Well, that was harrowing stuff. We did ok in the first half but got outclassed in the second. Of course, it helps when your goalkeeper drops the ball right in front of an opposition player and that could’ve easily been avoided by not playing our backup keeper, but we absolutely deserved to lose this.
Both goals were scored in the space of a few minutes just after the hour mark by makeshift left back, Nico O’Reilly. I really don’t think anyone wants to read a blow-by-blow account of the match so instead let’s just look at reasons to be positive.
Numero Uno is we are still going to win the league. Probably. We sit nine points above City having played a game more but a win over Bournemouth and any sort of result at the Etihad should see us over the line. We have seven games left and it’s unlikely we’ll need to win them all.
Numero Dos is we can still win the treble which would be amazing. Going into this game we were still in with a chance of the quadruple and on the train to Highbury and Islington I had the thought of referring to Arteta as “The Quadfather”, had we managed it. Ah well! The Trebfather doesn’t really have the same ring to it. I think the Treble is also unlikely, but the double would still be very cool, and we are only a handful of wins away from that happening. That’s a perfectly realistic ambition for the rest of the season.
Numero Tres is Spurs are going down. Probably. Whilst we shouldn’t really bother concerning ourselves with what’s going on down the road, it would be really funny. If you didn’t see the videos circulating on social media, before the game they would have looked like some sort of parade supposedly to “get behind their team” but it really was pathetic stuff. They then proceeded to get battered 3-0 in a relegation six-pointer by a Nottingham Forest side who have barely been able to muster a shot on target in recent weeks. At home! In their God knows how many billions of pounds stadium. What a trip that will be for the Lincoln City fans next season. I think in many ways, that’s almost as good as another trophy!
Ultimately, yesterday was a real low point in what has been a season of mostly highs and one that will likely culminate in the type of glory we’ve not experienced in over 20 years. To still be in contention for the Treble going into April is a major achievement in itself. We haven’t been in that position since the invincible season, and they were a decent side!
I hope this relatively short piece has given you renewed optimism instead of an unpleasant retelling of yesterday’s unfortunate events.
Onwards and upwards.
COYG
Thanks 21CG, a very short straw but I think you made the right choice in skipping over
the details. We lost, they were better, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you etc and we move on to bigger things.
C100, in the last drinks – I think Tuchel has wisely concluded that the TAA show is a distraction he can do without this summer.
Just what I wanted and needed to read, 21cg.
21CG
Not a great day to be a Gooner but yesterday was the first time this season we’ve been clearly going to lose for much of the game . Our other defeats have been very late goals. Arteta is being criticised for picking Kepa and Pep praised for picking Trafford . It’s become conventional to have a Cup keeper but if we reach the FA Cup Final I hope we pick Raya .
Arsenal seem to have been struggling physically for some time ( as has almost everyone including C130y) but they looked fresher than us yesterday.
No one wants to dwell too much on the game so only a few points –
*We were mastered in midfield, Zubi is knackered and we missed Odegaard and we really miss Merino .
*Saliba looked after Haaland very well
*the Hincapie booking affected him and cut Semenyo some slack. It was very harsh. Calafiori looked very up for it when he came on. Timber would have looked after Doku much better than Benny
*Gyokeres had virtually no service
*Our biggest disappointments were Saka and Trossard . Saka is hugely off-form. Max is fearless and amazingly I’d prefer him playing wide atm but he might be better joining from the bench
Arteta is a great coach but this team needs lifting. The fans have a huge part to play .
Nicely pitched, 21CG. Just the tonic for the numbness from yesterday that is only now starting to wear off. As OM said, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. Onwards.
Pleased for Benny Blanco’s call-up to the England squad. Tuchel was at Wembley yesterday. Perhaps he thought that England could use a bit of the Whitehousery he saw when Ben politely reminded Cherki, who seems as annoying as Silva, that doing keepy-ups during a game is bad form.
As for TAA, it looks like Tuchel is Aubameyanging him.
A reminder that the GHF Predictathon leaderboard for Matchweek 31 has been posted. Some big moves up and down this week, with your correspondent in the latter group! Do you need to pick yourself up or curb your enthusiasm? You know where to find out…
TTG@3: Fair points, although I thought you were a tad harsh on Trossard.
