Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 0 Everton

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Arsenal (0) 2 Everton (0) 0
Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Sunday, 23rd September 2018. Kick-off time: 4.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Cech; Bellerín, Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal; Torreira, Xhaka; Ramsey, Özil; Aubameyang, Lacazette.
Substitutes: Elneny, Guendouzi, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Iwobi, Welbeck, Leno.
Scorers: Lacazette, Aubameyang

Yellow Cards: Sokratis, Torreira
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Attendance: 59.964

Always good to get an annual visit from the Toffeemen, a club from which we have bought some of our most famous players; namely Joe Mercer and (indirectly) Tommy Lawton, both in the twilight of their careers of course at the time, but still good enough to cut more than just a bit of a dash in our successful post-war Tom Whittaker teams. We also welcome the return of Theo Walcott, a popular player who left us for Goodison Park in the January transfer window and has proved to be a favourite with the blue half of Merseyside.

Back to today’s match. From our point of view, the first half, was quite frankly, disappointing to say the least. The star turn was Peter Cech, who undoubtedly saved us from going into the break possibly two or even three goals down. No doubt about it, the Toffeemen were the superior side for the first half, and most Arsenal fans in the stadium felt that we were indeed fortunate not to be in defecit. The only memorable moments in the first 45 minutes was Nacho Monreal’s shot quite early on, which the Everton goalkeeper stopped easily, and the yellow card that Lucas Torreira collected for a clumsy tackle; other than these incidents, nothing of any note was created by us, and a heavy sight of relief went around The Emirates when the referee called the proceedings to a halt. Phew.

This three-ring circus started up again and after some ridiculous passing, tackling and positioning by our chaps, a goal appeared to liven up the proceedings, literally out of nowhere, and we can truly thank God that it did as well. Lo and behold! Eleven minutes after the restart, Aaron Ramsey moved deep into the Everton defensive area, passed the ball to Alexandre Lacazette, who scored an absolute cracker of a goal. He composed himself, steadied the ball and simply directed it with his sweet right foot into the top far right corner of the Everton net. Just simply sublime. Now the Gunners started to wake up and do the two things that all top teams do best; 1) control the match and 2) not allow the opposition to play. Sho’ nuff, three minutes later, our other top bandit, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put the match out of teach of the Toffeemen when he scored our second, (and somewhat controversial it would seem) goal. Mesut Özil broke away from his markers, got into space and passed the ball to Aaron Ramsey who quickly offloaded it to the Gabon international who wasted no time in introducing the ball to the back of the net. And now the controversy; television replay suggested that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was offside; but hey, the officials didn’t call it, the Toffees didn’t appear to rant and rave, so the goal stood. Our second goal utterly subdued the bluenoses on the away terrace, and from this moment onwards, the match started to look akin to a training game at London Colney. The referee blew the whistle (after a more than generous period of injury time, it should be said) and three points along with sixth position in the Premier League was ours to savour.

Anyway, anyhow, anywhere, some things out to be brought up. Despite the fact that we kept a clean sheet for the first time in the Premiership this season, our first half performance was shocking (again) and Peter Cech, everyone’s vote for man-of-the-match literally kept us in the game at times when it looked like we didn’t deserve it – on performances such as this, how on earth can he be dropped for a younger ‘keeper? Lucas Torreira is growing in confidence and has a skill that utterly belies his tender years, and surely must be considered for a regular start by Mr. Emery soon. Our industrious full-backs, Nacho Monreal and Héctor Bellerín are providing width in a formation that is surely crying out for wider midfielders, and alarmingly, Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Özil appear to be getting in each other’s way, which is lamentable. Despite all this, it was great to see our star strikers work well together, and also Granit Xhaka is enjoying his newly found liberation in midfield too. Still, three points is three points, and we shall rejoice at this fact. 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.

Everton, Matteo Guendouzi, Emile Smith Rowe and more…

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Everton

We play Everton tomorrow in our 2nd game of 4 in a row at home.

After 2 defeats in the opening two games, we have now won 4-in-a-row.

Victory would propel Arsenal towards the top 4 and would keep the club on course to get around 75 points this season – only once has a club got 75 points or more and failed to finish in the top 4 – ironically Arsenal in 2016/17.

Just as important as the victory would be the first clean sheet of the season.

Arsenal have already conceded 9 Premier League goals this season – the fifth highest in the league. Add conceding 2 against FC Vorskla and it is a slight cause for concern.

