Arsenal playing with the handbrake on, but Mikel Arteta is the man to get us into top gear

2 Replies

November has been a peculiar month for Arsenal. It started with what felt like a landmark victory at Old Trafford, the Gunners’ first league win there in 14 years and it has rather stalled since.

Rather than showing definitive progress in the games that followed, Mikel Arteta’s men have struggled to shake off the inconsistency that has been a hallmark of their 2020/21 season so far, demonstrated by a record of four wins, four defeats and a draw from their first nine Premier League matches.

It would be all too easy to take a pessimistic view of the Gunners’ last game. A 0-0 draw to a newly promoted team never looks like a satisfactory score line, particularly when Leeds amassed 25 shots on goal.

However, when you factor in Arsenal’s away record against last season’s promoted clubs (Sheffield United, L, 0-1. Norwich City D, 2-2. Aston Villa, L, 0-1) and that they played the majority of the second half with ten men following Nicolas Pépé’s red card, Arteta deserves credit for being able to secure a point.

The next three matches are of pivotal importance to Arsenal, presenting a great opportunity for Arteta to gain some much-needed momentum.

Qualification as winners of Group B in the Europa League could be secured with a win at Molde on Thursday. A handsome win against Wolves on Sunday could propel Arsenal to as high as sixth before the all-important North London derby on 5 December.

Tottenham have two successive London derbies, playing Chelsea before the visit of Arsenal. Although Spurs currently sit top of the table, if they were to lose their next two league games and Arsenal were to win both of theirs, the gap between the two teams would close to just one point.

Needless to say, the next ten days could be an extremely important period, not just in the context of Arsenal’s season but in Arteta’s reign as Arsenal manager.

There is good reason to believe the Spaniard can turn things around once again. Not only did he resurrect a team that was buried in the rubble to the heights of FA Cup winners, but he has ensured that his Arsenal team will not be easy to beat.

At this stage last year, Unai Emery had overseen his last Premier League game, a 2-2 draw at home to then-19th placed Southampton, who had just been thrashed 9-0 by Leicester. Arsenal were closer to the relegation zone than the top four, already a staggering 19 points behind eventual champions Liverpool.

Freddie Ljungberg was then appointed as caretaker manager, a role which he fulfilled for almost a month, before Arteta took over.

He has since laid the foundations for future success by building a solid base. Bernd Leno continues to prove himself as one of the Premier League’s best goalkeepers, whilst Gabriel has added some much-needed steel in defence.

A pressing priority for Arteta is to get Arsenal scoring again. Although his team have looked stout and secure for the most part, they have failed to blow teams away in attack, not scoring more than twice in the Premier League since the opening day of the season.

Football fans are a fickle bunch and those currently calling for Arteta’s head will be singing his name from the rooftops in just under two weeks if he can lead Arsenal to three successive victories.

Despite recent results suggesting otherwise, there should be little doubt amongst the Arsenal faithful that Arteta is the man to lead the club forward.

Zac Campbell

https://twitter.com/SheWore/status/1323342832623587328

Up to 4,000 fans at sporting events is not much of a positive step forward

1 Reply

Morning all.

So some positive news last night with regards to fans returning to games as it was announced 4,000 fans could attend sporting events in lower restriction area (or 2,000 if you are under Tier 2).

But how positive actually is it?

London went into Tier 3 lockdown just before the whole country plunged into stricter nationwide restrictions. It is highly unlikely that it will be taken straight out of current restrictions and placed into the lowest.

The best we can hope for is Tier 2, which will allow 2,000 fans into grounds. The likelihood, however, is that London will be in Tier 3 from 2nd December – which would result in no fans being in grounds.

2,000 fans at the Emirates Stadium will not really be worth it.

I have been to youth games in the ground with just a couple of thousand fans and it does feel a barren wasteland.

At the youth games there are usually a few hundred away fans so at least there is a small atmosphere as we tend to drift towards those blocks nearest them.

If the fans are spread throughout the lower tier, the ground will feel a cold, silent place.

I am also baffled why it is only 2,000 (or 4,000).

Arsenal’s ground is 60,000 capacity. Leyton Orient’s Brisbane Road is 9,000. Both would have a capacity of 4,000 under the lowest restrictions.

Some clubs have also said they will actually lose money by opening up their grounds for just 2,000-4,000 fans, questioning whether they will decide to keep them shut until restrictions are further lifted.

And what for fans travelling from Tier 3 areas into Tier 2 or 1? Would they be allowed to go to games? Or would clubs have to exclude them?

Around 15,000 Arsenal fans opted-in to the ballot for tickets under restrictions, but with fans having an opt-out option when it comes to buying the tickets, many will probably make the decision to pass on their tickets until capacity rises.

So whilst the news is a step forward, it perhaps is not a big enough step forward.

In other Arsenal news, the club had to release a statement yesterday following abuse directed at Nicolas Pepe and Ezgjan Alioski.

We have spoken time and again about the cesspit of social media, and mainly Twitter.

Twitter allows people to open accounts under the cloak of anonymity which allows them to abuse others. People boast about having “burner accounts” that they use to abuse others.

Looking through a lot of the accounts throwing out abuse, the majority look to be children and fans from foreign shores. People whose brains have not evolved enough to understand that this abuse is wrong. They believe this abuse is “banter”.

Racial abuse, death threats, posting addresses, etc is no banter.