The stark truth is that with Ødegaard, Eze and Merino out, and Nwaneri out on loan, Arteta has little alternative but to play Rice and Zubimendi into the ground and be creative in using players in other positions to fill in the midfield roles.
Declan Rice was also less influential than usual. He also seemed to be playing full-back late in the game when we needed him to be driving the team forward. He didn’t have one touch in the City box yesterday (he has been averaging 1.74 per 90 mins this season). He also had only 64 touches (v season average of 81).
My brother-in-law is a Hearts fan who has Newcastle as his English team. He was “very emotional” when the barcodes won the Carabao last year. At the time I thought “Really? Who cares?” And I’ve pretty much always felt that way, whatever the thing has been called down through the years.
Really. Who cares?
Going into the last week my “must do” list included beat Everton (3 points); beat Leverkusen (CL progression). My “would like” list, I must admit, included win the Carabao.
So the week went Everton – 3 Points. Leverkusen – CL win. Carabao – lost but Who cares?
And it’s interesting and informative (yes it is, don’t be pedantic) to compare our week with that of the 115ers which went:
West Ham – lost 2 points. CL – booted out big time. Carabao – won but Who Cares?
We’re big time. The 115ers are not. 2 shots on target and they won the Who cares cup. Who cares? Our week was better. No matter which angle or day of the week it’s viewed from.
We will need either Ode or Eze on the field when we beat them at the Emptihad however. And I’m with TTG, give Max and Martinelli the full second half up there and play Timber and Cala at full back. Do them in style.
COYG. NLFE.
A very therapeutic read, 21CG. Thank you.
The opposition were determined to make amends for their humbling at the hands of Real Madrid and we produced, in that second half, our worst 45 minutes of the season. Pep’s high press worked to stifle us and the team on the field lacked the players capable of playing through it or over it. As others have observed, they had only two shots on target in the whole game despite overwhelming possession and if, as suggested by BtM, you take the week as a whole, we had a better week and this was the game to lose, if we had to lose one.
It’s time to rest weary limbs and minds, heal torn muscles and focus on winning the remaining fixtures of the season.
Arsenal: not a job well done.
21CG: a job well done. Cheers!
Nice work, 21 CG. Thanks for the much needed pick-me-up.
BtM@7 – spot on. Thank you for helping my sense of perspective return just a little.
Onwards.
Before the game – when all was still optimistic
Adrian Clarke, clear-headed and honest about what went wrong:
We were “ok” in the first half but did not show for the second. Would Raya have made a difference? Maybe not, City dominated large parts of the second 45. The break comes at a good time. The three R’s: Rest, Regroup, Refocus.
U4GN@13: Had the cross that led to the first goal been caught, and the goal avoided, perhaps we would have ridden out the period when we were on the back foot unscathed and then re-established control on the game. It is both impossible to know and water under the bridge.
As the acute agony of yet another poor performance in a League Cup Final gradually subsides into a dull ache to join the chronic aches from past disappointments, we must hope that our players’ aching limbs which have caused multiple withdrawals from international commitments are remedied in the two week interlull and that tired minds are reinvigorated alongside torn muscles and that Mikel has digested the lessons from Pep’s high press and is working out a strategy for the game at the Emptihad.
At our place, Pep played a low block with two ranks of defenders leaving the mutant roaming up front and challenged us to break them down, which we finally did but only in the last minute. At Wembley he played a high press and high defensive line confident that we couldn’t play through them and so it proved. I think that with Raya’s better ball distribution and a fit Eze and/or Ødegaard, we can make a better fist of our next meeting but we have to be smarter and more proactive in our substitutions when individuals are struggling to win their duels.
@15 Good summary. I think that with Raya in goal we don’t lose the two we did* and we have the added benefit of longer/more accurate kicking over the high block (Mind you, Gyokores struggles to do much with those balls, pretty much everyone else in the forward line does better, smaller players with their feet; Kai with his head).
But the key to the whole end of season is a return to full form and fitness of our captain. I think our play this season hasn’t reached the highest levels achieved in the past four years and the date stamp on that decline in Austria v Norway when an out of control downhiller crocked Martin.
With Timber and Cala at FB and Martin or Eze in midfield we can beat 115ers at their place and challenge right to the end in both of the Definitely Care Cups still to play.
* Different errors occasioned by David may have lead to other scoring opportunities. Brighton, Wolves anyone?
