After back to back defeats and a media pile-on, The Arsenal has felt a fairly negative space for the last 10-days. The victory over sevilla should draw a line under that.
We are topping our Champions League group, a single win from guaranteeing that position, and have an opportunity to also be topping the Premier League by the time we watch Match of the Day tomorrow. There should be plenty of reasons to be positive right now!
Tomorrow we face Burnley at home, the final game before yet another international break. Hit 6 and we will leapfrog Manchester City and (depending on how many Liverpool score), we will finish the evening leading the league after 12 games.
Whilst we may not have looked as slick this season as last, we have proved in the opening stages of this season that we are once again genuine title challengers.
Last season was certainly not a fluke, and Mikel Arteta has not been “found out” this.
Some will point to us being 4 points behind where we were last season as proof that we have “taken a step back”, but it is not that easy to compare and contrast.
We had a electric start to last seasons campaign. Came out super fast. But with 10-games to go we looked shattered and there was very little left in the tank. Whilst we drifted out of the title race, Manchester City were picking up steam.
City started much slower than us last season, rarley getting out of 3rd gear. They were aiming to peak in the home run, not at the start of the race. The hope is (in my mind), that by us holding a little back this season, we will be in a better place come the business end of the season.
Whilst pundits and fans are pointing to our “poor start”, we are only actually 2-points behind where Manchester City were last season. 24 points from 11 games would have had us 2nd in the table last year.
And too highlight just how fast we started last season, Manchester City are 1 point behind our 11 game total, the “excellent” Tottenham 2 points behind and the resurgent Liverpool, like us, 4 points.
In 11-games this season, we have already played Manchester City, Newcastle United, Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea. A dozen into last season we had only played Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester United.
The Premier League looks much tougher at the top end of the table this season than last. Newcastle look just as strong, as do Manchester City. Liverpool and Tottenham look better and Aston Villa also look a good side.
Unless Manchester City do what Manchester City can do, I do not think a team is going to get 90-points this season. The eventual champions will lose 5 or 6 league games.
Our start this season has certainly been tougher! Add in Champions League football and it is not a huge surprise that we are a handful of points behind where we were last season.
We need to be as professional tomorrow as we were against Sheffield United.
Get up for the game early, take it to then, and never take the hand off the throat. Get the victory in the bag early and then just keep going.
The fans also need to play their part. It will be very easy for us to buy into the negativity that some are trying to spread. To grumble about Arteta, have the hump over Havertz or call for the return of Ramsdale. But we are supporters. We need to realise that Arsenal is a good place right now and that our job is to back the team.
Luckily, as always, the majority of the negative voices only sit in their social media bubbles and do not attend games. Most are just making outlandish statements against the club they support in an attempt to get some of those Elon Musk pennies.
Champions League Group B, Matchday 4 of 6 Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU Wednesday, 8th November 2023. Kick-off time:8.00pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Takehiro Tomiyasu; Kai Havertz, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Karl Hein, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Amario Cozier-Duberry, Charles Sagoe Jr.
Scorers: Leandro Trossard (29 mins), Bukayo Saka (64 mins) Yellow Cards: Oleksandr Zinchenko, Declan Rice Arsenal Possession Percentage: 62%
Referee: Istvan Kovacs (Romania) Assistant Referees: Vasile Marinescu (Romania), Ovidiu Artene (Romania) Fourth Official: Horațiu Feșnic (Romania) UEFA Referee Observer: Costas Kapitanis (Cyprus) UEFA VAR Team in Geneva: VAR Bastian Dankert (Germany); AVAR Benoît Millot (France)
Attendance: c.60,000
We proudly sit on top of Group B on six points whilst our opponents tonight are in third position, four points behind us, and of course, they will be searching for their first victory in this season’s Champions League competition. Sadly, Gabriel Jesus will not be playing tonight due to the hamstring injury he suffered in our away win at Sevilla on 24th October; also our captain Martin Ødegaard is doubtful after missing Saturday’s defeat against Newcastle United at St. James’ Park, as is Eddie Nketiah with an ankle injury.
