Arsenal positioned brilliantly going into the final international break of the year

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Maybe a 2-2 draw at Chelsea was not the disaster that some fans made it out to be?

12 games in and, ahead of the final international break of the season, I think we can confidently say that we are in the title race.

Some were concerned that last season was a one-off, a flash in the pan. Our 2021, when Manchester United finished 2nd with Ole at the wheel. But we are back again.

Yes, we have not quite looked as smooth as last year, and maybe not as exciting going forward, but that shows the growth of this team under Mikel Arteta.

The fact that being 3rd in the league, with only Manchester City having more points, has left some feeling underwhelmed shows just how Mikel Arteta has raised the bar of expectations.

I for one am please we seem to be holding a little back.

Last season we started quick, and led the title race for the majority of the season. But Manchester City were always just a length behind and, in the closing stages, they galloped ahead whilst we ran out of steam.

Anyone who has played sport to any sort of decent level will know about peaking your fitness. In individual sports such as cycling, swimming or athletics, that will usually be around a single event that season.

They will tend to compete in other events at around 80% whilst in intense training. Then when the major events come up, they will peak and taper to ensure they are at 100% for it.

In football, with games every week, and twice a week for much of the season, teams do not really peak for an individual game but more a period of games.

Sides lower down the table will try and be at 100% fitness at the beginning of the season. The hope is to get some early points on the board and take the pressure off.

At the other end of the table, your champions-elect will usually try and start the season at around 80% fitness and build into the season, with the goal being to be at 100% for those closing stage. The aim is to then get through those first 10-15 games dropping as few points as possible whilst not expelling to much energy.

Over the years, we have seen Manchester City “have a slow start”. They are winning games 1-nil. Dropping points here and there. And then with 15 games to go they are basically invincible. Win after win, week after week. They go up another level.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United was similar. As was Arsene Wenger’s early Arsenal teams. Hold a little back in the first half of the season to be better 2nd half.

It is like a marathon runner when they aim to do a negative split (when you run faster in the 2nd half of the race compared to the first). The top athletes begin to accelerate whilst lesser opponents who were giving 100% to keep up start to fall away.

We are hanging on to Manchester City’s coat tails without having really overexerted ourselves too often this season. That means we should be keeping plenty in the tank for those last 15 games of the season.

There has also been the feeling that we have not been as good going forward this season as last. That is simply not true.

Yes, we are not as exciting going forward. But that is mainly due to Gabriel Jesus being injured. He is organised chaos up-top who gets bums off seats in his play style. This season, we are a bit more simple in attack. A bit more formulatic.

We are top scorers from corners in the Premier League. I always think it does not matter how you score, what matters is that you score.

The international break is now upon us. It will give some of the squad a break and a chance to get closer to full fitness. Hopefully the likes of Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard see little game time considering their recent injuries.

Onwards and upwards!

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 3-1 Burnley

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Arsenal (1) 3 Burnley (0) 1

Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Saturday, 11th November 2023. Kick-off time: 3.00pm

(4-3-3) David Raya; Takehiro Tomiyasu, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Kai Havertz, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho (c), Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Bradley Ibrahim, Charles Sagoe Jr., Reuell Walters.

Scorers: Leandro Trossard (45+1 mins), William Saliba (57 mins), Oleksandr Zinchenko (74 mins)
Red Cards: Fábio Vieira
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 64%

Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt, Dan Cook
Fourth Official: Craig Pawson
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Michael Salisbury; AVAR Ian Hussin

Attendance: c.60,000

For this, the last Premiership weekend before the international break, Oleksandr Zinchenko will replace Ben White, whilst Bukayo Saka, who was a huge an injury doubt after limping off against Sevilla last Wednesday, is fit to start this match against The Clarets today. Unfortunately, Gabriel Jesus, Emile-Smith Rowe, Martin Ødegaard and Thomas Partey are still recovering from injury, so the captain’s armband passes over to Jorginho again.

