MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 3 – 1 Man U

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Arsenal (1) 3 Manchester United (1) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 3rd September 2023. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Eddie Nketiah, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Gabriel Jesus, Emile Smith-Rowe, Jakob Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, David Raya, Reiss Nelson.

Scorers: Martin Ødegaard (28 mins), Declan Rice (90+6 mins), Gabriel Jesus (90+11)

Yellow Cards: Bukayo Saka

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 55%

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Assistant Referees: Gary Beswick, Lee Betts

Fourth Official: Darren Bond

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Jarred Gillett; AVAR Simon Bennett

Attendance: 60,192

Our defender Takehiro Tomiyasu is available again after suspension for this important match today, and is on the substitute’s bench, as is Gabriel Jesus also. Aside from the long-term injury to Jurrien Timber, everyone else in the squad appears to be okay. Mikel Arteta has made three changes from the side who drew with Fulham, with Gabriel, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Eddie Nketiah replacing Jakub Kiwior, Thomas Partey and Leandro Trossard.

The visitors kicked off procedures in this white-hot atmosphere in North London this afternoon. In the early stages of the game, we applied pressure to the visitors’ defence, earning ourselves a corner within the first two minutes.which despite some great work by Eddie Nketiah, the United defence managed to keep us out. The opening stages of the game show us to be extremely comfortable both on and off the ball, and the visitors look rather pedestrian at the moment. After just twelve minutes, a surefire chance to score did not just happen for Kai Havertz, and although the resulting corner went nowhere on this particular occasion, it appears that the advantage is now ours. Oleksandr Zinchenko cleverly nipped a potential United attack firmly in the bud, and yet again our strikers were putting the visitors under pressure; Declan Rice was unlucky in not scoring a goal directly from a Gabriel Martinelli corner, and if the game continues at this pace, it must surely be a matter of time before we score a goal, despite the nervousness in the air. Despite the domination of our strikers, it was the visitors who broke the deadlock with a Marcus Rashford strike from outside the penalty area, despite Aaron Ramsdake getting a hand to it. No worries though, a minute or so later, our response was instant and clinical with our captain scoring a beautiful equalising goal with his left foot from distance that the United goalie had no chance in saving. The match certainly came alive with now with both sets of players challenging for every ball, through every tackle. Kai Havertz, in running back, brilliantly blocked a Christian Eriksen strike from twenty yards out, and despite the heat, both sides are doing their utmost to catch the other out. Eddie Nketiah was mercilessly chopped down by Victor Lindehof (who received a yellow card for his trouble), and although the resulting free-kick went nowhere, we are still trying to find a way through the United defence. Bukayo Saka received a yellow card for a late challenge on Bruno Fernandes, and with the injury time notice being three minutes, we continued to pressure the United defence, with three corners in just over a minute that tested them to the full, and although we went into the break honours even, we were by far the better side in the opening half overall.

With no substitutions from either team during the half-time break. the visitors kicked off the second half in earnest. Again, our strikers brought the game to United, who found it extremely difficult to break out of their half. Ben White hit a first-time cross into the penalty area, but Aaron Wan-Bissaka did well to rise and head it clear of danger, and then Eddie Nketiah got the ball off Kai Havertz and struck at goal but it was blocked by the United defence. We had a penalty awarded to us when Kai Havertz went down to the ground under a combined challenge from Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Casemiro; after consulting VAR, referee Anthony Taylor cancelled out his original decision. Why? It appeared to be clear-cut. Things started to get a bit physical when Lisandro Martinez was too late to the ball, caught Eddie Nketiah and received a yellow card from the referee. Gabriel Martinelli shot just wide, with Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana taking too long with the following goal kick, the result being him receiving a yellow card for time wasting. With fifteen minutes of the match remaining, Gabriel Jesus, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Fabio Vieira replaced Eddie Nketiah, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kai Havertz for the remainder of the match. A couple of minutes later, the ball was played low from the right wing by Gabriel Martinelli and it fell to Bukayo Saka eight yards out. He tried to place it, instead of hitting it goalwards and it hit the leg of Andre Onana and stayed out. The visitors then grabbed a goal, which was deemed to be offside. In injury time, Declan Rice scored his first goal for us when it fell to him at the back post, he took a shot at goal, it just caught Jonny Evans, and Andre Onana in the United goal got a hand to it but he could not keep it out, and then, simply minutes later, whilst the visitors are pushing for an equaliser, the ball broke loose to Fabio Vieira, who simply slid it through for Gabriel Jesus, who cut inside a desperate tackle from Diogo Dalot and slotted the ball past Andre Onana to take all three points for Arsenal. Such late drama!

