Is Mikel Arteta the only manager in world football who can lead his team to qualifying top in the Champions League, and yet still get criticised for trying to win a game?
We explained on Tuesday that Arteta would not be playing the kids. It was more important to give those fringe squad players a run out then put some academy players. The fringe squad players can influence how we do this season in the 3 remaining competitions. The kids can not.
PSV had a 100% record in their league. It would have been detrimental to our youngsters development had they started in Eindhoven. It could have been a deer in headlights moment and we could have lost by a few. The same people criticising Arteta about not playing the kids would then have blamed him for playing them…
And gone are the days where you would take some kids in your match day squad so that they could “experience” travelling abroad for a game. Whilst the main Champions League game is occuring, the two teams academies also play eachother a few hours before.
So our U19 team would have travelled to Eindhoven with the senior team. Stayed in the same hotel. Gone through the same match preperation process. And then played against players of their same age group.
We won 3-1, with the likes of Amario Cozier-Duberry, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Charles Sagoe Jr and Ismail Oulad M’hand all playing. For me, it makes more sense for these guys to get game time against a European U19 team, then sit on the bench and maybe get 10 or 15 minutes of a senior game.
And as the old saying goes, if they were good enough, they are old enough. Had Arteta (who sees these guys train at London Colney every day), thought any of them were better than the XI he started with, they would have been playing instead.
Sometimes we put too much pressure on your players, demanding them to start when they are perhaps not ready.
Ethan Nwaneri is 16. Lewis-Skelly is just 17, Cozier-Duberry 18. They are all already playing “up an age group” performing week in week out for our U21 team in the PL2, and faced senior opposition this season in the EFL Trophy. We need to let them develop at their own time.
“But they could have been bought on as subs”.
In this sort of dead rubber, Arteta would have pre-planned his substitutions.
Considering Mohamed Elneny and Cedric Soares have not played for so long, I doubt either were scheduled to play more than 60 minutes. Likewise, William Saliba went off without any clear injury so you have to think that was premeditated.
The plan would always have been to take Saliba off after 60 minutes and give Declan Rice a run out at centre back. This is something that could happen in games considering our current defensive injury issues. It is also a tactic we could use when chasing a game – play a more attacking midfield, move Rice into centre back who then pushes into midfield when we are on the ball.
I am sure had we been comfortably winning, Arteta would have bought Nwaneri on for Elneny and Reuell Walters on for Ben White. But on the 60th minute, the score was 1-1 and PSV were on top the game.
They were controlling the midfield and finding space on our right hand side. Putting Walters and Nwaneri on would have been throwing them into the deep end, weakening the XI where PSV were strong and handing even more of the initative to them.
As soon as Ben White and Martin Odegaard came on, the attacks down our left stopped and we regained control of the midfield.
Towards the end of the match, Arteta put on Emile Smith Rowe.
Like those that started, the Englishmen could have an impact in the second half of the season. It is important that he gets minutes and slowly builds his match fitness up. For this reason, it is surely completely understandable why Smith Rowe came on instead of Nwaneri.
The final sub was Gabriel Jesus – sent on to try and win us the game. Do people really have a problem with Arteta trying to win a game of football? And considering we had no teenage attackers on the bench, the only other forward option would have been Bukayo Saka.
In the end, we drew 1-1. The likes of Jorginho and Kiwior got 90 minutes under their belt. As did Nketiah. Reiss Nelson got 88.
Against Brighton, I imagine we will line up: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Odegaard, Havertz, Saka, Jesus, Martinelli.
Four of those players did not play Tuesday, 1 played less than 10 minutes and 3 played half an hour. Considering we play Brighton sunday (and they are due to play today), Arteta has shuffled the pack well.
We have seen with both Manchester City and Tottenham how quickly momentum can change in football. From flying high at the top of the table to unable to put a run of wins together. We lost last Saturday so it was important that we tried to win Tuesday. And at least we did not suffer back to back defeats.
It is Brighton up next and, a bit like after the Newcastle defeat, we need to quickly get back to winning way.
Post-Newcastle, we won the next 3 Premier League games. Do that again we go into the New Years Eve game against Fulham top of the league!
In other news, it is unbelievable that the media in England are trying to associate (and subtly blame) Mikel Arteta for what happened over in Turkey.
For those that do not know, the president of Turkish top flight team MKE Ankaragucu ran onto the pitch after his team his team conceded a 97th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Caykur Rizespor and punched the referee.
This has led many in the UK to point fingers at the behaviour of Mikel Arteta.
Arteta’s crime is have the gall to say that the Premier League, being the best league in the world, does not get the officiating its status deserves. Considering every weekend Match of the Day are debating a poor decision, surely everyone agrees with Arteta (and the statement Arsenal put out). But they did not.
It was not that they disagreed with what Arteta or Arsenal said, it is that they hate Arteta and Arsenal. So instead of saying “yes, officials in this country do need to improve, and clubs need to work with them to get better”, they spent weeks defending poor decisions.
The issue in this country is that our referees are poor, and they refuse to accept criticism. Their arrogance means that anyone that dares criticise them gets a ban, and they now influence the media by giving Sky Sports access to decision making.
Turky has a problem with violence against referees. England has a problem with our refs being poor. I am not sure how the British media have managed to blame Arteta for a grown man in Turkey being unable to control his emotions.
On to Brighton…
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 