MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 5 – 0 Sheffield United

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Arsenal (1) 5 Sheffield United (0) 0

Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Saturday, 28th October 2023. Kick-off time: 3.00pm

(4-3-3) David Raya, Ben White, William Saliba, Jakob Kiwior, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Emile Smith-Rowe, Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka (c), Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel Magalhães, Martin Ødegaard, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny

Scorers: Eddie Nketiah (29, 50, 58 mins), Fábio Vieira (88 mins), Takehiro Tomiyasu (90+5 mins)
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 67%

Referee: Tim Robinson
Assistant Referees: Eddie Smart, Nick Greenhalgh
Fourth Official: John Busby
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Michael Salisbury.; AVAR Nick Hopton

Attendance: 60,153

Mikel Arteta has made four changes in our first home game in the Premiership since beating Manchester City here in North London before the international break. Great to see Emile Smith-Rowe getting a start today, and as he has taken the place of our captain, the armband today is worn by Bukayo Saka.

We started the match completely on the front foot, with the ball almost breaking for Kai Havertz in the penalty area, but a quick-thinking lunge from defender Jack Robinson stopped him from getting an early shot at the goal, which could easily have opened the scoring for us.

The boys are pressurising the visitors, and from a Gabriel Martinelli corner, Jakub Kiwior desperately tried to get to the ball, but it flew way past him, which was a wasted chance.

After a thirty-five yard shot from the visitors courtesy of Gustavo Hamer which went wide of our goal, Bukayo Saka won a free kick in the Blades’ half, which although went nowhere, it was a great chance to open the scoring. The visitors are playing it really tight today, doing everything they can to keep out our strikers, but they surely could not keep this up for ninety minutes. Can they? No they can’t, actually.

After Gabriel Martinelli was receiving some treatment from the medical team after a bad tackle, Declan Rice crossed the ball into the penalty area, and after defender Auston Trusty missed it completely, Eddie Nketiah hit a beautiful right-footed shot from the centre of the Blades’ penalty area into the bottom left-hand corner of the net. Sheffield United came back at us briefly after the restart, but we quickly regrouped, got it together and put more pressure on the visitors’ goal.

Bukayo Saka passed a beautiful ball over to Gabriel Martinelli, whose left-footed shot from the left-hand side of the penalty area was saved by goalie Wes Foderingham as the ball was heading for the the top left hand corner of the net. We are in complete control of the match now, coming up to the half-time break. After a couple of corners in which Wes Foderingham miraculously kept our strikers from scoring the second goal, referee Tim Robinson brought first half matters to a conclusion.

Arsenal started the second half in fine fettle, pressurising the visitors’ goal relentlessly, which resulted in a well-deserved goal just five minutes after the restart, courtesy of a Bukayo Saka corner which found the trusty right foot of Eddie Nketiah, who shot from the left side of the six yard box to the top right-hand corner of the net; it was thought, however, that Ben White was impeding Wes Foderingham but the VAR team cancelled out the visitors’ appeals.

Eight minutes later, we were three goals up when Emile Smith-Rowe perfectly set up a beautiful ball for Eddie Nketiah to crack it into the back of the net from twenty-five yards for his hat-trick and our third goal of the afternoon. Great play, chaps.

We almost grabbed a fourth goal soon afterwards, when Gabriel Martinelli ran down the wing, cut the ball across to Ben White, whose strong shot was saved well by Wes Foderingham.

After sixty-six minutes, Ben White and Gabriel Martinelli were replaced by Takehiro Tomiyasu and Leandro Trossard, just to get some fresh legs on the pitch. Our boys are in complete control of this match now, and it is now starting to look like a training match at London Colney.

With fifteen minutes of the game remaining, Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe were replaced by Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira to give new legs a run out for the rest of the match.

We had a penalty appeal turned down when Eddie Nketiah took a tumble in the penalty area after a clumsy clash with centre-back Auston Trusty, and with two minutes of the match remaining, Fábio Vieira was hacked down by Oliver Norwood on the very edge of the penalty area, with referee Tim Robinson being asked to go to the pitchside monitor by the VAR team to check. A penalty was given, and Fábio Vieira made no mistake from the penalty spot.

A minute later, Mohamed Elneny replaced Declan Rice, and in the ten minutes of injury time, Takehiro Tomiyasu scored our fifth goal of the day when he hit a beautiful right-footed shot into the back of the net from the centre of the penalty area following a corner, and despite a VAR check again, our Japanese international’s first goal for the club rightly stood.

A couple of minutes later, referee Tim Robinson blew the whistle for the end of the match, much to the relief of our visitors here this afternoon.

All in all, it was a total wipeout for us today here at the Emirates, we were in complete control from the start of the game until the end.

