Manchester City (3) 5 Arsenal (0) 0

Premier League

Etihad Stadium, Ashton New Road, Manchester M11 3FF

Saturday, 28th August 2021. Kick-off time: 12.30pm

(5-4-1) Bernd Leno; Cédric Soares, Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Sead Kolašinac, Kieran Tierney; Martin Ødegaard, Emile Smith-Rowe, Granit Xhaka, Bukayo Saka; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Alexandre Lacazette, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nuno Tavares, Pablo Marí, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Mohamed Elneny, Aaron Ramsdale, Arthur Okonkwo, Gabriel Martinelli.

Red Cards: Granit Xhaka

Yellow Cards: Cédric Soares, Sead Kolašinac

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 19%

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Assistant Referees: Lee Betts, Richard West

Fourth Official: Andy Madley

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Darren England; AVAR Peter Kirkup

Attendance: 52,276

Playing devil’s advocate here, perhaps there is another side to “Bloody” August for Arsenal. Unfortunately, despite the well-publicised awful on-field issues, another one of our problems this season appear to be the fact that we are victims of the random selection of the fixtures computer; how else can anyone explain the trio that we have faced so far? A newly promoted London team that had never been in the Premiership before who played as if their very lives depended on it, followed by the Champions League winners, and today, the current Premier League champions. How unlucky can one club be? Just another thought in this time of trouble.

Anyway, today our players line up in an unusual five-four-one formation, probably to reflect the danger of the opposition, of course. In the early stages, we played the ball around between us very well, and a superb cross from Kieran Tierney which didn’t quite reach Bukayo Saka looked good, but soon went behind the line for a corner that was easily cleared, unfortunately. Four minutes later, we were a goal down when Gabriel Jesus crossed the ball to Ilkay Gündogan, who simply headed it into the net. We were pushed back into our own half, and our defence looked all at sea when a loose ball came into our penalty area and Ferran Torres was on hand to score with a ridiculously easy tap in; although VAR were called in to question the possibility of an infringement on Calum Chambers, it made no difference as the goal was allowed to stand. A terrible start to the match; within fifteen minutes, we were two goals down with no prospect of reply; the nearest we came to scoring was when Ederson, the City goalkeeper made a silly error that Emile Smith-Rowe tried to capitalise on, but sadly his block led to the ball dribbling just inches past the far post. Cédric Soares picked up a pointless yellow card for a foul on Jack Grealish after twenty-four minutes, and a couple of minutes later Granit Xhaka had a strong shot saved by Ederson, after yet another mistake found our man in space on the edge of the City penalty area. Sead Kolašinac was booked unjustly for a foul on Gabriel Jesus, and thankfully the resulting free-kick (and subsequent corner) was easily dealt with by Bernd Leno. We had a penalty appeal turned down when Kieran Tierney was brushed off the ball by Kyle Walker, and with ten minutes to go before half-time, Granit Xhaka got his marching orders for a careless two-footed tackle on Joao Cancelo. Down to ten men, with fifty-three minutes of the match remaining, which meant that we were playing a game of containment, trying to keep City from scoring more goals, which was a difficult prospect. And sure enough, a couple minutes before the break, Jack Grealish turned Calum Chambers on the left, tapped the ball across into the six-yard box for Gabriel Jesus to tap the ball into an empty net, behind a stranded Bernd Leno. Thankfully half-time arrived before yet more embarrassing goals were leaked.

The second half started with Bukayo Saka being replaced by Mohamed Elneny, and unfortunately the second half started the way the first half finished, with intense City pressure on an Arsenal defence that looked completely swamped. After fifty-three minutes, Rodri swept a curling right-foot shot down the side of our stagnant defenders into the bottom right-hand corner for the fourth goal of the match; shortly afterwards the stranded Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was replaced by Alexandre Lacazette, and with half an hour of the game remaining, it was very hard to see how we can stop Manchester City scoring even more goals today, try as we may. Bernd Leno prevented a fifth goal when he made an acrobatic save to tip a header over the bar from Raheem Sterling, and in an attempt to halt an onslaught, Martin Ødegaard was replaced by Ainsley Maitland-Niles with twenty minutes of the game remaining. The home side were just toying with us, and we don’t have anything to offer here at the Etihad at all, and quite frankly, it all looks very embarrassing now. It made no difference, as City scored a fifth when Ferran Torres scored with a header after Riyadh Mahrez put a cross in from the right-hand side of the edge of our penalty area with six minutes remaining of the game. Mercifully, we managed to prevent the home side from scoring any more goals, and when the full-time whistle was blown by Martin Atkinson, it came as one of relief, quite thankfully.

