Match Report: Arsenal 0 – 1 Leicester City

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Arsenal (0) 0 Leicester City (0) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 25th October 2020. Kick-off time: 7.15pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, David Luiz, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Dani Ceballos, Granit Xhaka; Thomas Partey, Bukayo Saka, Alexandre Lacazette; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Alex Rúnarsson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nicolas Pépé, Shkodran Mustafi, Mohamed Elneny, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah.

Yellow Cards: Hector Bellerin, Alexandre Lacazette, Granit Xhaka

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 57%

Referee: Craig Pawson

Assistant Referees: Ian Hussin, Harry Lennard

Fourth Official: Graham Scott

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Paul Tierney; AVAR Stephen Child

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

The omens are good today; we are unbeaten in our previous twenty-seven home games against Leicester City in all competitions, and of those, we have been victorious in twenty of them. Good to see Thomas Partey in the starting line-up for his first game in the Premiership here at the Emirates tonight, and after his excellent performance against Rapid Vienna three days ago, it will be interesting to see his impact on the match tonight. Let’s go!

A very exciting start for both teams! Within two minutes Bernd Leno was called into action, when his poor clearance fell to the feet of James Maddison, who struck a left-footed shot from about thirty-five yards which went just wide of the post. We snapped back into the action merely minutes later when our first corner of the game saw Alexandre Lacazette flick a header into the visitors’ net, which was cancelled out because Granit Xhaka was in an offside position (apparently). This merely strenghened our resolve, and over the next few minutes, David Luiz, Bukayo Saka and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were all unlucky in not opening the scoring for us, thanks mainly to the goalkeeping prowess of Kasper Schmeichel, particularly in the case of the latter. Both Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney were playing exceptionally well in this period of the game, providing superb balls into the Leicester City penalty area for our strikers to run on to. On the half hour, a pass from David Luiz to Keiran Tierney saw the young Scotsman provide an excellent cross for Alexandre Lacazette to head the ball narrowly wide, which to be fair, should have been the opening goal. We continued to press the Foxes back into their own half, and again Alexandre Lacazette was desperately unlucky not to score when young Bukayo Saka’s clever flick-on saw the Frenchman shoot narrowly wide. As half-time beckoned, we were extremely confident and comfortable on (and off the ball, too); so much so that it seemed to be just a matter of time before we scored a goal.

And so, the second half started in earnest with Arsenal pushing the Foxes back into their own half. Unfortunately, David Luiz fell to the ground with an thigh injury and was unable to continue playing, so Shkodran Mustafi replaced him just five minutes after the restart. Bukayo Saka was brutally brought down by Wesley Fofana, and the subsequent free kick became a wasted effort. The visitors started to come back into the match, and audaciously, James Maddison spotted Bernd Leno off his line and tried his luck with a long-range shot, but thankfully our goalkeeper saw the danger as it happened and safely collected the ball. As the visitors’ talisman Jamie Vardy was introduced as a substitute just after the hour, Hector Bellerin was lucky not to receive a second yellow card from referee Craig Pawson when his slide tackle brought down James Justin rather clumsily. Shortly afterwards, Bukayo Saka was replaced by Nicolas Pépé in an effort by Mikel Arteta after sixty-five minutes, to put extra pressure on the Leicester defence, and although Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was unfortunate not to score when a clever ball from Hector Bellerin was picked up easily by Kasper Schmeichel, it was becoming patently obvious that we depserately needed a goal to get something out of this game, which started to level out now, despite the vistors trying to make a decent show of things. And then the unbelievable happened. With just ten minutes left, an inch perfect Youri Tielemans’ cross into our penalty area for who else, but Jamie Vardy to score with a diving header for the Foxes to take the lead. Almost immediately afterwards, Eddie Nketiah replaced Kieran Tierney in order for us to retrieve something from this match with just minutes remaining. Our frustration was becoming evident, as the harder we tried to equalise, the more difficult it became. We had a penalty shout when Eddie Nketiah was flattened in the Foxes’ penalty area, but Craig Pawson brushed away our players’ protests. With five minutes’ injury time, our efforts become more urgent and our frustrations became obvious, when Granit Xhaka got booked for a pointless tackle almost on the final whistle. It all came to nothing anyway a few minutes’ later, as Leicester City took maximum points from the game, their first win here since 1973.

Such a disappointment all round, really. Basically, we fell foul of a very clever game plan by Brendan Rodgers, which saw Leicester City soak up pressure, keep the scores equal and introduce a proven match winner who did the job, unfortunately. As far as we were concerned, it was a real lost opportunity; had we won this match, we would be in the top four tonight, but unfortunately it was not to be. A harsh lesson learned by all here at the Emirates.

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: Dundalk at the Emirates on Thursday 29th October at 8.00pm (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.

Arsenal new boys “best signings in years”

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Over the summer criticism of Edu creeped in as the transfer window rolled on.

The criticism was not unfounded, as Arsenal publicly struggled in their pursuit of Houssem Aouar and only completed the signing of Thomas Partey on the last day of the season.

But praise actually needs to be given for the transfer business we did over the summer. Especially with the recruitment of Thomas Partey and Gabriel.

