Goonerholics Forever

In some (not so) distant future some young Arsenal fan — curious about the beginning of the by then wondrous Arteta years and looking to learn more about how the journey started – poring over the results of this surreal 2020-21 season will likely be at a loss to come up with an explanation of why his beloved team had embarked on a tour of the ancient capitals of the Mediterranean to play against the Portuguese stalwarts of Benfica (or S.L.Benfica, or Sport Lisboa e Benfica). Portuguese football’s most decorated team, a major force in the European football in the 1960s, and of course the club graced by the superlative genius of one Eusébio, Benfica has remained a perennial contender for the top honors in Portuguese football with their last Primeira Liga title coming in 2018-19.

Exchanging Tagus in favor of Tiber, Arsenal arranged to play the first leg away match against Benfica — for the round of 32 in 2020-2021 Europa League — not at Estádio da Luz in Lisbon but Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Last time we had played there, a young Arsenal team won 7-6 at penalties (after losing 1-0 at the end of extra time and with an 1-1 aggregate across both legs) against Francisco Totti led Roma in the Champions League of 2008-2009 season. And then there was also of course the memorable Thierry Henry show in November 2002 when the Henry hattrick gave us a 3-1 victory in the Champions league group stages.

Following the last weekend’s assertive 4-2 victory against Leeds in the league, the overall mood going into this match has been mostly optimistic. Much of the discussions in the preceding days had centered around the possible starting line-up. Mikel, already renowned for his inscrutability in press conferences, has also been typically unpredictable in his team selections. Except, of course, always giving Willian some playing minutes – I kid, I kid.

He chose to start the same eleven that played with such fluidity and technical quality last Sunday. Lacazette and Pépé can be forgiven for feeling a little cast aside for missing out on the starting eleven on this occasion despite playing reasonably well in the league matches before the Leeds match. I am sure there is a blueprint for how Mikel and his coaching team want to approach this challenging sequence of four games – Benfica, Manchester City, Benfica, Leicester – in little more than a week and they are following their plan.

In addition to Lacazette, Pépé, Martinelli et al. it was also encouraging to note the return of Kieran Tierney in the bench. Which made Thomas Partey as the only key player missing from the squad at this time.

This is the first time Mikel had started the same eleven in two consecutive matches. And the first time Arsenal had started two consecutive matches with the same eleven since September of 2018, in the early days of Mikel’s fellow Basque Unai Emery. That’s quite an extraordinary statistics by itself and can be explained in many different ways… injuries and inconsistencies being the two main reasons one would suspect.

Leno

Bellerin – Luiz – Gabriel – Cedric

Ceballos – Xhaka

Saka – Ødegaard – ESR

Aubameyang

The team started on the front foot dominating possession and controlling the center of the pitch. Both ESR and Saka started narrow and Ødegaard was given a more free-flowing role, combining deftly with Ceballos and Saka, sometimes dropping further deep to combine with Bellerin to create overloads on the right.

Our very first attack – down the left with Auba spinning forward trying to break the offside trap, unsuccessfully – on the 2^nd minute set a pattern for the match: Arsenal trying to quickly break through Benfica’s high defensive line, and Benfica defense admirably sticking to their job and moving back and forward with an organization and clarity that demonstrated how well Jorge Jesus had drilled and prepared his team against the pace of Arsenal forward line on the break. Both Aubameyang and Saka were frustrated time and again by Benfica’s well-orchestrated defense and caught offside. They were also well prepared for the over-the-top long ball from David Luiz and Gabriel, especially with the Helton Leite willing to come quickly outside of his area to clear out the ball. There were a few moments where it was obvious that his courage to play the sweeper role is not sufficiently complemented by the ability to read the situation correctly and this may be an area Arsenal can target in the “home” leg at Athens. Around 18^th minute one such clearance was just headed out by Helton right from the feet of ESR.

A minute later Arsenal should have been one-nil up. Bellerin, who had been one of the busiest players on the pitch with constantly running up and down the touch line and running behind the defense on the outside of Saka, was set up by Ødegaard (or was it Ceballos?) as Hector ran on to a through ball and then put in a perfectly weighted ball for our captain to simply tap in past the goalkeeper. Aubameyang had timed his run well but missed the target completely. Captain Auba all throughout his career has always been prone to the occasional bouts of these types of inexplicable misses. His shot conversion rate for Arsenal has been quite extraordinary (thankfully so given the paucity of our creative play and chance creation rates over much of his time at Arsenal) and much better compared to his career record. The timing of the run was perfect and hopefully he would put this miss behind easily for the upcoming matches, even though for the rest of this match it had visibly impacted him. 

