Last nights victory does not make up for limping out of the FA Cup in the manner we did on Saturday.
But our victory over Southampton was our best performance of the system.
The high press. The high energy. Attacking threat on both flanks and through the middle. Willing runners. And a 3-1 victory.
The 3-1 win over Southampton was our 5th win in 6 Premier League games, starting with THAT win over Chelsea.
We have rocketed up the table, now in 8th.
Just 4 points behind last years champions Liverpool, 5 points off a Champions League place.
It has been a tough old season but the recovery is happening.
Our January form of 3 wins, 1 draw is only bettered by West Ham (4 wins from 4) and Manchester City (5 wins from 5).
If anyone doubts the improvements made under Mikel Arteta since Unai Emery left, you only have to look at the league table 20 games in this year against last year:
It really highlights just how poor we were last season in comparison to this – despite our poor run of form under Mikel Arteta.
30 points from 20 games is still not good enough, and still a long way behind where we were at this stage in the 3 previous seasons prior to last. But the progress is clear.
What is impressive is that goals against column. Just 20 conceded.
Great teams are always built on a strong defence and Arsenal have the 4th best defensive record in the Premier League.
We all know our problems are at the other end of the field, in attack.
14 goals in the last 6 games shows we are improving at that end of the pitch as well.
What sums up our improvement is the picture of Nicolas Pepe’s goal last night.
When the Ivorian slotted in, there were 3 players in the box that he could have squared to for a tap in. I have not seen Arsenal flood the box like this for some time.
We are seeing improvements on the pitch, and those improvements are translating into points on the table.
Whilst 4th place would not make up for the way we exited the FA Cup, we would show the huge steps forward made under Arteta.
Taking into account that run of games where we could not win, even top 6would show solid improvement.
There is still a long way to go but for now, in the short term at least, it feels like we are moving forward.
St. Mary’s Stadium, Britannia Road, Southampton SO14 5FP
Tuesday, 26th January 2021. Kick-off time: 8.15pm
(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, David Luiz, Cédric Soares; Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Nicolas Pépé, Emile Smith-Rowe, Bukayo Saka; Alexandre Lacazette.
Substitutes: Gabriel Magalhães, Willian Borges da Silva, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Calum Chambers, Mohamed Elneny, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah, Mat Ryan, Gabriel Martinelli.
Scorers: Nicolas Pépé (8 mins), Bukayo Saka (38 mins), Alexandre Lacazette (72 mins)
Yellow Cards: Hector Bellerin, Nicolas Pépé
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 42%
Referee: Kevin Friend
Assistant Referees: Simon Beck, Eddie Smart
Fourth Official: Keith Stroud
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Robert Jones; AVAR Stephen Child
Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions
Look, it’s like this. Forget last Saturday’s debacle on this very ground in the FA Cup, just concentrate on tonight. Three points for either team will take them into eighth position in the Premiership, nothing else will do. We just have to ensure that it is us that are victorious tonight, in order to go into the Manchester United match at the Emirates on Saturday afternoon in a positive frame of mind. We do not want to start slipping back into those nasty habits that saw us hovering around the bottom half-dozen teams in the Premiership table before Christmas, and as we well know from bitter recent experience, with three points for a win, this system can be a good friend, but a harsh mistress. Let’s go!
Within a minute of the start, Alexandre Lacazette pounced on a mistake by the Southampton defence, and although he was certain to score, goalkeeper Alex McCarthy smothered the shot. Unbelievably, just two minutes later, a Southampton corner went to Stuart Armstrong, who made no mistake in scoring with a strong shot from just inside our penalty area. Not wishing to let the grass grow under our feet, five minutes later, an inch-perfect ball from Bukayo Saka (via Thomas Partey) between two Southampton defenders found Nicolas Pépé, who slotted it easily past Alex McCarthy to equalise the scores. Now we have a match! We started to take the game to Southampton now, with firm tackling and accurate passing, we looked unafraid to take chances on scoring more goals, with a snap shot from Cédric Soares going narrowly wide. Both sides were unlucky in not adding to their goal tally over the next ten minutes or so, with spirited chances denied by both goalkeepers, who were having a good game so far, and this was the cue for young Emile Smith-Rowe to take part in the action with clever passing and positioning in order to receive potential match-winning chances. By the half hour mark, the game started to become more dogged, with occasional breaks coming from both teams, trying to find a route through each other’s respeetive midfields. Arsenal started to have the edge here tonight, as evey time a Saints player had the ball, two of our men are present, and having won the ball, look for a goal-scoring opportunity, Six minutes before the break, Bukayo Saka ran onto a Alexandre Lacazette ball, and as Alex McCarthy comes out to challenge him, he went around the hapless goalie, kept his balance and neatly slotted it into the net to give us the lead here tonight. A couple of minutes before half-time, Alexandre Lacazette had a penalty appeal turned down (double-checked by VAR) after an incident in the Southampton penalty area, and despite the home side putting us under a bit of pressure during the two minutes’ injury time, we went into the break deservedly in the lead.