Although the match was scrappy at times, it certainly had more than its fair share of drama. This victory takes us to fifth in the Premiership, two points behind leaders Manchester City. We got the victory here today through sheer guts and fortitude, and the will to win, which became evident in injury time. We all thought that we had lost the match when Alejandro Garnacho scored for the visitors, but nobody in the stadium nor those watching at home could surely have predicted the outcome of this match. Gabriel Jesus was magnificent when he came onto the pitch as a substitute, and although Kai Havertz did not score again today, we saw enough in his play to realise that is surely just a matter of time before he gets onto the scoresheet regularly. Declan Rice was truly immense, and what better match to grab his first goal for Arsenal! All in all, a very good day at the office for everyone concerned. 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: Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday, 17th September 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

Mikel Arteta’s Red and White Army

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The transfer window is shut. Foootball returns today. It is time to get back to being Mikel Arteta’s 12th man.

Despite spending £200m, there are fans still complaining that we should have spent more. Or should not have bought the players we signed. Luckily those “fans” follow Arsenal through social media and have probably never, and will never, step foot inside the Emirates.

Armchair critics who attempt to make their sad little lives better by trying to project their negativity onto others and bring them down.

It is interesting how these people were hardly heard from last season, and then, off the back of a single draw to Fulham, they are back out from under their rocks and demanding Arteta to be sacked. You would think they had learnt their lesson from last season.

In his post-match interview, Arteta highlighted how often that noisy minority have been wrong. When asked about fans not being convinced by Kai Havertz after 3 games, he said:

“More than two months [people weren’t convinced by Ødegaard]. Gabriel Magalhães was the same. White could not play as a full-back. Ramsdale wasn’t good enough & now you sign another goalkeeper, it’s a catastrophe!

“Saka was a left-back, eh? Now he’s playing right-wing. Granit Xhaka, we have so many examples, good examples.

“The players have to love what they do & I think they love more what they do when they feel supported.”

Arteta might not get everything right, but he gets a lot less wrong than his criticis.

Whilst Arteta was building a title challenging team, his harshest critics were calling for us to sign the likes of Lewis Dunk, Ben Chillwell, Idrissa Gueye and Ryan Fraser.

They would have us still starting Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin, Alex Lacazette down the middle and Reiss Nelson (rather than Bukayo Saka) out wide.

Last season, the Emirates crowd were more connected with the team than we have been for decades. That needs to continue this season and we need to ensure that those few online trolls do not let their negativity infect us.

We spent £200m, and fans demand more. Had we spent £300m, they would have demanded more. Had we spent £400m, they would have demanded more. Never happy.

By purchasing top quality players (rather than going down the Chelsea route of buying 20 unknown youngsters for a lot of money), we have dramatically improved the squad:

Rice is an improvement on Xhaka and Lokonga.
Havertz is an improvement on Patino and Balogun.
Timber is an improvement on Tierney and Trusty.
Raya is an improvement on Turner and Runarsson.

Some will now say “well we have to win the league then”, but football does not work like that.

Manchester City have also improved (and spent more than us). Liverpool also looked to have returned to their top form in the second half of last season.

A bit like the last campaign, I do not see it as a failure if we do not win the league. I do not expect us to get the 90+ points to win the league. And those that do clearly do not realise how tough this is, and how much Pep Guardiola has raised the bar.

We could get 84 or 85 points again and end up finishing 3rd. That is not failure.

And if you want an example of why fans need to be ignore, just look towards East London.

West Ham fans spent the entire summer demanding David Moyes be sacked.

Following the departure of Declan Rice, they complained over the signing of James Ward-Prowse. Not good enough was their opinion.

After 4 games, they sat top of the table unbeaten, with Ward-Prowse their best player.

If fans ran the club, Moyes would have been sacked and replaced by Graham Potter. Kalvin Phillips would have been signed instead of Ward-Prowse.

