What is going on? From top at Christmas to 4th on New Year’s Day. Arsenal have gone from a title challenge to a top four scrap in a matter of days following a pathetic loss at Fulham.
It is not often we see an Arsenal side as flat as they were yesterday. At least against West Ham chances were created. But yesterday it looked as though the away side had completely given up.
Personally, I don’t buy into the narrative that these players are suffering from “fatigue”. We are halfway through the season for goodness’ sake. Despite injuries we have a bigger squad than most. However, it seems there are certain players whom Arteta simply does not utilise enough. Reiss Nelson. Emile Smith Rowe. It is no wonder that the likes of Saka and Martinelli look fatigued.
The less said about the abject display the better. We seem to have forgotten how to break down low blocks. And that is a major problem given the number of them we face. It felt like a throwback to the late Wenger/Emery days where it was unclear what we were actually trying to do. We failed to register a shot on target in the second half. Pathetic!
If we lose to Liverpool next week, we will be in serious danger of ending the season trophy-less once again. For me that would be unacceptable. We need to turn this around quickly. Perhaps this winter break of sorts is exactly what we need.
I do believe this side has a long-standing mental block when it comes to any form of pressure. We’ve seen it time and time again. For years we have mocked Spurs for being bottle jobs. But are we really any different? The top four and the title have been bottled in consecutive campaigns. I will not throw the toys out of the pram just yet as I do believe this is just a blip but you cannot afford many blips in this league.
I do believe we are in dire need of a proper centre forward to be the difference maker. Last season the argument was that we were still scoring lots of goals and everybody was chipping in. This season, that is no longer the case. We need a 20 goal a season striker and it really is that simple. Will we get one? I seriously doubt it. Ivan Toney is available but will cost a pretty penny or two and has not kicked a ball in anger since May. Victor Osimhen will not be available until the summer. If we do sign a striker, it will likely be one that no one knows or is expecting.
So, what will 2024 bring? We remain in the knockout stages of the Champions League. Porto awaits in February. How far we go in that competition will depend on what we do in January. For too long we have been promised we will compete with the elite and for too long those promises have gone unfulfilled. One title challenge in over a decade is not enough. The odd FA cup is not enough. I do not wish to sound entitled but I don’t think I am being ungrateful when I say, 1 title in 20 years is simply not good enough. It is no where near good enough.
I love Mikel Arteta as the rest of us all do. He has taken us from a decade of underachievement to the brink of the title. Last season was incredible. We overachieved last year let us be clear on that. The goal was top four, and we absolutely smashed that target with distinction. so much to the point we were disappointed with second. But this year it is different. The aim was to win the title. That remains possible. And I do believe we will improve both in terms of performances and results. But I do believe one of the premier league or champions league must be delivered this year. I think both are unlikely.
Jurgen Klopp had delivered a champions league by now for Liverpool. Yes, Arteta is a rookie manager but he is four years into the job now. The time to deliver tangible success has come. And I do believe he is doing a good job. A very good job indeed. But the fact remains that time is slowly beginning to run out. He has successfully achieved his goal of raising our expectations. We went into the campaign with genuine belief we could win the title. Imagine saying that to an Arsenal fan three years ago.
As I said, we can still do it. The league is as competitive as it has ever been this year and I firmly believe it will be a three-horse race until the end. Everyone will drop points to everyone. But we simply must deliver.
On to Liverpool!
I’be been to Craven Cottage thrice now. Last season’s Arsenal visit, suffering yesterday’s game and witnessing a 5-0 thumping for West Ham in between – the same Wet Spam that Arsenal lost 3 points to in the run up to yesterday. So, to be honest, I wasn’t brimming full of confidence before we kicked off yesterday.
In the game I saw last season, Arsenal were imperious, a highly skilled, talented machine with all of the attributes to deliver a League title. Yesterday’s version was the complete opposite. While there are still many games to be played, 4 points from a possible 15 in December and nil from six in two games which should have been ‘nailed-on wins for the good guys’ represent pretty severe holes below the waterline in terms of our title challenge.
I don’t expect to see a new striker arrive in January and I think the chances of Toney being signed are nil. The talent that we have in the goal getting department will continue to represent our spearhead.
