There will be a lot of nonsense spoken and written in reaction to an infuriating loss to Man Utd at home today. I am not interested in using a crazy, one-off game to make sweeping judgements about our season. All teams lose matches. We haven’t got a god given right to win. We’ve had a lot of good days this season and were probably due a shocker. Let’s take it with good grace and the knowing smile of a team on our way to winning the league anyway.
There will be some lessons to learn in terms of how we conceded three goals for the first time in a long time, and Arteta will get the video out and talk the lads through them. For us fans though, I reckon we scrunch this one up, throw it in the bin, and don’t lose sight of the fact that we are winning in four competitions right now.
The match itself was a strange one. We started much the brighter, took control of the ball and forced a series of corners which Manure generally defended well, Lammens looking solid at dealing with balls dropped into the six-yard box. Zubi had a deflected header saved, and I was just saying that we needed to make our dominance count when we scored in the 28th minute. Hincapie swung a deep cross in, Dorgu headed it up, Saka took it down beautifully and laid a lovely chip into the captain whose first time shot was creeping wide until it clipped Martinez’s heal and went in under pressure from our occasional centre-forward Jurrien Timber.
We deserved the lead, we were in control, and Manure only looked dangerous when we were sloppy in possession and almost let Mbeumo in a couple of times. All should have been serene but we did not learn our lesson and tighten up our passing. With less than ten minutes until half time Zubi received the ball from a slightly under pressure Saliba and his attempted back pass went straight to Mbeumo, who rounded Raya and scored.
The thing is, and this might not be the most subtle piece of analysis, that’s the game right there. Of course, we absolutely could have gone on to win anyway. But, without us gifting them a goal from nothing, our opponents were simply not going to win this one from a goal down. This mistake ultimately cost us three points. Easy to say with hindsight, and I must admit at the time I was annoyed but still expected us to win. I’ve got no notes for Zubi, who has been brilliant all season and knows what he did, but I do have a request. He coughed one up against Spurs that did not end up costing us, and one today that did. No more, please, Martin.
We did not start the second half well, and that is a source of regret. It was the red devils who came out looking fired up and after five minutes Patrick Dorgu scored a screamer from outside the box. Nothing much to say, it’s a great finish and the kind of chance you’d be thrilled to limit the opposition to on a regular basis. But every now and again they fly in. Bloody frustrating, but that’s football. Which rather sums our day up.
We had time on our side, but we weren’t creating clear chances and United looked like they could hurt us on the break as we had to take some positional chances. Arteta made four subs before the hour mark, looking to change the pattern of the game, but they didn’t make a huge difference.
In the seventy-first minute Merino hit a shot that a lunging Maguire took all the sting out of with his hand, and it went through to Lammens. It was a blatant penalty, a clear handball from a shot on target. The ball refused to go out of play for a couple of minutes afterwards, but I was sure that when it did, we were gonna see Pawson sent to the screen by VAR. In the end, he was not. I don’t get it. That’s a penalty. Sometimes you need a bit of luck, or, at least, the correct decision. We didn’t get either today.
We laboured on. Plenty of desire but heavy legs and loose passing hampering our efforts. We won plenty of corners and finally made one count when Merino bundled a scrappy one home. Game on.
The crowd were up for it, we all wanted to see a final ten minutes of pressure from us. How big would a winner have been at that point? Well, we got to find out, but it came at the wrong end. Rice lost the kind of challenge he normally eats up, the ball squirting through him and arriving at Cunha in far too much space. “GET TO HIM!” I bellowed at the tv, but did our players listen? Did they sausages. The former Wolves man struck a lovely finish past Raya from outside the box to put the game beyond us.
So, two excellent finishes from positions which a team would normally be thrilled to score one goal from. And a gift from us. That’s how we lost. There will be a temptation to analyse the ever-loving out of this one. Madueke’s entrance saw us put Saka on the left wing where he didn’t do much. Was this the time to try that out? Ødegaard was quiet. Rice a blend of determination and sloppiness. And plenty of other talking points besides. Perhaps some of that analysis will be quite useful going forward. But, right now, I am not going to rewatch the game to mine the analytic gold when I still have the mild nausea that comes from watching us throw away a result, empowering a poor United side to perform as well as they can and leave our ground with three points we gift wrapped for them.
As long as our players use this as a lesson about maintaining the ‘foggin estandards’ then I have no further interest in the ninety-minute nightmare we went through earlier.
