Feed on
Posts
Comments

Season Preview – The Difference A Trophy Makes

Sep 7th, 2020 by

When I sat down to write this preview the first thing that struck me as I pondered the upcoming season was how much the whole vibe around the club, the players and the supporters had been changed by our FA Cup win, benefits both tangible and intangible were gained that day. If we had not so steadfastly put Chelsea to the sword a month ago this would be a very different season preview. Potless in more ways than one, the discussion would have been around our worst league position in a millennium, our inability to win big games and our lack of resources to meet the challenge ahead. We would not have watched another Wembley win, this time over Liverpool, or even had the simple pleasure of chuckling over trips to Bulgaria for the neighbours. But we did win and thank Dennis I am not writing that preview.

Instead we go into the new season with reasons to be cheerful indeed. One two, three for starters – firstly, the trophy cabinet is freshly stocked as we’ve remembered how to win, secondly new players have been brought in with more to come if Edu is to be believed and thirdly, our current crop of youngsters – Saka, Martinelli, Saliba, Smith-Rowe, Maitland-Niles, Nelson, Nketiah, Willock, Tierney and now the new Gabriel are all plausibly challenging for regular starting places though the jury is still out on some.

In fact, I’m a blockhead as there are far more than three. We have the strongest keeper duo in the PL, we have a core of experienced players through the spine of the team, we have Auba to sign, we have Dani back and I haven’t even got to the really good news yet. This season will start with a fan base united behind our bright young manager after what seems like an eon of pointless bickering and mistrust, the players seemingly fully committed to the plan and actually understanding what it is, and then we have Mikel himself talking the talk and walking the walk like, well, like a top class manager. Truly our cup runneth over and buoyed by success we bounce into the new season; that is the difference a trophy makes.

Of course the problem with bouncing is that you come down again eventually and as I think more deeply about the coming season there are, as ever, more questions than answers. Rather than take those questions one by one I would like to look at them as they relate to our challenges in the coming PL season. As Mikel Arteta himself has already pointed out it is great to win cups and to beat big clubs in one-off games but the real test for this team is to win consistently and to return our club to the top of the table. In terms of that challenge I see 3 fundamental questions – 1) Are we good enough? 2) Do we have the will? 3) Do we have the depth? Be nice to answer yes, yes and yes and finish this piece with a cheery “see you in Islington for the trophy parade” but they are difficult questions to answer and the fact that the transfer window closes nearly a month after the season starts doesn’t help – that is not a criticism as it was I think unavoidable – for the simple reason that key areas of the team will most likely see changes in personnel between now and mid October. A look at our results since the restart doesn’t really help much as a form guide either other than to show Mikel was absolutely right to point to a lack of consistency as our biggest challenge internally. The external challenges I will deal with summarily later. On then to the first of those questions……..

Are we good enough?

The past two or three weeks on Goonerholics Forever saw some excellent analyses of the strengths and weaknesses in various areas of the pitch. I will not go over old ground other than to say you’d have to travel a long way to find a gooner who is satisfied with our defence in the central areas or our creativity going forward. However, contrarily I will answer my own question with a tentative yes. Why tentative? Saliba and Gabriel must prove capable of hitting the ground running, in all honesty that is a big ask as we have already seen from the large number of centre backs we have signed and discarded over the last few seasons but it must be done and it can be helped by the second caveat – we must sign at least one player in central midfield with the speed of thought and movement to both win the ball and then use it to drive us forward. Finally, Auba must stay fit. I am sure that between them Pepe, Laca, Eddie, Martinelli, Saka, Nelson and now Willian (quite the supporting cast now that I put all the names on paper) can provide goal-scoring support but Auba is our only top class 20 goal a season striker. So much for the why tentative, now to the why yes. It is possible with the caveats above that for the first time in a few seasons we can field a strong side in all areas of the pitch next season, certainly good enough for the Top 4. A cheery thought.

Do we have the will?

Watch us against Wolves or Southampton away after the restart, never mind Chelsea and Man City in the cup and I would say the answer is yes. Watch us against Brighton and Villa or indeed any of the bottom six last season, with the exception of West Ham bless ‘em, and the answer is to me no. We dropped 15 points against the bottom 6 sides last season and we cannot do that again and expect any improvement in our position this season. The odd bad result yes, after all Liverpool lost at Watford and Man City at Norwich just from memory last season but 15 points is not acceptable. This is not a matter of ability and it is a problem we have had for several seasons. Personally, I think it is Mikel’s biggest challenge, one that he certainly hasn’t solved yet and one that I must regretfully accept may not be solved this coming season. I am not blaming individuals, it is a team problem – the players can see it happening and they are the ones who must be driven enough to do something about it. I would love to see progress in this area, flat-track bully is not an insult to me in football terms. Confidence gained from winning the FA Cup will help but it is not a matter of confidence either, it is a matter of determination to win every time you walk on the pitch. The players talk the talk well but then do not walk the walk. That is possibly harsh but some of our performances both before and after the restart were infuriating. This is where Mikel must earn his money – he’s explained the plan, the players get it and now they must produce – and I hope he will be ruthless with slackers. I was as angry as Guen after the Brighton game but it was our own fault not Maupay’s regardless of his sneaky assault. Seeing is believing on this question at this stage but I am as always hopeful. Fulham away is a good place to start. One thing that could help is the better- balanced squad that Mikel & Edu have talked about. We are going to need it and it also takes us to the next essential for success in what will be a brutally congested season.  

Do we have the depth?

