Goonerholics Forever

Nottingham Forest visited Ashburton Grove for a 2 pm kickoff (London time) on Sunday, fresh off their 1-0 defeat of Liverpool last weekend in the League. To think they should be flying high would not be a surprise. Likewise, after Arsenal’s draw at Southampton last weekend, and our defeat in the Europa League in Eindhoven, it would be a fair shout to wonder if the Arsenal squad would be down, or thirsting for recovery. A 5-0 thrashing of the team propping up the League table by a resplendent Arsenal said “thirsting for recovery” writ large.

This will be a short review, as just as halftime clocked at 7:45 am here in California I had a violent, 5-hour vertigo attack. I didn’t get to see the second half until mid-afternoon, and then I had to rewatch the first half because I couldn’t remember what happened. Apologies. And as the fundamental story of this game was that Arsenal scorched Forest’s earth, I’ll be focusing on our play, players, and what it means for us to have played so well (“say we’re top of the league!”).

Forest had something like 3 or 4 good moments in 90 plus minutes, all of which seemed to stem from mistakes by Arsenal: a wayward pass at the back from Gabi led to a tame shot by Lingard blocked by White. Another poor pass by Xhaka led to a shot by a Forest player, but it was likewise tame and easily saved by Ramsdale. And really, that was about it. In all the time I’ve been watching Arsenal I can’t recall a team that offered as little as Forest did on this day.

So, to Arsenal. Our first goal came in the 5th minute. Tomi intercepted a pass deep in their half on the left and passed to Gabigol. Gabi cut across the middle of the pitch and rifled a pass to Saka near the top right corner of the box, and kept on running. Saka timed a beautiful curling pass to perfection for Gabi to stoop and head past Henderson into the bottom right corner of goal (Arsenal 1-0 Forest). Wonderfully worked, and the dedication of the goal to Pablo Marí after brought a tear to the eye.

We played some attractive football the rest of the half, but with 10 men behind the ball Forest’s rearguard action was stout and effective. Shortly after our goal Jesús curled a shot just wide of Henderson’s far post, but otherwise we just couldn’t make the final pass, or gather our efforts into a pattern that unlocked them. Perhaps the best moment was down the left when Xhaka cut back for Martinelli whose slightly scuffed shot was cleared off the line by a Forest defender. The other two moments of note were Saka having to be subbed off for Nelson in the 27th minute, and Xhaka being hammered by a tackle that could have done the same for him right before the half.

When I could finally watch it, the second half was some of the most beautiful football I’ve seen us play this year. Four goals, three of which came in an 8-minute span of domination starting just after play resumed, all of which were different and all of which were top, top class. Of the four, Partey’s curving ballistic missile of a shot (a repeat of his beauty against that little team from Middlesex earlier in the year) from a Nelson layoff in the 57th minute could be the pick of the litter (Arsenal 4-0 Forest). But Nelson’s first (in the 49th minute), after fine linkup play by Party, Xhaka, and Jesús, might have been even better. After getting the ball passed through to him by Jesús from the middle of the box, he completely fooled two Forest defenders with a fake shot, had his real shot saved by Henderson, and returned the rebound with an arrow into the top corner of the net above two other defenders (Arsenal 2-0 Forest). It was Nelson’s first goal for Arsenal in two years, and it’s clear the whole team was chuffed for him.

Both Nelson’s second and Ødegaard’s to finish the scoring had the kind of intricate play we’ve come to love from our team. Three minutes after his first goal Nelson started the move deep in our defensive half, and after a series of passes that brought Jesús and Mø to interplay a sweet short pass away from goal allowed Jesús to chip the ball into Nelson’s path; he scored with his near foot, which was certainly a difficult option (Arsenal 3-0 Forest). Mø’s goal, coming 12 minutes from time, was again the result of intricate passing and quick feet. Jesús again was the provider, feeding Mø in the middle of the box to shift the ball left, then laser it in to the top corner before Henderson could react (Arsenal 5-0 Forest).

And that was it. The game finished without incident, though our subs reduced our fluidity and, I thought, exposed that Vieira really needs to hit the weight room in the next couple years. I think the MOTM was Partey, even in the face of Nelson’s brace. His deep passing, either through the defense or on angles around it, was brilliant; his pass to Xhaka for Nelson’s first was inch-perfect, and the nicest pass I saw all day. Another excellent player was Tomi, who half the time lined up as an auxiliary midfielder, with our defense playing a back 3. It gave us so much control of the ball I tip my hat to MA8 for using it in this game. There was a rare Cédric sighting; I thought he played well, as did Tierney after coming on.