There is only so many times you can keep scoring 3 or 4 to win a game before you start dropping points.

I wouldn’t say no to a boring 1-nil to The Arsenal tomorrow.

Matteo Guendouzi

The incredible thing about Matteo Guendouzi was when he came on against FC Vorskla on Thursday, no one saw him as a youngster getting a run out.

Making his debut in that game was Emile Smith Rowe, the 18-year old becoming the first player born after the turn of the millennium to play in Arsenal’s first team.

Guendouzi is just a year older than the Englishman, but the feeling around the pair is remarkably different.

Smith Rowe coming on felt like a kid getting a chance, Guendouzi coming felt like a senior professional coming on.

At £7million, Guendouzi so far has been a terrific piece of business.

Even if he was 22 or 23 years old, we would be saying that Guendouzi  was a great find by Sven Mislintat, coming from the French second division. The fact he is just 19 further highlights how important good recruitment is in the modern era of crazy transfer fees.

He has jumped ahead of Mohamed Elneny in the pecking order, and whilst Lucas Torreira should start ahead of him, his signing and development is going to save us millions in the future.

Between Guendouzi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles we have two quality young central midfielders. Even if their potential is to only become squad players, that will result in about £50m worth of talent for just £7million.

Guendouzi still has plenty of rough ages to be polished, and it is too early to compare him with the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Patrick Vieira; but if he stays injury free (Abou Diaby, Jack Wilshere) and motivated (Denilson) there is no reason he can not reach the top.

Emile Smith Rowe

On Emile Smith Rowe, he had a great little cameo.

A lot has been talked about recently of young Arsenal players leaving the club in their droves.

Stephy Mavididi (Juventus), Marcus McGuane (Barcelona), Chris Willock (Benfica), Donyell Malen (PSV), Kaylen Hinds (VfL Wolfsburg), Daniel Crowley (Willem II) and Vlad Dragomir (Perugia) to have left the club in the last 12 months for a new challenge abroad.

Instead of it being a negative that Arsenal have lost these players, I actually see it as a positive.

Arsenal are either offloading, or not getting in the way of players who are simply not good enough, and ever really likely to make it.

Someone like Mavididi was let go because Arsenal had Eddie Nketiah coming through. Nketiah is a year younger than Mavididi and ahead of him in the pecking order.

Smith Rowe would have ended the Arsenal careers of a few players who were older than him.

On the list of players who have left, you have to think him coming through was why we did not work harder to keep Chris Willock or Daniel Crowley. He has also now moved ahead of Joe Willock – who is older.

Just 18-years old, he showed some nice touches. At times his passing was a little heavy, but I look forward to watching his development – both in the Europa League and against Brentford in the League Cup.

We have some very good youngsters coming through and are reigning Premier League 2 Champions (U23). If we have a talented 17-year old breaking through who is better than a 19-year old within the squad, we have to make the tough decision in the best interests of the club.

New Spurs Stadium

Over the months I have tried to keep abreast of what is happening at the Spurs stadium. This is more to do with my day job than my interest as an Arsenal fan.

It was well known back in March that there were major problems and that it would not be ready for the start of the season. Despite know this, Tottenham still sold season tickets based on playing at the new ground, and created an advertising campaign that the new Tottenham Stadium would be the only place in London to watch Champions League football this summer.

There has been more than one major issue during the complex build, and the chaos is starting to make national news.

The root of the problems is in how the deal to build the stadium was structured.

Normally with a build as big as this, you leave it to the experts. You appoint a main contractor to oversee the entire project, sub contract the packages out, and maintain full operation control of the build. All the “client” does is visit the site, keep an eye on things. Arsenal did this with Sir Robert McAlpine and the Emirates Stadium.

Teamwork and exemplary management made sure the award-winning Emirates Stadium was in a league of its own is the quote that go’s alongside details of the project on the McAlpine website.

Tottenham chose to have direct commercial relationships with individual subcontractors, which also meant it appointed Mace as construction manager rather than overall main contractor.

Some subcontractors have felt they were being “pinched” by the terms of these direct deals with the club. Tottenham pushing down the prices despite the cost of builds in London increases.

This led to some trades acting purely in their own interests, rather than also considering overall project progress, which led to further complications and delays. Cutting corners. Rushing jobs to get out of there.

Up against things financially, they did not want to spend any more time or resources on the project then they had to, and their work was unsupervised with Mace only able to “advise” subbies – normally onsite the main contractor would be at the top of the pyramid, in charge of all those below them. Instead everyone reports directly into the Tottenham project management team.

