I usually try and write a blog most days, although I do avoid writing if I do not have much to say.
The lack of European football this year for us has made it really hard to write anything mid week.
On a Monday I would usually share my views on the weekends game (or it would be a match report if we played Sunday).
Then I would share my thoughts on the upcoming European game. We would then have a match report the day after the game.
With no European football, we lose those two natural opportunities to write about The Arsenal.
As we do not overly get involved in the clickbait transfer rumours, it has left us very little to say during the week.
And I am sure we are all feeling the same across social media and in pubs. Bored
.
The day of a game would be awash with people discussing it, and the day after dissecting the performance. No European football has left us all with very little to talk about.
Luckily this week we had #SingYourDialect to entertain us. If you have no idea what it is, get on the hashtag on Twitter.
The funny thing is, like football, it began as something started by the normal folk, and ende dup being robbed by the “rich” (or on Twitter, blue ticks).
It became huge the first night as normal lads who can not sing belted out Adele at the top of their voices. But as the Twitter Space grew, more and more blue tick accounts and wannabe singers tried to exploit the situation and ended up taking over.
Instead of just hearing a lad or lass having a bit of fan, we had companies using it to promote themselves and wannabe recording artists using it as an opportunity to garner attention.
It kind of sums up the way of the world.
The working class make something popular, then the rich and influential get invovled, take over and alienate those that started it. It is exactly what has happened to football.
By now we all would have seen those eye watering new ticket prices for Chelsea’s West Stand.
Chelsea are becoming the destination for tourist fans.
Their success over the last decade and their closeness to the West End make them an ideal day out for those visiting London. It is those fans that the new West Stand is targetting. Fans who will happily pay £200 to see Chelsea play once.
Saturday 12:30 we play Newcastle at home. A horrid kick off time for their fans.
To get to Kings Cross for around 11am they will need to get the 6:30 out of Newcastle. It really is not fair on their travelling fans..
Their last away game was to Brighton – a 5.30pm kick off with zero chance of getting home.
I have ranted so many times on this blog about the TV companies and how they do not give a toss about travelling fans. We are the heartbeat of football. and if it was not for us train companies would probably go bust due to the lack of weekend travellers.
That was the common consensus from the majority. And they are right.
But it is also important that we learn from the defeat against Liverpool. And Manchester City. And Chelsea.
At some point we need to move up to the next level. Away from calling it a project; that we are a team in development.
For now, it is fine. We are a team whose target was to compete for top 4. We are in the race.
But if we want to transition from top 4 contenders to title contenders, we need to begin getting results against City, Liverpool and Chelsea.
Those teams comes to Arsenal and do not see it as a “shot to nothing”. They see it as 3 points. Anything less is a failure.
The change won’t happen this season.
Considering how poor we have been and for how long, turning the good ship Arsenal around was always going to take some time.
It feels like we are on the right road. Just at some point we need to find a new gear if we wish to be title challengers.
At the moment we have one of the youngest teams in the league. They were due a capitulation and in the second half at Liverpool it was heads gone.
The game is easy in hindsight.
Mikel Arteta should have probably gone with Kieran Tierney over the inexperienced Nuno Tavares – especially against Mo Salah who is probably the best player on the world right now.
Likewise we probably should have flooded the midfield. Played Ainsley Maitland-Niles ahead Alex Lacazette matching up Liverpool’s midfield 3; with Maitland-Niles also providing extra cover in that wide position against Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
As it was Tavares was exposed on the left and we were over run in midfield. Thomas Partey and Albert Sambi-Lokonga provided no cover and no out ball.
But then had we made those changes and lost Arteta would have been criticised for changing a winning team.
We move on with Newcastle at home up next before trips to Everton and Manchester United.
Whilst a trip to Liverpool at the moment is a shot to nothing, we need to be returning to the north-west expecting wins in the coming weeks.
5th in the table after 13 games. I am happy. We dust ourselves down and move on.
Keenos
New beer mats Bottle openers New beer mat prints Bar runners
Anfield Stadium, Anfield Road, Anfield, Liverpool L4 0TH
Saturday, 20th November 2021. Kick-off time: 5.30pm
(4-4-1-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, Nuno Tavares; Bukayo Saka, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith-Rowe; Alexandre Lacazette; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Bernd Leno; Kieran Tierney, Martin Ødegaard, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Rob Holding, Cédric Soares, Nicolas Pépé, Mohamed Elneny, Gabriel Martinelli.