I was puzzled and perplexed by the non-appearance of Smith-Rowe yesterday. I’d have started him ahead of Havertz and would certainly have introduced him for the latter at half time. I wonder if anyone saw the video this morning of Martinelli refusing to shake Emile’s hand after Gabi was substituted? Emile tried hard then just shrugged the refusal off. Strange times in the camp.
There’s still a huge amount to play for and a huge amount of talent at Mikel Arteta’s disposal. No better time than now for coach and players to demonstrate what they’re made of, turn on the boosters and deliver. The travelling Gooners stood solidly behind the team yesterday despite the ‘testing’ display. Good stuff, stick with it.
Great report 21CG. Keep your chin up.
Cheers 21CG! Crucial few weeks ahead, with not so many matches but a lot of work to do, both on the training pitch and off it.
Happy New Year!
A heartfelt sense of sympathy from a very frustrated Gooner 21CG . I feel your pain because I think we all have it.
I went to last season’s game in late March with Btm and Bath. We played them off the pitch . Our side was pretty similar but they had Mitrovic . We were a shadow of tgat side having added one of the best midfield players in the world to our team . I think Arteta has over complicatedour tactics and we looked incredibly leggy yesterday . We score on counter attacks yet strive for total control which results in boring monotony .
A few weeks ago against Sheffield United I called our pace of play glacial . We won 5-0 but yesterday it was similarly glacial and we lost . We have needed a main striker all season and Havertz needs to step up consistently as Rice does . And we need a left back Kiwior is too slow and doesn’t invert well
Arteta is a great coach and he will prove a great motivator but he needs to be less stubborn and formulaic . We mustn’t overreact to two defeats but they’ve been deserved defeats to two teams we should gub.
Happy New Year let’s keep the faith even if the last week football wise was depressing
Suitably acerbic piece, 21CG.
That was shocking, in every sense of the word.
No more words left.
An honest appraisal of a performance that feels as bad in the cold light of morning as it did at the time, 21CG. As you say, there is still a huge amount to play for. By the end of today, we’ll still be within shouting distance of first, with 18 games to play.
Delivering silverware is hard. Over the past five seasons, the three main domestic trophies (PL, FA Cup, League Cup) have been won by Guardiola (9), Klopp (3), Arteta, Rodgers and ten Hag (1 each). That’s it. The other 72 who managed in the PL during that time failed to land any of that silverware.
A happy New Year to one and all.
I find this report almost as annoying as yesterday’s performance if I’m honest.
Yes, I thought the performance was awful.
Yes, I think it’s fine to criticise if that’s your opinion. We’ve all done it, me included.
And yes, I do think this piece sounds entitled.
And if this isn’t the “toys out of the pram” piece, god help us when that arrives.
I get that you were frustrated. We all were. Extremely. But there is so much self contradiction littering the piece, I almost gave up on it. Go back and re-read and consider whether time is really beginning to run out for Arteta ?
Why do you not accept fatigue could be playing a part in what is, after all, a downward sequence of performances, not a one off, out of the blue – but then say it is no wonder Saka and Martinelli are fatigued due to the lack of rotation. At least that last phrase makes sense. Those two players, plus Saliba, are 22 years old and barring injuries have played a season and a half non-stop. Saka also plays virtually every minute of England’s games and is systematically kicked to bits week in, week out. Why wouldn’t he be fatigued ?
We are also trying to win the league against a team financed with a well full of oil money, illegally applied if the allegations are proven, who also happen to be in possession of the Chsmpions League. But it is “unacceptable” if we don’t take one of those titles off them this season ? Entitled, moi ?
I’ll stop now and be grateful I wasn’t stood next to you on the terraces through the mid seventies and eighties. We were really bad then.
You drew the short straw 21CG. After a dispiriting defeat like that we all have different ways of reacting. I hide away until the pain subsides (I’ve spent all day buried in a wonderful book about Kettles Yard and Jim Ede), other howl at the moon in pain. To each his own. Gradually in the next week, my passion will rekindle until the game kicks off against Liverpool.
Wise words, C100. I’ve not been able to watch or read anything Arsenal based since the farrago the other night against West Ham. Back to work tomorrow and hopefully that will give me something to think about and put things back into perspective. In the meantime, Happy New Year to all who write, comment on and read the blog. Your contributions are one of the things that keep me, relatively, sane.