As has already been widely predicted this season will be tougher than an ageing warthog, and there will be more injuries than usual, particularly muscle injuries and that’s without the damned virus. In all honesty I’d have preferred some competitions to be suspended for a year but the time for that discussion is past as greed has once more prevailed in a 1st Rd KO. In the circumstances, having every position effectively covered is even more critical than usual. In seasons past both Leicester and Liverpool have won the league with weaker squads than Man City but I’m doubtful that will be the case this season. The balance must be right of course. It is pointless having three great left backs if we have no one to cover at right back. However, at this moment I would answer yes on the depth with the same caveat applying in central midfield. Again, the transfer window makes a definitive answer impossible but personally I would not like to see either Hector or Laca sold – much as I like them both I am not yet convinced that Eddie or AMN are the answers at CF or RB / RWB through several months of games. Squad depth is the reason I would sell AMN before Hector, Laca or either of our goalkeepers this season if we must sell to strengthen. I understand people will disagree and point to the excellent job AMN has done in recent big games on the left and they would be right to, but we have new center backs, which should free KT for that role and Saka is a good choice when we want to be more attacking. The right concerns me more. We can’t sell Cedric and I’d honestly rather keep Hector than AMN at this moment to play either RB or RWB though there’s less in that there was and time may prove me wrong.

I suppose when we look at what we need to get back to the top of the table as Mikel wants (all of us too no doubt) – and by the top I mean challenging for the title and not scraping into the Top 4 though I’d take that for this season – then two out of three ain’t bad with some judicious buys / holds between now and the end of the transfer window. Of course there are more factors involved but our fixture list is reasonable,　our team doctor is staying and our executive team looks less cluttered. I should also say something about the board I suppose as it is, after all, running the club and therefore I will duly note that they exist.

But what of the external factors then?

The Opposition

Man City and Liverpool must be our two main targets this season. In Man City’s case Silva is gone and Aguero aging plus Pep seems recently to have lost his pip and pop, the poor pup is down to the pap. Still, they will be a challenge even with their Shitty defence. As for Liverpool and Klippity Klopp, well we won’t talk about Klep and Klap in this case as one is a sensitive issue for the bindippers and the other shouldn’t be discussed in a family blog. However, few teams retain the title and they haven’t looked the same force for several months now. A quality side but we’ll see whether they can raise their game again. Man Utd and Chelsea have both spent money but I don’t see that it’s money spent wisely and their mangers are both overrated. Though of course Mikel will treat all our opponents with respect, as will the players I have no such constraints. The rest are little teams and should be dispatched accordingly. Well, I did say I would deal with the externals summarily so you were warned. In all seriousness I’m a firm believer in putting our own house in order rather than worrying about the opposition and if we can improve our attitude under Mikel’s guidance then I believe we have the quality and depth to challenge.

In summary, buy a decent CM, turn up for every game this season and the results will look after themselves because you have quality. Easy for me to say of course but it is not actually impossible for Mikel and the players to do, so just do it lads.

I cannot finish without mentioning my biggest hope for the season – our fans return, everyone stays safe, and we get through the coming winter in the best of health. A happy and prosperous 20/21 season to all the gooners everywhere.

I almost forgot………..

The HolicsRopeyLeague is running again in the Fantasy League this season and the more the merrier so please just let us know with a quick post in the comments section if you’d like to sign up and we will send you the code. I look forward to crushing you there.

Posted in Waffle | 119 Drinks »

Arsenal’s Goalkeepers

Sep 2nd, 2020 by

Generations of Arsenal Glove Butlers.
Generations of Arsenal Glove Butlers.

When I set about writing this piece I imagined it was going to deal only with our current group of goalies and how blessed we are to have – transfer window and budgetary issues permitting – two top class goalkeepers, following an era when that has not always been the case.

But for me, it never takes long when thinking about Arsenal keepers before I’m back in the days of a great hero of mine, Bob Wilson, and I make no apology whatsoever for using the opportunity to post a picture of the great man holding the tangible products of our 1971 League and Cup Double triumph.

Bob was the first Arsenal keeper I knew and as far as my not infallible memory goes, he had it all. The flying leap, the coming and gathering of a cross, the diving head first at the feet of an onrushing centre forward, and even trudging from the Highbury pitch in a blizzard-abandoned match, when he finally realised that all the other players had already gone off !

Bob, of course, served the club as goalkeeper coach after his playing days, his most famous and best charge being David Seaman – whom Arsene Wenger had the great fortune to inherit as his number one – reflecting Bob’s influence as an agile, commanding and unerringly calm keeper. Seaman and Wenger together won two Premier Leagues and three FA Cups.

One skill which Bob had that has been lost in so many modern keepers, was the ability to catch the ball – a trait so refreshingly shared by Emiliano Martinez. This would seem to be the minimum requirement for a top level goalkeeper, but how many now prefer to punch or parry than catch and hold. Deciding when to come off his line was another area where he excelled and that brings me to the first point of, let’s say, contrast with many of our recent custodians.

I read a comment, a long time ago now, in one of journalist and Arsenal fan Amy Lawrence’s articles, in which she said she had once seen an international fixture between Northern Ireland and Russia. The Irish keeper was Gerry Peyton who was clearly a very good shot stopper, but whose weakness seemed to be decision making and coming off his line.

Peyton, of course, became the Arsenal goalkeeping coach in 2003 – when Bob Wilson retired from the position and left along with David Seaman – and worked at the club for 15 years. He left the club in 2018 along with several other members of the backroom staff, in changes which coincided with Arsene Wenger’s retirement.

During his time at the club he worked with Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski, Wojcech Szczesny, Vito Mannone, David Ospina and Emi Martinez. The characteristics Amy Lawrence mentioned were a feature of all of those keepers with the very notable exception of Martinez.

Remember, for example, the first Barcelona game in the Champions League at The Emirates. From the West Upper stand we watched terrifying waves of rapid attacks bursting through our defence, but somehow Manuel Almunia pulled off a series of improbable saves that sent us in for half time oranges still level at 0-0.

Hopes were high at the restart that we could actually pull this thing off. Those high hopes were very swiftly dashed to pieces when our hero of the first half became the villain of the second, as he twice left defenders with nowhere to go by rushing bizarrely out of his goal.