Arsenal signed Brazilian centre back Gabriel on September 1st for a fee in the region of £24million.

He came with a good reputation in France, having impressed for Lille last season.

But there were questions marks.

Prior to 2019/20, he had a couple of uninspiring loan deals at Troyes before joining Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb, where he made just one league appearance for each club’s senior team.

His statistics, however, held up well.

Whether it was aerial duels, ground duels or passing, he was producing better statistics than anyone at Arsenal. Although this came with the caveat that he was playing in France.

He has taken to English football like a duck to water and should already be considered one of the best central defenders in the league.

When you consider Manchester City and Manchester United have spent so much on central defenders in recent years, and Chelsea had to settle on vetran Thiago Silva, Gabriel feels like a real coup.

Virgil van Dijk aside, it is a struggle to name a better central defender in the league than Gabriel. And at 22 (and with van Dijk out for a year), Gabriel will quickly establish himself as the best in the league.

Thomas Partey was signed on the last day of the transfer window.

We have only seen him for 90 minutes in the Europa League, but he confirmed what we already know about him – that he is a beat of a central midfielder.

A few people expected Partey to replace Granit Xhaka as the midfield anchor. But this would result in Partey losing 50% of his influence.

Just because you are a defensive midfielder, does not mean that your job is to sit in front of the defence.

Take Patrick Vieira for example.

One of the greatest midfielders to have ever played the game, he always played with someone behind him – Emmanuel Petit or Gilberto for Arsenal and Didier Deschamps for France.

That allowed Vieira to press forward, to bully players across the park. If he was the anchor, he would have to be more statics. Cleaning up rather than dominating.

Partey is in a similar mould.

You want the Ghanaian to have the freedom to press opponents regardless of where they are on the pitch.

Against Rapid Wein we saw this.

He would push forward, bullying players, with Mo Elneny playing behind him providing that cover.

Partey’s game is ready made for the Premier League.

In Partey and Gabriel Arsenal have made two big signings. Two players that we have missed for a decade.

A dominant central defender and an equally dominant central midfielder.

They are the men Edu now needs to build the team around for the next 5 years.

We might have finished the transfer window not adding the creativity we craved, but through Edu’s recruitment and Mikel Arteta’s coaching, we now look more defensively solid.

Once a manager has built that solid foundation, he will transition into a more attacking style of play.

Partey and Gabriel are Arsenal’s best signings in years.

We are looking good.

Keenos

Leicester will test how far Arsenal have come under Mikel Arteta

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733 days ago, it felt like the dawn of a new era at Emirates Stadium. Just over two years ago, the Gunners put on a scintillating display to brush Leicester aside and climb into the top four. It was without doubt one of the most memorable matches in Unai Emery’s ill-fated time in charge. Sunday’s repeat of the fixture, two seasons on, could be the catalyst that kickstarts the Mikel Arteta era at Arsenal.

In their first European game of the season, Arsenal made hard work of beating Rapid Vienna. It was a laboured and lethargic victory, the kind which have become common under Arteta, as he seeks to toughen the core of a previously brittle squad. 

The debut of £45 million summer signing Thomas Partey was symbolic of the strength his manager is attempting to instil across the whole team. The Ghanaian won 10 of 13 duels he contested, also completing five tackles. On the ball, he had 102 touches and finished with a passing accuracy of 83%. Partey was purposeful, whilst his team-mates often lacked intent and incisiveness.

Despite an accomplished debut from their new recruit and a win in Vienna, Arsenal still have several issues to fix. Most importantly, they must become more unpredictable and dynamic when in possession. On too many occasions since the start of the season, they have looked passive and pedestrian, struggling to make killer passes into the final third. 

This has led to an over-reliance on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to bail them out of trouble, which he did once again on Thursday. Although the Gabon international is a serial goalscoring threat, he needs help up front. The lack of support he often receives is one of the downfalls of Arteta’s favoured 3-4-3 formation. 

This shape makes Arsenal more difficult to beat defensively(they have conceded the second-fewest goals in the Premier League so far this season) but nullifies aspects of their attacking threat as a consequence. In his first 10 months at the helm, the Spaniard has preferred a more cautious approach, attempting to keep his team in games from first whistle to last. 

This sound and pragmatic philosophy has so far payed off. But, for Arsenal to avoid a repeat of the manner in which they stagnated under Emery, his successor must allow his players to be more adventurous in attack. Arteta did this to great effect in the second half against Rapid Vienna, when he introduced Hector Bellerin. The full-back’s runs down the right flank afforded Nicolas Pepe time and space to take up dangerous attacking positions. When Pepe cut inside, this allowed Bellerin the time to deliver dangerous balls into the penalty area, which resulted in Arsenal’s winner. 

That winner serves as a sign that Arteta is intent on creating a side that will evolve into an attacking machine, if all goes to plan. The first phase of making his Arsenal team tougherlooks to have been completed. Now comes the next phase of crafting a squad that attacks with ruthlessness and scores for fun. 

For that, there is no better place to start than going toe to toe with a high-flying Leicester, who sit above the Gunners on goal difference. In a clash of great importance for both sides, a convincing win could be one that signals the arrival of Arteta’s Arsenal.

Zac Campbell