Holding will not be an easy man for Arsenal to replace

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Our drop off at the back end of this season has told us nothing that we did not know. We still have areas of our squad where we need more depth.

If you had have asked me before the start of the season where we still needed to strengthen, I would have answered “centre back, central midfield and in attack”. And as the season has progressed, our lack of strength in depth in these areas has been punished.

This is not a criticism of the club. We are not Manchester City who can go out and spend £200m on 4 central defenders. Or in a single summer buy both the World Cup winning starting striker and the best striker in the world.

We do not have those finances. Our transfer policy is consistent improvement year on year.

Last summer saw us add a striker (Jesus), midfield creativity (Vieira) and a left back (Zinchenko) , as well as a back-up striker. All of these were more crucial than a central defender, central midfielder and striker.

We then added Jorginho, Leandro Trossard and Jakub Kiwor in January.

In January, getting in cover for Gabriel was more important than signing someone to cover William Saliba.

To cover Saliba, we had Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Rob Holding. We had no one who was naturally left footed, who could play left side of the defence. And we signed Kiwor.

I am sure the plan would have have been to move Ben White into the centre if Saliba picked up an injury. Tomiyasu then would have played right back.

But injuries to both Saliba and Tomiyasu has meant Rob Holding has been required to step up and play.

Holding is not a bad player. He has done a solid job for us. But if we want to be title challengers in the long term, he needs to be improved on.

Manchester City have John Stones, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji as their centre back options. All 5 would start ahead of Rob Holding.

Edu and his team will address this area in the summer, and I am sure that right hand side defensive reinforcements will come in.

However, a 2nd choice right sided central defender will be a harder transfer than finding a new midfielder.

We can all list the new midfielders that might come in – the list starts with Declan Rice, goes onto Moises Caicedo and onto Andre Onana. There ar emany other options too.

Whoever comes in will be expected to compete with both Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey for a starting place. Two opportunities to start.

Considering both of their age, and Partey’s injury record, the new signing will see plenty of game time. That is why we can go for someone like Rice, without thinking he is being signed as a back up. The defence problem is not as easy to resolve.

The best teams tend to play with a settled central defensive partnership. And in Saliba and Gabriel we had one of the best in the league.

Any new centre back will be a back up player. Like Kiwor is. They will only come in for Saliba if there is injury or suspension.

That means whoever comes in must be happy sitting on the bench. That rules out a lot of players (unlike Manchester City, we can not pay someone £200k a week to sit on our bench, softening the blow of not playing).

And not only does the new man have to be better than Holding, he also has to be better than Ben White.

The option will still be there next season to play White at centre back and Tomiyasu at right back.

And with the development of 18-year-old Reuell Walters, who has been training with the first team for almost the entirety of this season, that option is more appealing.

I am sure in 12 months time, if we were in the same position squad wise as now, we probably would have seen Walters step into right back and White move inside. But this season, with the pressure we were under at the top of the league, that would have been a huge call for Mikel Arteta.

Playing the experienced Holding and leaving White at right back just made more sense then bringing in an experienced teenager and moving White into the centre. I am also not a fan of making two changes in the defence due to one injury.

So I think we will go out and buy another centre back. I then expect Kieran Tierney to leave and Tomiyasu to be first choice cover at right and left back. Walters and Lino Sousa wil lalso be options at full back.

I would not be surprised if the club try and find “another Ben White” – someone that will can play both centre back and full back. That will then give us further cover for White / Tomiyasu in the way Ake does a job at left back for Manchester City.

A new central defender must therefore be:

  • Better than Holding, but happy to be 2nd choice
  • Pacey, so we do not have to defend deeper
  • Comfortable on the ball
  • Less than £30million
  • Provide an option at right back

Holding might seem like an easy player to replace. There are plenty out there who are better. But was will not be easy is finding someone who fits our scouting probile. And with that, I am now off to see who I can find!

Keenos

Arsenal need to be in a position to take advantage of any Man City slip up

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Morning all.

After a tough April, Arsenal have returned to form in May with a bang. Not that we played poorly in April, we just did not pick up the wins.

It was an odd month.

We deserved the victory against Liverpool, only to concede a 87th minute equaliser.

