No Saka No Problems

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In hindsight, Bukayo Saka coming down with a bug might be very benificial to our title chances.

He was suprisingly left on the bench for Leeds having been ill on the Friday. Saturday morning rumours of a stomach bug in the Arsenal camp turned out not to be an April Fools.

Despite missing the best right winger in the world, we cruised to victory over Leeds. And whilst Saka did come off the bench to make a 30 minute cameo, the rest woould have done him the world of good.

Saka had started every Premier League game this season prior to Leeds. He also started both matches for England in the international break. His enforced absence Saturday will mean he would have played just 30 minutes football over a two week period.

I am not concerned by how much football Saka is playing. World class players rarely miss a game. But a small break will always do a player good.

The way we played even without Saka was extremely impressive; and shows that we have plenty of fire power.

Erling Haaland is runaway top scorer in the Premier League with 28 goals. That is 15 more than our top league scorer – Gabriel Martinelli. Manchester City also have the player with the most assists – Kevin de Bruyne.

Despite City having arguably the best centre forward in world football and the best creative midfielder, they have only scored one more goal than us.

Whilst City are very reliant on the goals of Haaland and assists of de Bruyne, Arsenal’s strength is our multi-pronged attack.

Saka has obviously been the main man this season, with 13 goals and 10 assists in all competitions. Equal on goals to Saka is Martinelli, whilst Martin Odegaard is equal on assists.

Having just returned from injury, Gabriel Jesus scored his 6th and 7th goals of the season against Leeds. In his absence, Eddie Nketiah has been able to accumulate 9 goals and an assist.

Leandro Trossard got another assist at the weekend taking his tally to 7 since joining The Arsenal. No player in English football has created more than him since he joined us, and only Saka and de Bruyne have more than 7 assists ALL SEASON.

And then you have Granit Xhaka with just the 7 goals and 5 assists.

Arteta’s attacking philosphy is all about overloads and versatility. It is Total Football. Our 4th on Saturday sums up the way Arteta wants us to attack.

Saka drew Leeds players across on the left, played a quick ball inside to Odergaard who in turn swung in a quality ball into the box. Clean through to cushion a header in was not the centre forward, but Grant Xhaka.

Four goals on Saturday, 6 different men involved in scoring or creating – Jesus (2), Ben White and Xhaka were assisted by Martinelli, Trossard and Odegaard.

Whilst we might not have the “big name” of Haaland or de Bruyne, our multi-pronged attack makes us nearly impossible to defend against.

We attack down down the right, down the laeft, through the middle. Any one of 5 can score. Any one of 5 can get the assist.

And then as we saw on Saturday, and whilst Jesus was off injured, the men ready to step in when an injury arises also provide quality.

Our best front 5 is:

Jesus
Martinelli Xhaka Odegaard Saka

Then on the bench we have:

Nketiah
Trossard ESR Vieira Nelson

We are so unpredictable in attack due to the versatility of our attackers. Nketiah is the only one of the 10 that can not play in multiple positions.

Jesus drifts left, creating space for Martinelli to come inside. Trossard drops deep giving Xhaka the space to run into. Saka comes inside and we see Odegaard runnign the wing. It is chaos!

Manchester City have the leagues top scorer, but Haaland is their olny player in the top 10. We have 2 in the top 10. de Bruyne is also their only player in the top 10 of assits. We have 3 in the top 10.

Throughout the season, there has been a feeling that if you can stop Haaland, you stop City. He has scored 40% of their goals. And that was perhaps highlighted against Liverpool.

Haaland was out injured, Julian Alvarez came in, they score 4, with 4 different goal scorers.

Arsenal are the most exciting attacking team in world football right now. And it is even more exciting when you realise how young they all are.

Jesus turns 26 today, whilst Saka and Martinelli are just 21. Odegaard is an old man at 24, and it is easy to forget that Smith Rowe and Vieira are both just 22.

Saka’s enforced break should mean he is ready and firing to go next Sunday against Liverpool. Win that an I might start to dream.

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 4 – 1 Leeds United

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Arsenal (1) 4 Leeds United (0) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Saturday, 1st April 2023. Kick-off time: 3.00pm

(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Jakob Kiwior, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Matt Turner, Reuell Walters

Scorers: Gabriel Jesus (35 mins, 55 mins), White (47 mins), Xhaka (84 mins)

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 67%

Referee: Darren England

Assistant Referees: Dan Cook, Nick Hopton

Fourth Official: Jarred Gillett

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Craig Pawson; AVAR Marc Perry

Attendance: 60,283

April Fools’ Day at the Emirates! Make no mistake about it though, in our experience, there can be a sting in that Leeds United tail, despite their lowly position in the Premiership table. Today we need to be clinical, and defeat the visitors firmly and confidently; with the score at lunchtime between Liverpool and Manchester City still firmly in our minds, we have to be utterly single-minded and continue our winning ways.