I am keen that we don’t hound Arteta because of a bad patch . A few days ago we were top of the league .
But one concern is the development of young talent . We disagreed here about the Eindhoven game which was a great time to blood some youngsters and to rest our star men. To an extent we did that but we started Saliba and if I recall Ben White played and he has had a longstanding injury . It was a great opportunity to blood Reuell Waters and now we have Tomi away , Zinchenko injured ( yet again) , White carrying an injury and Timber out long-term . Kiwior does not look a very good left- back option and we might see Cedric against Liverpool . Partey is not going to the AFCON but his injury is apparently the worst he’s ever suffered and he won’t be back soon. So although we need a striker a utility defender is probably the priority . With the Champions League looming our squad is too thin
As Arteta said post match, the worst performance of the season. Personally I do not think we played much better against West Ham. Two games that realistically we should be looking to take all six points from. As a minimum, I would expect four at the very least. However, both games had striking similarities. We came up against two hardworking, and well organised sides. Dare I say it but both sides looked as if they wanted it more. That is the unacceptable bit for me.
Ultimately, all of this does come down to the manager. Last season, we over achieved. We played some wonderful football and sadly ran out of gas towards the end of the season. We were beaten into second by the best club side in world football at the moment, and we all know the main reason for that? We still finished nine points ahead of third place, scoring 84 goals in the process. Arteta was backed again in the transfer window, spending large sums of money on quality players. He also oversaw players departing. Essentially, we should be far stronger than we were last season. But here we are, 13 points worse off and after 20 games, we have only scored 20 goals from open play.
I love Arteta. I love what he, along with Edu have done for the club. I love the progression that we have made and the continued development over the years. But Arteta has a stubbornness and arrogance about him. This can have a positive effect, but it can also be massively detrimental. His stubbornness at times seems to lead him into creating problems and issues that previously didn’t exist. The first example of this is with the goal keeping situation. That for me has created nothing but problems. Personally, I have no idea why we would want to ditch the best keeper in the league last season, for Raya. The common opinion would seem to be that it’s because he is better with his feet than Ramsdale. That’s all well and good, but as a keeper, he’s not judged on how many keepie uppies he can do, or how he can hit a 40 yard pass. I agree totally with RvP. If he’s that good with is feet, play him midfield. For me, Ramsdale is by far the better keeper. I saw recently that in every game that he has played, when he has had more than one shot to save, we have conceded. That doesn’t fill me with huge amounts of confidence. He has cost us several times already. Arteta made a big thing of saying that there were occasions when he would have subbed a keeper. Yet, the stubbornness kicks in and he remains with Raya.
The summer also saw the departure of Kieron Tierney and Folarin Balogun. Again, it was quite clear that he did not like KT3. From my perspective, I have always been a big fan. Balogun clearly had a bit of an attitude about him. I had no problem with him leaving, as long as we brought someone in. I do not know anyone that thought going into the season with just Jesus and Eddie as striking options was ever going to work.
So, how does all of this link back to the last two games? Sides know form what we did last year how to play against us. Both Fulham and WHU packed their defence and go men behind the ball. Several have spoken about somewhat bewilderment at the team selection and subsequent substitutions. I agree totally with those who have spoken so highly of ESR. He should have started against WHU. For his 15 minute cameo, he really drove the team forward. Let’s not forget it was not that long ago that he was our top scorer? 15 minutes as a sub in those 2 games? I have no idea what he has to do to get playing time, I really don’t. Against Fulham, why take Havertz off, and replace him with Nelson? What is the thinking behind that? In games when Saka and Martinelli are just the wide players when we play our handball football, why not switch wings? Why do we persist in trying to run through a brick wall when there is literally no space? We take 6’04” Havertz off, and start swinging crosses into the box? Tomi comes on and it seems he is asked to play the same role that Zinchenko plays. He looked like a fish out of water. Then there is the Zinchenko problem. Sides target our left when he plays. He’s great in that creative role, but a full back, he isn’t.