Clery has suggestions on how to beat City’s non-press:
Ned @17, he does, but our worst spell – when we couldn’t find an out ball or even keep the ball, came when they started to press at the beginning of the second half. Watching that is a bit like picking off a scab!
I don’t think the key to success is getting one or two key players fit at this stage of the season, but keeping more of our players fit for more of the season.
We started this season full of optimism that a strengthened and improved squad would get us over the line. Even back in August though we had injury problems. Was Saka fully recovered ? Havertz and Jesus most definitely were not. Gyokeres arrived with no pre-season done and therefore our rotation possibilities Mi get the forwards were severely limited. Then Saka got injured, followed by Odegaard who has been fragile since the injury picked up on international duty as detailed by BtM.
Just as some of our forwards began to inch towards fitness so we suffered defensive injuries – in games and even warm ups. Calafiori is a terrific player but has seemingly been in the brink since Christmas. Saliba has been prone to niggling injuries and Gabriel had a significant chunk of time out – and when he was just about our main goal threat. Ben White had been a menorah miss for months as well.
We have now lost Merino for months to a broken foot – a huge miss as he is a real presence in midfield and attack. Rice even looks tired now and Zubimendi is clearly suffering the fatigue induced by chasing four trophies in his first season in physical English football.
Much of that above provides the reasons why Arteta has been unable to rotate lass than we, and probably he, would have liked. But why have we seen so little of Miles Lewis-Skelly and Christian Norgaard for example. MLS was excellent last season, not as good a defender as Hinkapie or Calafiori, but were there no games at all where he was deemed good enough. And how about playing g him in his proper position in midfield instead of absolutely running Rice and Zubimendi into the ground ? Norgaard is an international footballer who previously captained a Premier League team but had barely been on the pitch.
I love Arteta as the brilliant coach he is and this piece is not to have a go at him. He sees the players every day, as we all know, and he is a highly intelligent man who must have his reasons for this under use (only my opinion) of his squad players.
I do think that questions have to be asked of our strength and conditioning personnel. We’ve lost players to injury in warm ups no less than three times this season.
Do our players appear a bit prone to injury due to less than optimum preparation, fatigue and overuse, or just pure bad luck ?
Would our squad players earn more trust from the manager if they played more regularly to find their best form ?
Six players have just withdrawn from international duty with just seven decisive games of the season to go. Does someone need to be very hard headed about this and say that we either need more of our players fit, or more fit players ?
I will be overjoyed with “just” the Premier League title – forget trebles. I hope desperately that the players we have can get us there. Did it really, absolutely have to come down to this though ?
Excellent drink Trev . The mantra trooped out by everyone in the media is ‘ Arsenal have the best squad and two top players for every position ‘.
That may be true , although we need higher quality in some areas of the pitch but when you have a rolling roster of six or eight players out of action, resources get stretched – and we overwork our midfield players largely because they are so good. But they are less good now they are knackered . It would help if we’d been able to go out and buy two elite players in January but nobody has the financial resources to do that with PSR – oh sorry you can do it if you are owned by a nation state who is oil rich . We really do need to know if C130y are better at financial management than everybody else …..or if they are cheats . C130y deny all charges so it’s probably ok then
Just read Eze will be out for a month after injury against Bayer. I wonder why it took 10 days to get to this point?
I listened to Clive on the Arsenal Vision podcast, always worth a listen and he suggested we will see big forward arrivals in the summer. I imagine that will mean the depaif Martinelli, Trossard and Jesus if that’s the case.
Trev@19: You raise all the right questions.
We are by no means the only club to be blighted by injuries. The PL is intensely physical. I suspect the vogue for going man to man is making it even more so, Yet, conditioning is one of the factors that we can control, and as Arteta repeatedly says, it is the things that we can control that we have to concentrate on, not on those we don’t. So you are right to shine a spotlight on it. Three warm-up injuries are alarming. Even two would have set me looking for the Oscar Wilde quotes.
Martin Zubimendi has played 44 games so far this season. That is four more games than he played for his club in the whole of last season in Spain, and five more than in the season before that. He has only played more than 44 games in a season once in his career — 47 — and never played a season without a winter break. Little wonder he looks physically and mentally cream crackered, and even more reason to ask why Nørgaard and MLS haven’t played more.
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