After due respects were paid because of Armistice Day today, the match started off with our boys firmly taking the game to the visitors, who were struggling to clear their lines as we moved forward in earnest. However, the visitors were quick to respond in kind, and they put us under a bit of pressure, but nothing that David Raya cannot handle. After twenty minutes, the best chance of the match so far fell to Bukayo Saka, who curled a shot in towards the Burnley goal, which goalie James Trafford tipped onto the crossbar, but the resulting corner was disappointing and came to nothing, as did a Kai Havertz chance shortly afterwards, sadly.

There was almost an own goal conceded by the visitors when a header from Clarets’ defender Jordan Beyer was dramatically scooped off the goal-line by James Trafford and after yet another chance by Kai Havertz that was headed wide, the visitors came back at us when Johann Gudmundsson ran towards our goal and somehow held off Oleksandr Zinchenko, and then saw his low shot easily saved by David Raya.

Our goalie was called into action again shortly afterwards when a Jay Rodriguez shot from range was saved by him easily. This seemed to wake us up a bit and we started to move the ball around well between us and the pressure on the Burnley goal was there for all to see.

Leandro Trossard and Bukayo Saka had chances which were denied, and a lovely through ball from Gabriel found Gabriel Martinelli in a superb position to open the scoring, but he was deemed to be offside unfortunately.

In injury time of the first half, we deservedly took the lead when Bukayo Saka placed the ball into the Burnley penalty area, and Leandro Trossard bravely headed the ball into the net, but in doing so, accidentally clashed badly with James Trafford.

Our goalscorer walked away, holding his forearm, but fortunately the half-time whistle was blown, so our wonderful medical staff will be attending to him as a matter of urgency during the break.

The second half started with some anticipation and hope from our supporters to score more goals, and early on, the visitors caught us on the hop when Luca Koleosho, who was just going around David Raya in our penalty area, was superbly dispossessed by Gabriel with a sliding tackle.

We had a penalty shout denied by a VAR check when it looked like Jay Rodriguez pushed Gabriel in the penalty area, and a few minutes later, totally against the run of play, the visitors equalised through a Josh Brownhill left-footed shot from the centre of the penalty area that was deflected by Gabriel which sent David Raya the wrong way.

It looked at first that the goal could have been cancelled out to to a possible foul in the build-up by Luca Koleosho, but it was proved that was not to be the case. Just a few minutes later, Declan Rice slotted the ball to Gabriel Martinelli, whose right-footed shot from the left side of the penalty area was saved by James Trafford as it was heading for the bottom left-hand corner of the net, and from the corner that was conceded, after some good play out on the wing, a Leandro Trossard cross met the head of William Saliba, who scored our second goal from very close range.

A couple of minutes later, Fábio Vieira replaced Kai Havertz, and still the visitors came back at us with a strong Luca Koleosho right-footed shot from outside our penalty area which went wide of David Raya’s goal, thankfully.

Declan Rice almost scored (which would have been) an absolute cracker from about twenty-five yards when Leandro Trossard’s blocked shot fell nicely to him, and his sweetly hit shot just went inches wide of James Trafford’s post.

With sixteen minutes of the game remaining, we grabbed our third goal of the day when, moments after Dara O’Shea headed against his own bar the subsequent half-hearted clearance found Oleksandr Zinchenko, who scored from a beautiful scissor-kick shot which flew into the top corner of the net from about fifteen yards out.

We are firmly in the driving seat now. Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah replaced Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossasrd, but disaster struck, when four minutes before the end of the game, Fábio Vieira was dismissed for a heavy tackle by referee Michasel Oliver, which looked to be more accidental than malicious.

Following a tackle from a Burnley defender, a limping Gabriel Martinelli was replaced by Jakob Kiwior in the final minute of time. Somehow, six minutes injury time was added, and during that period, we had a penalty shout denied again by VAR when Jay Rodriguez handled the ball, and there was a break in play when our captain Jorginho suffered a cut head as the result of a tackle, and as he went off the pitch for treatment, we were down to nine men for a while. It made no difference, as shortly afterwards, Michael Oliver blew the whistle for the end of the match.

Leandro Trossard’s goal was our thousandth goal scored at the Emirates, and tonight we are joint top of the Premiership with Manchester City on twenty-seven points, which is great news.

Although we struggled at times to break down the Lancastrians, in the end our class and experience stood us in good stead to take maximum points today.

