Arsenal getting he results the performances deserve

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Day 2 of no football.

We have 19 days between Porto and Manchester City.

An FA Cup weekend is followed up by an international break. The result is we do not play again until the Easter weekend. It is a long, frustrating break and halts our momentum.

It takes my mind back to the “winter break” in January.

We went into it with just a single win in 7 games. It was a run that saw us exit the FA Cup and drop to 4th in the league, 5 points behind Liverpool and just one point ahead of Spurs in 5th.

Fans were losing their head, pointing fingers at Mikel Arteta, saying he was tactically inept and had been found out. There was also a lot of talk about us needing to spend big on a striker in January to save our season.

During the winter break, I blogged that Arsenal were not getting the results our performances deserved and we should not be too concerned.

Yes, 1 win in 7 was not good enough, but one of those games was a Champions League dead rubber and another a good point at Anfield. The win was at home to Brighton.

We had a tough game away to Aston Villa, where we had an equaliser incorrectly ruled out, and the Liverpool FA Cup game could have gone either way. Fulham was an atrocious performance with no positives from it.

Then we had West Ham.

Someone not watching the game will see 2-nil to West Ham away and think we have played poorly. That was simply not true.

We dominated the West Ham game. They scored an opener that should never have counted and we had enough chance to score 5 or 6. This game was what made me realise we were not getting the results our performances deserved.

When we returned from the winter break, we stuck 5 past Crystal Palace. I do not actually think we played any better than we did against West Ham. We just scored out chances.

That win was followed up by a 2-1 victory away to Nottingham Forest and a 3-1 win at home to Liverpool.

We got our revenge for the home defeat to West Ham by hitting 6 in the Olympic Stadium, and this was followed up by 5 at Turf Moor. Two games that another season we might have capitulated in.

The last minute Porto defeat was a gut wrencher, but we quickly bounced back with a 4-1 win at home to Newcastle and then scored 6 again away to Sheffield United.

A last minute Kai Havertz goal kept our winning run going. And then on Tuesday we get through Porto on penalties to make the last 8 of the Champions League.

8 Premier League games since the winter break
8 wins
33 goals scored
4 clean sheets
4 goals conceded

We have gone from 4th to top, gaining 5 more points than Liverpool and nullifying the game in hand Manchester City had. We have won 10 points more than Spurs during the run and they are now distant in our wing mirrors.

During the blog in January, I spoke about how good coaches look at performances rather than results, and will not make drastic changes just because of a few poor results.

We had been excellent in the 18 months up to that dip in form. You do not change the tactics that have worked for 50-60 games just because you struggled for 6 or 7. And in those 6 or 7 games we only really played poorly once.

Arteta stuck with the team. He made a few minor tweaks, which were enforced, and we have not looked back.

Gabriel Jesus’s latest injury and Eddie Nketiah’s poor form led to Kai Havertz going up top. Declan Rice was then pushed higher into the left hand space with Jorginho coming in behind. It is a tactic that we were always going to play throughout the season but had been denied due to Thomas Partey’s injury.

Rice as excelled in the more advanced position and I think there is no debate that he is the best central midfielder in the world. All those West Ham fans that claimed they had turned Arsenal over for £105m are now saying “we should have got £150m for him”. He has become World Class.

It will now be interesting to see how Arteta manages the squad through this next break.

The head-scratcher is that the international break comes first, so that throws the next 8 or 9 days into the air.

If it was the other way round, the players would be sent off on their international duty and then we would have 8 or 9 days to prepare for Manchester City. Arteta may have made the decision to return to Dubai for half of that for some warm weather training.

But there is no point going to Dubai in the first week and beginning to prepare for City over the next 8 days as all the work we do will be undone when players go represent their country.

I imagine yesterday the players would have gone to London Colney for a debriefing and massage session. I would then be very surprised if Arteta does then not give the players 4 or 5 days off. A bit of personal time for them to enjoy with families before they head out on international duty.

Most players will look to join up with their countries next Tuesday, so we might as well give them today through to Monday off, and then let them make their own way to whatever nation they are representing. Some might decide to head abroad early if their country are playing at home. 4 or 5 days with the family they leave behind when playing in England.

Those that do not go on international duty will probably return to the club next Tuesday, and it will then be weeks training before the full squad is back together, and 12 days before Manchester City. It will be tough for Arteta to keep a (smaller) group of players motivated. Maybe he might take those not on international to Dubai for a few days to get away?

Top of the league with 10 games to go. Very few would have predicted it during the last international break. But for me the performances were always there. It was just the results.

We are in the title race…

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 1 – 0 Porto

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Arsenal (1) 1 Porto (0) 0

(Arsenal won 4-2 on penalties after extra time)

Champions League, Round of Sixteen, Second Leg

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Tuesday, 12th March 2024. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Jakob Kiwior; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho; Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard.

Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Cédric Soares, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Karl Hein, Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Scorers: Leandro Trossard (41 mins)

Yellow Cards: William Saliba, Mikel Arteta, Kai Havertz

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 58%

Referee: Clement Turpin (France)

Assistant Referees: Nicolas Danos (France), Erwan Finjean (France)

Fourth Official: Ruddy Buque (France) t

UEFA Referee Observer: Vlado Svilokos (Croatia)

UEFA VAR Team in Geneva: VAR Jerôme Brisard (France); AVAR Willy Delajod (France)

Attendance: c.60,000

For tonight’s game, David Raya is likely to return in goal after being ineligible to face his parent club Brentford at the weekend, and we will be without Gabriel Martinelli, who sustained a foot injury last week. However, Takehiro Tomiyasu remains on the substitute’s bench tonight. Obviously, it goes without saying that this evening’s game against Porto is an important must-win, having lost the first leg by a solitary goal, as we need to reach the quarter-finals of this competition for the first time since 2009-10.

The visitors kicked the match into life this evening, in this electric atmosphere. We certainly brought the game to Porto, right from the start, with the best of the early chances coming from the head of Ben White, who was unlucky not to score. Kai Havertz was penalised for leaving an elbow in as he went up for a header, and although the resulting Porto free-kick went nowhere, there were one or two early signs that Porto could be extremely dangerous on the break. Our captain won a ball out on the right wing but his cross was headed away. It was only half-cleared though, and Kai Havertz drilled it back across the penalty area before the visitors eventually cleared their lines, and then Leandro Trossard chased a ball down the line, courtesy of Declan Rice, but the veteran centre-back Pepe, came across to clear the ball. A few minutes later, Bukayo Saka easily beat Nico González and took a quick shot towards the goal, but the goalkeeper fumbled it, and Bukayo Saka won it back and Martin Ødegaard almost squeezed through the defence with a clever one-two, which went out for a corner kick.From the resulting corner, our captain shot just wide, and then Jakub Kiwior linked up with Leandro Trossard and he sent over a teasing cross for Bukayo Saka, whose header went just wide of the mark. At the other end, Evanilson hit a superb shot from twenty-five yards that was well saved by David Raya, and then after some great work out on the right, a cross from Ben White saw Pepe clear it off the goal-line, although he whacked his arm against the goalpost. Again, Bukayo Saka was cynically fouled, in which the referee did nothing, but the resulting quick free-kick went narrowly wide of the post, courtesy of Kai Havertz, whose delicate flick was unlucky. William Saliba received a yellow card for hauling down Wendell, and with just four minutes remaining of the first half, Leandro Trossard whacked the ball past the outstretched goalkeeper after our captain did some fantastic work in losing two Porto defenders before slotting the ball to our Belgian striker. A beautiful goal to draw the scores level on aggregate. Kai Havertz was sandwiched between two Porto players during injury time, but got to his feet and seemed to be okay just as the referee blew his whistle for half-time.

We started proceedings off for the second half, and the boys have forty-five minutes to win this second leg tie. However, the visitors have other ideas on that, as their play in the opening minutes of the second half has been one of possession, pass and move. Francisco Conceicao ran past Jakub Kiwior on the right and Declan Rice was forced to intercept him in the our penalty area, and it has to be said that Porto are on the front foot this half, and are more of a threat to us than they were in the previous forty five minutes. However, a few deliveries from Declan Rice were cleared by the Porto defence, and we kept the pressure up on them and Kai Havertz pulled it back to Declan Rice, whose strike was blocked by the goalie for a corner; goalkeeper Diogo Costa did well under pressure to punch away Declan Rice’s in-swinging corner, but there was a quick VAR check for a potential penalty for a high boot as Bukayo Saka came in for the rebound but it came to nothing. Martin Ødegaard got the ball into the net, but it was disallowed because Kai Havertz pulled Pepe’s shirt and all that came of it was that Mikel Arteta receiving a yellow card for his protests on the touchline. Porto broke free with three players on our two and Francisco Conceição fired a good effort towards goal, which David Raya just about stopped and Jakub Kiwior made an excellent block on the rebound before the linesman’s flag went up for offside. Kai Havertz was barged whilst in the air by Pepe, who received a yellow card, and the resulting free-kick saw William Saliba head the ball over the bar. Players were getting frustrated now, silly mistakes from both teams as the clock ran down. Gabriel Jesus replaced Jorginho with eight minutes of the match remaining, and with his first touch, he nearly scored when he ran onto a loose ball in the penalty area, but the ball hit the inside of the goalie’s leg and went off for a corner, which was adequately cleared by the Porto defence. Bukayo Saka cut inside and hit a powerful shot which the goalkeeper pushed out to the feet of our captain who hit it narrowly wide. Bukayo Saka’s corner flew straight into the goslkeeper’s arms. The visitors broke out and Declan Rice sprinted back to make a crucial sliding tackle and in doing so stopped a Porto attack. During injury time, Bukayo Saka pulled the ball back for Kai Havertz, whose shot went off a defender for a corner, that was headed wide. We had a penalty shout denied by VAR when our captain went down in the penalty area and a minute or so later, the French referee, Clement Turpin blew the whistle for the end of ninety minutes, and we are now looking forward to thirty minutes of extra time, if not penalties.