Against West Ham, we looked comfortable. Too comfortable. Took the foot off their throat and a silly mistake by Thomas Partey saw them get back into the game. Bukayo Saka then had a sliding doors moment when he spurned the opportunity to make it 3-1.

As for Southampton, we just got hit cold, again, and did well to battle back to win.

In all of these games, we were good enough to win. But individual errors at the back gifted opponents goals. Frustrating.

The victory against Chelsea was not just about the 3 points, but also the manner in how we won them.

For the first time ever, I sat upper teir at the Emirates and it was incredible to watch our passing shape. It was sharp, with purpose and confidence.

That victory against Chelsea showed that we were not simply on a good run, we are a really good team. And even if we finish 2nd, we can be proud of the steps we have taken forward.

Finishing 2nd to a Manchester City side who have spent so much building their squad over the last decade, so much on salaries, and have the Premier League’s single season record goal scorer is an achievement. Even if it does not come with a trophy.

We saw Mikel Arteta ring in a couple of changes on Tuesday. The first was Jorginho for Thomas Partey.

We spoke last week about whether Arsenal had a Partey problem. He did not look as fit and sharp as he did earlier in the season; and that was leading to mistakes.

Jorginho came in for him and played exceptional. It will be interesting to see how the Brazilian-Italian fits into Arteta’s plans next season if we sign Declan Rice (other top defensive midfielders are available).

My gut is that we will not go for a 2nd central midfielder in the summer. That will leave us with Partey, Granit Xhaka, Rice and Jorginho for those two midfield positions.

Saying that, speculation came out last week that we might be looking to cash in on Xhaka. That would surprise me.

Jakub Kiwor came in for Rob Holding at the back and looked composed and solid.

People seemed to write Kiwor off after 10 minutes of football aganst Liverpool and an uncomfortable game against Sporting in the Europa League. These days, fans seem to expect players to hit the ground running straight away.

Kiwor is a young man, playing in a new country in a new league. He is clearly talented, but was bought for next season.

The 6 months he has spent in England prior to next season will benefit him greatly. He looks to have already bulked up and is quick, commanding and good on the ball. He will be a great option for when we rest Gabriel.

He will probably start again Sunday with William Saliba out and Gabriel doubtful. Newcastle will certainly be a bigger challenge than Chelsea.

So we keep moving. City won last night which took them back to the top of the table. We have 4 games to go, they have 5.

I would be surprised if we win the title, I have maintained that position throughout. But we need to ensure we are there to take advantage if City do drop points.

After this weekeend, City have some tricky fixtures, with 3 of their last 4 away. They play twice a week and have games interwined with those big Champions League games.

They certainly have the squad to deal with this level of games (football is easy when you have four £50m CBs!), but it is not over yet.

UTA.

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 3 – 1 Chelsea

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Arsenal (3) 3 Chelsea (0) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Tuesday, 2nd May 2023. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, Jakob Kiwior, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard.

Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding, Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Matt Turner.

Scorers: Martin Ødegaard (18 mins, 31 mins), Gabriel Jesus (34 mins)

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 55%

Referee: Robert Jones

Assistant Referees: Timothy Wood, Wade Smith

Fourth Official: Graham Scott

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Andre Marriner; AVAR Stuart Burt

Attendance: 60,144

After the disappointment of last week’s match, it is important that we return to winning ways tonight, starting with a white-hot London derby with Chelsea. With regards to team selection, Mohamed Elneny and Takehiro Tomiyasu remain out of contention tonight due to injury, as does William Saliba, of course. Mikel Arteta has made three changes for tonight’s match, with Rob Holding, Gabriel Martinelli and Thomas Partey dropping to the substitute’s bench. Leandro Trossard, Jakub Kiwior and ex-Chelsea midfielder Jorginho are in the starting eleven.

