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Match Report: Norwich 2 – 2 Arsenal

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Norwich City (2) 2 Arsenal (1) 2
Premier League
Carrow Road, Norwich NR1 3JE
Sunday, 1st December 2019. Kick-off time: 2.00pm

(4-3-1-2) Bernd Leno; Calum Chambers, Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz, Sead Kolašinac; Mattéo Guendouzi, Granit Xhaka, Joe Willock; Mesut Özil; Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Lucas Torreira, Nicolas Pépé, Emiliano Martínez, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka.
Scorers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (28 mins, 57 mins)
Yellow Cards: Calum Chambers
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 61%
Referee: Paul Tierney
Attendance: 27,067

And so, on a cold and brisk afternoon in Norfolk, a new beginning unfolds for us all. So much has been said and done in the past forty-eight hours, it would seem almost churlish to repeat things that we all already know and have opinions about; except to say that we now have a caretaker manager in the form of the popular ex-player Freddie Ljungberg, and not only is it our duty to support him and the players through this period of transition, but ourselves too. Make no mistake, in a very short while, we will discover just who the chosen one is to take over the manager’s role permanently from Unai Emery; all we can hope is that the recommendation of Raul Sanllehi, Edu and Vinai Venkatesham in their report to various Kroenkes is the correct one for everyone involved. After all, in the impatient world that modern football inhabits, Arsenal Football Club surely cannot afford to make the same mistakes in their managerial choice again.

We started the match brightly enough, and as early as the fourth minute Alexandre Lacazette was unlucky not to score with a good effort that went wide of the post. Arsenal appeared to find confidence in their movement, both on and off the ball, with most of the action being in the Norwich half; Shkodran Mustafi’s header was cleared off the line, and despite the odd breakout by the home side, the first quarter of an hour showed our dominance. Calum Chambers was also desperately unlucky not to score with a glancing header from a Mesut Özil corner, and it became clear that Norwich City’s zonal marking system was not exactly working in their favour. However, totally against the run of play, Teemu Pukki ran onto a through ball, and his shot went past Bernd Leno (via a deflection from Shkodran Mustafi) to give the home side the lead after twenty minutes.

In a controversial period of the match, just a couple of minutes later, a wicked cross from the right caught defender Christoph Zimmerman’s carelessly positioned upright arm and a penalty was given to us; subsequently goalkeeper Tim Krul saved Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s initial strike, but because of encroachment, VAR was consulted again and this time our captain made no mistake in equalising the scores. This incident merely served to fire both sides up, and by now some careless tackles from both teams were flying around, in which it was a miracle no-one was booked. Despite all of our considerable efforts, the home side took the lead through a strike from Todd Cantwell in injury time when we were caught by a counter-attack, which meant that we went into the break 1-2 down, quite undeservedly it has to be said.

The second half started more doggedly with Arsenal constantly attempting to break down a stoic Norwich City defence; again we were caught by a counter attack by the home side in which we were fortunate to address the situation adequately. Twelve minutes after the restart, we drew level with a superb opportunist goal from our captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when he was hovering, unmarked on the edge of the Norwich six-yard box; when the ball came to him from a corner (via a Calum Chambers header), he made no mistake. The home side came back at us in earnest, and poor marking from our defenders almost led to a third Norwich City goal on three occasions; thankfully Bernd Leno was more attentive than the Arsenal defence.

Entering the last twenty minutes of the match, it seemed as if every time the home side came forward, they looked like they were going to score, and so, recognising this, Joe Willock was substituted for Lucas Torreira, in an attempt to shore up the midfield; now we had serious work to do here. More pressure was put on us, so with fourteen minutes left, Bukayo Saka replaced Mattéo Guendouzi, thus giving us more width. It certainly worked, as were able to apply more pressure in vital areas of the pitch. And so the battle continued with no quarter given nor taken. Gabriel Martinelli took the place of Mesut Özil with two minutes of the match remaining. Bernd Leno was absolutely immense in this game, and the saves that he made in injury time kept us in the match. In the dying moments, Lucas Torreira was desperately unlucky not to score, but sadly it was not to be, and we went home with a draw.

Overall, it was certainly better than we had any right to expect, given our recent run of results. We moved quicker around the pitch than previously and we certainly played with more purpose. But the same old problems arise, particularly with regards to the defence, which is still porous, and has a serious absence of leadership. The marking isn’t tight enough, and the defence has the annoying habit of going to sleep at crucial points in the match. Having said that, we came back twice to earn this draw, and a point is certainly better than nothing. No doubt about it, Freddie Ljungberg has a lot of work to do here, and only time will tell how many of these players will still be at the club this time next year.

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: Brighton and Hove Albion at The Emirates on Thursday, 5th December at 8.15pm (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.

Its been 5 long weeks since the last international break

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How quickly things can change in football.

A month ago I, prior to the last international break, I was filled with optimism.

Arsenal were not playing brilliant but were still 3rd in the league. It felt like the international break had come at the right time and Arsenal would kick on after it.

The 2 weeks off would give more time for Hector Bellerin, Kieran Tiernay and Rob Holding to return to match fitness. It would also provide another 2 weeks for Nicolas Pepe to adapt to life in England. With other sides faltering, it felt like 3rd place was our realistic minimum target.

Arsenal did return a different team after the international break. And in the space of 5 weeks we have been multiple different teams.

7 games played, 1 victory.