What is there to say about such a performance in Manchester today? We were extremely fortunate we didn’t ship even more goals, and we would have done had it not been for Bernd Leno in goal. This is our worst start to a season since 1954, and quite frankly, we are all at a loss as to how we can turn this around with this squad of players. The statistics are damning: played three; won none; drawn none; lost three; goals for, none; goals against, nine; goal difference, minus nine. Bottom of the table. The players are totally shell-shocked, with no visible on-field leadership and have no idea what to do next. The manager looks entirely out of his depth, the coaching staff appear to have no answers and the storm clouds are gathering. Next week we have a break due to international commitments, and we resume this nightmare in a fortnight. Let’s hope that the enforced break brings some kind of Biblical miracle at Arsenal Football Club, but somehow I doubt it, as “Bloody” August may just get worse in September.

Remember everyone, it’s going to be tough, but try to keep the faith, get behind the club, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Norwich City at the Emirates on Saturday, 11th September at 3.00pm (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.

With Ben White our oldest signing, Arsenal have returned to securing bright young talent rather than those players nearing the end of their career.

In recent years, this is the 3rd “project youth” we have embarked on. But what happened to the previous generations?

The Foreign Legion

In the mid 00s, Arsene Wenger and his scouting team cast the net wide to bring in some of the brightest young talents from across Europe.

Cesc Fabregas (15 when signed) was the jewel in the crown and he was joined by Abou Diaby, (19), Philippe Senderos (18), Robin van Persie (21), Denilson (18), Mathieu Flamini (20), Alex Song (18), Gael Clichy (17), Emmanuel Adebayor (22), Nicklas Bendtner(17), Emmanuel Eboue (21) and the sole Englishman Theo Walcott (16).

This group of players underachieved at Arsenalbut the majority when on to have successful careers elsewhere.

The 2007/08 season was when this group of youngsters peaked.

The summer of 2007 saw senior players Thierry Henry and Freddie Ljungberg leave. That left just Jens Lehmann, Kolo Toure and Gilberto Silva as the last remaining men who had a serious impact on the invincibles just 3 seasons earlier.

The baton was passed from that great side onto the youngsters, and they came so close to greatness.

The young team became the first to reach 60 points in February, after winning 3–1 against Manchester City; Wenger described the feat as “phenomenal”.

Manchester City’s defeat of Manchester United the following week meant a 2–0 win at home to Blackburn Rovers put Arsenal five points clear in first spot, with 12 matches to play.

And then it all came tumbling down.

The team faces Birmingham at St Andrews. The infamous game where Eduardo suffered that horrific injury following a horrendous fouls by Martin Taylor.

Arsenal then came behind to go 2-1 up as the game entered injury time. Clichy then proceeded to pass the ball to no one within his own box, and then bring down his opponent. Penalty. 2-2.

Arsenal would draw 3 and lose 1 of their next 4 games, a 5 game run without a win which would see Arsenal drop from 1st to 3rd; a position we would never recover from.

We ended up the season 4 points behind Manchester United who would go on to win 4 of the next 6 league titles.

With the age of our side, that success could have been ours had the team not capitulated against Birmingham. The togetherness of the side never recovered from William Gallas sulking in the centre circle.

Over the next couple of years the team struggled for success. The lowest point coming in 2011 once again against Birmingham City.

The side were clear favourites for the League Cup Final but proceeded to concede in the 89th minute. A disastrous goal of our own making.

That defeat seemed to make a turning point for many of the young players.

Instead of staying to fight together, they were tempted away by instant success and wealth elsewhere.

In the summer of 2011, Clichy went to Man City and was quickly joined by Samir Nasri. Cesc Fabregas returned to Barceona. A year later Song joined Cesc at Barcelona and van Persie moved to Manchester United.

A group of some of the most talented young players in world football had spent half a decade together ad failed to win a trophy.

The side began being built following the exodus of players after the Champions League final. 2 years later we nearly won the league. 6 years after that defeat to Barcelona, project youth was over and the youngsters who were hoped would take us to glory were now men leading other clubs to trophies.

Everytime one of them lifted a trophy it made the 8 years of no silverware even more painful.

The British Core

As the foreign legion of young players broke up, there was new young hope.

One of the issues highlighted with bringing in so many young, talented players from abroad was none of them had any real loyalty to The Arsenal.

When you are getting teenagers to depart the clubs they have grown up playing for and supported, you almost install disloyalty in them.