The first period of extra time got underway with the boys looking like that they need to beat Porto as soon as possible. The crowd were totally behind our boys now as we moved forward in our attempts to score, and the tension was becoming unbearable. A Martin Ødegaard free-kick was headed away, and as our pressure continued, we were looking for any slight gap in the Porto defence. Bukayo Saka just cannot get past two defenders on the right wing, but Declan Rice won it back but his pass through to Bukayo Saka was too heavy and went nowhere, and then Jakub Kiwior failed to deal with a long ball and Mehdi Taremi eventually cut inside and dangerously curled it wide. As the first period of extra time came to an end, there appears to be a lot of tired legs out there now, with no shots on goal from either side. For the second period of extra time, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Eddie Nketiah replaced Jakob Kiwior and Leandro Trossard and with just fifteen minutes of open play left before penalties, it was going to take a moment of sheer genius to win this match now. Porto won a penalty, which was plucked out of the air by David Raya, and then Eddie Nketiah flicked a ball to Bukayo Saka in the penalty area, but he took too long on it and Otavio was able to come across to block the shot from close-range, sadly. The match was going from end to end, and tired legs make silly fouls, one of which was Kai Havertz on Pepe to stop a counter-attack. Both teams now look resigned to the inevitable penalty shoot-out, as inspiration was running low, and sure enough, that was exactly what happens after one hundered and twenty minutes of football. 

And so, the die is cast. Our captain scored the first one, sending the goalie the wrong way, and in return Pepe did the same to David Raya. Kai Havertz coolly slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net, whilst David Raya amazingly saved Wendell’s penalty so well; Bukayo Saka made it 3-1 to Arsenal when he stuck his penalty away, and although David Raya dived the right way, he just could not get to the penalty struck by Marko Grujić, sadly. Declan Rice hit a perfect penalty straight down the middle and suddenly, it was all on this Porto penalty. Galeno’s strike was parried away by David Raya, diving to his left! We’re through! David Raya is our hero of the night and he has saved two spot-kicks and as a result we are in the last eight of the Champions League!

Phew! What a night! Although it was a scrappy, fractious encounter at times, it was our boys who held their nerve to go through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. There was a lot of tension in the air tonight, and the atmosphere was absolutely cracking, but they did it, and every man played their part well, and stuck to the game plan. And it paid off! Well done chaps!

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 City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, 31st March at 4.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. 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

Keenos Knows Best

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This season, I have consistently made 3 points that I have continually been hammered on:

David Raya is better than Aaron Ramsdale
Kai Havertz will have a huge impact for Arsenal
In the first half of the season, we were holding back to ensure we peaked in the 2nd half

Aaron Ramsdale

I am not going to go into Aaron Ramsdale too hard, just like I did not go into David Raya hard when he made mistakes earlier in the season.

What I would say is hopefully this is a lesson learned for some Arsenal fans who have overly criticised Raya since he joined, and acted like Ramsdale never made a mistake for us and would never make one in the future.

During his tough start for The Arsenal, I kept pointing out that Ramsdale was not the perfect keeper that some made him out to be, and that he had made bucket loads of errors since joining the club, just not all of them were punished. So it baffled me when some fans acted like he was immune to making a gaffe.

The mistake by Ramsdale was horrendous. We now need to move on, stop the debate over the two, and back Raya.

Kai Havertz

When we signed Kai Havertz, I thought about the games he will have the greatest impact in.

One of his greatest abilities is finding space in the box, when teams are defending deep, and scoring. “Goals against the likes of Brentford” was what I blogged early in the season. And low-and-behold he pops up with the winner, just like he did in the away game.

Havertz now has 8 Premier League goals in 27 games. That equals his highest total for Chelsea in a single season. He also has 4 in the last 4.

£60m down the drain? Don’t think so.

Peaking for the second half

The best teams start slowly, doing just enough to stay in the title race in the first half of the season, and then find an extra couple of gears for the 2nd half of the season. They peak in the last 15 games, not the first 15.

From Ferguson to Wenger, Guardiola and Klopp, all their teams get better as the season goes on.

We started slowly and some fans got on Arteta’s back for it.

“Not as good upfront as last season”
“Been found out”
“Tactically inept”
“Gone backwards”
“No longer as attacking”

The truth is Arteta has learned that you need to be at 100% in the 2nd half of the season. And to do that you need to make sacrifices in playing style in the first half of the season. We are now reaping the benefits!

Keenos Knows

At the beginning of the season, I could see what Arteta was doing, why Raya and Havertz were recruited. It is all documented in my blogs. And whilst many agreed, more disagreed.

Maybe after years of writing, thousands of blogs read by millions, I do actually know what I am talking about?

Keenos