One of my major complaints from the Fulham game was the lack of fight and character. We seem to have it in abundance when we go to places like Anfield, but then struggle massively when we go the likes of Fulham, or play the likes of WHU. This for me is where we miss the likes of Ramsale, KT3 and players like Xhaka. I think ESR would have brought us that fight had he managed to get on the pitch. We do look fatigued. We look fatigued partly due to the stubbornness not to make changes or to rotate. Declan Rice has been an absolute revelation this season. He’s been outstanding. I can’t be the only one wondering what happens if he has a period out injured.
Like BtM, I don’t see us bringing in a top striker in January. I am also not convinced that Ivan Toney is the right option either. The news filtering out today was that Partey is not going to the AFCON. I really do not know what that means for us going forward, or how far away he is from actually playing.
For all of the wonderful work that Mikel Arteta has done, his stubbornness and arrogance could see a lot of it undone very quickly. I hope that he is sat at home and has removed his blinkers with regards to certain players, before it becomes too late. Otherwise, we could well and truly find ourselves having the same issues as last season. We have a lot of great players, but we also have those that are just simply not good enough. It is not a sense of entitlement, it is just what I along with all of you witness on a weekly basis. This season should be one of progression. However, at the moment, I am struggling to see it. After a bad run, in my opinion, we still have a lot to be positive about. But Mikel has to remove the blinkers and just look at the wider picture. Apart from anything else, I can envisage a situation very soon where we see the likes of Ramsdale and ESR plying their trade in the Premier League for other clubs. I would be incredibly disappointed if that were to happen. I would hate to see Arteta’s stubbornness, eventually lead to his own downfall. That would be a total waste.
Onwards and upwards as they say. A great effort 21st CG, especially in such testing circumstances.
Steve T@10: There is a lot in what you say. West Ham was a bad day at the office, in my book, but Fulham was just bad, very bad. A running in treacle sort of day. How to fix it is the question now. The thing is that great managers in any enterprise recognise — or have someone they trust tell them — when sticking to their philosophy and holding fast to their principles and to their course has turned into stubbornness and arrogance, and know how and when to row back from that. By all appearances, Arteta is highly introspective. I am sure is asking himself a lot of the right questions, even if he hasn’t yet found the right answers. This season’s tactics are, in part, the result of a lot of heart-searching about the end-of-season fade last season. Yet they have had unintended consequences, or he has made the wrong choices for the right reasons. Raya/Ramsdale may be one of those. Whether Arteta and his team can find how to pivot and flex without flip-flopping will make or break this season.
Much wisdom there @10, Steve T. Good to see you back in the bar!
Much wisdom also here, from Keenos this morning:
Great drink, Steve T. A rational response, easier once the initial flames of anger have relented.9
No idea what that random 9 was. A subliminal cry for a centre forward perhaps.
Keenos piece is also very good. Thx Bath.
Nice to see you back Steve T. Your drink is very considered and makes a lot of sense . Keenos piece is also very sensible . Both fall into the category of constructive analysis . Mikel isn’t above criticism but let’s get a sensible perspective on what he has achieved.
He inherited a basket case of a club. It appears likely that it wasn’t Emery’s fault but more a product of a dysfunctional management structure and some poor decisions by less than competent officials at the club . But Arteta’s single mindedness is a strength and a weakness. This is his first management job and he is learning as he goes. Let’s hope he can ease the burden on a thin squad and not disenfranchise some real talent like ESR , Ramsdale and Tierney ( still a Gooner- can we terminate his loan given our injuries?)
So the cosiness of the bar has been shattered by a review of a match being publicly criticised probably for the first time ever. It’s not the first time I have felt a bit awkward reading a comment on here. Cynic hasn’t been back since being verbally abused by someone. I don’t know the history for the aggression but I miss Cynic and some of his observations.
Yes the review did read as a bit entitled but I also recognised the frustrations felt. Jonathan Wilson in the Guardian today talks about the manner of the two defeats, given we are meant to be better equipped for a tilt at the title. This is based on a view that the midfield would eventually settle and the fluency of last season would eventually return. This hasn’t happened and the front three have lost form. Lack of goals, leading to increasing pressure on the defensive side of the game.
It’s worth a read if you have the time.
Anyway thank you to 21CG and Trev for all your valid views and contributions.
Sancho Panza, thanks for your comment.