We are still the best team. I still expect us to win the league. I don’t want to spend my Sunday rending garments and claiming the sky is falling. It was just a crap day at the office.
Uuurrrrrggghhh. Horrible!
But, they happen. Screw it up. Throw it in the bin. Move on!
Until next time, ‘holics.
An excellent, sober summary, expressed with very good grace, of a very disappointing afternoon, young man. Take a bow.
For what it’s worth, the lads on A.com thought that Manu’s first goal “HAD to be disallowed because Dorgu played the ball with his arm” before scoring, but by the time the very clear McGuire hand ball occurred, Adrian’s expectations had diminished to the point where the likelihood that it would be given was very low.
I’m quite sure Mikel will leverage the pain the players feel tonight to the maximum to ensure they don’t feel that way again as we fight our way to season’s end.
Onward. Hope to see some of you Holics on Wednesday night for the first non-‘must win’ game for some time.
Will no one relieve me of this pain?
On the money, GSD. You’d make the Guv’nor proud with that match report. Doesn’t make the reault any less infuriating, though.
GSD ,
Thankyou for such a balanced and sensible report. Dave would have drawn similar conclusions and taken a similar approach. I missed the game as Mrs TTG took me out to lunch for my 75th birthday. She must have realised I couldn’t take many matches like that although watching in the stadium is much less agonising than hearing Garry Neville’s commentary. The execrable whining Manc – utterly ghastly .
There is a classic Python sketch in which occupants of a building cause it to collapse if they lise belief in its ability to stand up . The analogy with the Emirates crowd is clear. Tge angst and nervousness is tangible and yesterday seemed to transmit to the team and even Mikel himself . We must not lose our belief . The Emirates won’t stand up without it!
Excellent report Dino.
COYG
Great take GSD, hard one to take but we have to suck it up and move on,
hopefully it will just make the team more determined.
Having slept on my cri de couer last night, I note that I failed to thank you for this report in which you channeled well the spirit of Dave Faber, GSD. You provide an extremely calm and contextualised perspective on a bizarre performance that, at least in defence, had little resemblance to what has gone before and hopefully will not be seen again. That superb effort in Milan, while the Mancs were plotting our downfall, clearly took more out of our team than was good for their reserves of energy and resilience against a stolid (and fortunate) opponent.
However we really must sort out our pedestrian progress in possession (which as Trev has frequently observed, forces opponents into the low block that we find so difficult to penetrate), our sloth like decision making at throw-ins (have we seen the throw in coach yet?) and our failure to generate and take clear chances. The PL is of course a marathon not a sprint but we clearly have much work to do on the training pitch
dino, thanks. exactly what i saw, but i couldn’t stand what i watched. made what was a bad day even worse. reading your post today certainly makes me feel better.
On the back of poor league performances vs ‘Pool, Forest and now Man U, the chasing pack will smell blood. We need to win at Leeds and stop the rot. No PL team fears us, we are too predictable.
We were good vs Villa (4-1) but before that, poor vs Wolves, Everton and Brighton. No mistake, we are not playing well in the league I don’t think the Man U result was a one-off. PL teams have figured us out.
I read and hear that Raya is world class, Timber is the best RB in the league, Saliba / Gabriel best CD partnership ever, Rice cheap at 105 million, Zubi cheap at 60 million, Saka the best blah-blah etc. Just wondering if the lads haven’t been reading their own press. Gykores, Odegard, Eze, Madueke… not good enough I’m afraid.
A team meeting is in order and some fingers pointed. Time for everyone to up their game. We are not clicking.
Buck stops with Mikel in terms of line-ups and tactics. If the set piece goals dry up, we are bollixed because the front line is not producing. Not sure how we get them firing?
Maybe when we get Calafiori and Kai back things will get better.
Signed,
Worried
Spot on, U4GN. MA8 and his team need to sort out our glacier-like build ups and blunt attack. Ricardo and Kai might improve things but too many of our summer signings are proving to be a disappointment. That previous smugness about ‘winning the summer’ and ‘strength in depth’ does appear a tad misplaced at this juncture.
Clery on the game:
Thanks for that read Mr Dino. I must admit to having jerky knees after that game. Manchester United games are always fraught with danger especially during a Carrick bounce.
My concerns are in no particular order the desperate four substitute moment. Slow build up and little creativity. Our missed chances game after game. No one taking any long shots. Our lack of goals from anyone. The subs bench looking great on paper and shite on grass. Noni my misplaced belief in you. Let’s see some consistency in a good way.
