We got away with it against Manchester United. We got away with it against Aston Villa. We got away with it against Bournemouth.
We will not keep getting away with it.
Our defensive frailties since the World Cup have been a concern. And simply put, we will not win the league if we continue needing to score 3 to win games.
Whilst last minute winners are rightly celebrated like crazy, it is a concern how often we have gone behind since the break.
In the first 14 games of the season, we conceded 11 goals. We had the best defensive record in the league.
Since the World Cup, we have played 12 games, conceding 14. Only 7 teams have scored more.
And worryingly, we have conceded over a goal a game since the World Cup.
In those 12 games, we have conceded twice in 5 of them; Bournemouth, Villa, Man City, Man U, and Brighton.
West Ham, Everton, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Bournemouth have all led against us since the World Cup.
Fulham are 7th in the league, and 5th in the form table. They have scored 14 in the league since the break, conceding just 8.
Games like today are those that will be 1-nil either way. Like Everton, like Leicester City.
Champions win the game by a single goal. Also rans will lose.
I am not really sure what has happened to our defence.
We have missed Thomas Partey in the middle of the park, but then he started against Bournemouth, Brighton and Manchester United.
The goals conceded at corners is certainly a contributing factor.
We have conceded from a corner in our last 2 games – Sporting and Bournemouth. The defeat to Everton also saw us concede from a corner. Brentford also scored their equaliser from a set play.
Worryingly the goals conceded against Sporting, Bournemouth and Everton were not too dissimilar – balls swung in at pace and an opponent getting in a free header.
26% of Fulham's goals have come from corners – the highest percentage of any team in the top flight#FULARS
Fulham are a huge threat from set pieces. Arguably the most dangerous team in the league from them. And that is a worry with our recent shakiness from them.
It is going to be a tight game today. Just like Everton. Just like Leicester.
Hopefully we see a repeat of the Leicester result rather than the Everton. And hopefully we keep another clean sheet.
Keenos
Some of our handcrafted Arsenal Subbuteo artwork in the progress of being created
These are limited edition, Created for us by @ToffeeArt.
During an excellent interview with Granit Xhaka, the interviewer mentioned about Arsenal having a lack of players with experience in being a title race.
Arsenal actually have a whole host of “secret Champions”.
Gabriel Jesus and Olexsandr Zinchenko
We all know about Gabriel Jesus and Olexsandr Zinchenko. It has been well documented that the pair “bout a winning mentality to the club”.
Jesus has won 4 Premier League titles and a further championship in Brazil prior to joining Manchester City.
It is also 4 league titles for Zinchenko at Man City.
Kieran Tierney
The Scotsman won his first league title at Celtic at just 18.
In total he won 4 SPL medals prior to joining Arsenal.
Mohammed Elneny
A four time Swiss league winner with Basel.
Granit Xhaka
Two Swiss league titles for Granit Xhaka in his first two seasons with Basel.
Fabio Vieira
Won the Portuguese top division twice whilst at Porto.
Leandro Trossard
Scored 14 goals in 34 games as Genk won the 2018/19 Belgium title.
Ben White
A Championship winner with Leeds. It might not be the top division of English football, but he has the experience of the pressure being top of the league.
Jesus: 5 league titles Zinchenko: 4 Tierney: 4 Elneny: 4 Xhaka: 2 Vieira: 2 Trossard: 1 Ben White: 1
Some fans will now say “but these are not the same pressures as the Premier League”, and those people will be wrong.
Chasing a league, no matter the level, is highly pressurised. And you could argue that at the top of the game, players will have more help in dealing with the pressure.
The 8 players to have won the league for us will be able to share their experiences with those that haven’t.
It is not just Jesus and Zinchenko, it is nearly a whole starting XI of champions we have.
And that list doesn’t even include our Champions League, European Championship and Olympic winners!
Keenos
Our original #Arsenal beer mat collection sold out on launch. Maybe now is time for an upgrade with our ceramic coaster version?
Estádio José Alvalade, Rua Professor Fernando da Fonseca, 1501-806 Lisboa, Portugal
Thursday, 9th March 2023. Kick-off time: 5.45pm
(4-3-3) Matt Turner; Ben White, William Saliba, Jakob Kiwior, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Fabio Vieira, (Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar) Marquinhos, Granit Xhaka (c); Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Thomas Partey, Gabriel Magalhães, Emile Smith-Rowe, Rob Holding, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Mauro Bandeira, James Hillson, Charles Sagoe Junior, Matt Smith, Reuell Walters.
Scorers: William Saliba (22 mins), Hidemasa Morita (62 mins o.g.)
Yellow Cards: Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Martinelli
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 68%
Referee: Tobias Stieler (Germany)
Assistant Referees: Christian Gittelmann (Germany), Mark Borsch (Germany)
Fourth Official: Robert Schröder (Germany)
Referee Observer: Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain)
VAR Team at UEFA: VAR Bastian Dankert (Germany); AVAR Sören Storks (Germany)
Attendance: 36,006
Mikel Arteta has picked an interesting team tonight, with six changes from last Saturday’s game against AFC Bournemouth. It is also good to see quite a few young players on the substitute’s bench tonight as well. Our captain, Martin Ødegaard, is unwell this evening, so Granit Xhaka takes the armband for this crucial away fixture in Lisbon.
