Arsenal run out of steam in the last straight

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We were a neck ahead going into the final straight. Then Manchester City found the extra gear that everyone knew they had and galloped away.

Arsenal have ended up labouring to 2nd, and whilst it is disappointing to have run out of steam having set the pace for much of the race, the class of Manchester City needs to be recognised.

There is a reason why Manchester City were 1/2 odds on favourites to win the Premier League before the off. Arsenal meanwhile were 33/1 6th favourites.

City are a well oiled machine. The finances to invest in the best horses (players) and trainers (Pep). Arsenal had the fresh faced stable boy (Mikel) competing for the top honours for the first time.

Whilst we began to stumble over the last few fences, City kept getting stronger. 40 points from their last 42 available is a run that no one would have been able to keep pace with.

The post-race criticism risks going to far, and becoming too criticial of a great race we had run up until that final straight.

Former Arsenal captain and failed football manager Patrick Vieira gave his expert opinion on Sky.

“What they (Arsenal) are missing is this physical presence,” he said. “This kind of leadership where people can get at the back of players when they are not performing at the level that Arsenal expect.

“For me, they will have to build a team with more personality and more competitiveness. I think the Arsenal team, there is quality, there is no doubt about it. They are playing some really good football, but there is still a difference between them and Manchester City.”

“When you look at Manchester City you look at the physical attributes of the players, the physicality. They are six foot three or six foot four, so it’s important for Arsenal and Mikel [Arteta] to identify what they are missing and try to improve that side of the game.”

It is no surprise that Patrick Vieira got fired by Crystal Palace when his view is that “Manchester City are physically bigger than Arsenal”.

Man City have the smallest squad in the Premier League. So clearly Arsenal are not missing “physical presence” in comparison to Manchester City.

The main difference between the two is not physical presence or leadership. It is simply that Manchester City have better players, and more of them. And is why their wage bill is twice of Arsenal’s.

Whilst we relied on the same core 12-14 players, Manchester City were able to rest and rotate throughout the season without seeing a drop off in quality. That meant when it came to that final stretch, the Championship rounds, they were fresher.

Despite Manchester City playing in more games, Arsenal players dominate the top 3 minutes played per position for outfield players:

Those forward positions make the most interesting of reading.

Whilst Manchester City were able to rotate Jack Grealish (3217 minutes), Riyad Mahrez (2802 minutes), Phil Foden (2355 minutes), Arsenal had to over-rely on Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli – with Leandro Trossard only becoming an option for the second half of the season (2272 total minutes played for Arsenal and Brighton).

When you break this down into “full 90 played”:

Saka – 39 full games
Martinelli – 38
Grealish – 35
Mahrez – 31
Foden – 26
Trossard – 25

It is no surprise that Saka and Martinelli look exhausted whilst Mahrez looks fresh and a daisy when you look at that work load.

What Arsenal are missing is not physical presence or leadership, as Patrick Vieira said. They are missing better strength in depth. But this is not exactly breaking news.

The addition of Trossard is a fantastic one. He has added depth to the wings where their was none before the season.

We now need to replicate that sort of acquisition in defence, midfield and up-front. That will enable us to reduce the game time of the likes of Saka, Martinelli, Xhaka, White and more. Giving them a break which will result in them being fresher as hit the final straight.

Manchester City are an experienced thoroughbred, whilst Arsenal were competing in their first Grade 1 event. We just need to keep the team together, and build on it.

We go again next season.

UTA.

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 0 – 3 Brighton

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Arsenal (0) 0 Brighton and Hove Albion (0) 3

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 14th May 2023. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, Jakob Kiwior, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Martin Ødegaard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Thomas Partey, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding, Leandro Trossard, Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Matt Turner, Reuell Walters.

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 42%

Referee: Andy Madley

Assistant Referees: Constantine Hatzidakis, Nick Hopton

Fourth Official: Darren England

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Peter Bankes; AVAR Wade Smith

Attendance: 60,139

Nothing changes at this stage of the season; we have to win, nothing else will do. Of course, we have to win all of our three remaining matches in order to have a chance of staying in the hunt for the Premiership title. Today’s match against Brighton and Hove Albion will be a difficult one, but it is still a game that we are more than able to win, and with home advantage today, we must surely be favourites to pick up all three points at full time.

