Makeshift defence results in Arsenal unbeaten run coming to an end

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Throughout Arsenal’s 22 game unbeaten run, most of us were honest with ourselves. We could see the side had flaws. There were games within the run that we should not have won. We were perhaps not as good as being 22 unbeaten would have indicated.

But we were 22 unbeaten, and we have to remember that after the defeat to Southampton.

The defeat on the south-coast we a reality check to some fans. It showed just how far we currently are from Liverpool and Manchester City – just like Chelsea losing to Wolves a couple of weeks ago shows how far away from the top they are.

Before the season, most of us agreed that we were someway behind Liverpool and Manchester City.

City have spent a billion pound collecting some of the worlds best (and best paid) players; whilst Liverpool are in the 4th season of the Jurgen Klopp Project.

And that is where we have to think realistically.

Klopp is in his 4th season at Liverpool
Mauricio Pochettino in his 5th season at Tottenham

It was always going to take some time to undo the weak squad and poor transfers that haunted the back end of the Wenger era. We are 6 months into the Unai Emery era. Are some fans unreasonable to be expecting us to be competing with Liverpool? Definitely.

With Sven Mislintat, Emery and Raul Sanhelli, I am confident in the direction the club is going, but we have to remember it is going to take time.

Take Klopp at Liverpool. It has taken him into his 4th season to build a team capable of finishing above 4th, whilst for all the hype around Pochettino and Spurs, they have won nothing in his 5 years in charge.

My feeling was it would take £300m and 6 transfer windows to fix Arsenal.

Under Mislintat, we have had two of those windows and seen us sign the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Lucas Torreira and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The likes of Matteo Guendouzi and Kostadinos Mavropanos have been exciting young recruits.

But we do not have £300m sitting in our pockets ready to spend in a single window. Arsenal fans who expect (and moan that he has not) Stan Kroenke to be pumping in billions of pounds are completely unrealistic.

It is going to be a slow process to return Arsenal to the top. Just like it has been slow progress at Liverpool. You need to buy well, coach well, and sell well.

Arsenal still have many players from the Wenger-era who are not really good enough if we want to compete at the top. The likes of Mohamed Elneny, Shkodran Mustafi, Saed Kolasinac and Danny Welbeck.

We will improve again in January and improve once more next summer. We still need a new centre back, a left back and at least one winger. I expect these to come in over the next 2 transfer windows; and we move forward again.

On the defeat to Southampton, some have complained about the state of the defence.

We had 3 central defenders out injured. Our only “fit” centre back was clearly off the pace having not played a Premier League game in 10 months.

At left back, we had a casualty just before kick off with Saed Kolasinac pulling out injured. This meant Nacho Monreal – returning after 2 months out – shifted to left back and saw a makeshift defence of Kosciekny, Granit Xhaka and Stephan Lichtsteiner.

During the game we lost Hector Bellerin ad half time and Lichsteiner half-way through the second half. The back 4 that finished the game contained just 2 defenders who were making their first Premier League starts after long lay offs.

The defence does not improving, and it will improve, but against Southampton the injuries and suspensions just caught up on us.

The only side in the league who could have coped with the amount of missing men we had at the back would have been Manchester City – and they have spent over £300m on defenders.

We are closing in on half way through the season. I write this whilst the Manchester United v Liverpool game is on. We are 10 points off top and in the race for 3rd.

Emery’s Arsenal record reads: P 25 W 17 D 5 L 3

We are a club on an upwards trajectory. We are moving forward. But we are perhaps not advanced as what some think, or demand.

The world is currently a reactionary place. Things are either brilliant or awful. There seems to be no in between. We live in a fast food culture where we want same day delivery, short attention spans and little patience.

Arsenal are certainly not awful, and we are not brilliant. But as long as we support the likes of Emery, Mislintat and Sanllehi, we will become brilliant once more. Just as Liverpool have done under Klopp (but hopefully we will actually win trophies).

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Keenos

Arsenal graduate XI see Arsenal to 22 unbeaten

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When Arsenal fell into the Europa League last season, I saw it is an opportunity. It gave Arsene Wenger a chance to give Arsenal’s talented youngsters a first team run out beyond the League Cup.

This season we have seen a lot of youngsters get their chance in the competition; and it shows an exciting future for Arsenal.

Last night Buyako Saka was the star of the show.

Barely 17-years-old, the talented Englishman was Man of the Match against Qarabag. He showed pace, power, skill and excellent technical ability. He would have been disappointed not to score.

Qarabag resorted to fouling the youngster. He was unstoppable.

Saka was not the only youngster to impress.

Eddie Nketiah did a solid job out wide as he showed just why Arsenal were willing to lose Danny Welbeck on a free.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles continued his return from a broken leg and showed his versatility. Capable of playing at full back, central midfield and on the wings, he has a bright future for both Arsenal and England.