Some of their fans will never accept David Moyes. Even though he has taken them to a trophy and a 6th and 7th place finish in the Premeir League, with a win ratio of 46%. The adhored Harry Redknapp won just 37% of his games in charge.

So today, back the manager, back the team. Win lose or draw.

We achieve nothing by booing an individual player, or booing the team off at half time or full time. This is Spurs behaviour. We are The Arsenal.

Leave the negativity at home. To those who follow the club on social media. Who record themselves watching the game.

UTA.

Keenos

Arsenal transfer window review

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It baffles me how some people claim we had a bad transfer window. It goes something like this.

Them: “Spend some fucking money”
Arsenal: Spend £200m
Them: “Spend some more fucking money”

Had we spent £250m, they would have demanded more. Had we spent £300m, they would have demanded we spend more.

They justify it by calling themselves High Standards FC. But inreality they should they have very little knowledge of the clubs finances, and they would rather us be Chelsea and spend £1bn on 20 average players rather than £200m on 4 fantastic ones.

And we have bought 4 fantastic players.

Declan Rice is world class. Not really sure how some fans still do not see it. A modern day Ruud Gullit.

Yes, £105m is a huge sum. But then Chelsea have spent £80m on Lesley Ugochukwu, Andrey Santos, Cesare Casadei and Carney Chukwuemeka over the last 3 windows. I have no idea who any of them are.

On top of that they have spent a further £260m on Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia and Enzo Fernandez.

£340m spent on midfielders, none of whom are better than Rice.

Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber and David Raya are not world class (by my definition, which is if you made a World Cup squad, they would get into it), but they are the level below.

Havertz and Timber certainly have the natural attributes to step up a level, whilst Raya is a huge improvement on Matt Turner as a number 2.

We probably do not see as many outgoings as we wanted.

Early in the summer, I blogged that we could raise £190m if we sold all the players who were on the frignes of the squad. Realistically, I blogged that £100m will be the more likely figure.

We sold around £75m of talent in Pablo Mari, Granit Xhaka, Auston Trusty, Matt Turner and Folarin Balogun.

Going into the transfer window, Transfrmarkt valued them at a combined £65m, so we got better than the average.

I think Arsenal will be dissapointed not to get a fee for Kieran Tierney.

The reality is no top Premier League club really needed a new left back except for Newcastle United. They opted for Lewis Hall (The Man U door with Luke Shaw injured only opened after Tierney had departed).

I think considering he was rumoured to be “home sick” living in London, it would have made little sense for him to sign a 5-year contract with a European club. So a 1-year loan deal to see if he can handle living abroad is sensible from his point of view.

We also failed to sell Nuno Tavares as he was loaned out to Nottingham Forest.

This was not a bad move for us as the loan fee exceeds his amortisation value, and they are paying his full wages, so we are actually making a small profit on him this summer. There is an option to buy for Forest next year.

I think most expected someone (Burnley) to come in for Albert Sambi Lokonga, but there was very little transfer speculation linking him with a move away. On deadline day he joined Luton Town.

In the end, Charlie Patino decided to stay at Arsenal, and agreed to another loan deal at Swansea City. I imagine this change of mind was due to a lack of Premier League clubs coming in for him. It was also not a surprise that Alex Runar Runarsson left on loan.

With the Saudi and Turkish windows not yet closed, I was not surprised to see Nicolas Pepe fail to leave on deadline day. I think he will still end up elsewhere.

Finally Emile Smith Rowe and Rob Holding

Holding joined Crystal Palace for £4m, whilst Smith Rowe stayed.

So in the end, of the 14 players on my “could leave” list, 5 left raising £70m, with a further 4 leaving on loan. Matt Turner was the only one not on the list that departed.

You improve the squad by buying players that could play in your first team, and as a result those at the bottom end of the squad depart. And that is what has happened for us this summer.

Rice is an improvement on Xhaka and Lokonga.
Havertz is an improvement on Patino and Balogun.
Timber is an improvement on Tierney and Trusty.
Raya is an improvement on Turner and Runarsson.

For those that think we are short of players, we have a first team squad of XXX. you do not really want much more than that…

A good window, one of our best in years. Now to get the results on the pitch.

Onto Manchester United tomorrow…

Keenos