The visitors started off the proceedings in a white-hot atmosphere here at the Emirates this afternoon, and within the first minute, our captain took a ball in the face and play was stopped for a little while, whilst he received treatment, composed himself and got back into the match. Pascal Gross conceded a corner as he whacked an attempted first-time pass out of play, but Gabriel Martinelli’s delivery was headed away by Moises Caicedo, and then Lewis Dunk hit a clearance straight at Bukayo Saka, who quickly found Martin Ødegaard but his backheel inside the penalty area went askew. There was a few really heavy challenges already, the latest one was by Moises Caicedo as he sent Gabriel Martinelli sprawling across the pitch. Aaron Ramsdale picked up a long pass from Billy Gilmour that went astray, and a couple of minutes later, he acrobatically saved a strong shot from Julio Enciso in order to prevent a certain goal. After a quarter of an hour’s play, Martin Ødegaard hit a superb shot from outside the penalty area which went inches wide of the post. Gabriel Martinelli was unable to continue as his injury got the better of him, so Leandro Trossard replaced him after just nineteen minutes of the match being played. Jorginho went to the floor after a tackle by Evan Ferguson, and although the match was quite physical, we were keeping the pressure up on the visitors. On the half hour, former Brighton man Leandro Rossard cut inside the visitors’ defence, but his shot flew skywards over the bar from close range, unfortunately. Pervis Estupinan fouled Bukayo Saka and received a yellow card for his troubles, and from the resulting free-kick from Leandro Trossard, Granit Xhaka headed it wide of the goal. As half-time approached, frustration started to creeep in, and the match started to get rather scrappy. In the five minutes injury time, after some pressure on the Brighton goal, Bukayo Saka hit the ball wide from ten yards, and a minute or so later, our captain fired a shot in from close range in on the left which went narrowly wide, just before referee Andy Madley brought the first half to an end.

Arsenal kicked off an important forty-five minutes, and immediately brought pressure to bear down on the Brighton goal. However, against the run of play, the visitors took the lead with a messy goal from Julio Enciso six minutes after the restart. Shortly afterwards, Granit Xhaka and Jorginho were replaced by Reiss Nelson and Thomas Partey, and after a chance by Reiss Nelson that was unlucky, the visitors started to apply pressure on the Arsenal goal which we managed to stop. The match seemed to swing backwards and forwards for a while and Martin Ødegaard slipped a lovely ball towards Leandro Trossard but his crisp shot was well saved by goalkeeper Jason Steele. The more we try to score the equaliser, the more we are frustrated, and the visitors can sense that, and are passing the ball around accordingly, as they feel that time is on their side now. Mikel Arteta made a double substitution with Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith-Rowe replacing Gabriel Jesus and Martin Ødegaard with twelve minutes of the match remaining. Into the final ten minutes and there are boos and jeers from our fans as Alexis Mac Allister drops to the floor and needs treatment, which looks to the vast majority of the crowd that he is time wasting. With six minutes of the game remaining, Gabriel went down in the penalty area, and we had a penalty appeal turned down. However, a minute or so later, Deniz Undav scored a second goal for the visitors, after some messy play by us outside the penalty area. As the match started to move towards its conclusion, the visitors grabbed a third in stoppage time through Pervis Estupinan which finished us off, it has to be said. An extremely disappointing end to an important match for us, and as such, it is now quite possible for Manchester City to win the Premiership title next weekend. 

In this “must win” game for us, we played sluggishly at times, and it looked like we lacked the necessary energy to win the match. However, with just two shots on target throughout the whole game, we had ourselves to blame today. The fans were leaving early, and there is a mood of glum resignation around the stadium now. We ran out of steam in the second half, and although for periods of the first half our play was good, in the second half we appeared to just crumble and let the visitors score their goals. Such a shame, as when the match started there was hope in the stadium that appeared to transfer to the players, but as the game progressed, we simply ran out of gas. Let’s see how they pick themselves up for the Forest match next Saturday afternoon.

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: Nottingham Forest at The City Ground on Saturday, 20th May 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

Tottenham could finish 8th despite “best start in 59 years”

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Before we begin to look towards todays game, let’s take a moment to have a little laugh at Tottenham.

They have been digging Arsenal out these last few weeks for “bottling the league”. But let’s not forget that 10 games in Spurs were being talked about as title contenders.

Spurs were sitting 3rd in the league after 10 games. They were experiencing their best start to a season to a season since 1963; 59 years ago. they had begun to build a lead on those other top 4 contenders.

Following their loss to Aston Villa, they now sit:

25 points behind Man City
9 points behind Newcastle
9 points behind Manchester United
5 points behind Liverpool
Level on points with Aston Villa

With Brighton having 3 games in hand, Tottenham could finish outside of the European places.

In a 3 horse race for the Premier League title, Spurs could finish 8th!!!

Moving onto us, today will not be easy.

Brighton are a very good side, and capable of beating anyone in this league on their day. Their 8th place position is false due to their 3 games in hand. My gut is they will probably finish 6.

But it is the type of game we should be winning if we want to win the league. And with just 3 games to go it is a match we have to win if that is going to be this season.

Reality is, we can not afford to drop anymore points this season.

Expecting Manchester City to fail to win 2 of their last 4 games is a huge ask. Expecting them to not win 3 out of 4 is implausible.

They face Everton at Goodison before we kick off. I do not think they will drop points despite their mid week trip to Real Madrid.

They could make 7 outfield changes to the team that drew with Madrid and their XI would still look like:

Ederson
Lewis Stones Laporte Gomes
Philips Gundogan
de Buryne
Mahrez Alvarez Foden

Ultimately, we just need to keep focusing on ourselves.

As Mikel Arteta has said, win our games and put ourselves in a position to take advantage of any City slip ups.

We could end up with 90 points and that lot up the road will say how we bottled winning the league. Meanwhile they could finish 8th, with Ryan Mason as their new manager and Harry Kane packing his bags to Manchester United.

UTA

Keenos