Thanks GSD for such a measured review of an utterly miserable performance. Following your august example, I won’t try to analyze this game and put it away as a one-off. This is our third loss of the season, all by a single goal margin, and this one naturally hurt the most as it was at home and against that gang. I hope it hurt the players equally if not more.
The reliance on method over spontaneity — or rather, spontaneity that is released from self-imposed shackles only after the methods are in full control over the match — comes at this inevitable cost: when the pieces of the method don’t work well the inspiration doesn’t organically appear. Uninspired is how I would describe our performance yesterday in one word. Impossible to go through a league season without having a few of those. Naturally, the collective trauma of the past makes us all assume the worst implications of such mishaps. Hopefully the squad doesn’t quite see it that way.
I love players like Ricky, Martinelli (and Nwaneri, who, expectedly is going to shine down in Marseille) who have an intuitive sense of when to lose the method and go for pure inspiration. Martin used to be like that but we have morphed him into a tireless 6-8 hybrid excelling in retaining possession and as a result bit away from the final third. We all hoped Eze would bring that type of spontaneity with him but lately he seems overawed by the weight of the methods. Maybe he needs a bit more time.
I am quite sure Mikel will not try to make any fundamental changes to our approach at this juncture of the season. And he would be absolutely right. His squad will have to cut the mistakes out, will have to win the 50:50s, and will have to be more assertive when in possession. As they have been most of the season. “They need to be reminded of how good they are.”- that’s how he put it.
How fragile a thing belief is in a football context. My grandson , a Spud , but hugely knowledgeable about the game was outlining to me on Saturday that we had an incredible chance of the Quadruple. Twenty four hours later , all is doom and gloom- we can’t score from open play , we can’t defend , our signings aren’t as good as we thought they were and the wheels are falling off .
Perk up folks – if I’d asked in the season preview whether we would take a four point lead in the title race , a 100% record in the Champions League , more than halfway to Wembley in the Carabao and a very strong chance of lining up in the fifth round of the Cup , every Holic would have bitten my hand off . No team can ever run away with the title in the most competitive league on earth .
Show some faith and trust the process for goodness sake
And there, TTG @14, your grandson illustrates the fundamental psychological difference between the Spud and the Gooner. The former is beguiled by flights of fancy and optimistic delusion whereas the latter is a grounded soul who believes that the sky may be about to fall and all sorts of evils lie around the corner.
The Matchweek 23 leaderboard and five-week form guide have been posted. We have a new leader and lots of churn in the middle of the pack. You know where to find it…
Great stuff, GSD – good to see a well thought out, balanced approach to what appeared a comfortable game before we made a mistake and then panicked.
Three near misses have made a mark on the fans and, it seems, on the players. As soon as the prize is within their grasp – easy to say in January ! – the thought of losing it again seems to take over.
We’ve had a lot of new players to integrate into the side this season and fitting them into a team that plays as precisely as an Arteta side must is a tricky task.
Injuries to many forwards and then many defenders have also forced the manager ‘s hand on how that integration could be managed. It’s been a very stop-start process and our football has been hesitant and not flowed as a result.
We could help ourselves by not being quite so dogmatic about playing our way out from the back when under heavy pressure. It would also help to get the ball forwards much quicker at times and give our attacking players some space to run at instead of always receiving balls into feet and having to beat a marker, or two, before they can get moving.
We are good enough to win this league. The manager and coaches job is now to convince these players of that and restore their early season confidence.
Thanks Ned@16 a small step forward to go a couple of places back 😃
@17, Trev, “by not being quite so dogmatic about playing our way out from the back” absolutely. Blogs gives a good example from Sunday in the first part of his post today. I understand the horseshoes but not on every phase, please.
@16, Wow, time for the tough to get going! I can’t understand how so many clubs can have got my very precise prescription so badly wrong.
Greatly appreciate all of your efforts on the Predictathon as always, Ned. Pint of 70 Shillings to each and every one of the monks.
I’m on the boat! New red and white life jacket and wellies (one red, one white to match Steve T’s).
Obviously it’s different for everyone, but I’m gonna try my best to enjoy the next few months too. We’ve had three second place finishes, but this is the first time that I have genuinely felt we’ve got the best team and squad.