Having learned from this, the British Core rose.

Led by Jack Wilshere, the most naturally gifted youngster to come through our academy in decades, the future was bright, the future was British.

In December 2012, Wenger thought he had found the answer to Arsenal’s lack of success.

Wenger stood beaming like a proud father behind Carl Jenkinson, Aaron Ramsey, Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as they all signed new long term deals.

Throw in Theo Walcott who was still just 23 at the time and the core of the team was now British.

Gone were the days of Arsenal not having an Brit in the side. Moving forward half the team was going to be British. And it was exciting.

The summer of 2013 saw a new kit launch and the British core was very much part of it; with all 6 members of the side front and centre of Puma’s campaign.

18 months after they had all signed their new contracts; we had won our first trophy since 2005 winning the 2014 FA Cup.

But that Final winning side contained just 2 of the 6 British core.

Aaron Ramsey and Kieran Gibbs we’re the only two members to start, with Jack Wilshere on the bench.

Both made significant contributions during the game with Gibbs heading off the line at 2-0 down and Ramsey grabbing the winner.

Injuries had curtailed must of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott’s season and both missed the final due to injury.

And this was the story of the British Core. They all struggled throughout their Arsenal career with injury.

Ramsey, following the assault by Ryan Shawcross, was always picking up niggling injuries; whilst Wilshere had chronic ankle problems.

Walcott had issues with both shoulders that led him to miss a lot of football and Oxlade-Chamberlain’s entire career at Arsenal and later Liverpool would be a story of getting fit, playing half a dozen games and then breaking down again.

Gibbs also had his issues and as for Jenkinson, his heart was in the right place but he was never quite good enough.

Arsenal would also win the 2015 FA Cup; this time with Walcott and Ramsey in the starting XI and Gibbs, Wilshere and Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench.

By the time the 2017 FA Cup final came around, Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck, Calum Chambers and Rob Holding had been added to the British core, with Hector Bellerin an honorary member.

Holding, Bellerin, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Welbeck would al start that final, With Walcott and Iwobi on the bench.

Chambers had found himself out on loan, whilst Wilshere was loaned to Bournemouth as he recovered from another set back. Gibbs was also out injured.

Following that victory; the original 6 members of the British core would begin departing.

Gibbs joined WBA, Oxlade-Chamberlain Liverpool and Walcott Everton.

In 2018 Wilshere would join West Ham and 12 months later Ramsey left on a free to Juventus.

Jenkinson would be the last of the 6 to leave the club – joining Nottingham Forest in August 2019.

Unlike the foreign legion that proceeded them, the British core did not really go on to much success.

Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ramsey won medals, but they contributed very little to their sides success, whilst the rest slide down the leagues.

Whilst the British core were not as talented as their predecessors and did not achieve as much in their career, they did achieve more with Arsenal.

3 FA Cups from 2014-2017, Walcott left with 108 goals in 397 games and Ramsey with 369 games and 2 FA Cup winning goals under his belt.

Gibbs played 230 times for the club, Wilshere 197 and Oxlade-Chamberlain 198.

However the FA Cup wins papered over a deterioration in the league. In 2016 Arsenal finished outside the top 4 for the first time in 20 years.

Project Youth Part III

So this summer Arsenal have added Ben White (23), Aaron Ramsdale (23), Martin Odegaard (22), Albert Sambi Lokonga (21) and Nuno Taveras (21) to an existing young core that includes Kieran Tierney (currently 24), Gabriel (23), Emile Smith Rowe (21), Bukayo Saka (19) and Gabriel Martinelli (21).

It is a combination of some of the best young foreign talent and some exciting young British talent.

In its previous two incarnations, the foreign legion were talented enough to dominate English football but failed to do so, whilst the British core were not quite good enough but won trophies.

Could a mixture of the two result in Arsenal returning to top 4, being a title chasing team and winning trophies along the way?

Strap yourself in and get ready for the journey.

Keenos

West Bromwich Albion (0) 0 Arsenal (3) 6

Carabao Cup (EFL Cup) Second Round

The Hawthorns, 9 Birmingham Road, West Bromwich B71 4LF

Wednesday, 25th August 2021. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Sead Kolašinac, Nuno Tavares; Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka; Nicolas Pépé, Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Pablo Marí, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli, Alexandre Lacazette.

