I have always liked to discover similarities between jazz and football, highly dissimilar even though they are. It is possible that my simple anthropic pattern seeking mind mistakes a merely accidental topographical similarity between two entirely psychological landscapes – landscapes that I am naturally drawn to – as hidden clues to some greater understanding, but in days as inexplicable as Arsenal’s weekend derby away at Chelsea, I tell myself that even a very well rehearsed quartet of great musicians occasionally can have an evening of uninspired performances, from one mediocre solo to another.
Since the end of the invincibles era, and the beginning of English football’s enthusiastic acceptance of financial doping, the historical trend of Arsenal utterly dominating the west London outfit got reversed for a while. But in recent years there has been a return to the old normal, all the more pleasant because of it being achieved despite the habit of frantic accumulation of players by Chelsea becoming an even more intense exercise. Before this weekend’s match, Arteta’s managerial record away at the blues had been deliciously good: 2-2, 1-0, 4-2, 1-0.
Combined with the fact that we haven’t yet conceded a single goal away at PL this season, going into this match there was a quiet (and maybe among some Arsenal supporters, not so quiet) confidence in the Goonerverse that we will continue our winning ways to climb up to the summit of the league table.
The first team availability and the team selection further reinforced that belief. Everyone returned healthy, thankfully, from their peregrinations to the far flung corners of the planet and playing on novelty surfaces, and the lip smacking combination of Martinelli-Jesus-Saka was expected to be too much for a defensive outfit that can most generously be called evolving in this season.
Raya
White – Saliba – Gabriel – Zinchenko
Ødegaard – Jorginho – Rice
Saka – Jesus – Martinelli
The only pre-match negative was that the Raya vs. Ramsdale narrative rumbled on, especially given Aaron’s absence from the bench, even though everyone knew that he was away to experience a moment of personal joy to which football or profession pales in comparison.
The bench wasn’t shabby either – Trossard, Havertz, Nketiah, Nelson, Smith Rowe, Tomiyasu…
In the recent weeks Chelsea had found some form and consistency, which was only to be expected, sooner or later, given the strength of their squad and a manager with a known combination of competence and composure. So even though an away win was what most had predicted, it was not thought to be an easy affair.
Once the match started in pouring rain it became evident that Arsenal is going to have one of those days where they will have to dig deep to overcome themselves as much as their spirited opponent to get the three points.
Pochettino had set Chelsea up with no central focus to their attack – probably influenced by Saliba’s masterful neutralizing of Haaland a couple of weeks back – and a congested midfield that pressed, harried and hurried Arsenal and challenged for every ball. There are days when a tactic like this will play right into our hands, with Ødegaard orchestrating beguiling patterns around the press and finding our menacing winger duos in empty space. But this was not one such day: we were taking a second or two longer to move the ball, the passes were going astray, the close control and first touches were alarmingly poor, and there seemed to be a lack of urgency in winning duels. Our front trio were deprived of any services, Saka and Martinelli being (expertly, one must admit) double marked out of the game, and Jesus having to drop back further and further to satisfy his natural instinct to remain a part of the game.
In these early moments one decision I felt should have gone in our favor: Palmer’s reckless tackle from the back on the achilles of Jesus should have drawn a red card (Aubameyang against Crystal Palace being my benchmark), but the Chelsea winger got away with a yellow. Zinchenko earned a yellow too for rather uncharacteristically clattering his compatriot Mudryk while, more characteristically, floating around in the improbable right midfield space.
A few moments later Palmer put in an excellent cross in the Arsenal goalmouth, Mudryk and Saliba went for the header, Mudryk’s header bounced off Saliba’s hands which were in their natural position if you want to look at it simply from the biodynamics of the movement, but this natural position also happens to be an outstretched one. A penalty was given by the intervention of VAR – call me a cynic, but I am not convinced that Arsenal in PL would ever benefit from such literal and liberal interpretation of penalty rules – and Palmer slotted one in after sending Raya in the wrong direction.
Chelsea 1 (Palmer 15’) – Arsenal 0
Conceding a goal, somewhat paradoxically, settled Arsenal a bit and we started to bring a level headed control to the game that we have lately learnt to desire most. We were enjoying better possession, more passes, more entry to the final third, but there was an alarming lack of inspiration, inventiveness, movement and sharpness around the Chelsea penalty box. On the base of the midfield, Jorginho was nowhere near fast enough to spring counters, and Ødegaard had one of his quietest games for us. Rice, playing as the left side #8, and Martinelli on his outside were the only ones who looked capable of creating opportunities. Saka and Jesus too were bereft of their natural spark, but the discipline and workrate of the Chelsea defense, admirably orchestrated by Thiago Silva, in containing them played a big part in that.