Lukasz Fabianski, another really likeable man and great shot stopper, eventually suffered abuse and ridicule because of the rash excursions off his line and some quite shocking misunderstandings with his defence. He always gave the impression that, despite obvious agility and quick reflexes, he just didn’t have the calmness or mental strength necessary to handle the pressures of playing at such a big club – something that has been borne out by his relative personal successes at Swindon and West Ham.

When Gerry Peyton left in 2018, the possibly surprisingly named, for an English ex-goalkeeper, Salvatore Bibbo took over, and he was joined in December 2019 by Brentford goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana Pavon – a man Mikel Arteta knows from their playing days at Barcelona. He set about improving the physical fitness of the keepers which, in turn, leads to better mental strength and concentration.

Someone who does appear to possess great mental strength is Emiliano Martinez and it’s a quality he has developed since childhood. He comes from a genuinely poor family in Argentina and can remember times when “[he and his] brother Alejandro could eat, but not [his] parents – there simply wasn’t enough money to go round.” He recalls seeing his father in tears because he couldn’t pay the bills.

As a junior Emi played for Independiente in Buenos Aires, which is 400km from his home town of Mar del Plata. He would only see his family twice a month, when he travelled to them, because they couldn’t afford the petrol to drive to him. At 16 years of age there was another tough decision to make following his trial with The Arsenal. He was ‘scared’ coming to England for his trial and decided “there was no way I was going to leave my family.” When he got the acceptance call a week after his trial, he said “I saw my brother and parents crying, saying “please don’t go.” I had to be brave at the time, because I said “yes” for them. Now I don’t regret anything. I have got a wife and a kid here and I have a future in London.” And his family can now certainly pay the bills!

The early settling in period was hard. Apparently there was little assistance adjusting to his new environment and there was a new language to learn. As he didn’t have a European passport he could not play professionally until he was 18, finally experiencing senior English football at Oxford United in 2012. There were further loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Wolves, Getafe and Reading, which he vowed would be his last. He is now Arsenal’s longest-serving player, and after ten years in the background has, fittingly for a keeper, certainly grabbed his opportunity with both hands (every possible pun absolutely intended).

Martinez played as a centre forward as a child which probably explains why he appears so comfortable playing out in some pretty tight situations. However, he had become such a good goalkeeper by the age of 16, that he was playing for the Argentina U17s and that’s where he was spotted by an Arsenal scout. It was ten years ago when Independiente were happy to agree on a £1.1million fee to transfer their keeper to the Arsenal.

Martinez’ teammate and rival for the first team spot is, of course, Bernd Leno.

Leno was born in Bietigheim-Bissingen in Germany in 1992 and, like Martinez, is 28 years old. From the age of 6 (yes, 6!) in 1998 to 11 in 2003, he played for SV Germania Bietigheim, and so the proximity to home of his earliest club would suggest a somewhat more comfortable childhood than that of Martinez.

In 2003 he joined VfB Stuttgart Youth until 2009 when he moved up to the VfB Stuttgart II Senior side at 17 years of age. 2011 saw him transfer to Bayer Leverkusen, where he spent 7 years and made 233 appearances for the Bundesliga team, until moving to the Arsenal in 2018.

Since 2008 he has represented Germany at U17, U18, U19 and U21 level, and since October 2015 has made 6 appearances for the senior Germany side.

Like Martinez, Leno is very comfortable playing out from the back, even though it didn’t always necessarily appear so behind Unai Emery’s haphazard (lack of) defensive structure. Before his unfortunate knee injury he had been in great form, made many brilliant saves and was consistently among our best performers.

Now, in the middle of the current transfer window and apparently strapped for cash, Arsenal will seemingly have to raise money to assist any spending. Any position boasting two elite performers will have to be considered a potential source of funds by selling one. It is so good to see two proper goalkeepers at the club, I hate to think of either of them being allowed to leave. But this is not a perfect world – just in case that had escaped anyone’s notice! – and realistically both are too good to want to play second fiddle.

I have to say my personal choice would be to keep Martinez, if push came to shove. He seems a more imposing physical presence but I was surprised to find that there is only one inch between them in height – Leno is 1.90 metres, or 6’ 3” in old money, while Martinez is 1.93 metres, or 6’ 4”. However, Leno weighs in at 79kg or 12st 6lb, while Martinez is significantly heavier at 88kg or 13st 12lb – hence that physical impression.

I’m sure many will disagree but I think Martinez is the best all round keeper I’ve seen for a long time. Extremely confident to play Arteta’s way, and he produced two more superb one-on-one stops in last weekend’s Community Shield victory over Liverpool. He has served 10 years in the club’s employ now and it seems to mean a huge amount to him.

I really hope he stays. For me, he’s definitely a keeper (yes, ok 🙄).

Goonerholics Forever Ropey League Fantasy Football
We are happy to announce the Holics Ropey League will continue in the Fantasy League for the 2020/21 season. All Gooners are most welcome to join the fun. Please post a comment requesting details and we will send you the code by the e-mail required in your comment’s author information.

Posted in Club History, Interlull, Waffle | 154 Drinks »

First Success Of The Season In Our Second Home

Aug 31st, 2020 by

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang lifts the trophy (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

As the traditional curtain-raiser – if you haven’t yet read Bathgooner’s excellent previous post about the fascinating history of the erstwhile Charity Shield, or Community Shield as it is known as nowadays, and Arsenal’s dominating records in it, I really must bring your attention to it – for the upcoming domestic season approached the general mood in the Arsenal fan-base was at best apathetic. Despite our immensely enjoyable FA Cup heroics just earlier this month, we were going to play the league leaders who not only had finished their season 43 points and seven positions ahead of us, but also coming into this match had one extra week of preparation. The general agreement was that even though a surprising and morale-boosting win to kick off what we all know will be a key season for Arsenal and its rookie manager would be wonderful to witness, even a decent performance without being embarrassed and most importantly without any injuries to our players will do just fine.