Yellow Cards: Mikel Arteta
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 37%
Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett
Fourth Official: Andy Madley
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Chris Kavanagh; AVAR Sian Massey-Ellis
Attendance: 53,394
And so it’s that time again, Liverpool at Anfield, with all that heaven will allow. The history is one thing; the here and now is another, of course. Today will be a perfect test for our boys, in as much that we will be able to gauge just how far we have come under Mikel Arteta, using this successful Liverpool team as our benchmark for future progression in all competitions. Remember, we remain unbeaten in the Premier League since the Manchester City debacle at the Etihad Stadium on 28th August, which is nine matches ago of course, and it will be very interesting to see if we can continue this successful run at the Anfield Stadum this afternoon.
The home side kicked the contest off, and immediately both sets of players showed their competitive edge. Using our tried and trusted 4-4-1-1 formation, it all started to look very solid at the back despite early pressure from Liverpool, who passed the ball around confidently, moving out into midfield from the back. We played some interesting movements down the wings, with Bukayo Saka looking impressive, firing balls over into the centre of the penalty area for our strikers to capitalise on. It is becoming obvious that there are lots of little battles all over the pitch between various players that will start to unfold more as the match wears on, and both sides are just looking for natural gaps in the play to exploit. Takehiro Tomiyasu crossed a superb ball from the right wing after sixteen minutes for Bukayo Saka to get his head to, but sadly Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got there first to clear the danger. Arsenal are playing some good, precise football, finding our players well and advancing into the Liverpool half with some urgency; we also need to get Thomas Partey and Emile Smith-Rowe into this match as soon as possible, as they are crucial to our success today. Ben White and Gabriel look solid at the back, confidently clearing Liverpool attacks as they materialise. Just before the half hour mark, Aaron Ramsdale made a superb save from both Thiago and Sadio Mané from close range to deny the home side a certain goal; a minute later, Alexandre Lacazette did get the ball into the net at the other end, but the goal was chalked off for offside. Then, emotions got the better of the two managers after a somewhat innocuous tackle, which resulted in both of them receiving a yellow card from Michael Oliver! And again, just ten minutes before the break, Aaron Ramsdale made an incredible point-blank save from Mo Salah, which amazed everyone in the stadium. The game became really exciting end-to-end stuff now, with no quarter given nor taken by both teams. Unfortunately, just six minutes before half-time, we went one down when a Trent Alexander-Arnold free-kick found Sadio Mané, whose header beat Aaron Ramsdale from six yards, despite getting a hand to the ball during its goalbound flight. A couple of minutes later, Albert Sambi Lokonga fired in a low shot from long range which was saved by Alisson, and although the match started to level out, we went into the break one down, unfortunately.
Arsenal got the second half underway, and almost immediately we brought the match to the home side when a superb through ball by Emile Smith-Rowe found Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who although was tackled by Virgil van Dijk, was sadly offside. Playing out from the back has its dangers, and losing possession is just one issue; we were fortunate not to be punished by Trent Alexander-Arnold, but fortunately Aaron Ramsdale recovered just in time to defend his goal successfully. A period of Liverpool pressure sadly led to Diego Jota walking around a couple of our defenders (after a pass by Nuno Tavares which went astray), and eventually Aaron Ramsdale to score the second goal of the day after fifty-two minutes. Directly afterwards, Albert Sambi Lokonga was replaced by Ainsley Maitland-Niles in order to shore things up better at the back. It didn’t work, as Liverpool started to overrun us constantly, chipping away and wearing us down; after Alexandre Lacazette was replaced by Martin Ødegaard, following wave upon wave of attacks on our defence, Mo Salah scored the third with a simple tap-in after seventy-three minutes. A few minutes later, the game was completely put out of our reach when Takumi Minamino scored the fourth Liverpool goal, with again, a tap-in from close range. An ineffective Thomas Partey was replaced by Mohamed Elneny, and our game became simply one of containment now. The home side seemed to be content with mere possession and a pattern of denial towards ourselves, and with nothing more to do with this Saturday night game, the match desecnded into a disappointing defeat for us.
Yes, this was a disappointing result, and with only thirty-seven percent possession, the scoreline was truly horrible; but please let’s get all this into context. We competed as best as we could, and after all, we are still a young team who are growing and learning as we go from match to match. Today’s opponents show the standard that we must aspire to, and given time, we will; but it is still to be remembered that we not only have had an excellent unbeaten run in the Premiership up until now, but we are still fifth in the Premiership table tonight, which is great. This was Liverpool after all, and they are utterly ruthless, so to walk away from Anfield having only been one down at half time, was heartening to see; although we fell apart in a fifteen minute spell in the second half, we shall take this on board for future reference. It’s not the end of the world, we shall return. Fingers burned, lessons learned.
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 the Emirates on Saturday, 27th November at 12.30pm (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.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 