It’s clear to all that we’ve got a lot more in the tank, so let’s hope we find some fluidity and get the attack going. I think we will. And if we do, we’ll be fine.
Nice to have Kairat tomorrow where there isn’t any pressure. Hopefully we win comfortably and can then focus on Leeds.
UTA
Quite some time ago, in days of Dave, there was a spirit of discontent in the Goonerholic community with Kroenke ownership of our club. This was heightened by an announcement of ticket price increases which resulted in criticism that the owners were trying to get richer on the back of “us fans” (our ticket prices were then the highest in the League). At the same time, “us fans” wanted Arsenal to win silverware and there was some recognition that, over the long term, wealthier clubs can afford to recruit better talent and, by doing so, win more. Watching the best, being entertained at the highest level and winning trophies doesn’t come cheaply, nor do match day tickets. If cheaper seats were your motivator, going to watch Leyton Orient might be a better value proposition.
At the time, Arsenal earned £300M p.a. made up equally by Matchday, Broadcasting and Commercial at £100M each. Silent Stan was content that Arsenal spend every penny of this but not one penny more. Fans were disgruntled that Kroenke Services were rewarded at £4M for some of their efforts behind the scenes (matron!).
Given the high level of focus at that time, it’s surprising that Arsenal’s ascension to 7th place on the European Clubs’ income table, above ManU, has received relatively little fanfare. The components of stellar growth from £300M to £715 are:
Matchday £160M (4th behind RM, Barca, MU – bigger stadium; leakier roof)*
Broadcasting £280M (3rd behind RM, Barca driven by PL and CL excellence)
Commercial £275M (9th behind Spuds – still Arsenal’s weakest area)
That a 60% increase in Matchday income has in part contributed to elevation of our club to the top of both the PL and CL table (I know, I know, there’s a long way to go) has reassured me somewhat that my support for a ticket price increase was justified. However, I find it ironic that success driven demand is such, that without the help of this GHF network, I’d be unable to get my hands on tickets at all. Deeply grateful.
Success breeds success and while the moths in my wallet make be bellyaching, I sense a general contentment with the Kroenkes and Arsenal’s growing financial strength augurs well for our future. There is no place for complacency of course, Matchday and Broadcasting will only be maintained/continue to grow if the team continues to achieve**. The Commercial situation needs to continue to receive focus and attention so that at the very least, Spuds are relegated into our rearview mirror. An increase of £40M there would elevate Arsenal to a position of the third highest revenue club in Europe. Set your men to work, Stan.
*ManCheaty earn £80M on Matchday. Is the Milk Sheik of Abbly Dabbly funding cheap seats to fill the stadium or is The Emptihad a more appropriate stadium name?
** And on the subject of these revenues falling backwards, in this week of Robert Burns birthday Our Bard might well have commented:
“But bums on seats and thon TV are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white—then melts for ever;
Keep smiling, Holics and don’t for one minute think about not getting in the boat. Red and White Wellies are optional.
BtM@20: As I tell all those in the time for the tough to get going positions in the Predictathon, form is temporary, but class is permanent. You just have to get off your class…
BtM@23: According to Deloitte’s latest Money League, at £42 million, we had the third-highest year-on-year increase in commercial revenue after Real Madrid and Barcelona. To your point, we have the ninth-highest commercial income in the Money League and the fifth-highest among the PL’s Big Six. More work to be done by Stan’s men in suits, to be sure, but their efforts to improve the commercial revenue are beginning to bear fruit, such as the extensions of the Emirates and Adidas deals, with, I expect, a more lucrative successor to the Visit Rwanda sponsorship to come.
Reading some of the commentary on the Money League, it is clear that the Top Ten clubs can exploit their brands disproportionately to all the other clubs to increase their commercial revenue. A trade publication, Brand Finance, ranks us as the eighth-most valuable football club brand, behind Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man City, Liverpool, PSG, Bayern Munich and Man U. Many intangibles go into brand value, equity and identity (different if related things apparently). There will be others in this fine establishment with more knowledge on that score than me, but the other seven clubs intuitively seem like stronger brands. Just on the unscientific measure of people walking around in the streets of New York, one sees people wearing all those seven clubs’ merch (except Man City’s, but NY City’s kit is identical), yet rarely an Arsenal shirt. It is like Stanley meeting Livingstone when one does. I do wonder if this is an area for the club to work more on, although I am sure some premium silverware would help. It would be interesting to know what folks here think our brand identity is.
>>>>>>>