Raya – based on pure statistical analysis of the last season, a better short and long passer of the ball than Ramsdale, and better at gathering crosses – looked entirely unconvincing. One of his attempts to play through the middle almost gifted Chelsea a second goal, and his attempts at long range distributions were ordinary to say the least.
At the break Mikel introduced one change. Zinchenko – never a traditional left back – was being given a difficult time by Sterling with his speed on the flank, and being already on a yellow card, and maybe even carrying some injuries from the midweek exertions away at the Euro qualifiers, was replaced by a more natural defender in Tomiyasu. I felt Jorginho should have been substituted at the break as well, with Rice dropping deeper and Trossard or ESR coming in to provide more vertical movement on the left side.
At the beginning of the second half we started playing more positively, but within a few minutes we had conceded one more goal from one more of our umpteen turnovers of the evening. We lost the ball easily on our right flank, White didn’t get much defensive support from his right sided colleagues, Mudryk was allowed a lot of time on the ball to execute what seemed like a cross for Sterling on the far post, the ball swerved in the air and looped inside the goal over the perplexed Raya’s tentative stretch. It doesn’t really matter to us whether Mudryk meant that or not, it’s Raya’s positioning for that goal that should be worrying. But thankfully we do have another top level keeper for us to be able to rotate and give the Spaniard some time to refresh his art.
Chelsea 2 (Palmer 15’, Mudryk 48’) – Arsenal 0
All signs at the stage pointed to the end of our undefeated start of the league season. Martinelli, never one to give up, kept probing the best he can, and fashioned in a couple of half chances for him that didn’t really trouble their keeper. We did earn a series of corner kicks but still didn’t really threaten from those even though both Saka and Gabi sent in some tantalizing deliveries.
Sensing the match slipping away, Arteta made his second set of changes: Nketiah replacing a sub-par Jesus, and Smith Rowe coming in to play the left sided midfielders with Rice dropping deeper and Jorginho leaving the field.
ESR, understandably rusty though he is, brought in a sense of directness which presented different types of questions for Chelsea. Rice now also had a wider field of vision in front of him, and from that came a moment where the ridiculous was lifted to the sublime in a fraction of a second. Sanchez in the Chelsea goal attempted a through pass to their left midfield. Rice expertly judged the path of the ball and noticing Sanchez being away from the goal pounced on it with a superb curling long distance finish. Whereas much of the discussion around this goal seemed to be centering around the mistake from Chelsea, I felt the combination of intuition, self-belief, situational awareness and technique shown by Rice deserves a lot of praise.
Chelsea 2 (Palmer 15’, Mudryk 48’) – Arsenal 1 (Rice 77’)
Sensing a window of opportunity, Mikel made his final set of substitutions: Trossard came in for Martinelli, and Havertz replaced our captain. Maybe it is too early to get alarmed, but Ødegaard’s recent form has been somewhat indifferent. My guess is that he is doing too much of a defensive minded midfield glue duty for the sake of control truly to have the freedom and energy to exert influence in the final third. Let us hope a return to Spain in the CL this week will freshen him up and Sevilla will be at the receiving end of his punishing artistry.
I like Trossard. He complements the flair and verve of our young attacking group wonderfully with his understated, precise, efficient craftsmanship especially in the final third. His finish for our equalizer was a beautifully crafted goal, an elegantly simple idea executed with a mixture of street-wise efficiency.
Saka, well contained for much of the game, found himself with a few extra seconds to be able to shift the ball on his left foot and have a mini run at the defense, and then, noticing Trossard on his run, providing an inch perfect delivery to the back post. Trossard finished with the outside of his right foot. Nothing any defense could do.
Chelsea 2 (Palmer 15’, Mudryk 48’) – Arsenal 2 (Rice 77’, Trossard 84’)
The unlikeliest of recoveries was now on the cards. At this stage Arsenal seemed to be the only team poised to win the match, and Nketiah almost made it happen with an inventively executed volley, while being surrounded by two defenders, past the onrushing Sanchez. The ball rolled agonizingly past the far post.
Despite the seven minutes of extra time there were no big threats on either end of the goal. Chelsea was a bit shell-shocked, and the traveling Arsenal fans were evidently enjoying this unlikeliest of recoveries.
On a day when we played so poorly, a point away at a London derby against a well coached team of talented players is not the worst outing. As Rice – my man of the match – accepted with admirably brutal honesty, the team indeed was really poor for much of the match.
But it’s just one game, and one more opportunity for the squad, and the coaches, to learn more about themselves and each other.
Chelsea 2 (Palmer 15’, Mudryk 48’) – Arsenal 2 (Rice 77’, Trossard 84’)