A few days back the players, at least some of them, had a little match practice behind closed doors at home against MK Dons. There was a welcome return to the pitch for Bernd Leno in that match, and a very first appearance in Arsenal colors for William Saliba, the former Saint-Etienne defender who despite yet to have turned twenty have already shown enough promise to become the type of powerful, fast, ball playing defenders who are now considered essential ingredients of any successful team.

Neither Leno nor Saliba were in the starting line-up for the match against Liverpool, but both were on the bench. Emi Martinez, who was consistently magnificent towards the end of the last season in both league and FA Cup since taking over the goalkeeping duties, started in the goal. In front of him was the defensive trio from the FA Cup final – David Luiz flanked by Kieran Tierney on the left and Rob Holding on the right. Mikel chose to use the 3-4-3 formation that he had preferred in the post-reopening stage of the last season, and one suspects the transition from back three to back four will take time with David Luiz being a key variable in that transitional equation.  

The four men midfield too was designed with a now familiar tactical shape, albeit with a minor variation in the personnel entrusted to make it work. Ainsley Maitland Niles back in his left wing-back role that he had played with admirable guile and discipline in our last two Wembley outings, and Hector Bellerin his counterpart on the right. However, the ever-present Granit Xhaka in the middle of the pitch was now accompanied not by Dani Ceballos – who we all hope will return back to the club he seems to have grown a genuine, and well reciprocated, love for – but the nearly forgotten Mohammed Elneny, returning back from his loan stint in Turkey. Elneny doesn’t offer the kind of close control and verticality that Dani had started to demonstrate, but in a game where we most likely were to play without the ball for long periods of time a double pivot of Xhaka and him we hoped may prove to be functional enough. 

Elneny had joined Arsenal in the winter transfer window of 2016, and so Arteta must have had formed a very clear idea about his strengths and weaknesses based on training ground and match experiences in the second half of that season before Mikel announced his retirement.

Both Pepe and Lacazetter were unavailable – a very well-deserved extended holiday or more likely in quarantine after returning back? – so the youngsters Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah deputized in their places. But both of them had now started games for us, especially Saka enjoying a stellar breakthrough session culminating in being chosen as the second best Arsenal player of the season, and both were more than capable to trouble Liverpool defense.

Leno and Saliba were joined in the bench by a few more of our excellent academy graduates (Nelson, Jo Willock and Emile Smith-Rowe), with veterans Kolasinac and Cedric sitting next to them. We of course use such words as “bench” and “sitting” metaphorically, it was all a masked and socially distanced congregation of colleagues.

 Finally, our captain, the überstriker, the talisman, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang starting on his now customary left wing. There are words being still written about how that is not his favorite position, and we may very well see him down the middle at some point in the season — provided he does really extend his contract and stays at the club, it is not done until it is announced on the club’s official site – but he has been an example of not just elite goalscoring excellence from that position but also a very professional tireless work ethics and discipline in doing his defensive duties whenever necessary. The kind of examples that an Arsenal captain is expected to lead by.

The first minutes of the game conformed to the pattern everyone was expecting. Liverpool were attacking in numbers and we were defending deep. There were a couple of early clearances from our penalty box – one from Luiz and a more colorful one from Tierney which he miscued enough to require an alert Martinez to need to come forward and gather the ball. We were defending well enough to not offer them a shot at our goal, but the ball rarely left our defensive third and we were conceding fouls. Just around the sixth minute from a free-kick Van Dijk scored a goal which was correctly ruled out for offside. Just past the 10th minute lark Milner headed over.

A minute or so later we produced a piece of scintillating football. Liverpool forwards were pressing high and to support them their defenders moved up to hold a very high line. We played through their press expertly with Martinez, Elneny, Holding and Bellerin all involved. Bellerin smartly forwarded the ball right onto the path of Saka who then moved himself intelligently in that little uncertain space between the touchline and the middle of the pitch which the defensive midfielders and fullbacks most struggle with. With the focus of the entire defense on the right side of our attack Saka brilliantly switched the attack with a marvelously accurate long ball right at Aubameyang’s feet. Auba darted in quickly, moved the ball further to his right and scored with a sumptuous curling shot beyond the outstretched left hand of Allisson. Whereas the build-up and playing from the back through the press, Saka’s assist and Auba’s exquisite finish were all world class, special mentions should also go to Ainsley and Tierney who with their supporting movements created enough confusion in the Liverpool defense to give Auba that extra moment of decision making. AMN ran down the middle to the edge of the penalty box like a goalscoring central midfielder would do, and Tierney made his trademark overlapping run outside of Auba. This was a goal that was well-constructed in its design, and executed flawlessly with such courage and creativity that it sent a wave of inspiration through the team to drive them to a series of fluid counter-attacking moves that on another day could have resulted in one or two more goals.

Aubameyang’s joyful celebration was included a respectful homage to the recently, and untimely, departed actor Chadwick Boseman.

Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 12’) – Liverpool 0

We were playing in our away shirt for the new season, less red-and-white (which is the home shirt’s business anyway) but more of a white-and-red design that supposedly represents the hallowed marble halls of Highbury. Leaving behind the raging discussions about the sartorial aesthetics to more qualified people (Bellerin?), all I could think of is that a goal like that truly, and proudly, represents the pinnacle of Highbury days in our recent history.

Around 17th minute from one such counter-attack Saka fed the ball with a precise cut-back to Nketiah on the edge of the box. Eddie had positioned himself perfectly but his shot was well saved by Allisson. A little bit more power and placement in the shot and Eddie could have had a goal to his name. The attack was driven by Xhaka who carried the ball all the way to the edge of the box before finding Saka with his pass. It was pleasing to see him execute well this aspect of a modern central midfield’s game that has never really been his forte.