Ødegaard was playing with the composure and technical quality reminiscent of the many memorable Arsenal midfielders over the Wenger years. Around 27^th minute he was involved in an eye-catching build up play with Saka from which Saka shot straight at the goalkeeper. There was another wonderfully intricate move around 40^th minute with Ødegaard again at the center of it.  However he was also guilty of overplaying in that move instead of taking an early shot. A little bit of more incisiveness in his decision making in the final third and he will be a truly wonderful player.

In between around 32^nd minute there was a moment of scare when a rare foray by Benfica led to a shot that Leno caught easily but the ball slipped out of his hands and he regained it in the second attempt.

We had also earned a few corners in the first half, with Ødegaard taking on the corner duty. Not much came off any of them.

In addition to the well-drilled defense, Benfica was also not shy of following the examples of various PL clubs in taking turns at bringing Saka down to not let him run with the ball at his feet. Someone called Vertonghen – have you ever heard of him? Must have used to play in some awful club before this lucky upgrade to Benfica – was particularly guilty of it.

Granit Xhaka has lately been more forward thinking and full of verticality in his passing and movement than he had ever been in Arsenal colors. It definitely has helped him to have someone as mobile and intelligent as Emile Smith-Rowe in front of him. But in this match Xhaka relapsed back to one of his stodgy, negative performances with continuously slowing down our attacking play and even missing some simple cross-field pass, even though from a purely defensive perspective he did his job of covering the left side well enough whenever Cedric joined the attack. To me this was a very tired performance and let us hope that before the City match Xhaka rediscovers his recent brightness of form. From one such moment of tired passing just before the half time we almost conceded only for Dani Ceballos to run back and provide a block as Benfica pounced on Xhaka’s loose pass to spring a rare attack.

Benfica started the second half with two substitutions. We came out unchanged but started brightly with Saka taking on a lead role. Once he almost put ESR through and Emile’s shot was well saved by the goalkeeper but the offside flag was raised anyway. A minute or so later we again overloaded on the right and Saka after neatly carving up some space for him to shoot on his favored left foot put the ball wide off the mark. This was turning out to be one of those days.

That feeling of quiet desperation — that we Arsenal supporters have lately become a little too familiar with — started to make its presence felt as a rather unfortunate sequence of events led to us conceding a very soft goal. Arsenal defense didn’t clear their lines when there was a chance and Benfica earned a corner. From the short corner the attempted cross ricocheted off ESR’s right arm as he was jumping while turning and to keep balance had his arm stretched a bit away from his body. It is a true 50-50 decision and the VAR ruled in favor of the Turkish referee’s original penalty decision. Benfica captain Pizzi stepped up and scored. Leno should be disappointed to not save the attempt as he had guessed the direction and the height accurately and the shot was not aimed at the corner. Pizzi matched Eusébio’s record of 7 goals in an any European competition for a Portuguese club.

Benfica 1 (Pizzi 55’) – Arsenal 0

A few minutes later Arsenal equalized. Aubameyang from a central position on the edge of the box passed to Ødegaard who set Cedric up with a perfectly weighted pass through the defense and Cedric’s cross was finished adroitly by Saka.

Benfica 1 (Pizzi 55’) – Arsenal 1 (Saka 57’)

Around 63^rd minute Aubameyang had his second glorious chance of the evening when set up by Ødegaard with only goalkeeper to beat. The angle was not the easiest but that is typically a bread-and-butter finish for Auba on his right foot. He shot wide.

Immediately after Tierney replaced Cedric. For the rest of the match he played well enough, but understandably also played well within himself and not attempting one of his bursting runs flying past the defenders. ESR combined well with Tierney on the left, and so did Pépé when he later came on for Aubameyang as a part of double substitution on the 77^th minute including Gabriel Martinelli replacing ESR and moving in centrally.

Just before the substitution Aubameyang missed another excellent opportunity when Gabriel – whose long-range passing was noticeable for their positivity and intelligence even though the execution on a few occasions could have been better – delivered a wonderful ball over the entire Benfica midfield and defense for Aubameyang to run onto. Auba controlled the ball well enough but instead of taking a shot on his left foot tried to switch to his right and in the moment a retreating Benfica defender did enough to put him off. On another day Auba could have had a hattrick.

Benfica had a little bit more of possession in the second half and did carve out a couple of presentable opportunities one of which required Leno to make a flying save. Pépé combining well with Kieran went in the penalty box beating the last defender but couldn’t manage to make a final pass or shot. In the closing minutes Elneny replaced Dani – who has had an effective game on both ends of the pitch — and Willian came on for the excellent Ødegaard. The match ended with the 1-1 scoreline that from Arsenal perspective must be very frustrating even though “not the worst result” as Saka pointed out after the match.    

Even though this away goal means that if we simply manage to not concede in our home away from home at Athens we will go through, I don’t think we can or even should try to set up that way in that match next Thursday. We are capable of scoring a goal or two, if not more, and going with a clear intent to win – while staying vigilant at the back – will be the better option. 

As the second half progressed today Saka and ESR I thought were betraying signs of tiredness in their passing and decision making even though their work rate remained exemplary. They are two exciting young players who both have a great future ahead of them, and in coming years can form a formidable creative partnership. Hopefully they will both be used carefully with enough time to recuperate in between so that there are no setbacks.  

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There have lately been heard whispers in the air that one Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has, if not entirely fallen out of love with his muse, lost that intense drive, the instinctive touch, the infectious joy – maybe even the jouissance as a Lacanian might say – of scoring goals which has been a defining passion of his footballing life. There were absences forced by personal challenges – made worse by these wretched pandemic days – which needed to be taken care of, and everyone in and around the club – including the world of Arsenal fans which let us be honest aren’t all universally the most understanding type – had offered him nothing but the most gracious support, and thankfully all that is behind him now. But even when he was starting matches this season wearing his captain’s armband he hasn’t really been quite himself: not in the way he moved lethargically in and around the penalty box, not in the way he carried himself without his usual inspiring positivity, and definitely not in the way he failed to find the back of the net in succession of matches which is most unusual for a player who has created a career out of scoring goals irrespective of how the team is playing or whatever else might be going on. 

So, it was all the more enjoyable, and reassuring, to see our talismanic captain back basking in the glow of his goalscoring passions on this Valentine’s Day, and (hopefully) announcing the end of this very unusual dry period with his first Premier League hattrick, which also took him to two hundred league goals in Europe’s top leagues. 

Even then, he was not my man of the match as Arsenal and Leeds served up an exciting afternoon of free-flowing, attacking football. Arsenal’s young number 7 – by all evidence until now a rightful heir to such luminaries of that shirt as Liam Brady, Robert Pires, Tomáš Rosický, or Alexis – Bukayo Saka produced one of those performances that can be called…unplayable, or at least nearly so. 

The starting line-up from Mikel Arteta promised a front-foot approach with both Emile Smith Rowe and the January loanee Martin Ødegaard starting together. Ødegaard nominally in the number 10 role and ESR occupying the left wing (or left inside-forward, as is preferred by Mikel)  in place of Nicolas Pépé, who might have felt a bit aggrieved by this snub given the upward trajectory of his recent performances, but one suspects that given the importance of our upcoming “away” match against Benfica in Europe this was a planned rotation from Mikel and not any judgement on the Ivorian’s contributions. Saka started on his customary right sided attacking role, and Aubameyang as the focal point of the attack which typically is the preferred role for his friend Lacazette, rested for this match. 

Thomas Partey’s injury opened the door for Dani Ceballos, himself returning from injury, to resume his midfield relationship with Xhaka. The center of the defense saw the Brazilian duo, Gabriel keeping his left sided role and his mentor Luiz to his right. Leno returned back from the one match suspension – and his deputy the lifelong Arsenal fan Matt Ryan having performed admirably in his absence now providing a sense of security on the substitute bench – with Cedric and Bellerin in the two full back roles where our options being severely limited with Tierney’s injury and Ainsley’s courageous leap into Sam Allardyce’s tactical brilliance. 

Leno

Bellerin – Luiz – Gabriel – Cedric 

Ceballos – Xhaka

Saka –  Ødegaard – ESR

Aubameyang 

The team from the very first minute showed that they are well prepared for the relentless intensity and fluidity of movements of Bielsa’s Leeds who -especially for a newly promoted team – play with fearlessness and verve that has given the PL this season some very memorable matches, and who can hurt any opposition at any stage of a match.    

Arsenal started purposefully with an aggressive press from the front, and a rare intensity in one-on-one duels that bodes well for the future. Leeds do not defend tactically with players positioned statically in spaces but always move in fluid formations allowing them to launch speedy attacks from any position at any time. Winning the majority of the duels and not allowing any Leeds player to even look up and notice the passing lanes was a noticeable tactic that Arsenal executed superbly all throughout the first half. The technical security provided by Ceballos and Ødegaard in the middle of the pitch – both adept at keeping control in tight spaces and Ødegaard particularly with a quality of touch, control and pass that was highly resistant against the manic pressing of Leeds – helped us to quickly release ESR and Saka who played mostly as inverted wingers, allowing them to assert control using their stronger feet, with Cedric and Bellerin overlapping on the outside. 

First ten minutes Arsenal were completely dominant with ESR and Bellerin shooting over the bar, Aubameyang involved in the build-up both times. Auba was moving with the sharpness and unpredictability of old that makes him such a threat especially against defenses that do not keep a low block. However, the first attempt on goal came from Leeds when following a rare foray down their left flank Bamford headed in a cross straight at Leno. 

The first goal came shortly thereafter. Following brisk passing between Gabriel, Xhaka and ESR on the left side of our midfield Xhaka found Aubameyang at the edge of the box with ESR darting inside and opening up some space for his captain. Auba cut inside, did a couple of stepovers and shot through the legs of couple of defenders. Even though Meslier had his near side well covered by narrowing the space he could just touch the ball on its way to the back of the net as he tried to make a save on his right. 

Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 13’) – Leeds 0 

The match continued with Arsenal dominating play in the Leeds half and not allowing them to play out from the back. But whenever Leeds could bring the ball forward they showed that they have enough guile to cause us trouble. Around 19^th minute Klich found a little space to control the ball and take a shot at the goal but it flew over.

Even though this is not the “Dirty Leeds” of infamy, and neither is Bielsa known for a tactics of overly enthusiastic physical challenges, Leeds was still prepared to use the rotational fouling that now has become the go-to strategy for opposition teams to counter the brilliance of Saka, who was being kicked around, again. Midway of the first half Alioski – a left fullback with #10 on his back – shot straight at Leno for Leeds second attempt at goal. 

Around 35^th minute following a great combination play with Ødegaard, Saka drove purposefully in the box, ran past the defender, and was hauled down. There was a penalty given originally by the match referee which was overturned a few minutes later following a discussion between the VAR, the referee, and a ghost in the video screen that showed intangible visuals to the referee to make up his mind to second guess his perfectly fine original decision. 

To their credit Arsenal didn’t let this – if the words “surely not again?!” have bobbled up in the forefront of their mind they did well to not let that frustration show  – questionable decision sidetrack their purposeful play and earned an absolutely “un-VAR-overturnable” penalty when Meslier brough Saka down as Saka just stole the ball from the goalkeeper’s feet after a clever and relentless press. 

Our captain stepped up, sent Meslier the wrong way and sealed his 200^th league goal in top European leagues with an emphatic finish. 

Arsenal 2 (Aubameyang 13’, 41’) – Leeds 0 

Just before the half-time whistle was blown the move of the match unfolded to get us our third goal in a manner reminiscent of the best Arsenal team goals over the years.  Saka again went on one of his unstoppable runs but this time stretching the defense from their left to right, right across the penalty box, keeping possession and weighing up his options as his fellow bandmates in red and white arrived in droves. After a brief hesitation he set Aubameyang up on the left side, who floated in a cross to the opposite side of the goal that Bellerin headed down to Ødegaard, who quickly found his fellow Madrid loanee Dani, after holding on to the ball for a second Ceballos found Bellerin by a “nutmeg-pass” and Bellerin finished sharply between the goalkeeper and the near post. 

Arsenal 3 (Aubameyang 13’, 41’, Bellerin 45’) – Leeds 0

All the three first half goals were immensely enjoyable, also equally enjoyable was a moment of beautiful total football by Arsenal that didn’t lead to a goal as Luke Ayling – another Arsenal academy graduate – produced a fantastic block to deny Aubameyang. It happened around 28^th minute when David Luiz, after sweeping up a loose ball in an advanced position decided to go on a marauding run – instead of a quick long pass that he tried maybe a little too often until then – and was the most advanced Arsenal player on the right byline before providing a perfect cutback to Aubameyang who saw his goal bound effort blocked by an excellent piece of last ditch defending. All around good football! 

The second half, pleasingly, saw us started with the intensity undiminished. Aubameyang dropping deep protected the ball well and set up Saka for one of his runs right through the Leeds midfield, while himself quietly moving towards our right. Saka’s shot from the edge of the box was blocked, Cedric helped Saka out in recovering the ball and set ESR up who floated in a tantalizing cross (again, just like with Saka’s goal against Chelsea where he intended to score, I think ESR here saw Auba ghosting in on the backpost and set him up) that Aubameyang headed in for his first premier league hattrick. 

Arsenal 4 (Aubameyang 13’, 41’, 47’, Bellerin 45’) – Leeds 0

Bielsa had made two substitutes at the start of the second half and as Leeds have already shown this season, they had nothing but the most positive intent and the score-line made no difference to how they continued to approach the game. Dangerous Raphinha has been kept quiet by Xhaka-Cedric- Gabriel for the most part but when he got on the ball he produced a save from Leno. Leeds made their final substitution. Saka continued to torment the Leeds defense and earned Arsenal a free-kick, Xhaka floated in a decent delivery. 

Then Leeds scored. They have been poor at defending set-pieces but their own execution of the corner was excellent: Raphinha producing a great delivery with Struijk making a late run past Saka and jumping over David Luiz to plant an unstoppable header past Leno. 

Arsenal 4 (Aubameyang 13’, 41’, 47’, Bellerin 45’) – Leeds 1 (Struijk 58’)

On the 62^nd minute ESR was replaced by Willian. The rational explanation would be that this is not any sort of reward for the misfiring Brazilian’s performances throughout the season but an attempt to play him back in form, and keep Pépé and Gabriel Martinelli rested for the Europa match. While understanding the rationale I wonder whether his position in the squad would be better served given to someone like Reiss Nelson who for all his inconsistencies is always involved and plays with purpose and intensity, and if his fellow Hale End graduates ESR and Saka are any examples to go by a consistent run of matches even if from the bench can definitely help the team more than someone who seems to be going through the motions at this stage of his career. 

Then Leeds scored their second goal with a brilliant piece of attacking football. Raphinha providing a through pass inside of Bellerin, Roberts flew past Hector to get to the ball and provided a neat cut-back for Hélder Costa to finish strongly. 

Arsenal 4 (Aubameyang 13’, 41’, 47’, Bellerin 45’) – Leeds 2 (Struijk 58’, Hélder Costa 69’ )

The commentators didn’t tire of reminding us that Arsenal remains the only team in PL history to not win from a 4-0 lead – and I remember that match at Newcastle rather well, including the nicest of footballers Abou Diaby returning from one more frustrating injury being fouled all through the match and losing his temper to earn a rare red card – and after the second Leeds goal I am sure most Arsenal fans relived that memory. We failed to control the match with 4-0 up and instead of keeping the ball and making Leeds chase the game we allowed them to attack easily. It was understandable that the first half intensity cannot be maintained for the whole ninety minutes and a bit more guile and ability to slow the tempo down – especially from the seniors like Xhaka and Luiz – would have served us well. The match remined open and Arsenal continued to attack as well: Aubameyang hit the bar, Ødegaard’s goalbound shot was deflected, Saka hit the post albeit from an offside position. 

In between Mikel had brought in Elneny for Ødegaard around 78^th minute to provide more defensive security, which Mo did with his characteristic tenacity chasing and hurrying Leeds midfield. 

On 87^th minute Cedric produced a superb right footed effort on goal from outside the box; the swerving dipping shot produced a good stop from Meslier. Holding was brought in for Ceballos to further shore up the defense in the final moments of the ninety minutes.  The additional minutes went by without too much scare on either end, in between Auba receiving a couple of kicks on his legs. Just before the final whistle was blown Aubameyang raced through with the ball from a counterattack following a Leeds corner but he was brought down. 

The first 45 minutes of this match Arsenal probably played some of their best attacking football in the last few years, Aubameyang thriving in a free-flowing role as he expertly exploited the positional uncertainty created by the continuous movements of Ødegaard, Saka and ESR. Not all teams will play like Leeds and have this open a match and in those cases there will of course have to be different tactical tweaks — but the fluidity, passing accuracy, technical security provided by those three, and ably supported by Dani, shows the progress we are steadily making as a team. 

In Saka and ESR Arsenal Academy has produced two most promising young talents to have come through the ranks in a very long time. Per Mertesacker, Freddie Ljungberg, Steve Bould and everyone else involved – past or present — in our youth academies should be proud of those two boys.