We kicked off proceedings tonight and within a minute, we had been awarded a corner, and Gabriel Martinelli’s corner was headed just wide by Kai Havertz. Arsenal are very competitive tonight, passing well and pressurising Sevilla, dominating possession in the early stages of the game. The visitors are having issues in not only winning the ball, but holding onto it, as there is an Arsenal man immediately in their scope of vision ready to relieve them of the ball. After Bukayo Saka was fouled by Nemanja Gudelj and a free kick was awarded, the subsequent ball into the penalty area was wasted, and slowly we started to look for the opening goal of the evening. Although we were doing well, with some good shots on goal, the match was starting to look a little flat, which can be dangerous, as we all know. Gabriel Martinelli is causing massive problems for the the Sevilla defenders on the left-hand side, as his cut-back pass fell beautifully for Jorginho on the edge of the penalty area and he set up Ben White to shoot; he tried to curl it into the far corner of the net but it was wide and high, unfortunately. We had a penalty appeal turned down when Bukayo Saka was brought down just inside the penalty area, and just a couple of minutes later, Bukayo Saka cut down the right wing, slotted the ball into the middle of the penalty area for Leandro Trossard who made no mistake in side footing the ball into the net. As soon as the match restarted, we continued to put the Sevilla defenders under pressure, with Gabriel Martinelli turning their defence inside and out, and on the other wing, Bukayo Saka was doing just as much damage in his own way to them too. Kike Salas fouled Bukayo Saka and the subsequent free-kick was punched away by the goalie and the visitors attempted to catch us on the break, but an excellent world-class tackle by William Saliba on Adriá Pedrosa in our penalty area neutralised the danger perfectly. As half-time approached, we still looked for more goals. Gabriel Martinelli cleverly chipped the ball past the defender on the by-line and although he managed to get the ball over into the penalty area, nobody was there to pick it up. Although there was a minute’s injury time, the score remained the same as the teams walked off the pitch for the half-time break.
The visitors kicked off the second half, and they must surely be wondering what on earth happened to them in the previous forty-five minutes and how they can possibly turn this around. For the second half, Takehiro Tomiyasu was replaced by Oleksandr Zinchenko and immediately this highly experienced player found himself in the thick of the action. Bukayo Saka exploded into life, running the length of the pitch before crossing the ball for Kai Havertz, who blasted it over the bar. Just as in the first half, Gabriel Martinelli was turning the defenders inside out and seemingly with ease, flicking over the ball for our strikers to attempt to score. Kai Havertz ran with the ball on the edge of the penalty area, and his superb left-footed shot curled inches past the post. Sevilla were struggling to get out of their half now, and although the visitors were trying to make things difficult for us, we still looked the most likely team to score a goal in this half. After some clever play from Declan Rice, he flicked a ball into the path of Leandro Trossard, whose left-footed shot went wide of the post, and shortly afterwards, we finally got a well-deerved second goal when a quick throw-in sent Gabriel Martinelli on his way into the midfield area, and he spun away and slotted the ball through to Bukayo Saka, who had space to run into on the right wing; he cut inside, beat the full-back and simply slotted the ball past goalkeeper Marko Dmitrović after sixty-four minutes. We really had the bit between our teeth now, and Ben White’s cross was far too high for Kai Havertz, but fortunately it fell naturally to Oleksandr Zinchenko on the edge of the penalty area and his strong half-volley was somehow saved athletically by Marko Dmitrović in the Sevilla goal. Juanlu Sánchez received a well deserved yellow card for cynically chopping down Gabriel Martinelli, and shortly afterwards, after the visitors made some substitutions, we continued marching forward in order to try and score more goals, with Gabriel Martinelli leading the charge. With eleven minutes of the game remaining, Reiss Nelson and Fábio Vieira replaced Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli, obviously to rest them for Saturday’s match against Burnley. Soon afterwards, Bukayo Saka hobbled off the pitch, to be replaced by Jakob Kiwior, and then, just minutes later, Jorginho was replaced by Mohamed Elneny just on the cusp of full-time, and as we entered the six minutes injury time, we looked extremely comfortable indeed. Declan Rice powered past a few Sevilla players in midfield and the ball was eventually chipped over the top for Kai Havertz, who could not bring it under control, and it was taken off him by a Sevilla defender. There was a VAR check when it was thought that the ball hit Fábio Vieira’s hand, but it was not pursued by the referee, and a minute or so later, he blew the final whistle to bring matters to a close.