A first touch for debutant Jakub Kiwior as we pass it around the back before Ben White tried to catch out the opposition’s defence with a ball over the top for Bukayo Saka, which was cleared to safety. A good try early on in the game, though. Reiss Nelson chipped the ball in from the left but Gabriel Martinelli was stretching as his header was picked up fairly easily by the Sporting keeper. The home side had a good chance to score from Pedro Goncalves which thankfully went nowhere, and a couple of minutes later, a Gabriel Martinelli shot was parried by the goalie, which gave us a corner kick. From the corner, Granit Xhaka nicely set up Fabio Vieira but his shot was blocked on the edge of the box by a Sporting defender. Bukayo Saka passed the ball to Fabio Vieira to his right and defender Matheus Reis slid in to concede a corner. From the corner, taken by Fabio Vieira, it was curled in straight to William Saliba and he sent a strong header past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net to open the scoring. Sadly, after the goal, the home side reacted angrily for something that happened off the ball in the build-up, and because of the confrontation that appeared, both Oleksandr Zinchenko and Sebastian Coates were both booked. Fabio Vieira was then caught by Sebastian Coates, who had just been booked (and very lucky not to have been sent off for his trouble), on the edge of the Sporting penalty area. The home side started to string some good passes together, and Matt Turner was called into action with a couple of superb saves. Unfortunately, from a corner, Goncalo Inacio scored the equalising goal with ten minutes of the first half remaining. As expected, we came straight back at them, with some very strong attacks. Fabio Vieira lobbed it into the box but it was headed away for Oleksandr Zinchenko to pick it up and his shot went flying into the crowd. With three minutes before the break, Fabio Vieira curled a ball in towards Granit Xhaka and it was cleared by a defender for another Arsenal corner. The ball was sent in deep towards the back post but the header from Granit Xhaka was kept out by a combination of the post and goalkeeper. In the confusion afterwards, Gabriel Martinelli received a pointless yellow card, and in injury time, Granit Xhaka whipped in a cross that Reiss Nelson was unlucky not to get a foot to. Matt Turner wobbled and gifted a ball it to Marcus Edwards but he was fortunate that the ball bounced straight off the Sporting man and he could easily gather it up. In the final minute of injury time, Oleksandr Zinchenko played a superb ball over the top of the Sporting defence looking for Gabriel Martinelli but their defence blocked him off and slotted the ball calmly back to their goalkeeper.
The home side kicked off the second half, and they came straight at us, forcing Matt Turner to make a couple of good saves in order to keep the Sporting forwards away from his goal. A couple of minutes later, Oleksandr Zinchenko deceived the Sporting defence with a clever chip that Gabriel Martinelli ran onto, but sadly his effort was pushed aside by the Sporting goalie. Fabio Vieira had a chance that was saved by the goalkeeper, and a couple of minutes later a superb Gabriel Martinelli header went inches over the bar. Sadly, the home team took the lead shortly afterwards when a shot from Pedro Goncalves was deflected back into the middle of the penalty area and Paulinho was on hand to score Sporting’s second goal. On the hour, Gabriel Martinelli almost scored an incredible solo goal, when he ran all the way from the halfway line, avoiding several challenges and going around the keeper before Jeremiah St Juste sprinted back to make a crucial, goal-saving last-ditch challenge. The game was moving fast with chances at both ends of the pitch, but suddenly we grabbed a second, equalising goal when a Granit Xhaka cross deflected off Hidemasa Morita and bounced awkwardly into his own net.There was a VAR check for the challenge from granit Xhaka in the build-up to the goal, but thankfully the goal stood. Just after the restart, Takehiro Tomiyasu replaced Oleksandr Zinchenko and a minute or so later, Fabio Vieira almost scored with a great header that went inches over the bar. Gabriel Martinelli picked out Reiss Nelson on the edge of the penalty area but his shot went way over the crossbar. With seventeen minutes of the game remaining, Mikel Arteta made three substitutions; Thomas Partey, Emile-Smith Rowe and Gabriel replaced Jakub Kiwior, Jorginho and Reiss Nelson to add some spark to the proceedings, hopefully. The match started to get a little bit scrappy, and despite a superb effort by Fabio Vieira which was deemed to be offside, with about ten minutes of the match remaining, Emile Smith-Rowe’s free kick was curled in towards Takehiro Tomiyasu but he was penalised for a push on a Sporting defender in the penalty area. William Saliba blocked a shot from Jeremiah St Juste (who received a deserved yellow card for a late foul on Takehiro Tomiyasu) and a couple of minutes before the end of the match, we had a penalty call turned down when Granit Xhaka went down in the Sporting penalty area. In the four minutes injury time, Mikel Arteta could be seen urging his players to keep on moving as they tried to find a way through the Sporting defence in the dying minutes. Ben White was being screamed at by Mikel Arteta to get back and stay in the defensive shape, just as Bukayo Saka cut inside a Sporting defender to hit it straight at the goalkeeper. A minute later, referee Tobias Stieler blew the whistle for the end of the game, and all in all, there was relief all round.
Basically, it is all to play for in seven days’ time back at the Emirates, but Mikel Arteta knows that we will have to improve defensively if we are to advance to the quarter-finals against opponents who started the season in the Champions League. We were wobbly at times tonight, but at least we took a draw away from Lisbon. All to play for next Thursday in London, but before that, there is a little matter of yet another derby day in the Premiership, this time at Craven Cottage. Keep going boys.
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: Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday, 12th March at 2.00pm (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
Released last week…Our LIMITED EDITION handcrafted Arsenal Handcrafted Subbuteo Artwork
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 