In those 7 games, we have only played the same starting formation in back to back games once. The last 6 games has seen us play 6 different formations.

Defeats at Sheffield United and Leicester, lost leads against Wolves, Crystal Palace, Liverpool & Vitoria. It has been a horrible 5 weeks.

Unai Emery has to shoulder the blame for Arsenal’s performances. He  is a man who is lost.

He is clearly overthinking things. Over complicating things. Constantly chopping and changing what he is trying to do. Players like confused. Unsure what to do.

The fact that he is putting a positive spin on poor results is baffling.

I am all for “positive mental attitude” but Emery seems to have his head in the sand when it comes to Arsenal’s poor results.

“We did our game plan” was his response to the 2-0 defeat against Leicester.

The fact that he sees thinks not losing when leading is a “positive” shows that he is a man without ideas.

Emery continually talks about the team not playing to the idea in his head, but he seems unable to recognise that it is the idea in his head that is wrong.

He seems to have a different idea for every game, on how to combat the opposition. But that is leading to different formations and an over complication for players.

The players are not playing with freedom. They do not look comfortable. It is like they have so much going on in their heads that they become mentally exhausted.

Proof is in the pudding. Arsenal have yet to win a game not playing 4231.

He has baffling dropped Nicolas Pepe. This follows him not playing Mesut Ozil for much of the season. Hector Bellerin took an age to return to the side. His selections have been confusing.

Prior to the last international break I was optimistic. It came at the right time giving us time to get players back to fitness.

This international break the mentality is different. I am actually looking forward to a weekend without football. I might visit a garden centre. Is it too early to put up my Christmas decorations?

I have backed Emery from day one. He seemed a good fit to take over from Arsene Wenger. But time is now running out for him. The Arsenal senior leadership team have some thinking to do over the next 2 weeks.

Enjoy the break.

Keenos

Match Report: Leicester 2 – 0 Arsenal

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Leicester City (0) 2 Arsenal (0) 0
Premier League
King Power Stadium, Filbert Way, Leicester LE2 7FL
Saturday, 9th November 2019. Kick-off time: 5.30pm

(3-4-1-2) Bernd Leno; Rob Holding, David Luiz, Sead Kolašinac; Hector Bellerin, Lucas Torreira, Calum Chambers, Mattéo Guendouzi; Mesut Özil; Alexandre Lacazette; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Nicolas Pépé, Emiliano Martínez, Joe Willock, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka.
Yellow Cards: Hector Bellerin
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 49%
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Attendance: 32,211

Make no mistake about it, this match today at the King Power Stadium is truly a pivotal one for us, and so early into the season as well. After recent results and performances, a victory is crucial for so many reasons, but not all of them are football ones. Arsenal find themselves in a position of both flux and confusion, and our multi-talented squad have recently become an enigma of the first order. We may not well find all of our answers on this cold and rainy November evening in Leicestershire, but we could be on our way to at least knowing some of them.

Today’s unusual three-at-the-back formation means that there is no place in the starting line-up for either Kieran Tierney or Sokratis Papastathopoulos; time will tell the wiseness of this decision, along with Mesut Özil being the solitary playmaker in the centre of the park under this system. As expected, the home side came out of the blocks quickly and confidently; in the first ten minutes they made their intentions more than clear with several attacks on our goal in which we were fortunate not to concede so early on in the match. Alexandre Lacazette was desperately unlucky not to score from close range after fifteen minutes, and five minutes later was unlucky when his attempt went wide of the Leicester goal. The match now became a fairly cut-and-thrust game, with both sides having chances which were squandered.

As the first half wore on, we became very sloppy and started to give the ball away in vital areas of the pitch. At times we did give a decent account of ourselves, and although our play wasn’t the most exciting we have played all season, we did manage to hold our own under difficult circumstances. We also rode our luck when the home side created chances that we were unable to neutralise, and a few minutes after a Leicester City free-kick which hit the top of Bernd Leno’s net, the referee’s whistle went for the half-time break and we could all breathe a deep sigh of relief.

The second half arrived and with it, more problems started to mount for us all over the pitch. Just four minutes after the restart, Wilfried Ndidi hit the crossbar with Bernd Leno beaten, but somehow, a little while later, we managed to get a ball up to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who although scored, was offside. All this served to do was wake the home side up; we collapsed, they regrouped, kept their shape and applied more and more pressure, We fell deep, and they simply contained us in our half. Of course, the inevitable happened; not once, but twice in seven minutes. First, their talisman Jamie Vardy, and then James Maddison, their £20 million pound man, applied the coup de grâce. Game over. In a vain attempt to get something out of the game, Nicolas Pépé and Joe Willock were brought on in place of Rob Holding and Lucas Torreira, but the effect was merely cosmetic, and we saw out the end of the game in disarray and our morale at rock bottom.

Let’s face it, we didn’t expect to get anything out of today’s match, and therefore we were not surprised as to the end result here. Hopeless, useless, clueless and feckless; at this moment in time, we are in sixth place in the Premiership and eight points shy of the top four. If anyone even so much as thinks we are going to make the Champions League placings at the end of the year, then they are truly deluded. Eight shots, one on target; the players must take responsibility for this mess as well. What is to be done now; is the manager to be replaced and the side broken up? Whatever the solution is for this gordian knot, the next two weeks are crucial. Let’s hope the time in which we don’t play in the international break fortnight is used wisely. But somehow I doubt it. 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: Southampton at The Emirates on Saturday, 23rd November 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.