The visitors kicked off the evening’s procedures, and almost immediately we won the ball and applied pressure to Chelsea, with Bukayo Saka twisting and turning onto his left foot and taking a shot at goal from the edge of the penalty area but Thiago Silva blocked it. After some nervousness in the Chelsea defence, Granit Xhaka was unlucky not to open the scoring and it took a fortunate stop from Kepa Arrizabalaga in the Blues goal not to let it go into the net. For the opening stages of the match, we were constantly applying pressure onto the Chelsea goal, and from a short corner with Leandro Trossard playing a quick ball with Martin Ødegaard looked clever but his cross to the back post was too deep and went harmlessly behind for a goal kick. Our high tempo game nearly paid off when Bukayo Saka sent over a looping header at goal. It looked like it was creeping in just under the bar before Kepa Arrizabalaga got his hands to parry it away. It fell to Gabriel Jesus only a few yards out, but the visitors managed to clear the danger. A couple of minutes later, we opened the scoring when Granit Xhaka found Martin Ødegaard with a square pass from the left side of the penalty area, who hit a superb strike past Kepa Arrizabalaga, with the ball going in the net off the underside of the bar, for a well-deserved goal. The goal appeared to wake the visitors up, who started to look like that they wanted to take part in this match, with Ben Chilwell bursting through and his strong shot was pushed aside by Aaron Ramsdale for a Chelsea corner, which was easily cleared by our defenders. We had a penalty appeal turned down by referee Robert Jones for a hand ball by Wesley Fofana, and just after the half hour mark, we grabbed a deserved second when in a very similar goal to the first one, Granit Xhaka crossed the ball in from the left, Martin Ødegaard lost his marker and this time struck a low, first-time shot, past Kepa Arrizabalaga. Three minutes later, with yet more shocking defending from Chelsea, who were just unable to deal with Ben White’s cross from the right wing; Gabriel Jesus kept it alive, Granit Xhaka fell over but he did manage to send the ball back into Gabriel Jesus’ path and this time he drilled it into the back of the net from close range for our third goal of the evening. The match was stopped for a while as Wesley Fofana was being attended to by the Chelsea medical staff, and in the two minutes injury time, despite Chelsea making some inroads in our half, the score remained three-nil to us.

Arsenal started the second half confidently, and although Chelsea started to push the ball around better, we dealt with them fairly easily. Gabriel Jesus was chopped down by Cesar Azpilicueta, cynically and crudely close to the byeline, which somehow did not earn him a yellow card. Five minutes after the restart, it looked like we had grabbed a fourth goal from a superb header by Gabriel (via a corner by Leandro Trossard), but somehow the ball had not crossed the line, and in spite of that, we carried on regardless. Bukayo Saka, after linking up with Ben White, struck the ball from a tight angle but Kepa Arrizabalaga stuck out a leg to keep it out. Bukayo Saka fired a shot from twenty yards, but the ball went just wide. Just before the hour, Leandro Trossard was replaced by Gabriel Martinelli, and our desire to carry on and score continued. However, the visitors got one back with Noni Madeuke scoring from close range, and after Gabriel hobbled off the pitch with an injury briefly, our pressure continued. Bukayo Saka and Oleksandr Zinchenko were replaced by Reiss Nelson and Kieran Tierney for the last nineteen minutes of the match, and as ever in this match, we looked hungry and confident to score more goals. The visitors tried to catch us on the break several times using their fast players, but their attempts petered out into nothing. Martin Ødegaard nearly got his hat-trick with a superb left footed shot that was saved by the goalkeeper, and Gabriel (who came back onto the pitch earlier), was still hobbling around and looking uncomfortable, so him and Jorginho were replaced by Thomas Partey and Rob Holding for the remaining five minutes of the game. The visitors had one or two chances to score in the five minutes injury time period (including a free kick which could have been dangerous), but they had run out of steam, with the only shot of note being saved well by Aaron Ramsdale, but it mattered not, as we ended up worthy winners tonight.

We played absolutely brilliantly tonight, and our win not only returns us to the top of the Premiership, but also sends a message to Manchester City that we are prepared to fight for the title to the bitter end. We looked full of self-confidence and vigour, and the only bad moment was when we allowed Chelsea to get a goal back late in the game. Other than that, every man played their part (and played well too), and the supporters got behind the team which was great to see and hear. Either way, it was a satisfactory night for everyone involved with club. Keep going, 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: Newcastle United at St. James’ Park on Sunday, 7th May at 4.30pm(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