In construction, there is a long held theory of buy cheap, buy twice. It feels like by pushing down sub contractors and going for the cheapest possible options, the overall project is actually going to be way over budget. And it already extremely late.

At the time, Daniel Levy probably felt he was getting a good deal on the stadium, but as costs move past the £1bn mark and the stadium set not to open until 2019, the cheap route has ended up the wrong route.

And by maintaining full control, it seems the financial punishments for late delivery of a project that a main contractor would be liable to pay do not exist.

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 4 – 2 FC Vorskla Poltava

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Arsenal (1) 4 FC Vorskla Poltava (0) 2

UEFA Europa League, Group E, Matchday 1 of 6
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Thursday, 20th September 2018. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Leno; Lichtsteiner, Holding, Sokratis, Monreal; Torreira, Elneny; Mkhitaryan, Iwobi; Welbeck, Aubemeyang.
Substitutes: Bellerin, Lacazette, Özil, Martinez, Guendouzi, Nketiah, Smith-Rowe.

Scorers: Aubemeyang (2), Welbeck, Özil
Referee: Bart Vertenten
Attendance: 59,039

Here we go again, the start of yet another campaign in Europe, a journey that began for us way back in 1964 with an away win against the Danish side Staevnet in an early incarnation of this competition, The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. As our older supporters remember, we were destined to be victorious in this contest in 1970, when the tournament was renamed and remodelled as simply The Fairs Cup, which of course, was our first European trophy; who can possibly forget that wonderful April night at the Old Place?

Tonight’s visitors hail from the Ukraine and are at the time of writing, sitting fourth in a twelve club Ukrainian Premier League, a competition which they have never won, although they have succeeded in the Ukrainian Cup nine years ago with a 1-0 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk. They have started brightly this season, winning four out of six matches, and are well on the way to at least equalling their final league position of third in the 2017-18 season, if  not higher, should faith and fortune be on their side when the competition ends next June. Mr. Emery’s choice of team tonight is both a refreshing and interesting one; amongst the eight changes on the field comes Bernd Leno, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Rob Holding and returning tonight from injury, Alex Iwobi. On the bench is a collection of usual first-teamers, Mesut Özil, Alexandre Lacazette and Mattéo Guendouzi amongst others. It should be an illuminating evening of football.

The usual slow start-up with typical sparring between the two sides is something that we have become used to, so tonight came as no surprise. Arsenal slowly dominated the game, with several chances becoming available for various players at different points; ironically it was Stephan Lichtsteiner who had the best opportinity of the early stages with an unlucky attempt which was deemed to be offside. Clearly, as the first half wore on, it was plainly obvious that FC Vorskla Poltava came to the Emirates simply to hold up proceedings, which they did constantly. However, such negative play leads to mistakes, and ultimately a price was paid. Just after the half-hour mark, the chaps counter-attacked in a classic smash-and-grab movement, and the ball found Alex Iwobi wide out on the left. With the opposing defenders closing in, he passed the ball across the 18-yard box for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to score comfortably. From then on until the break, Arsenal pressed and pushed the opposition and in doing so, more chances came, the best of them courtesy of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who hit the base of the post a minute or so before the break. The second half started as the first finished, with Arsenal’s domination; Danny Welbeck’s header which found the back of the net, within three minutes of the kick-off, followed by a superb Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang strick ten minutes later, his second goal of the match. After a flurry of substitutions, Mesut Özil scored the final Arsenal goal on 74 minutes. FC Vorskla Poltava scored two late goals, but it really made no difference; Arsenal ran out worthy 4-2 winners on the night, and despite one or two scares, overall were the better, more professional side.

The two goals that we conceded were worrying, particularly the second one – we appeared to switch off and allowed their player to take a shot, which we cannot afford to do as this competition rolls on; if we do, we will be punished heavily for our lackadaisical attitude. There were good points, however; it was great to see 18-year-old Emile Smith-Rowe make an impressive début in midfield, also Lucas Torreira played like the playmaker we know that he can be, with pinpoint passing and tracking back to help the defence; although Bernd Leno didn’t have a great deal to do, he looked confident and able to play the type of game that Mr. Emery requires of his players with regards to the distribution of the ball quickly from the back, and be comfortable in doing so. Anyway, Everton await for us next on Sunday afternoon, and that match will tell us more about this Arsenal squad than this one-sided game tonight. 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.