Just to be clear, I have absolutely no problem with any point of view expressed in this bar so long as it adheres to Dave’s and the current rules which are that those comments do not descend into abuse.
At no point were 21CG’s comments abusive and he is perfectly entitled to express his opinions. I simply found some of them illogical, self contradictory and unreasonably extreme. I don’t need to repeat any of the detail here, and I hope I made my points also without descending into abuse. I’m sure someone would have rightly corrected me had that been the case.
This bar was never intended as solely a place for happy clappers and will always be a livelier, more interesting place for a whole range of views.
My own view of our attacking malaise is that we badly miss Thomas Partey and, say it quietly, Granit Xhaka. Partey was part of a quartet on the right hand side with White, Saka and Odegaard, always providing the latter with an inside option as well as the outside pass.
Xhaka did the same on the left with Martinelli, Jesus and Zinchenko, and had developed the knack of the late run into scoring positions.
With the double marking of the two wingers that is now a regular tactic the loss of Partey and Xhaka has seriously reduced our attacking options.
The two wingers could / should swap wings now and then and go round the outside – the inevitable cut inside has made them too predictable.
And above all, we really have to move the ball much more quickly and where possible into forward space to run onto rather than always to feet which just gives the opposition defence extra time to regain their shape.
Trev, ‘We miss Thomas Partey’……..like rainforests miss the rain. Probably the major difference between last season and this.
For what it’s worth, I miss Cynic too. His comments often provided a critical perspective on the team that stimulated useful discussion. However he took umbrage at the deletion of an abusive comment that he had made directly to another Holic and left of his own accord. He himself was abused by no-one.
Cynic can post again whenever he wants to do so, providing he sticks by the rules.
I rather like the courtesy of thanking a poster for their efforts…even if you subsequently disagree with their take on the game . It can take a lot of work to produce a report and then the technical group here have to format it and put it onto the site .
We have rules that reflect the civility and ethos engendered by Dave Faber in his Goonerholic blog. It was always an oasis of sanity particularly if Arsenal weren’t doing well.
But I’ve never felt it incumbent to restrict critical comments if they are justified and to propose change if it’s for the good of the club. We saw this in the latter days of Arsene and the later tenure of Emery . If the club is in a mess I don’t think fans do it any favours if they blithely accept everything . But a culture has grown up on some blogs where they post negatively all the time about the club and that seems at odds with supporting Arsenal. The ‘ I told you so ‘ culture supersedes the desire for Arsenal to do well .
Taking a step back from the last two games, there is some interesting FIFA analysis about the growing successful use of a mid-block and central pressing when out of possession (the tactic used by WHU and Fulham) by teams who expect to have a minority of possession. One of its studies, of the four quarter-finals of the Qatar World Cup, reveals that none of the quarter-finals was won by a side that had the majority of possession and that all four winning teams used a mid-block to negate world-class attacking opponents.
A second study looks at much the same happening in the Club World Cup, but compares how Al Ittihad’s forward line of Benzema, Coronado and Romarinho (not too shabby a front three) ran riot when they were allowed to operate between their opponents’ midfield and defensive lines but ran into a brick wall when they played the Egyptian and African champions, Al Ahly, who used a compact mid-block to deny them access to those spaces and pressed the three midfielders behind them (Fabinho, Ngolo Kanté and Al Ghamdi) to cut off supply. The Saudi and Asian champions, the supposed favourites, lost 3-1 despite dominating possession.
All of which is to say that we are not alone in facing the fact that teams have worked out a way to cope with possession-dominating opponents with better players, and Arteta won’t be alone in working out how to solve the problem.
https://www.fifatrainingcentre.com/en/game/tournaments/fcwc/2023/using-block-defending-and-central-pressure-to-negate-world-class-players.php
TTG@21: Well said.
The GHF Predictathon Leader Board for Match Week 20 is posted. You know where to find it…
Ned @22, that’s rather depressing to those of us who enjoy watching free-flowing attacking football. It’s reminiscent of the emergence and spread of catenaccio in the 60’s of which Internazionale were a leading proponent. Despite their much celebrated defeat in the European Cup Final by Jock Stein’s exhilarating Glasgow Celtic in 1967 catenaccio lingered on as a strategy, particularly in Italy where its dead hand produced many sterile games, until the emergence of Total Football in Holland in the early 70’s. I wonder what will emerge to slay this dragon.
