For much of the season, Thomas Partey has been the best defensive midfielder in the league.
A one man wrecking ball, he has been doing the job of two-me in the middle of the park.
His dominance has allowed Mikel Arteta to push Granit Xhaka further forward, creating overloads higher up the field.
Partey is not only a disrupter, he is also a good passer. Able to take the ball off the defence in tight spaces and pick out a pass. He quickly turns defence into attack.
Arsenal have reportedly been nursing him through injury issues this season, trying to keep him to playing once a week. And this has potentially caught up on him these last few games.
The Partey we saw against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton was certainly not the Partey we have seen for the rest of the season.
He looks slower, both in body and thought. More passes getting misplaced. More poor decisions made. He looks a shadow of the man that drove us into a position to be champions.
With Partey clearly not at 100%, we have struggled.
7 goals conceded in 3 games is not the sign of champions. And whilst I am not blaming Partey, his drop in form has allowed our defence to be got at much easier.
Last season, our fight for the top 4 came to an end due to Partey’s injury. This season we have stumbled due to his loss of form – probably caused by injury.
Partey can not be relied upon. This is the first season since joining us that he has started more tHan 24 games. He has now started 26 out of a possible 43.
You can not expect to win trophies when one of your best players, and potentially your most important, is only starting 60% of the games.
It is not easy replacing someone like Partey.
We tried in January to sign Moises Caicedo, but couldn’t get the huge deal over the line. In the summer, Declan Rice will be our number one target. The only other man in the Premier League that can do what Partey does is Rodri. And I doubt Man City will sell us him!
It is important that we keep the core group of players together into next season. But we also need to build on the team and the squad. Solving the Partey problem might not improve us in individual games, but will improve us over the course of the season.
Not before the season begin. Not when we roped the league at the World Cup break. Not when we went 8 points clear. Not ever.
The Premier League is the hardest league to win in the world. There is no more competitive league.
Manchester City are the most expensive assembled champions the game has ever seen. They have won 4 of the last 5 league titles, and will likely make it 5 from 6. They are also on the cusp of the treble.
So it is no shame to finish second behind them. And the fact we have stayed a neck above them for so long is something we should all be incredibly proud of.
Since we returned from the World Cup, I always stated I expect us to get between 84 & 87 points. And that 84 would see us finish second whilst 87 could see us win it if Manchester City’s form does not dramatically improve.
City’s form has dramatically improved, and that 87 will unlikely be enough to secure us our first league title in 19 years. It will turn out that we need 92-93 points.
I am disappointed that we probably won’t win the title this year, but I will not let it get me down.
It is easy to forget where we were 12 months ago and how much we have improved. And will keep improving.
We have a young team, a young squad, and a young manager. It is now important that we keep these lads together. And learn and build.
This season reminds me a bit of 2007/08. Not in the way we capitulated (1 win in 9 games saw us drop from 1st to 3rd then), but in the exciting talent we have.
After the 2007/08 season, with the players we had, we should have kicked on. But we didn’t.
The financial restraints of the new ground kicked in and we could not keep our best young players.
Manchester City appeared with the oil barrels of gold and lured away firstly Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure, then Gaël Clichy and Samir Nasri. Cesc Fabregas joined Barcelona, as did Alex Song. And then Man U took Robin van Persie.
2007/08 should have been the start of something special at Arsenal. But it ended up being that sides peak. Players left for money and success elsewhere and all pretty much got it.
We are a different club now. We can pay the higher wages – although we can still probably do little if Real Madrid or Manchester City came in for one of our players.
This season needs to be the start of something, and not the peak.
Gabriel Martinelli is here for the long term. Bukayo Saka and William Saliba need new contract. As does Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale.
Gabriel Magalhães, Ben White, Olexsandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus are also not going anywhere.
That is a core of 9 players all with at least 5-6 years of playing at the top. Some have much more in them. We keep them all, and build on them, and we will continue challenging for the title.
Declan Rice will hugely improve the team and squad. As will signing a new right sided central defender and further attacking options. We do that this summer whilst keeping the core players and we go again next season.
Mikel Arteta is a smart man. He will analyse this season. What went right, what went wrong. And he will himself improve. And the players will continue improving as well.
Our target this season was top 4. That is now pretty much secured. Finishing above Tottenham is also a certainty.
But we want more than just top 4, more than just celebrating finishing above Tottenham. We want trophies, league titles.
Everyone will learn from this season. And I include the fans in the learning process too. And next year we will be even better.
(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Fabio Vieira; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Reiss Nelson, Matt Turner, Reuell Walters.
Scorers: Gabriel Martinelli (20 mins), Martin Ødegaard (88 mins), Bukayo Saka (90 mins)
Yellow Cards: Oleksandr Zinchenko
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 74%
Referee: Simon Hooper
Assistant Referees: Adrian Holmes, Mark Scholes
Fourth Official: Andre Marriner
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Peter Bankes; AVAR Nick Greenhalgh
Attendance: 60,175
It seems strange playing a Premiership match on a Friday evening, but hey, we’ll take the opportunity to grab three points on any day possible. Granit Xhaka will not be available for selection tonight due to a mystery illness, which was announced by Mikel Arteta earlier. William Saliba remains sidelined by a back injury which is taking longer to heal than anticipated, and as we know, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny are long-term absentees, with no news on their progress.
