworthy).
Hopefully today we will be celebrating the night away in Stratford. Although a little bit of me dies everytime I go to the athletics stadium, remembering how much I used to love a visit to Upton Park.
Enjoy the game today from wherever you are watching from.
Since the Liverpool performance, I have kept thinking primarily about one players performance. Jorginho.
The Italian-Brazilian deservedly won Man of the Match for his performance against Liverpool, and it has further enforced the clear and obvious need for another central midfielder this summer.
When we signed Declan Rice, one thing that excited me was his ability to play further forward.
The England international is the best defensive midfielder in the world, but what sets him even further apart from others is his ability to affect the game in the attacking third.
Rice gives Mikel Arteta two options.
The first, and what will be most commonly used, is playing Rice as the sole defensive midfielder. He is a one man destructive force and allows Ateta to then play two more attacking players ahead of him, thus overloading opponents in our attacking third.
With his ability to play further forward, Rice also gives Arteta an option to play a bit more defensively, without completely sacrificing attacking intent.
A midfield or Thomas Partey behind Rice and Martin Odegaard would have the double defensive duo of Rice and Partey, and then in attack would have Rice and Odegaard. Due to injuries to Partey, we were robbed of playing with the more defensive minded players for trips to the likes of Anfield.
I have always felt Jorginho is a fairly underrated midfielder. One of those that you need to watch live to understand the influence he has on a game.
There is often a misunderstanding of the way he plays the game. Jorginho is not one to run around a lot, cover every blade of grass and win the physical contest. He plays with his brain, akin to Xabi Alonso and Andrea Pirlo.
You do not need to be big, strong and quick if your reading of the game ensures you are always in the right place at the right time. I always remember getting told the best defensive players intercept the ball rather than tackle an opponent. Jorginho falls into this box.
Where Jorginho is exposed, however, is when he does have to play as the sole defensive midfielder. He can get overrun. Playing alongside Rice limits this exposure.
Having Rice further forward put pressure on Liverpool’s midfield and allowed Jorginho to continually receive the ball in space, get his head up and dictate play. Whether it was a long pass over the full back and a short sharp pass into Rice or Odegaard, Jorginho’s play is press allowed us to break Liverpool’s press.
The importance of Jorginho (and the importance of Rice playing further up the field) is highlighted in the Premier League games the former-Chelsea man has started:
Manchester City (H) Chelsea (A) Newcastle (A) Burnley (H) Liverpool (H)
This highlights that Arteta believes the need for a defensive duo in those bigger games. Jorginho also came on at half-time in the Tottenham game.
It is also noticeable that Jorginho was left on the bench at Anfield. I did wonder at the time if he should have started, which would have allowed Rice to add further defensive steel on our left, nullifying Liverpool’s potent right hand side.
Jorginho turns 33 next year and his contract comes to an end this summer. I would have no objection to him getting a new 2-year deal. He adds leadership and experience to the team on and off the pitch and has no pace or physicality to lose. But I also understand that at his ripe age, he might choose to finish his career back in Italy.
The concern is that if Rice does not play, Jorginho could be exposed as the sole defensive midfielder. That leads me to the conclusion that we need to recruit in the summer, replacing the injury prone Thomas Partey.
We need to look at recruiting someone who can replace Jorginho long term as a ball playing option, but who also has more legs enabling them to replace Rice as the sole defensive midfielder.
And for me, there is one man that ticks all those boxes. Martin Zubimendi.
The Spanish midfielder is classy on the ball, strong in defence, can play as a one of two in defence or further forward as an option at 8. He would be a terrific addition to the team.
The other option would be Douglas Luiz.
Luiz is a bit more all action that Zubimendi, but is not quite at the passing level. That does not mean he is bad on the ball. In fact I think Douglas Luiz is fairly underrated. But he is not quite as good as Zubimendi as that deep lying playmaker.
It is actually interesting that both players strength is arguably the others “weakness”, in that Luiz is all action and can pass, whilst Zubimendi is a passer who can be all action. Both are also 25!
You keep Jorginho and bring in one of Zubimendi or Luiz and you have some fantastic midfield options. It is a toss of a coin which one I would prefer, and my preference would change each day depending on what I think we need more.
The difference maker could be cost – Zubimendi has his well documented £52.5m release clause. But then that is offset by Luiz only have 2-years left on his current deal. Douglas Luiz also has the advantage of being Premier League proven.
I guess the final factor to take into account is what Arteta is looking for.
Douglas Luiz is an 8 that can play 6, whilst Zubimendi is a 6 who can play 8.
So go on then, if you agree with me that a new midfielder is essential, which one do you want? Let us know in the comments.
In my blog earlier this week about Amario Cozier-Duberry, the usual comments about “Arteta does not develop youth” were bought up again.
To start with, those making these comments are clearly doing so because they have a dislike of Arteta, and never wanted him as manager. They can no longer criticise his on pitch performances, nor our dealings in the transfer market, so instead they focus on him not developing youth.
They are the same sort of fans that if Arteta did stick Cozier-Duberry, Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly on at 3-0 and we ended up winning 3-2, would moan that the manager weakened the team by sticking on youth.
Another point to make is these fans have probably never watched any of these youngsters play.
Premier League 2 games are not on TV, and only occassionaly are they streamed online (usually by the opposing club). The only chance they would get to have seen them play properly is if they went to Borehamwood. And lets be honest, these fellas moaning do not even go to senior games, let alone kids games.