Ten minutes later, again from a counter-attack Saka found Eddie who had both space and time to move the ball further forward, but chose to take a leaf out of his captain’s book and tried to bend the ball into the top corner but his shot failed to trouble Allisson. 

Liverpool was still dominating possession, but had failed to yet register a shot on target. We were defending well not just in numbers in and around the box but also in how we defend the space between the midfield and the penalty box. Maitland-Niles and Tierney in tandem provided a masterclass of positional defending, constantly switching roles, covering for each other especially when one of them moved forward to join the attack, harrying and hurrying Salah every time he got near to the ball on our left side. It did help that they were facing a relatively inexperienced player in Williams as the right fullback.

On our right side Bellerin and Holding were playing well enough to contain Mane and Firmino, but they were not successfully stopping Robertson from sending crosses into the box. Around 39th minute, Bellerin and Elneny had to be alert to make clearances in quick succession from dangerous looking attacks down our right side. Liverpool earned a series of corners but didn’t really threaten our goal from any of those.  

We continued to look lively in our counterattacks, especially down our left. Saka and Maitland Niles both were allowed to send inviting crosses into the box. Just before the half-time Bellerin was fouled as we were moving through another quick attack. From the resulting free-kick, taken superbly by Saka, David Luiz almost got to the end of the delivery.

The first half ended with us leading by our captain’s fantastic strike.

Second half started with a similar pattern to the first half, but Liverpool pressing more aggressively and moving the ball faster compared to the first half. Our strategy remained same, defend with discipline, defend the spaces, and launch counter-attacks. From one such counter-attack around the 50th minute the increasingly impressive AMN shot over the bar.       

A minute later Firmino – a consistent scorer of goals against Arsenal – shot wide. A few minutes later Auba moved through the gears with the ball at his feet and tried to set Saka up for a goal.

We had started to tire and around 56th minute Emi had to make an excellent save. A minute later Milner saw the first card of the match for fouling Eddie with a dangerous challenge. Liverpool looked desperate for an equalizer. And they brought in a couple of substitutes.

Mikel made his first substitution at the 58th minute, bringing in Cedric for a tiring Bellerin. We were conceding more and more of the possession to Liverpool, and in their desperation they were willing to push the boundary of what is considered acceptable physicality in a match like this: Keita flew in with a high boot on Eddie but escaped being carded. Emi made a save from a Minamino shot.

The pressure on our tiring defenders finally brought Liverpool a goal on 73rd minute, with Minamino scoring from a close range after the ball bounced off a few players in a goalmouth melee.

Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 12’) – Liverpool 1 (Minamino 73)

The commentators suggested that Arsenal may now lose concentration and concede more goals. Given how the game was now shaping up it wasn’t an entirely unreasonable assumption. However, the reverse happened. The team found an extra bit of inspiration to start attacking again. The game was now less one-way and more open. On 81st minute Emi made another superb save from Mane. A little after Saka, Eddie and Tierney were replaced by Willock, Nelson and Kolasinac.  Couple of minutes later AMN made an eye-catching clearance against Mane – who had now switched sides with Salah and attacking down our left – chasing him down from an advanced position and catching up with him. Cedric was busy defending on the right side as Robertson was still sending dangerous deliveries into our box. However, Cedric showed quality on the ball as well in our attacking third, sending a tantalizing cross that Willock despite timing his jump correctly and having only Allisson to beat, headed wide. Nonetheless, it was gratifying to see the position he took. We are no longer blessed with a collection of goalscoring midfielders who attack the box. Willock has the potential to become one such player.

The game ended shortly thereafter.

Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 12’) – Liverpool 1 (Minamino 73) FT

And that’s how we shared the 2020 Community Shield with Liverpool, both Arsenal and Liverpool thus winning it 16 times each.

No, that didn’t happen. Just like last year’s event, this season’s Community Shield winner too was settled in penalty shoot-outs. Liverpool took the first penalty kick and they scored 4 from their 5 and missed one. Arsenal players took five cool, composed, high quality penalties — none of those were even close to being saved by Allisson.

 Arsenal scorers were, in the chronological order: Nelson, Maitland-Niles, Cedric, David Luiz, and Aubameyang. Liverpool scorers were: Salah, Fabino, Minamino, Curtis Johnes. Their youngster Rhian Brewster hit the ball off the bar. A mildly amusing irony was noted by keen observers that Brewster was brought in the game to replace Wijnaldum most likely to avoid a repetition of last year’s Community Shield event which too Liverpool lost on penalties where Wijnaldum missed his shot.

Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 12’) – Liverpool 1 (Minamino 73) FT

Arsenal 5 – Liverpool 4 On Penalties

A lot can be read in this performance and result. But the wiser thing probably to do is to not read much at all. Except that it demonstrated that the definite progress in our individual and collective game that we had started to notice last season as Mikel found more and more time and opportunity to put his stamp is on a consistent upward curve, and that this is an exciting time to be an Arsenal supporter.

Finally, we supporters of course have little clue in the complexities of the club’s financial situation and the difficult dance to meet the needs for improving the squad while balancing the budget, but based on their performances alone (and not just potentials or affections for the club even though those things should matter too) Emi Martinez and Ainsley Maitland-Niles – who celebrated his birthday with a man of the match performance, and then celebrated more later by learning about his call up to the England senior squad — must surely stay at the club. Right?

Posted in Match Report | 84 Drinks »

Welcome to a New Season!

Aug 28th, 2020 by

Those were the days, my friend…. From Getty Images

Once again, we begin a new season with the Community Shield, a competition with which we are extremely familiar but one which, unlike others I could name and wave two fingers at, neither the Club nor our fans have regarded as a “major trophy”.