No one had a bad game, even Jesús played well despite not bringing his shooting boots. Two assists will do that for you, and the number of times he tracked back to defend deep in Arsenal’s defensive third was impressive. Saliba and Gabriel were imperious, in spite of some small mistakes; White worked effectively with Saka and Nelson, in turn, and was consistently disposessing or altering the runs being made by Forest on their few breaks. Xhaka continues to impress, using space beautifully; he actually did some hesitation moves and shoulder dips that enabled him to beat his defender, not something I associate with him.

Our biggest worry out of today is Saka, for the Chelsea game. I have to believe Nelson did enough to start against Zurich this coming Thursday, which will give Saka an entire week to be treated and get into the bus stop with fire in his eyes. Also for Zurich, I think we should rest Partey for Sambi, and if Mo’neny is back start him instead of Xhaka (both can be retained on the bench in case it gets skittish). It was clear by the timing of their substitutions that Tomi, Saliba and Martinelli were being withdrawn with an eye to (at least) the midweek fixture.

And so it goes. We’re top of the league! I was so happy to watch the second half of this game, almost as happy as I was to no longer be nauseous from the vertigo. We have four more games before there’s a break in the season for some event happening in a desert during November and December. Win all four and we’re top of the league at the break, top of our EL group (thus avoiding extra games and CL drop-downs), and one game further on in our quest for the League Cup. Not a bad place to be with many of our players NOT heading to the desert, able to heal, rest, and train ahead of the resumption of the League in the festive period.

Unfortunately, the fact that we received such a small allocation of tickets, combined with the renewed zeal of the match-going fanbase ensuring sell-outs for away games occur at very high levels of credit points, means that your correspondent doesn’t write from Eindhoven as planned. At this moment in time, away tickets seem to be the footballing equivalent of Fabergé eggs. On the other hand, perhaps the post-match antics of the PSV fans last week makes not going a good thing, with reports far and wide of their trouble making both inside and outside the ground. Apparently PSV have to pay Arsenal £40k for damage caused inside the ground and their fans have been banned from their next game – away at Bodø. Hardly a chastening punishment from UEFA. Plus ça change.

The team announced contained a few surprises; Ramsdale in for the injured Turner who hasn’t made the bench; Saliba at centre back with Tierney, Tomi, Xhaka, Ødegaard and Martinelli starting as well. White, Gabriel, Partey, Saka and Jesús on the bench. Another chance for Lokonga and Vieira to impress and Eddie to show that he continues to step up at the highest level. Ahead of the match, I read this as an aggressive statement that he wants to win or at least not lose, is prepared potentially to suffer as a result on Sunday, and then rest the entire first team in a dead rubber next week against Zurich ahead of Chelsea away. This is a manager who takes measured risks. I like it.

PSV started far more aggressively than last week and without creating too much threat their attacking intent was far more obvious. 

It was interesting to see Viera playing in the Saka role – very much hugging the touchline to spread the defence as wide as possible and keep full backs pinned back. Tomi was noticeably taking careful consideration before getting outside Vieira in the same way that he usually does as he was clearly thinking about Gakpo. 

After 8 mins we saw the first save of the day when Simons took a shot from the edge of the box and Ramsdale comfortably saved low down to his right to push it away for a corner. The chance came from a piece of sloppy play from Ødegaard – a very lazy pass in the midfield. This was an indicator of what was to come.

On 18 mins, hearts were in mouths when a superb finish from Gakpo sent the home fans into a state of noisy delirium. However, the linesmen did his job excellently and raised his flag. TV evidence showed that Gakpo made his run far too early and broke a particularly good line being held by the Arsenal defence. 

A decent spell of possession and a couple of near opportunities for the Arsenal on and around the the stroke of the quarter game mark showed PSV that we were still in it, but nothing came of these. On 38 mins really good approach play saw Martinelli take a ball on his chest and with PSV players advancing volley his shot rather too early and send the ball into the gods.

Just before half time the wasp-like – in the sense of an annoyance that just won’t go away – Simons muddled through a sea of defenders and stabbed the ball into the net. Once again this came about as a result of Arsenal’s poor play and was compounded by poor defending as the forward’s control was hardly Messi-like. Again, the guy who knocked the ball to Simons was offside so again a good call from Officials and VAR. Are you watching, Riley and Dean? More likely they’re seeing not watching. The visual equivalent of hearing as opposed to listening. 

At the end of the first half, my thoughts were that our touch was way off. Perhaps, while it was 0-0 we were simply trying to contain and conserve energy. Eddie was simply not in it. Vieira looked lively. The difference between Partey and Lokonga looked huge although it did seem as though he wasn’t being deployed in exactly the same role as Partey is. Not a criticism, just an observation. And finally, can I have a pint of whatever Capitola Rob is putting on his hair as his thatch seems to increasingly resemble the thicker, darker areas of the Mato Grosso. I’m not bitter!