Scorers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (17 mins, 45 mins, 62 mins), Nicolas Pépé (45 +1), Bukayo Saka (50 mins), Alexandre Lacazette (69 mins)

Yellow Cards: Rob Holding, Sead Kolašinac

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 75%

Referee: David Webb

Assistant Referees: Andrew Fox and Mark Pottage

Fourth Official: Sam Allison

Attendance: 26,850

After our dreadful start to this season, tonight’s match against West Bromwich Albion is truly a “must win” for the club. Leaving the competition at the second round stage is almost unthinkable for a club of our stature, but as we have seen over the past few weeks, nothing is a given for Arsenal anymore. All we can hope for tonight is an exemplary performance from the boys which leads to a much-needed victory. Fingers (and everything) crossed. By the way, please remember that there is no VAR in this competition until the semi-final stage.

The match started in a frenetic manner, with both sides making their intentions clear to end tonight’s game as the victors here at The Hawthorns. Our debutant keeper Aaron Ramsdale was called into action twice within a few minutes when Kenneth Zohore pressurised him, but thankfully, he was able to clear the danger fairly easily. As expected, the match became physical with some fairly heavy tackling from the home side’s defenders which started to take their toll on some of our players; after some clumsy defensive play on the edge of the box, Bukayo Saka lost his marker, and his accurate strong shot was pushed into the path of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang by goalie Alex Palmer, who made no mistake in opening the scoring for us. Of course, there’s nothing like a goal to inject some confidence into the team, and a few minutes after the goal, Martin Ødegaard was unlucky not to score when his sterling effort hit the outside of the post from a difficult angle after Bukayo Saka’s shot was deflected into his path. Rob Holding was booked for a clumsy tackle on Kenneth Zohore after twenty-six minutes, and as the match went into the last quarter of an hour of the first half, Arsenal looked in control. The match was held up for a while when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, goalkeeper Alex Palmer and defender Cedric Kipre collided, with the latter needing on-field treatment. Sead Kolašinac was booked for a heavy tackle on Ethan Ingram seven minutes from half-time, and the resulting free-kick was cleared confidently by the defence. Just before half-time, a superb shot by Nicolas Pépé hit the post, and our man Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was on hand to place the ball into the net; just a mere minute later, our third goal of the night was chalked up when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ran in from the halfway line, and had a shot saved by Alex Palmer; he then acrobatically volleyed the rebound but instead of hitting the back of the net, it landed at the feet of Nicolas Pépé, who simply slotted it home. Three up at half time!

Five minutes after the restart, we grabbed our fourth of the night when Bukayo Saka ran down the left-hand channel and found Martin Ødegaard, who simply backheeled the ball into the path of Bukayo Saka, who coolly cracked the ball into the back of the net from the edge of the penalty area. The home side came back at us after the restart, and Aaron Ramsdale made two fantastic saves, but unfortunately he injured himself landing awkwardly, but after some attention by our medical staff, was able to continue. On the hour, Martin Ødegaard was replaced by Ainsley Maitland-Niles and a couple of minutes later, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang got his hat-trick when he received a ball from Nicolas Pépé, cut inside the WBA defender, and scored a truly fabulous right-footed shot from just inside the penalty area which curled around Alex Palmer and into the net. Superb. Now, our confidence was there for all to see, and as Granit Xhaka was being replaced by Alexandre Lacazette with twenty-five minutes of the match remaining, the Arsenal supporters in the stadium sensed that even more goals could be scored tonight. Indeed, just after Nicolas Pépé’s twenty-yard chipped shot bounced off the crossbar with only Alex Palmer to beat, Alexandre Lacazette nabbed our sixth of the night when he scored with a firm shot after receiving a pinpoint pass from Nicolas Pépé. We had a penalty appeal denied when Nuno Tavares was tripped in the box, and with fifteen minutes of the match remaining, Gabriel Martinelli replaced our hat-trick hero of the night, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with an eye on the Manchester City match on Saturday lunchtime, no doubt. Bukayo Saka was the recipient of a heavy tackle in the eighty-fifth minute, and although he went off for a while after treatment, he returned and thankfully looked okay. The rest of the match was a mere formality, and going back to London with such a large winning margin, certainly put a smile on everyone’s faces at last.

A great result, and congratulations to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for a well-deserved hat-trick in a match that we were the dominant side almost from start to finish, and of course, it’s fantastic to chalk up our first win of the season, even if it is in the Carabao Cup. A true reflection of our status will come on Saturday lunchtime of course, when we meet the current Premiership champions; although tonight’s result was important, Saturday’s will be more so, of course. By the way, we meet AFC Wimbledon in the third round at the Emirates on Wednesday, 22nd September.

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 on Saturday, 28th August at 12.30pm(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.