Big congratulations to Eddie Nketiah for his hat-trick (particularly his sensational third goal) this afternoon. Everyone played very well today, with twelve shots on goal, (eight on target); with these impressive statistics, our confidence will be on the up for the Carabao Cup match against West Ham United on Wednesday evening. And, most importantly, we are just two points behind Tottenham Hotspur in the Premiership table tonight. Very 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: West Ham United at the London Stadium on Wednesday, 1st November at 7.30pm (Carabao Cup). 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

Martin Odegaard is Arteta’s Dennis Bergkamp

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One Arsenal trivia question that love is “which Arsenal player was substituted off most by Arsenal Wenger?”. Those who bought The Arsenal Quiz book will know the answer. Dennis Bergkamp.

Against Sevilla, Mikel took Martin Odegaard off in the 73rd minute as we looked to hand on to a one goal lead. That led some to comment “Odegaard subbed again after another stinker”. it showed a complete lack of understanding of football.

The Odegaard sub myth

In the 13 games this season, Odegaard has been taken off in 6 of them.

Those who are good at maths will quickly be able to work out that is 46% of the games, which would lead you all to think “how can it be a myth?”. Well, lets compare to others:

Leandro Trossard: 100%
Gabriel Martinelli: 87.5%
Eddie Nketiah: 87.%%
Gabriel Jesus: 57%
Bukayo Saka: 50%
Martin Odegaard: 46%

So out of our 6 main attacking players, Odegaard has been subbed off the least. And at 1,137 minutes played already, only defenders Ben White and William Saliba have had more pitch time.

Odegaard being subbed gets mentioned, but others who are taken off more often do not get a mention. Is it perhaps there is an agenda amongst some fans against Martin Odegaard?

Not unusual for attacking players to go off

At a big team like Arsenal, we are always more likely than not to head into the last 15 minutes of games with a lead. The result is we take attacking players off for more defensive minded ones.

If Arteta has more defensive minded midfield options on the bench in Thomas Partey and Jorginho, it makes a lot of sense to change the midfield from the 60th minute onwards if we are defending a lead.

If it is a midfield trio of Rice, Havertz and Odegaard, we have seen first Havertz and then Odegaard go off. If it is Jorginho/Partey, Rice and Odegaard, then the tactical change will always be to take of the more attacking player – Odegaard for either Partey or Jorginho.

If Arteta left Odegaard on and the opponents equalised, fans would only moan about Arteta’s poor in-game decision to not go more defensive.

Fresh legs and change of approach

Odegaard leads from the front on the high press.

He gets through an awful lot of work off the ball, so it is no surprise that after 75 minutes he is blowing a bit.

Swapping ODegaard for Kai Havertz gives us fresh legs without losing too much in attack. It also provides us the opportunity to go a little longer.

Against Sevilla, Havertz became a target man for David Raya and was able to win the high ball and bring it down in the opponents half, often winning free kicks or throw-ons in the process.

Fans would only moan if Odegaard was left on despite having run out of steam.

A change in attack

We have also seen this season Arteta take Odegaard off for Havertz or Fabio Vieira in an attempt to freshen up the attack. Again, this is no issue.

Sometimes a player is having a poor game, or is being snuffed out by an opponent. Making a change can have a huge impact, like it did against Chelsea.

Gabriel Martinelli and Odegaard were fairly ineffective in the 2nd half. They were taken off for Havertz and Trossard who were both key for the equaliser.

The only men in the front line immune to being taken off to freshend up the attack is Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka. However, both are bought of regularly first when a game is won.

Why is it only Arsenal that get criticism for their manager making game changing substitutions that lead to a postive outcome?

Is Odegaard Arteta’s Bergkamp?

Dennis Bergkamp was often the man sacrificed by Arsene Wenger when he wanted to either go more defensive, or change up the attack.

You would see Bergkamp go off for a Ray Parlour or Edu as we went to 451 – we would never take off Thierry Henry as he was the main outlet. Likewise, Bergkamp would go off for a Kanu or Wiltord if we were struggling to break a door down.

Havertz, Vieira and Trossard give something a little different in attack in comparison to ODegaard. So if Plan A is not working, we turn to Plan B.

Also, a midfield of Partey Jorginho Rice will be near impossible to break through.

A final, final thought…

Odegaard has 4 goals and 1 assist this season and has been “poor”.
James Maddison has 3 goals and 5 assists and is being labelled as “the most influential player in the Premier League.

Maddison has been better than Odegaard this season, but is 1 less goal and 4 more assists really the difference between being infleuntial and poor? A goal contribution difference of 3?

James Maddison: 8
Phil Foden: 6
Martin Odegaard: 5
Bruno Fernandes: 5
Dominik Szoboszlai: 2
Jack Grealish: 1

It probably highlights the high standards Odegaard has set for himself after last season that the talk is about him being poor this campaign, whilst contributing more than almost every other player in his position in England.

We are unbeaten in the league, could go top today, and some fans seem more intent on digging out Odegaard, David Raya and Havertz, spreading their negativity…

UTA.

Keenos

Arteta already knows when Aaron Ramsdale will make his first team Premier League return

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Saturday 25 November 2023 at 17:30, Aaron Ramsdale will return between the posts for The Arsenal in the Premier League.