The start of the second half saw De Jong replace El Ghazi – two players who played in the PL to no particular note, I thought at the time. What do I know? In his appearances for Newcastle a few years back, De Jong appeared to be providing some kind of a performance art-based tribute to the sculpture of Rodin or Michelangelo, so little did he move. He seems to have developed somewhat in the intervening years, as we were about to find out.

We made a bright start to the second half with a good shot from Nketiah going just outside the post, followed by Tierney making a good run down the left, bringing it inside and, channelling the Ghost of Winterburns Past, attempting a right-footed shot towards the far right of the goal 

Gakpo started where he left off, by showing that he really isn’t very bright and clearly doesn’t understand the offside rule. It appears, to me at least, we may have dodged a bullet in not attracting him in the summer..

On 54 we saw good interplay between Simons and Gakpo – onside this time – leading to a shot which whistled past Ramsdale’s right post. Arteta was clearly getting nervous, and TV showed a stripped off Partey ready to come on. Too late! Before he got the chance, PSV scored through de Jong. Holding in particular, despite his spectacular barnet, was guilty of poor defending getting the wrong side of the attacker in the build-up.

Immediately Partey and Saka came on – Sambi and a rather invisible Ødegaard went off. Partey played deep, pushing Xhaka forward and Saka took his usual wide right berth freeing up Vieira to play the number 10.

There was more than a touch of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic about it, as on 62 minutes PSV, through the formerly statuesque but now annoyingly mobile De Jong, scored. 2-0. Again, it was something of a gift as Ramsdale came for and missed a corner. It was rather in keeping with the shoddy performance given by everyone else on the Arsenal side. I suppose this could be seen as some perverse form of collective responsibility and that he didn’t want to stand out from the rest!

It just continued to get worse and on 66 Gakpo had the ball in the net once again and was once again offside. 

It was at this point that it dawned on me that I couldn’t remember a single genuinely troubling effort on target by Arsenal. 

By now, PSV were completely overrunning us. Arteta made some changes with Gabi coming on, shortly followed by White and Gabby for Tierney and Tomi. It made not a jot of difference. The game closed out and we were well beaten.

The gamble which Arteta took in resting players backfired spectacularly. I don’t blame him for taking it and, in fact, it was a gutsy thing to do. Orwell described sport as war minus the shooting. We appeared to take that rather too literally last night with very few shots being attempted by us at all. To continue the military metaphor, clearly the deployment of our limited resources is at breaking point. The fact is that we are beginning to appear to be running on fumes and the World Cup break can’t come soon enough. Time for some R’nR for those not going and to look to bring in fresh legs, if that’s possible in this most congested of seasons. 

Onwards and upwards, Gunners. 

Forest on Sunday. Let’s go again!

As I had not yet attempted to write a match report, previews being more my thing, I thought in midweek I’d better do a bit of research on our upcoming opponents so they weren’t all a complete mystery to me on match day. Saints manager Ralph Rabbit-(little)Hutch has significantly shuffled his pack at St Mary’s in the wake of two 0-9 defeats, which he has so far survived. They must really like him down there on the south coast.

In midweek Bournemouth were playing out from the back and while the quality wasn’t there, there were similarities to ourselves in the way they played, albeit they used the long ball a lot more than we do in the attacking half of their game. Southampton had no answer to it, other than to hit long balls out of trouble from almost anywhere on the pitch.

Bournemouth only failed to run up a small cricket score because they simply do not have anything like the quality of our own forwards. So with no sign of an organised press to prevent us playing our way out from the back, and no more hint of any plan of attack in midfield, I was anticipating a much more comfortable afternoon than we endured at Elland Road last weekend.  

Saints, despite a lot of plaudits after their 1-0 win, appeared to me a shapeless, rudderless outfit and I was definitely left rubbing my hands at the prospect of Ødegaard, Saka, Jesús and Martinelli running at that defence.  

The snide BBC reporter pre-match today, asked Mikel Arteta if the fact that Arsenal are currently top of the league means they are the best team in the country. His question was met with the calm logic I’m sure he expected and he hopefully felt quietly put in his rather stupid place.

The team was unchanged from the eleven that started at Dirty Leeds, as predicted by GSD in his preview, with Tomiyasu resuming at left back and Ben White on the right – we should know by now that it will be ‘all White on the Right”. 

There was much talk of banana skins amongst the fans as St Mary’s has not been a great hunting ground for us in recent years, but The Arsenal started brightly and only 45 seconds had elapsed when Martinelli received a great long ball from Ben White, but his pass found Jesús in an offside position.