They have built their opinion on what they have seen on blogs, on social media and the odd highlight. Mikel Arteta and his team sees these guys in training day in day out. They are much better positioned to establish whether a kid is ready or not in comparison to someone who watches senior games on a dodgy laptop stream thousands of miles away.
It is also forgotten by many that having these kids on the bench means that they do not get game time in the PL2 or the UEFA Youth League.
I have seen plenty saying “these guys should have been given a run in the last 10 minutes of the Lens game” or “they should have been on the bench for the PSV dead rubber”.
If you did not know (and these guys probably do not), the UEFA Youth League is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
On December, 4 hours before the senior team kicked off against PSV, Lewis-Skelly, Cozier-Duberry et al were playing against the Dutch outfits youth team (we won 3-1). And it was the same when the seniors played Lens. The youngsters were playing the French teams youngsters.
One of the benefits of “taking youngsters to a Champions League game” was so that they could get used to the travelling abroad and being in and around the squad. That now happens with the UEFA Youth League as our youngsters would have travelled to Holland with the senior team, trained with them, and so on.
It is surely better for their development to play a competitive 90 minutes against some of the best young footballers in Europe rather than play 10 senior minutes when the team is 6-0 up, and the game is being played at half pace.
I think there is also an over estimation just how many top players other sides in the “Big 6” bring through their academy. How many opportunities are given by their manager.
In all his time at Manchester City, Phil Foden is the only academy product to go on to become a week in week out regular for his club and England. Rico Lewis is a talent, but he has not yet solidified his break through.
Jurgen Klopp has given a lot of debuts and “5 minutes” to youngsters, but Trent Alexander-Arnold remains the only academy product to become a regular for Liverpool under his management.
None of Liverpool’s 2018/19 FA Youth Cup winning teams are at the club this season (by my math, two are out on loan).
This is not to abuse Klopp or Guardiola, or to claim that they do not care about youth. It is to highlight just how hard the step up is from talented youngster to senior regular, especially if that senior team is a top club challenging for honours.
To break through as regular for the Manchester City’s, Liverpool’s and Arsenal’s of this world, you not only have to be one of the best youth footballers in the world, but also one of the best footballers in the world. The likes of Saka, Foden and Trent are special talents that would have got their opportunity regardless of who they played for.
And this argument about “givign youth a chance” is not a new thing.
Arsene Wenger was heavily criticised over the years for not bringing through (English) academy lads. For over a decade, Ashley Cole was the only Arsenal Academy graduate who went on to be a regular for Wenger’s first team.
After his Class of 92, Sir Alex Ferguson’s next best youth academy products were Wes Brown, Danny Welbeck, John O’Shea and Jonny Evans. Not exactly superstars! And they have not really bought anyone else through since Marcus Rashford (9 years since his debut).
And during his first spell at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho did not develop a single Chelsea youngster who went on to become a first team regular.
Chelsea have been dominating the FA Youth Cup since 2010. In that time, Reece James, Mason Mount and Connor Gallagher are the only ones to go on to play regularly for Chelsea (plenty of others have built a career elsewhere).
And I always wonder whether the likes of James and Mount would have broken through if it were not for the transfer ban.
Since Harry Kane, Tottenham have not bought through a single home grown player that has gone on to be a regular for themselves or England (their next best players being Harry Winks and Oliver Skipp).
All these clubs have given opportunities to plenty of young players, and fans have got excited over countless youngsters who have been labelled “the next big thing”. But you can count the youngsters that have left these clubs over the last decade and gone on to huge success elsewhere (basically Jadon Sancho).
What this highlights is that top teams rarely develop youngsters They can not afford to give them the game time that they need. It is similar when recruiting from abroad – Brighton are praised for finding these unknown players, but they can afford to give them game time and let them make mistakes that cost points. Title challenging teams can not play 6 or 7 unknowns in the hope it works.
When top clubs do have a kid break through, these players tend to become amongst the best in the world in their position. Foden, Kane, Rashford, Trent, Saka are global superstars!
My final point on this is take a look at the England national team. You would expect most of the starting XI to have come through a Big 6 academy. But the top clubs are simply do not have a conveyor belt of young talent breaking through:
Pickford – Sunderland Walker – Sheffield United Stones – Barnsley Maguire – Sheffield United Shaw – Southampton Rice – West Ham Bellingham – Birmingham Foden – Man City Saka – Arsenal Kane – Tottenham Rashford – Manchester United
Just 4 of the 11 I would play for England came from a top 6 academy.
When it comes to the last squad, it does look a little better with 11 of the 21 selected by Gareth Southgate coming through a top 6 academy. But 4 of those (Johnstone, Guehi, Tomori, Palmer) had to move away from their boyhood team to get first team football.
All this highlights that it is not just Arsenal who see very few players go through the academy and go on to be a superstar for club and country.
In my footballing lifetime (first game 1995), there are just 3 players who have come through our academy and gone on to have a huge impact on the club – Ashley Cole, Jack Wilshere and Bukayo Saka.
Many of the other youngsters who some of you might name (Cesc, Clichy, Martinelli, etc) were not true graduates. They were signed from other academies in their mid-teens.
I love it when a local kid breaks through and makes an impact. But I also understand that not every kid makes it, and you are doing well if you create 1 global superstar a decade.
Ultimately, if you are good enough you will get your chance. And you prove that you are good enough by working hard and showing your worth at London Colney, by going out on loan and impressing. Just being at the club for 7 or 8 years does not mean you “deserve a chance”.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 