After a Gabriel Jesus pep talk to the Arsenal players, the visitors kicked off proceedings, and within twenty-eight seconds of the kick-off, Aaron Ramsdale passed the ball straight to Carlos Alcaraz, who picked his spot and fired the ball into the back of our net to open the scoring. The early goal certainly fired up the crowd, who immediately gave massive vocal support to the boys as they came forward to try to grab the equaliser. We saw a great run happen by Gabriel Martinelli as he ran into the penalty area but just as he was about to shoot he was forced wide by Armel Bella-Kotchap, who then cleverly guarded the ball out for a goal kick. We were constantly pressurising the Saints defence; Martin Ødegaard sent the ball into the penalty area, Armel Bella-Kotchap headed away, we picked the ball up again but our captain ran the ball out of play after a clever one-two with Thomas Partey. We were having a good period of possession now, with some good movement both on and off the ball. After just fourteen minutes, the visitors shocked the Emirates crowd when former Gunner Theo Walcott ran onto a superb ball through our defence by Carlos Alcaraz and coolly slotted the ball past a stranded, outstretched Aaron Ramsdale. A few minutes later, we redressed the balance somewhat when Bukayo Saka tore down the right wing as he got to the edge of the penalty area, looked up before finding Gabriel Martinelli, who volleyed the ball past the ’keeper into the back of the net. Now we have a game on our hands! There was a scramble inside our box as first Mohamed Elyounoussi’s header was pushed away by Aaron Ramsdale, who then pushed Carlos Alcaraz’s shot over the bar for a Southampton corner which went nowhere. After the ball was lost in midfield, it went to Theo Walcott, who hit an ambitious effort from about thirty yards, but Aaron Ramsdale had the shot covered all the way. However, over on the right wing, Romain Perraud was struggling to contain Bukayo Saka, who he fouled in order to merely stop him. Bukayo Saka took the free kick on the right side of the penalty area, but the visitors were unable to clear the ball successfully, before Fábio Vieira whacked a strong shot wide. Fabio Viera went down to the floor after a crunching tackle by Kyle Walker-Peters, but thankfully he was not hurt and got up to continue his part in the game. Jan Bednarek was fouled by Gabriel Martinelli and there was a pause in play as he received treatment; despite the medical teams telling him that his part in the match was over due to the nature of the injury, he was extremely unhappy with their decision. Kyle Walker-Peters was booked as he fouled Gabriel Martinelli on the left; the subsequent free-kick was taken by Gabriel Martinelli sent the ball in towards the Saints goal and it flew just wide of the post. In the seven minutes injury time, a Southampton attack broke down and Bukayo Saka ran quickly up the pitch on the right wing; he found Gabriel Jesus but goalie Gavin Bazunu was quick off his line to close him down and gave away the corner. As the corner from Bukayo Saka came over, Carlos Alcaraz cleared Ben White’s clever flick-on off and away from the goal line. Oleksandr Zinchenko was awarded a yellow card for a slide tackle, and after Adam Armstrong’s cutback was intercepted by Gabriel, we put immense pressure on the Southampton goal, but to no avail, as referee Simon Hooper blew the whistle for half-time shortly afterwards.
We started a most important second half off for us, and in the early exchanges, we look extremely controlled as we made inroads into getting something out of this match tonight. We were constantly pressurising their five-man defensive pattern, and six minutes into the second half, Gabriel Jesus went down inside the penalty area under the challenge of Duje Caleta-Car. We appealed for a penalty but it was denied. After a period of intense pressure on the Southampton defence, Fabio Vieira was replaced by Leandro Trossard after fifty-six minutes in order to give some fresh legs a chance out there. Bukayo Saka’s ball across the penalty area was almost deflected into the path of Gabriel Jesus but Gavin Bazunu was alert to the danger of the little man and he cleared the ball wildly. And still we came forward, and we are on the hunt for goals. Bukayo Saka hit the post after Gabriel Martinelli took the ball to the byline, but it was adjudged that the ball was over the line. After sixty-six minutes, the visitors scored a third goal from a corner which was headed into the net by Duje Caleta-Car. Absolute disaster. A couple of minutes later, Gabriel Martinelli blasted the ball over the Southampton bar from close range, and Eddie Nketiah replaced Oleksandr Zinchenko with eighteen minutes of the game remaining, and the pressure is starting to show, despite putting Southampton under pressure. Leandro Trossard just failed to connect with the ball inside the penalty area before Bukayo Saka’s effort was blocked, as there are just so many Saints players in the way. We won a corner and Bukayo Saka’s ball went all the way through to Leandro Trossard before it went over to Gabriel Jesus who was unable to flick his header on the target. Reiss Nelson replaced Gabriel Martinelli with six minutes to go, and a couple of minutes later, Martin Ødegaard played a clever one-two with Ben White and drilled the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the net. And then, unbelievably, as Reiss Nelson’s shot was pushed away, Bukayo Saka was on hand to level the score! Incredible! In the eight minutes injury time, there was a penalty call which was denied, as Reiss Nelson’s shot went inches wide. So much relentless pressure on the Southampton defence, but still they are holding out, and despite our best efforts, we just could not get a winner.
What a match. If this game had carried on just five minutes more, we may well have snatched the winner, but it was not to be. We have dropped crucial points at the wrong time of the season, and we have made some serious errors tonight; but we still in the hunt for the Premiership title, and we have to go to the Etihad on Wednesday night, and we must get a result there. No question about it.
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: Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, 26th April at 8.00pm (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
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 