Two minutes later Jesús was fouled from behind for the first time by Southampton’s No 6, Coletta-Car. From the free kick Xhaka played the ball out to Saka on the right and his brilliant cross evaded Gabriel by a whisker right in front of goal.

A lovely, swift passing move then ended with Xhaka belting a shot into the keeper from a tight angle on 6’30”, and a minute later we saw the first consequences of Arteta’s demand for a tough mindset in his players. Martinelli landed heavily on his shoulder after going up for a header with Lycano, but while recovering on the floor he was hauled up by the same shoulder in order to “ get on with it”. Within seconds he fed Ødegaard centrally who unfortunately dragged his shot wide from 20 yards with most of the goal unprotected.

On 10 minutes we were ahead. White collected a return back heel from Saka and pulled his cross back to the onrushing Xhaka, who rifled the ball into the net with his newly discovered right foot.

Southampton 0 – 1 Arsenal

It was 21 minutes before Southampton earned their first corner. After the initial clearance Saints’ Joe Aribo received a sweet ball in, but his legs turned to jelly and he was left with egg on his face as he scuffed the ball to Aaron Ramsdale. (Old’ uns – ask the kids if you don’t get the ‘sweet’ jokes). Arsenal were purring and continued to create chances with some great football. 

On 28 minutes Bakayo Saka, following a threatening run, appeared to be tripped in, or on the very edge of, the penalty area. While many Gooners hoped to see Mr Robert Jones point to the spot, he actually produced a yellow card and waved it, to everyone’s amazement, at Saka for what he considered to be simulation. Everyone, including Smudger and the TV commentator were completely befuddled by the decision which, we were informed, cannot be reviewed due to the endlessly confusing and ridiculous rules that govern VAR. 

An odd sequence of six corners to Southampton and two more scoring chances spurned by Martinelli and Jesús meant that when the Saints went trapesing in at half time, they found themselves 1-0 down to a slick and classy, if wasteful Arsenal, and no doubt fearing the worst for the second half.

Half Time: Southampton 0 – 1 Arsenal

In fact, this turned out to be the classic game of two halves. After the interval, Arsenal seemed to find it impossible to recreate the pace and sharpness of the first 45 minutes. Southampton were doing a good impression of Stoke, utilising long balls, long crosses and long throws – I quite expected to see Shane Long make a reappearance for them. Their determination was personified by No 6, Coletta-Car, who one assumes has been training with the England Rugby Union squad, such was his repeated hauling down of Gabriel Jesús, an act encouraged by the total leniency of Mr Jones. One such dispossession of our No 9 led to the passage of play, admittedly a neat one, which saw Stuart – one of a production line of Armstrongs down the years at Southampton – pass the ball past Ramsdale into the back of our net on 65 minutes.

Southampton 1 – 1 Arsenal

Eddie Nketiah and Kieran Tierney were brought on at 70 minutes, while Theo Walcott, with a truly criminal hairdo, came on to little or no effect for Southampton. The remainder of the game saw Tierney felled at the Saints’ goal post, but Mr Jones continued to be unimpressed, Ødegaard netted from Tierney’s cross which was correctly adjudged to have gone out of play, but wait – there was, after all, follow up to the blow to Tierney’s throat. Set piece coach Nicolas Jover was so angry about the whole thing that he was booked for dissent, or some such, by the curious Mr Jones, who seems either unacquainted with, or unconcerned by the actual rules on foul play. Theo Walcott did earn a place in his notebook though, not for his outrageous Barnet, but – you’ve guessed it – simulation. This is one offence that Mr Jones is very keen on.

The five added minutes saw Lyanco booked for Southampton, when he retaliated to Nketiah’s version of the Coletta-Car haul down, by trying a ridiculous double head butt which happily missed it’s target.

And so a game which started in such brilliant style petered out to our first draw in 27 games, dating back to January. It was the first time we have lost points from a winning position this season. At best we are almost unstoppable. You can see in our play what Mikel Arteta was demanding in the All Or Nothing series, when he said the players needed to memorise a pattern of numbers that would relate to our play. That positioning makes our press both possible and effective. It also facilitates the quick, one touch, “instinctive” passages of play which leave opposing midfields chasing shadows. 

The number of games in such a short space of time is catching up with us though. Mikel says he has been working with 15 or 16 first team players this month. He is going to need the much anticipated January transfer activity if we are to sustain our challenge. Two cup competitions will be added to the schedule in January. Interesting and testing times.

For now though, we are two points ahead of Manchester City after eleven games played. That means we are top of the league, say …..