At 6 4, 18 year old Zech Medley has all the physical attributes to make it. A left footed ball playing centre back, we will be seeing a lot more of him in the future.

Finally Joe Willock continued his transition into a box to box midfielder. With Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka, Matteo Guendouzi and Maitland-Niles; Willock offers something different in the middle of the park. You can perhaps see a case for letting Mohamed Elneny leave in the summer, and promoting Willock to 5th choice central midfielder.

This season has seen Emery give a lot of game time to academy graduates.

Alongside the above, we have also seen Emile Smith Rowe, Charlie Gilmour & Julio Pleguezuelo get game time this season, alongside senior graduates Hector Bellerin, Alex Iwobi and Emiliano Martinez.

https://twitter.com/keenosafc/status/1073333248565092358?s=21

You can actually make an XI out of the academy graduates to have taken the field for Arsenal this season.

Martinez

Bellerin Pleguezuelo Medley AMN

Gilmour Willock

ESR Iwobi Saka

Nketiah

22 unbeaten and on to the next round…

Keenos

https://twitter.com/shewore/status/1069627145981435904?s=21

Match Report: Arsenal 1 – 0 Qarabag

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Arsenal (1) 1 Qarabağ FK (0) 0
UEFA Europa League, Group E, Matchday 6 of 6
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Thursday, 13th December 2018. Kick-off time: 8.00pm
(4-2-3-1) Martínez; Jenkinson, Sokratis, Koscielny, Maitland-Niles; Elneny, Willock; Nketiah, Özil, Saka; Lacazette
Substitutes: Mkhitaryan, Monreal, Guendouzi, Gilmour, Iliev, Medley, John-Jules
Scorers: Lacazette
Referee: Jens Maae (Denmark)
Attendance: 21,500
Our final match in the group stages of the Europa League means that we play the unfortunate Qarabağ FK, who will not only finish bottom of Group E, but are currently at the time of writing second in the Azerbaijan Premier League, five points behind the leaders, Neftçi Baku. If this continues, it means that Qarabağ FK will qualify for the Europa League first qualifying round next season. Their main goalscorer, Mahir Madatov, has bagged six goals this season in their domestic league; we hope that he hasn’t got his shooting boots on this evening, as we would dearly like a repeat score of the 4th October match, when we finished the match as 3-0 winners at the Baku Olympic Stadium.

Tonight we welcome the return of club captain Laurent Koscielny after injury in a team that is basically a reserve side for this, the final match in Group E. Anyway, the game got off to a pace not far short to that of a mid-season testimonial with passing and tackling certainly reflecting that type of occasion in the first ten minutes or so of the match. Having said that, credit where credit’s due, Mr. Emery is certainly not going to risk too many of his top stars in this match, but however, in the sixteenth minute, some clever play from the seemingly forgotten Mesut Özil led to our first goal. Alexandre Lacazette run on to the midfielder’s incisive through ball, and after some adjustment to poor defensive tackling from the visitors, a sweet right-footed shot from the Frenchman easily found the back of the net with no trouble whatsoever. You have to hand it to Mesut Özil, he was certainly showing the young lads tonight how to play in a top team at this level with some superb off the ball running, pulling the opposing defenders out of position time and time again. Of course there’s nothing like a goal to install confidence in a side, and now suddenly everyone started to move up a gear with better passing, movements on and off the ball, and it has to be said that it was also good to see players taking chances with strong shooting from outside the Qarabağ box. For the rest of the first half, Arsenal were in control throughout, with some very impressive play by Eddie Nketiah along with Carl Jenkinson making his presence felt on the right flank at last, moving forward with confidence and strength.

The second half saw Arsenal assert themselves more in midfield, taking advantage of some poor decisions by the visitors. Never really breaking into more than a sweat, it always looked as if Arsenal could score at any point in the game should they so desire. On the hour, Alexandre Lacazette was replaced by 18-year-old defender Zech Medley, whose job was principally to shore up the centre of the defence, which to be fair, he did very well. As expected, Laurent Koscielny was substituted for Nacho Monreal with twenty minutes on the clock remaining; all in all a very satisfactory return from the club captain, and with some important matches on the horizon, it was good to give him a run out tonight against this type of opposition. Eddie Nketiah had a goal ruled out for offside, whilst young Charlie Gilmour replaced a tiring Mesut Özil with ten minutes left on the clock. The match slowed down to its inevitable end, which really won’t go down as one of our great European matches. 

All in all a stisfactory victory here tonight, with some excellent performances by the young players, a few of whom were making their Emirates debuts. Good to see Laurent Koscielny start a match again, and more importantly than that, there were no unecessary injuries to the players, nor were there any cards given out by the Danish referee, who to be fair, like our goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, didn’t have a lot to do tonight either. Arsenal, being Group E winners, will avoid the four Champions League dropouts in the draw on Monday. Onwards and upwards! Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. 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.