We started the second half in earnest, with no changes made by Mikel Arteta. Both sides came out of the break absolutely flying; Bernd Leno superbly saved a strong shot from Theo Walcott, and by now strong tackles became the order of the day in the south coast rain tonight. Emile Smith-Rowe (who appears to have a free role in the second half) was unlucky when confronted with a one-on-one situation with the Saints goalie, but unfortunately his clever shot had no power, and it was easily cleared by a defender. A little while later, Hector Bellerin fired a dangerous ball across the face of the goal but Nicolas Pépé could not quite divert it goalwards from the near post. Just after the hour, Cédric Soares passed a superb 30-yard ball into the path of Bukayo Saka, but his spirited attempt went wide of the goal. The home side put us under pressure, and for a while we struggled to get out of our own half, and on a couple of occasions, the safe hands of Bernd Leno stopped the home side from equalising. With twenty minutes remaining, an injured Emile Smith-Rowe made way for Willian (after a mix-up that saw Nicolas Pépé get an undeserved yellow card for not hurrying off when asked to, which was bizarre to say the least), and less than a couple of minutes later, Cédric Soares passed an incredible 30-yard diagonal ball over to Bukayo Saka, who teed up Alexandre Lacazette with a first-time cross and he simply slotted it into the net from a yard out at the back post. An injured Thomas Partey was replaced by Mohamed Elneny with twelve minutes of the match remaining, and with the confidence that a two-goal cushion can give you, we consolidated and stayed solid, especially when David Luiz lost concentration, and Bernd Leno went down at the feet of Che Adams to save the day, as he did again a few minutes later, from a James Ward-Prowse free-kick that looked like it was heading goalbound when he acrobatically pushed the ball away past the incoming menace of Ibrahima Diallo. Amazing stuff. And still we kept on coming. In the five minutes’ injury time, Nicolas Pépé made way for Joe Willock, and if anything, our desire for victory became stronger. We managed to hold out to win despite a late rally for Southampton, but it was too little, too late for them, as we ran out deserved three-one winners here at St. Mary’s tonight.
Not only was that a well-deserved win for the chaps here at Southampton, but this was a third away win on the bounce for us. Some performances were truly inspiring tonight, particularly Bernd Leno, who kept us in the match on several occasions. and Cédric Soares, whose long-range passing was truly amazing. Alexandre Lacazette worked hard for the win, as did Bukayo Saka, who scored an incredible second goal. Certainly a superb performance (with a different line-up) tonight, one that takes us to eighth in the league. Well done, lads.
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 United at the Emirates on Saturday, 30th January at 5.30pm (Premier League). 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.
Martin Ødegaard (herewith known as Martin Odergaard) is a talented youngster.
Still just 22-years-old, it seems a life time ago that Real Madrid signed the Norwegian midfielder who made his league debut at just 15-years-old.
He went off the radar for a bit whilst he grew from boy to man, loaned out to Heerenveen and Vitesse in Holland.
Last season was a break through season for him as he was one of Real Sociedad’s best players (on loan again) as the Spanish side finished 6th – their highest finish since 2013.
A technically gifted 10, he will provide Arsenal with some extra creativity.
“Do not want to see Willian and Pepe on the pitch together again” was tweeted by many following Arsenal’s limp display as we exited the FA Cup against Southampton.
The signing of Odergaard should ensure that happens.
Whilst we can argue whether Mikel Arteta should have rested Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka for the FA Cup game or tomorrow nights league game against the same opposition, there should be no argument that the young pair need to be protected.
The issue for Arteta is once the decision is made to rest both, he had very few options beyond playing Pepe and Willian together – especially after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s late withdrawal for personal reasons.
With Reiss Nelson injured again (it is time to give up on him), it left Arteta with the choice of Gabriel Martinelli, Willian, Pepe, Joe Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
‘In hindsight, he should have gone with Willock and Maitland-Niles. But that would have signalled the end of Willian and Pepe’s career at Arsenal.
With Smith Rowe’s development and Martinelli’s return to fitness, Odergaard joining should push Pepe and Willian down to 6th and 7th choice behind: Aubameyang, Odergaard, Saka, Martinelli & Smith Rowe.
The Bad
With no option to buy, Odergaard is yet another short term recruit.
We have wasted a lot of money in the last couple of years on short term recruits.
It started with the signing of Stephan Lichtsteiner for free in 2018. The Swiss right back was followed by Denis Suarez on loan the next January.
Summer 2019 saw us make the shock move for David Luiz, with Dani Ceballos also joining on loan.
This summer saw Willian join the club.
Whilst the likes of Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares also joined on loan; they both joined with agreements in place to make their stay long term.
Lichtsteiner, Suarez, Luiz, Ceballos and Willian were always short term recruits. Whether with the next 6 months or next 2 years in mind. None were signed with an eye on the long term.
A couple of individual performances by Luiz and Ceballos aside, Arsenal would be no worse off had we not signed the 5.
The concern with Odergaard is by the time he has caught up to the pace of English football and got match fit (he has not started a game since 1st December), his loan will be over.
Hopefully I am proven wrong, he hits the ground running and Arsenal sign him permanently in the summer. But for now it feels like another sticking plaster. Another short term option to a long term problem.
The Ugly
Nicolas Pepe cost the club £72million. Willian signed a 3 year deal on a repored £200,000 a week.
Pepe’s transfer fee and Willian’s wages will cost the club over £100million. Can chuck in another £30million in Pepe’s wages.
The pair are costing us around £40million a year in amortised transfer fee and wages. And are now 6th and 7th choice.
From Pepe to Willian, Luiz, Lichtsteiner & Suarez. Mesut Ozil’s new deal, swapping Alexis Sanchez for Mkhitaryan. Not getting a fee for Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck or Jack Wilshere. Raising about £15million for Wojech Szczesny and Serge Gnabry
It is digusting to think about how much money we have wasted in poor signings and contracts, how much money we have lost in losing players on a free and underselling players.
£15million and Mkhitaryan for Ozil, Sanchez, Ramsey, Welbeck, Wilshire, Szczesny, Gnabry and Mkhitaryan. Ugly.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 