A good evening’s work all round. The boys all played very well, and Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka along with Leandro Trossard were exceptional, and William Saliba was truly awesone at the back as well. The opposition just fell to bits in the end, and with one shot on our goal throughout the whole game, the gulf in class was evident. Anyway, we are top of Group B, and we will qualify for the last sixteen of the Champions League if we chalk up one victory from any one of our last two matches in the group. 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: Burnley at the Emirates on Saturday, 11th November at 3.00pm (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
Tonight, we could secure Champions League qualification with two games to go. This despite us being “awful” according to many.
Beat Burnley by an England cricket score on Saturday and we could be watching Match of the Day from the top of the table. Not bad considering Mikel Arteta has been “found out” this season.
Manchester City have already lost twice in 11 games this season. Liverpool struggled to a draw away to Luton Town on Sunday Aston Villa were beaten comprehensively by Nottingham Forest Tottenham were thrashed at home to Chelsea Brighton were held at Everton
Of the Top 7 going into last weekend, only 2 got all 3 points – Newcastle and Manchester City. It is tight at the top and Arsenal could well finish the weekend top of the tree, or in 5th place…
That is why we have to learn to ignore the noise behind every defeat, every draw. Because all it is is noise.
Compare the fall-out from us losing away to a very good Newcastle team to Tottenham who lost 4-1 at home to Chelsea.
Tottenham, rightly, went down to 9-men. Both men sent off could have been shown a red card earlier in the game.
There brilliant, young up and coming manager, 58-year-old Ange Postecoglou, then deployed kamakazi tactics that you would not even see in the 3rd Division of the Essex Corinthians League. And yet the Aussie manager and his team came out of the game with praise.
They lost 4-1 at home, their players were ill-disciplined and their manager tactically naive. I am not sure why Sky were heaping so much praise on them.
Were this Arsenal, and it was Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi sent off, Sky would have dedicated a whole new show to the pair letting the club down again. About how they were a liability. About how Wenger (who would have been managing us then) was tactically arrogant.
Instead, Ange deflected. He played the nice-guy act. Praised the referees who got every decision right. And all Gary Neville et al could go on about was “how nice is the Tottenham manager” rather than “how bad were Tottenham”.
My view is Neville, Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and others have a deep -seated hateed for Arsenal. This leads them to overly criticise our club, trying to make a negative mountain our of every molehill.
Due to this hatred against Arsenal, then they love Tottenham. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
They overly praise Tottenham for poor performances and their manager as a dig at Arsenal, not because they actually think Tottenham have done well.
I also think the relationship between the PGMOL and Sky Sports needs to be investigated.
Following the Liverpool game, where Sky pundits correctly heavily criticised officials, the PGMOL released the audio of the decision making exclusively to Sky. Since then, they have continued to exclusively release audio to Sky for them to discuss the weekend decisions ahead of Monday Night Football.
And the pundit often left to lead the analysis of the PGMOL audio? Gary Neville. And who is he often joined by? The Professional Game Match Officials Limited Chief Refereeing Officer, Howard Webb.
Is it not a conflict of interests that Sky release audio exclusively to one channel, and the PGMOL is also associated with that channel?
Have the PGMOL told Sky executives “tell your pundits to tone down their criticism of our officials and we will provide you with more access”. It would not be a surprise if that was the case.
My final thought on this is would Jamie Carragher’s response have been different if it was Liverpool who got those decisions against Newcastle? Had Jurgen Klopp come out and said what Arteta did? And had Liverpool made the statement of how they are looking to work with the PGMOL to improve?
He would probably be praising his former team for looking to work with the PGMOL on improvements rather than just criticising.
Tonight, we beat Sevilla and we are through to the knockout stages as long as PSV do not beat Lens. We will join Manchester City and RB Leipzig as the teams guaranteed qualifcation after just 4 games.
So block out the negative noise, The Arsenal are in a good place both domestically and in Europe, and we have not got close to hitting top gear yeat.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 