This competition began life as the Charity Shield in the 1908-09 season with a match between the First Division champions, Manchester United, and the Southern League champions, Queens Park Rangers, that went to a replay. From 1930 the match regularly took the format of pitching the previous season’s Football League champions against the F.A. Cup winners but only from 1959 did it become the curtain raiser for a new season. It has only been regularly held at Wembley Stadium since 1974, with a 6-year interval at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff during Wembley’s rebuilding plus migration to Villa Park in 2012 because of the Olympics. Before 1974, the Charity Shield was held at a neutral venue or the home ground of a participant. Highbury was the venue seven times between 1924 and 1953. During the peripatetic period, only Stamford Bridge hosted the match more often, on 10 occasions, presumably usually as a neutral venue!

From its beginning, match proceeds were meant to be distributed to charities and community initiatives around England and Wales. However, in 2002 the Charity Commission found that the F.A. had broken charity law by failing to specify the proportion of receipts going to charity and also for delaying payments to nominated charities. In consequence the match was renamed the Community Shield. It’s not clear how renaming the competition solves those problems except that it may have allowed the F.A. to change the terms of their charitable commitments.

The Arsenal has the second largest number of Shield victories with 14 outright wins plus one shared trophy, only bettered by Manure who have 17 wins and 4 shared trophies. The Bin-dippers lie third with 10 wins and 5 shared trophies.

The Arsenal’s first appearance in the Charity Shield was in 1930 at Stamford Bridge when we defeated Sheffield Wednesday and went on to dominate the competition throughout the 1930’s, contesting the Shield a further 6 times and winning it on four occasions. It was a decade before we played in the Charity Shield again simply because no Charity Shield matches were played between 1938 and 1948 due to World War II and its aftermath. We won the 1948 Shield against Manure and followed that up with another win in 1953 against Blackpool.

Season Opponent Result Venue
1930 Sheffield Wednesday WON 2-1 Stamford Bridge
1931 West Bromwich Albion WON 1-0 Villa Park
1933 Everton WON 3-0 Goodison Park
1934 Shitteh WON 4-0 Highbury
1935 Sheffield Wednesday LOST 0-1 Highbury
1936 Sunderland LOST 1-2 Roker Park
1938 Preston North End WON 2-1 Highbury
1948 Manure WON 4-3 Highbury
1953 Blackpool WON 3-1 Highbury

Gooners of a certain vintage will tell you of the dark age between the early 50’s and the early 70’s acquisition of the Fairs Cup and the Double. However, the Charity Shield hiatus was even longer as our 1971 Double winners did not contest the Charity Shield due to a pre-season tour (putting the trophy counters into clear perspective). The 1971 Charity Shield was played between F.A. Cup beaten finalists, the Bin-dippers, and the Division 2 champions, Leicester City who won the Shield (without having won the League (until 2016) or the F.A. Cup (ever)). After the next two league champions followed The Arsenal’s lead and declined the privilege of participating, the Shield’s curtain raiser status was enhanced with a permanent move to Wembley in 1974.

After our early success rate, we then went on a dodgy run of Charity Shield results. Both our next two Shield appearances were defeats against the Bindippers; in 1979 as F.A. Cup winners and in 1989 as League champions. Then, as League champions again, we shared the trophy with a small team from Middlesex in 1991 after a 0-0 draw. Sharing a trophy with a decent team was clearly a huge privilege for them. No doubt there are Betamax tapes commemorating their glorious achievement that can still be purchased. In 1993, as F.A. Cup winners, we drew with Manure but lost on penalties.

Season Opponent Result
1979 Bin-dippers LOST 1-3
1989 Bin-dippers LOST 0-1
1991 Small team SHARED TROPHY, 0-0
1993 Manure LOST 4-5 on pens after 1-1

We contested the Shield nine times in the Wenger era, winning seven times. Between 2001 and 2006 the Shield was held in the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. With the Cup Finals there as well, the trip down to Cardiff became a regular summer day out for Gooners.

Season Opponent Result
1998 Manure WON 3-0
1999 Manure WON 2-1
2002 Bin-dippers WON 1-0
2003 Manure LOST 3-4 on pens after 1-1
2004 Manure WON 3-1
2005 Chavski LOST 1-2
2014 Shitteh WON 3-0
2015 Chavski WON 1-0
2017 Chavski WON 4-1 on pens after 1-1

To date The Arsenal have contested the Charity and Community Shield on 22 occasions, winning it 14 times outright and sharing it once. Winning the Shield is clearly an Arsenal tradition.

I attended the 2004 Shield and the last three. Strangely the 2004 Shield is the only one for which I have any significant memory of the game itself. The others are remembered only for fine pre-match meals with good company at our favourite pre-Wembley restaurant and the excellent Ribera del Duoro that accompanied the Cordon Bleu victuals. The 2004 game was a family outing with a fine lunch in a celebrated Italian restaurant in Cardiff followed by a shock discovery that our midfield was a pair of callow youths named Fabregas and Flamini! Despite my pre-match concern, those lads proceeded to give an experienced Manure midfield of Keane et al a complete run around. The poise, vision and control of young Cesc that day has left a lasting impression as he dominated that midfield in a manner that we have not seen from an Arsenal midfielder for several years. It would be nice to see another such debut this season.

What of the forthcoming game? If you count shared trophies, our opponent’s record matches ours with fifteen Charity/Community Shields apiece. Their current team are, without question, very good. Yet we beat them in our most recent league fixture and that should temper any trepidation with some confidence. We know their threat will come down the flanks and from the speedy Salah and Mané and the wily Firminho through the channels. It will be a challenge to stifle them and I can’t see their defence being as generous as they were at our last meeting. However, I am confident that MA8 will have a plan!