Movingly, both teams today have paid tribute to David Rocastle before kick-off with mascots carrying shirts with his name on the back of them. The midfielder died twenty years ago yesterday and his family are guests at the Emirates this afternoon. Within seconds of the start, Rasmus Kristensen was denied a goalscoring chance by Aaron Ramsdale; we then managed to break out and the visitors had to scramble to stop Gabriel Jesus having a shot on the edge of the penalty area. Following that, we are seeing more of the ball, but Leeds United tried to break out through Crysencio Summerville but Gabriel halted him close to our penalty area with a timely tackle. After those frantic first few minutes, the game has settled down, and we are seeing more of the ball against a Leeds United side sat very deep with a five-man defensive pattern at the back. After a quarter of an hour, Gabriel Jesus was left in acres of space in the middle. He rose to meet a cross but headed the ball over the bar. We then started to utterly dominate the match with clever play both on and off the ball, pinning the visitors back in their own half, and despite our constant pressure, their well-drilled defensive wall was keeping us out, but we have to be careful, as after the half hour mark, the visitors broke out to try to catch us on the break; Crysencio Summerville was given a sight of our goal but his low shot was too close to Aaron Ramsdale, who made a superb save. The visitors certainly had the bit between their teeth now, as a couple of minutes later, Crysencio Summerville set up Jack Harrison for a rising shot that Aaron Ramdale stopped farily easily. We had a penalty awarded to us a few minutes later, when Luke Ayling went down to stop a Gabriel Jesus shot, but our man sold him a clever dummy. Gabriel Jesus took a touch on the knee before dropping to the ground. An obvious penalty, which our little Brazilian forward, Gabriel Jesus, easily put past Illan Meslier to score the opening goal ten minutes before the break. We immediately went on the prowl for a second goal, and Illan Meslier was drawn from his penalty area to clear a chipped ball forward, but Gabriel Martinelli looked to lob him, but Luke Ayling was back between the sticks this time to stop the ball finding the net. So close. Despite yet more pressure from us, we went into half-time one goal ahead.

Two minutes after the break, we grabbed a second goal when Gabriel Martinelli beat Luke Ayling and then whipped a low ball to the far post for Ben White to arrive and fire the ball into the net off the underside of the bar. A superb start to the second half! After some pressure from us, eight minutes later, Leandro Trossard found himself between two Leeds United defenders. He carried the ball for a few metres and fired across a low ball that Gabriel Jesus easily met to finish on the run, for his second goal of the day, and our third. We went hunting for a fourth goal and a little while later, Gabriel Martinelli’s header at the near post from a corner was dramatically pushed away by goalie Illan Meslier. On the hour, Gabriel Jesus was replaced by Bukayo Saka, whilst Jorginho entered the fray, to replace Thomas Partey. Unexpectedly, the visitors got together a nice move, with Luis Sinisterra and Rasmus Kristensen combining to set up Brenden Aaronson in our penalty area, but his dinked effort was athletically pushed away by Aaron Ramsdale. With fourteen minutes of the game remaining the visitors somehow got a goal back through Rasmus Kristensen whose shot took a wicked accidental deflection off Oleksandr Zinchenko. Although we started to look a wee bit nervous after the visitors’ goal, all jittery nerves were settled when, six minutes from the end of the game, our captain Martin Ødegaard floated a beautiful cross into the middle of the penalty area, which was superbly met by vice-captain Granit Xhaka, who diverted his clever header just inside the post for our fourth goal of the afternoon. No way back for the visitors now! Shortly afterwards, our captain and vice-captain, (along with Oleksandr Zinchenko) was replaced by Kieran Tierney, Emile Smith-Rowe and Fábio Vieira to keep things stable for the remainder of the match. Game management became the order of the day, and after five minutes injury time, referee Darren England brought matters to a conclusion.

Despite one or two dodgy moments, particularly in the first half, our class and clever play managed to overcome the visitors, and the reward for our eventual victory was eight points ahead of Manchester City with ourselves playing a game more than our Mancunian rivals. Our confidence was there for all to see, and as such, in the second half, we completely dominated the match. We have a massive game on Easter Sunday against Liverpool at Anfield, and hopefully today’s victory will give us the impetus to grab three vital points on our march to our first Premiership trophy for nineteen years. Fingers crossed. 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: Liverpool at Anfield on Easter Sunday, 9th April 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

London’s oldest blog set for name change

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Today we are delighted to announce that we will be changing the name of our blog.

Like Arsenal, we have had numerous names throughout our history. We started with ArseOnline back in those Rivals.net day (the search terms used to find our site always made interesting reading).

When Rivals were bought out by Sky (and quickly shut down in an attempt to force the users to Sky’s own message boards) we moved platform and adopted a new name: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

A few years later, we became fully independant blog and again went under a rebrand. SheWore.com was born – although we still maintain the full name of the Facebook page.

Over the years, we have come under increasing pressure over our name, with many calling it “misogynistic” and questioning why we had singled out a specific gender. Some also wondered whether we had assigned the gender of our blog, or just assumed what gender the blog.

Moving forward, our new name will be They / Them Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

We hope that by using the new name, the new pro-nouns, we will become not only Arsenal’s oldest London based blog but also most inclusive.

We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to anyone that was offended by our previous names.

Keenos (Gooner / Gunner)