Surely the pioneers of free flowing football, West Ham United, aka the Academy of Football would not stoop to such negative tactics to win a match. Champions of Europe my arse.
Good point, SP. Ron Greenwood will be rolling over in his grave.
Ned @22, Bath, SP
Surely the answer is obvious and well tested – get the ball out wide and bang it over the top in the mixer. As simples as Harry Redknapp 😉
Trev@28: Lubbly, jubbly. Where’s Peter Crouch when you need him? 🙂
You are right in the sense that the way to beat a mid-block is patiently to manoeuvre the block to one side of the pitch by creating overloads and then rapidly and accurately switch play to the opposite side, so the open winger can cut in and shoot or get behind the back line and cross or cut-back. You have to have technically accomplished and tactically astute players to do that, which is why only elite sides can play a possession-based game successfully, and why they do.
My two cents is that in the WHU and Fulham games. we were doing the right things to break through the mid-block but not doing them well enough — slowness in switching play, uncharacteristically sloppy passing, and the lingering problem of subpar finishing.
A belated Happy New Year to you all.
Started badly Arsenal wise though I fell asleep shortly after midnight local time and missed the second half. To be honest the first half is fairly hazy too and from the report (thanks 21CG) and various drinks it seems that was for the best. My excuse was I’d been drinking all day, not sure what the team’s excuse will be 😃, though MA was pretty up front about it after the game.
On we go and looking forward to the Liverpool game, the cup seems a welcome break just now and then it will be time to get back on the horse for the Palace / Forest games which will be the latest test of character. Personally, I still expect it to come down to us or Shitteh
as I did at the start of the season.
If you want to idle away a few moments wandering down memory lane, I came across this 2015 document from CIES Observatory, a Swiss sports research institute, about a way to identify future stars based on the amount and quality of their playing time in senior football while they are still young.
The document is in French, but the lists starting on page 6 naming names are self-evident. There are plenty that you will recognise, such as e Thibaut Courtois, Julian Draxler, Neymar Jnr and Raheem Sterling, and, closer to home, Bernd Leno, Calum Chambers (!) and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Yet, whatever became of Tony Vilhena, Pione Sisto, Doriu Rotariu and Georgi Milanov? Who? I hear you say.
The takeaway is that breaking into a senior team when young is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a stellar career.
https://football-observatory.com/IMG/pdf/mr02_fra.pdf
Can’t believe we’re talking about Pione Sisto again! Must be the third time this week.
SP@32: 🙂
Incidentally, we have three players on the current list: Charlie Patino, Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Ovie Ejeheri.
Speaking of Pione Sisto (again), did you know that his name is an anagram of “I Stop Noise?” Surely that must be of value in his contract negotiations.
Having several moments to idle away I had a look Ned.
Only 24 players in the PL that season.
In my entirely biased opinion less than half had
solid PL careers and only two or three passed the ultimate test
« I wouldn’t mind if they played for The Arsenal »
And in the least surprising news of the day: unsuccessful for the Liverpool Silver ballot. I shall be browsing Ticket Exchange before the Red ballot results…
Ollie @36, snap!
If you can avoid the transport issues, lots of tix for tomorrow’s game on exchange.
Harry Kane out, TimoWerner in…smart business by the Spuds 😀😀😀😀😀😀
Indeed TTG. Apparently he’s not found his scoring boots back in Leipzig. Does he think he lost them on arrival in London last time? Hopefully they remain well hidden.
C100 @38 – as you say, if you can manage your way around the tube strikes tomorrow, a great opportunity for reasonably priced tickets.
TTG @39 – Spuds get more and more bizarre. Not content with having 2 non-scoring centre forwards in Richarlison and Johnson, they now want to buy another one.
CER
Can you imagine the reaction if we ‘ landed’ Timo ? It’s an amazing decision . It’s interesting that he was a sensation in his first spell at Leipzig but awful at the Bus Stop . It suggests that good German numbers – think Haller, Sancho, Podolski as well as Havertz don’t always translate into stellar numbers in the Premier League
Also amazing is that vocally Ange is turning into Sean Dyche .They make Lee Marvin sound like a soprano
>>>>>>>