The problem is clubs can not do much about it.

They can try and track the person down, and if they have a membership cancel it. But that is a pointless act if they are a 14 year old from Croydon or some grown man from Nigeria.

It is Twitter that really need to act but only allowing people to open an account using government issued ID.

It reminds me of the film Nerve.

People are brave when they are hiding behind anonymity, thinking that no one can touch them, find them, know who they are. Once that anonymity drops, they attitude changes immediately.

Would these people really be sending the abuse they do if their loved ones, their parents, wife or children or colleagues could see what they were saying? The answer is no.

There is less abuse on Facebook and Instagram than Twitter and YouTube because it is not as easy to be anonymous.

Have a good Tuesday.

Keenos

Match Report: Leeds United 0 – 0 Arsenal

Leave a reply

Leeds United (0) 0 Arsenal (0) 0

Premier League

Elland Road, Beeston, Leeds LS11 0ES

Sunday, 22nd November 2020. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-3-3) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Dani Ceballos, Granit Xhaka, Joe Willock; Nicolas Pépé, Willian Borges da Silva, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Bukayo Saka, Alexandre Lacazette, Alex Rúnarsson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Shkodran Mustafi, Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah.

Red Cards: Nicolas Pépé

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 34%

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Assistant Referees: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn

Fourth Official: Peter Bankes

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Stuart Attwell; AVAR Neil Davies

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

For today’s match in West Yorkshire, we will be without Sead Kolašinac and Mohamed Elneny as they have returned positive coronavirus tests whilst on international duty; additionally, Thomas Partey is unavailable because of a thigh injury, and as we have lost three of our previous four Premier League games (as many as in Arsenal’s previous twelve top-flight matches), this afternoon’s match is a “must-win” Let’s go!

The home side had the best of the early exchanges, with our midfield struggling to get a rhythm going. Our first attempt came just after nine minutes, when some quick passing and movement off the ball saw Dani Ceballos cut in from the right hand side to fire a shot towards the Leeds United goal which went narrowly wide. A wasted free kick by Willian led to our first corner of the match, which was easily dealt with by the home side, who were in the ascendancy in the first twenty minutes of the game. Was it a cross, or was it a shot? A Nicolas Pépé effort from the left bounced teasingly from the top of the Leeds United crossbar and back into play, and at last we started to look like we were getting into this match. Two poor efforts followed, another Dani Ceballos free-kick and a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang shot that really should have hit the target, and a few minutes later, a superb long ball through the middle of the park found Willian on a one-to-one with goalkeeper Illan Meslier, who quickly flew out of his goal to clear the ball away. On the half hour, Bernd Leno’s quick reactions denied Patrick Bamford a surefire scoring chance, and the home side started to apply more pressure on our defence, and yet again, we were fortunate not to be one-down when a powerful Stuart Dallas shot went inches wide of Bernd Leno’s post. Every time we won the ball and move forward, the player was dispossessed and as such, we were forced back deep into our own half. Shot after shot rained down onto Bernd Leno’s goal, and it has to be said that the home side’s poor shooting abilities were the only thing that stopped us going into the break in the negative situation.

For the second half, Reiss Nelson replaced Willian, and we certainly started the this half better than we ended the first. Then the wheels came off. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Nicolas Pépé head-butted Ezgjan Alioski off the ball in retaliation for a previous incident; referee Anthony Taylor stopped the game, consulted VAR, and it was no surprise to anyone viewing the match that we were down to ten men just six minutes after the restart. Ho hum. After a bit of an adjustment to accommodate the dismissal, with Joe Willock making way for Bukayo Saka, we even managed to get our first shot on target from the trusty right foot of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang a few minutes’ later, in which he was unlucky not to score. The home side started to apply more pressure on us, and although we managed to breakout to try to score, Leeds United came back at us even harder now. To be fair, although we were down to ten men, we still continued to create good chances. With fifteen minutes left on the clock, a Granit Xhaka free-kick from twenty-five yards sailed over the Leeds United bar, and with both sets of players sensing that time was against them, the game now became more frenetic than ever, with reckless tackles flying in. Patrick Bamford hit the post with a header, but somehow, we started to look more organised than we had done before, and when a Rodrigo shot cannoned off the crossbaar, we felt that our luck could be in. With five minutes left of the match, a pinpoint pass by Héctor Bellerín sent Bukayo Saka clean through and as he tried to go around goalkeeper Illan Meslier, the Leeds man blocked both the ball and the player to deny the Arsenal forward his chance to score. A few minutes’ later, Bukayo Saka came out of a heavy tackle limping, and was replaced swiftly by Ainsley Maitland-Niles for the injury time period. Almost with the final kick of the game, Leeds United hit the woodwork a third time with a strong shot by Raphinha just before the final whistle, and somehow, this game in West Yorkshire finished honours even this evening.

All in all, to come away from Elland Road with a point on a day such as this, is no disgrace. There were times in this match that it looked like we were going to get badly punished, but thankfully it never happened, thanks mainly to the superb performance by Bernd Leno (despite the Nicolas Pépé sending-off early in the second half). Although we struggled to create many worthwhile chances in this match, we hung on to grab the point, when at times, things looked decidedly iffy, to say the least. With thirty-four percent possession and two shots on target, we got out of jail this time.

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: Molde FK at Aker Stadium on Thursday, 26th November at 5.55pm (Europa 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.