Barring injury, Ramsdale is gauranteed to start this game due to on-loan David Raya not being allowed to play against his parent club.

Now we have got the clickbait out of the way (sorry! I had to do it!), we do actually need to have a discussion around Raya and Ramsdale.

Against Chelsea, “there is only one Aaron Ramsdale” was sung by some of the away fans following Raya passing the ball directly to a Chelsea player. This was swiftly drowned out by the majority of the away section singing their backing of Mikel.

Raya does not yet have his own song, so chanting about Mikel was the way to show the majoirity of the fans backed both the new goalkeeper, and the managers decision to play him.

Some fans had it in for Raya before he even joined. They have not been willing to give him a chance due to Ramsdale being one of their favourite players.

It is not that they thought Ramsdale was a better keeper (although they will try and convince you this was the reason), it is because they liked Ramsdale’s character. And this leads them to be prejudice against Raya.

Some fans are almost sitting there waiting for Raya to make a mistake so that they can jump on it. So that they can scream “get Ramsdale on” or post pictures of the Englishman on social media, commenting “my keeper”.

Their agenda is exposed as they refuse to praise Raya for anything, whilst going out of their way to criticise.

Against Chelsea, Nicolas Jackson went clean through. Raya kept his composure, did not lunge in, and ended up grabbing the ball off the Chelsea forwards toes. “Jackson messed that up” some Arsenal fans claimed, refusing to acknowledge Raya’s good goalkeeping.

Then when it came Mykhailo Mudryk’s scuffed cross, they went out of their way to highlight that Raya was at fault for the goal. He was not.

Much of goalkeeping is predicting what a keeper will do, this allows them to shift their weight and be that split second quicker in reacting. When a winger slices a cross, it will almost always catch the keeper out.

Most of the time, the sliced cross goes into Row Z. But every now and against it goes into the top corner making the keeper look silly. But the goalie did nothing wrong.

Seeing the criticicsm of Raya for conceding the 2nd Chelsea goal made me think about Arsenal legend David Seaman.

Old Safe Hands was a world class keeper, but also one who had an error in him. Nayim in 1995, Ronaldinho in 2002. It is actually quite sad that Seaman is often remembered for his howlers rather than the performances that led him to play over 1,000 times for club and country.

Anyway, the point is back in 1995, if social media was about, there would have been fans calling Seaman a liability and demanding we sign a new goalkeeper that summer – or start Vince Bartram.

Arsenal’s last truly world class keeper was Jens Lehmann. The German was also not immune to the odd error or 6. But he retained the backing of the Arsenal faithful due to being a crowd favourite. Being a character. I wonder if that would have changed had he made those errors in the social media era rather than prior to it.

Now I will not say Raya has had an exceptional start to his Arsenal career. He has looked shakey at times. But lets not pretend that Ramsdale has been in sparkling form.

When Ramsdale lost his place to Raya, he was ranked as the worst keeper in the Premier League based on expected goals prevented.

His shakey start was off the back of a poor finish to 2022/23, where he often conceded from the first shot he faced.

Raya, meanwhile, conceded 6 goals less than he “should” have, with only Bernd Leno and AlissoThe metrics show that last season Ramsdale conceded 1 more goal than he “should” have, which highlights that whilst he was excellent, he also had periods where he would have a drop off in form.n bettering him.

Now Raya’s critics will disregard the stats and tell you that “my eyes tell me something different”, but that is why statistics are much better than an opinion.

Opinions are influenced by your agenda. You often see what you want to see. They are subjective. Stats are objective. They remove individual bias.

Yes, Raya has made errors, but Ramsdale was not infallible.

The blunder against Fulham earlier this season, the mistake against Southampton at the back end of last season. The narrative spun by many seems to indicate that Ramsdale was a giant in goal. A reliable keeper who never made an error. He was far from it.

Some fans are even saying “playing Raya will be Arteta’s downfall” and “Arteta’s decision making will split the fans”. No. It is not Arteta’s decision making that will split the fans. It is those fans who feed off negativity that will try and create the divisions. Those grew from the WOB v AKB debate. They want to make it Raya v Ramsdale, rather than supporting the team, backing the players.

My final thoughts come from Arsenal legends George Graham and Thierry Henry.

In the early 90s, Graham sold fans favourite John Lukic and recruited Seaman. Graham thought that whilst Lukic was one of the best keepers in England, Seaman was the best. Like now, some fans were up in arms at the decision. Graham was proved right.

There was also a great interview from Henry where he discussed that Arteta bought Ramsdale to take us from 8th to top 4, and the manager thinks Raya could be the man to take us from contenders to Champions. Similar to when Pep Guardiola dumped Claudio Bravo after a single season, replacing him with Ederson.

Ramsdale will get a run-out in the League Cup against West Ham. He will also play against Brentford. I will be at both games back the man inbetween the posts. Just like I will be at Sheffield United tomorrow backing Raya who will be the keeper of the day.

Instead of looking to jump on every Raya mistake, why not try backing the player? Stop with your agendas and support the team.

Keenos