Our team? Your guess is as good as mine. At the time of writing we have added Willian, Saliba and possibly Gabriel to last season’s squad. None of our unwanted fixtures have departed though rumours suggest Sokratis, Kolasinac and Mustafi may be hovering by the exit. Our midfield desperately needs an injection of strength, authority and creativity. I expect the Saliba and Willian to play to begin their bedding in process but even if a signing is confirmed, Gabriel will not be quarantine-free.

I expect a starting line-up close to:

Martinez

Saliba – Luiz – Holding

Bellerin – Elneny – Xhaka – Tierney

Willian

Pepe – Aubameyang

History shows that the result of the Charity/Community Shield bears no relationship to the contestants’ relative positions at the end of the season. While I always want to win every game, this match is primarily a pre-season exercise in regaining fitness and match sharpness. This is even more the case this season. I think that 2-1 to The Arsenal would be a very acceptable result. You can get 13-1 on that score at the moment and that’s where I’ll place the Holic pound.

Let’s lay down another marker of the Arteta renaissance!

COYG

A final word for scruzgooner, a longstanding regular in Holic’s bar. I’m sure all ‘Holics share my prayers that he and his family are safe and that the home from which they were evacuated last week escapes the wild fires raging in California. Good luck, mate. Thoughts extend also to all whose lives and homes are threatened at this time.

Posted in Match Preview | 111 Drinks »

Squad Review 4 – Attack

Aug 24th, 2020 by

It’s definitely a team game. From 9sportpro.com

The dilemma in reviewing the squad for this strangest of past season is whether to review the performance of the squad throughout the season describing chronologically an arc of progress, regress or oscillations in between, or to review the squad for its full potential as an abstraction where the last season is only an input to that analysis and not the whole of the analysis.

George Bernard Shaw I believe had once remarked: “Both optimists and pessimists contribute to the society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.” As the ever optimist let me choose to imagine Arsenal’s attacking force in its full flight – only a glimpse of which we had seen now and then — and review the squad in all their thrilling possibilities, and I would request the patrons of this august bar to identify the glaring flaws in the design of my imaginary aircraft, and think of the parachutes that may be needed.

This also helps me avoid spending many (or any) words on the Unai Emery era when dysfunction reigned so supreme watching Arsenal play had turned into a singularly unappetising experience. I just cannot muster enough emotional fortitude to go back and relive those days through this review.

The best teams in modern football – including many incarnations of our own Arsenal – exhibit a fluidity and imagination in attack that mix individual abilities with collective nous in various tactical modes and can switch between those modes with a high degree of unpredictability. Instead of focusing on individuals on their own I felt reviewing how well equipped the attacking force can be in the context of those tactical modalities will be a more cogent way of imagining their flight, so to speak.

I am also choosing to eschew a review based on statistical analysis of individuals or the team, simply due to the fact that those have been done already in few other places (including the excellent statistical analysis that are regularly published in Arseblog) and there wouldn’t be much for me to add to.

Build-up through the middle of the pitch:

Undoubtedly the weakest aspect of this team’s attacking abilities. The problem starts with lack of creativity in the midfield and extends all the way to absence of high-quality passers in the attack. Aubameyang is one of the very best in European football in scoring goals, but his passing range is neither incisive nor decisive. Lacazette, especially under Arteta, has often been asked to drop deep and drag opposition central defenders with him which allows his friend on the left to drift in and attack the space down the middle – our first goal in the FA Cup final was a great example where Laca took his central defender with him down to the middle of the pitch allowing Auba to have a clear run to the goal leading to the penalty. But in that deep-lying position when he receives the ball he doesn’t always make the right pass either to Auba or to Pepe, either to their feet or to the channel behind the defenders for them to run into. A similar problem plagues Pepe’s game – whereas he delivers excellent cross from the right on his left foot (more about that later) and the best dribbler in the team, he fails to release the ball early enough or choose the wrong pass after the beating the first couple of defenders.

Nelson, Saka and Martinelli are all quite good – and they will only get better – in driving down to the byline and provide precise cutbacks but none of them are yet consistently good passers to create a series of fluid short triangles through the opposition midfield and defence to move the ball forward and dominate the area near the opposition penalty box, and to move a deep lying opposition defence around fast enough to create opportunities. The kind of movement that was once the trademark of Arsenal. Hopefully Arteta and his coaching team will help these very promising young players to develop this aspect of their game in the coming seasons.  Eddie, particularly, for all his qualities and flawless attitude needs to significantly improve his passing abilities to enjoy a sustained success at the top.

This may partially explain the acquisition of Willian (and more I think about the values he will bring in, more convinced I have started to become about the astuteness of this move) who brings with him, along with his pace and dribbles, a consistently good passing ability.  

Counter-attack:

In my opinion the best aspect of this current Arsenal team. Even in the worst days in the first half of the season we were capable of scoring from lighting fast counter attacks. Aubameyang is of course often the focal point of such counter attacks because of his pace, the timing of his runs, the precision of his movements and his mostly unerring finishing abilities. But in his short time with the club Martinelli has shown himself to be an immensely promising player in that respect, the high point being his solo run straight through the middle – with a prostrate Kante left memorably flailing in his trail – to score our goal of the season away at Chelsea.

Saka, Nelson, Eddie all are fast and capable of good movements, and all are competent finishers and as finishing being one of those aspects of a youngster’s game that gets significantly better with experience, we can only expect their counter-attacking threats to grow over the course of the next season and beyond. Before Martinelli got injured in training, he had struck up an effective partnership with Saka on the left. Even if and when we choose to play Auba in his more favoured position down the middle, I think a left sided trio of Tierney-Saka-Martinelli can hurt any opposition and they will only get better over time. Let us just hope we keep them fit and firing.