Hopefully, by the time we get back to Premiership action at Brentford on 25th November, our injured players will have returned to action. 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: Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday, 25th November 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

Dusan Vlahovic, VAR Decisions, Resting Saka and More

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Dusan Vlahovic

Yann M’Villa and Julian Draxler. A bit like the John Lewis Christmas advert, transfer speculation season truly began when Arsenal were linked with one of the pair. It feels like Dusan Vlahovic is the new “lets link him to Arsenal every window”.

We tried (and failed) to sign the Serbian striker in January 2022. He opted to stay in Italy and join Juventus instead. A little more than 12 months later, we were linked again.

Last summer, speculation continued that we were monitering him. Then ahead of the Winter 2024, we have been linked once again.

Still only 23, the strker has not exactly set the world alight for Juve, scoring just 27 goals in 72 games. Do I think we will sign him? Probably not. But I do look forward to us being linked with him for the next 15 transfer windows…

VAR Decisions

I never really got the mocking by pundits and fans over Mikel Arteta and Arsenal’s statement surrounding the stae of refereeing in this country.

The Premier League is the best league in the world with the best players, coaches and supporters, all of whom deserve better. PGMOL urgently needs to address the standard of officiating and focus on action which moves us all on from retrospective analysis, attempted explanations and apologies.

We support the ongoing efforts of Chief Refereeing Officer, Howard Webb and would welcome working together to achieve the world-class officiating standards our league demands.

I struggle to see how any fan can disagree with what Arsenal said:

  1. We have the best league in the world, we should also have the best officials.
  2. The PGMOL urgently needs to address the standard of officiating.
  3. We will look to work together to reach the world-class officiating standards our league demands.

For pundits to come out and say that our statement was “embarassing” and fans to mock us for wanting to help improve refereeing in this country if baffling.

Every weekend we see officials – both in pitch and in the caravan – making errors that cost teams points, and these poor decisions affect EVERY club over the course of a season.

In recent weeks, we have seen poor VAR decisions affect Wolves, Arsenal, Tottenham and more. And in Europe this week we have seen some horrendous decisions in the Liverpool and Manchester United games.

I do get that football is tribal, and it is natural for fans to “love VAR” when a poor decision goes their way, or goes against a rival, whilst “hate VAR” when a decision goes against them or for a rival, but things will not improve whilst we excuse poor decisions depending on who they go against.

Would Jamie Carragher have called Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp embarassing if they released a similar statement to Arsenal? Would Gary Neville have dedicated so much airtime criticising Arsenal if it was Manchester United in our shoes? Would Dave the Tottenham fan from Harlow have been calling up TalkSport to defend officiating if it was Spurs on the wrong end of a bad decision?

When it came to £20s plenty, club rivalries were put aside to get a better deal for fans.

Club rivalries need to be put aside to put pressure on the PGMOL to improve. A bad decision is a bad decision regardless of who it affects. And going out of your way to defend a bad decision just means officials will not improve and bad decisions will continue.

And the next bad decision might go against your club…

Resting Saka

Against Sevilla Bukayo Saka was kicked from pillar to post. This led some to ask “what does Saka need to do to get a rest”.

As we have previously blogged, Saka is a world class player, and world class players very rarely get rested. And because Saka is so good, he will have to get used to opponents trying to kick him out of every game.

One thing that made Lionel Messi so good was his resiliance.

Messi was fouled, on average, 3 times a game during his career in La Liga. The fact he never suffered a serious injury is incredible. He had to learn how to ride a challenge to ensure that he did not receive a bad injury. Almost like a judo fighter learning how to full safely.

Raheem Sterling is another to look at.

Like Saka, teams looked to target him during his younger days. For Liverpool and Manchester City he would be one of the most fouled players in the league.

Still on 28, he has now played over 600 games for club and country and looks to be slowly returning to his best following his move to Chelsea.

Saka will play lots of games in his career, and be on the end of a lot of fouls. If we want him to become one of the best in the world, he will need to be playing 50 games a season and it will be more luck rather than judgement if he goes through his entire career without a poor injury.

Burnley

Gotta be a big win today. Just like Sheffield United.

Shake those mid-week cobwebs off, treat the opponent with respect, and take them apart.

Enjoy the game today…

Keenos