On the right side Pepe in his first season with us hasn’t delivered fully on the promise of his counter-attacking threats. The problem has been partly with the team as he hasn’t often been released with the rightly timed pass from midfield, but he himself needs to improve the directness of his game to ensure that he doesn’t try to dribble more than he has to and has more confidence in his passing and shooting abilities. Whenever he attacked the space or the ball more instinctively, he has looked threatening. Of the few memorable moments he has produced – including a few sumptuous goals from the open play – the disallowed goal at the end of a precise counter attack against Chelsea in the FA cup final is the kind of magic I hope he will be producing more regularly.

Pressing from the front:

Before Mikel took over our pressing looked disjointed and hence largely ineffective. It took Arteta a little while to get the organisation and timing of the press right, something I suspect the team worked on a lot in practice especially at the break before the season resumed. After the restart we started to see a considerable improvement as concerted pressing from the front led to forced turnovers that we were able to score from. Eddie particularly pressed well and helped to set up the tempo. He himself and Auba scored from goalkeeping mistakes forced by intelligent pressing, but the two best moments came in our home match against Liverpool where we forced two of the most consummate experts in playing out from the back – Van Dijk and Allisson – into errors that we scored from – Laca and Nelson being the respective scorers — to help us to a memorable 2-1 win, which in hindsight must have had helped the team to build some much needed confidence before the two wins at Wembley. 

Martinelli I think can become a significant threat in this part of the game as well. His relentless directness, snapping constantly at defenders’ heels, is a perfect fit for aggressive pressing. 

Finishing:

Assuming our talismanic captain chooses to remain with us towards making it a habit to juggle  trophies at the end of the seasons, we have one of the best finishers in all of European football: the clever movements in the penalty box, the well-honed instinct to be at the right place at the right time, the mostly unerring final touch — he does have that occasional “how did he miss that?” moment in him which fortunately for him and us never gets him down – and more and more a sparkle of inventive genius. The first goal of the FA Cup semi with that outside of the right boot finish, the goal against Watford where he bounced the ball on the floor from a long throw in the penalty box to create enough elevation to manufacture a bicycle kick from nowhere, the second goal in FA cup final where the feint to send the entire Chelsea defence wrong way for a sumptuous finish with his less favoured left foot … he is undoubtedly the key to our attack.

In terms of goalscoring numbers Lacazette had his poorest season ever in the senior football. One suspects the lack of cohesion in our football eventually got to him. He worked hard but there was a noticeable loss of pace and decisiveness. He was no longer the automatic starter but was alternating with Eddie to play down the middle. Towards the end there were signs of return to form with a thunderbolt from outside the box in the North London derby and a cleverly taken goal against Liverpool. We can only hope that he starts the next season at his best. There are some rumours floating around about we potentially selling him instead of offering him a new contract now or at the end of the next season as he has only two years left, but I think he offers the kind of quality, experience, and tactical maturity that will not be easy to replace by Eddie. Especially with our participation in Europa we should have both of them in the squad.

Other than the FA Cup win, and the overall positivity generated by noticeable progress under Arteta, the most pleasing aspect of last season for me was the emergence of two excellent youngsters who I hope will continue to excel with us for years to come. Whereas the talent and promise of Bukayo Saka were known to us in the fan base based on his rising reputation through the academy and junior teams, Gabriel Martinelli was a discovery as he was coming from a lower division team in regional Brazilian league. In the pre-season he had briefly caught the eye because of his speed and vibrancy, but once introduced in the first team in the cups he impressed everyone not just by the directness and attitude of his game, but also by his excellent finishing, including a few surprisingly powerful and well-taken headed goals. He built a good understanding with Saka down the left, a partnership that has all the promise of becoming a most potent one. Despite finishing his season unfortunately truncated in the middle because of the serious injury he picked up in training, he was our second highest scorer after Auba.

Saka is undoubtedly the most promising player to have come through the youth set-up at the club since Fabregas. Fast and with eye-catching technical abilities on the ball, tactically disciplined and ever learning, capable of exquisite crosses from the left wing, he is also a very accomplished finisher. He has been deployed as the left winger, left wing-back, left-sided midfield player, right winger, central midfielder – some one suspects as a part of education by Mikel – and even though he is much more effective as the left sided attacker in the front trio in no position he seemed out of depth. He was awarded the young player of the last season’s Europa League, had the highest number of assists in Europa league, signed a new contract with us, and promptly celebrated that with his first premier league goal – a lovely left-footed volley against Wolves.  

Both Eddie and Nelson have goals in them. Eddie is a reliable finisher from close range and attacks the final third very well. Nelson’s last season was somewhat interrupted by injuries but there were glimpses of his abilities towards the end, including a calm and composed finish against Liverpool. Both of them are only expected to get better, more so under Arteta’s watchful tutelage. 

Set-pieces:

In Auba, Pepe and Laca we have three excellent penalty takers. A penalty for us in the PL is a rarity – unlike some other teams who seem to get one each time any of their players tumble over – but I don’t remember us missing any this season.

Whereas Auba, Laza – and David Luiz for that matter – are all competent free-kick takers, Pepe I think will become the most reliable of them, especially if the angle favours his left foot. He scored a couple of memorable ones this season.

None of our attackers are good enough in the air to score consistently from corner kicks. Nelson and Pepe both are capable of delivering high quality balls in the box, as are Dani and Saka to a lesser extent. I think we should be able to build out a few well-practiced drills that better leverages the aerial prowess of the defenders – especially the newly acquired ones – to benefit from those deliveries.

Summary:

Along with the goalkeepers, the forward line in the squad are in least need of enhancements. If we can manage to improve our control in the midfield and bring more creative impetus from the middle of the pitch, we are well capable of becoming one of the most potent and efficient goal scoring teams in the league. Here is looking forward to 80+ premier league goals by the mighty Arsenal next season, driving us to a rightful return to the Champions League.

And Pierre juggling a trophy or two with that infectious smile.

Posted in Review, Waffle | 63 Drinks »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »