(another long read)
Serious contenders or a flash in the pan?
Last week we left Arsenal as very unexpected leaders of the Premier League as we moved inexorably towards 2023. When football resumed after the World Cup could they maintain their incredible form? Christmas 2022 gave us the first indication.
After the interlull
The break in league football from the 12th November to Boxing Day 2022 was an interlull like no other. Arsenal’s squad participation in Qatar was not as extensive as other clubs but we still, typically, suffered an injury blow more severe than most teams when Gabriel Jesus sustained a serious knee injury. While the goals had dried up for Jesus in the League after an exciting start, there was clear evidence that his all-action play made other players like Martinelli and Ødegaard more productive. Given the likely length of his absence there was genuine concern that Eddie Nketiah was an appropriate understudy.
Saka was the only Arsenal player who was involved with England regularly. Ben White returned home early after an alleged spat with Steve Holland, the England coach. Ramsdale presumably spent most of the tournament training and listening to podcasts. Saliba went to the final with France but was (amazingly) well down the pecking order behind Varane and Upamecano. Partey’s Ghana had a shocker and Martinelli was a bit-part player for Brazil. Granit Xhaka’s Switzerland did not go deep into the competition either.
Trev speculated last week about what I might say about the impact of the World Cup on the season. It was not what I expected it to be. I had expected more long-term injuries but the side who dominated the season, Manchester City sailed into the critical part of the season with no significant injuries whatsoever. Our long-term casualties this season were Jesus, who was injured in Qatar, Saliba, who was there but scarcely played and Tomayisu who is regularly injured anyway. ESR wasn’t fit for much of the season but that had nothing to do with the World Cup I can’t say from a physical perspective that it had as significant an effect as I expected it to. We may see knock-on effects next season if players do not get sufficient rest in the close season but I had expected squads to be decimated by April and it didn’t happen.
I did find that the last part of the season dragged for me, but that may be because our form fell away and I lost a little interest. The season may have been a ordeal for players who were involved in the tournament (for example, I thought Saka’s form dipped towards the end but it didn’t appear to have as serious an impact as I expected). For many players it provided a mid-season break of sorts.
Back home speculation was rife that Arsenal would wilt when football resumed after Christmas because of the toughness of their immediate upcoming fixtures. When they trailed 1-0 on Boxing Day to West Ham it appeared these fears might be well-founded but sparked by a brilliant performance by Ødegaard we ran out comfortable 3-1 winners. Nketiah replaced Jesus seamlessly. On New Year’s Eve we travelled to meet the exciting Brighton side and in a brilliant first half dominated them. Running out 4-2 winners we were relieved that a late Mitoma goal was disallowed but this was nevertheless a substantial victory. We then ran into a very cynical and negative Newcastle side who double parked the bus and wasted time from the get-go. It earned them a 0-0 draw and the contempt of the red half of North London.
We then moved on to the Toilet Bowl for the return NLD. Our first half performance was one of the highlights of the season. Ødegaard dominated midfield. His characteristic low drive made it 2-0 after the kind donation of an own goal by agent Lloris. The Spuds, completely outclassed in the first half, rose from their slumber and found Ramsdale in imperious form. So frustrated was one Spud fan that he kicked our keeper in the back (classy move) after the game in which Richarlison fell out with everyone and Granit Xhaka was rescued from a developing ruck by Arteta’s quick thinking. North London was unequivocally red and the Spuds were aware that they had the wrong manager (again). It was significant that we had progressed so much in the seven months since we last played them or had the Spuds regressed under the negative Conte? I suspected it was a bit of both.
The following week the third Holic pre-match gathering took place at Il Pappagone before the game with Manchester United. We must have more of these because for the third time this season an absolute classic followed. Rashford’s brilliant opener was cancelled out by Nketiah and early in the second half Saka, who tore Shaw a new one all afternoon, scored with a brilliant curling shot only to see Ramsdale flap at a corner and Martinez head home. We then saw a reprise of the game at Old Trafford where Partey and Ødegaard put a lock on midfield and Zinchenko produced an extraordinary performance so that United (albeit without Casemiro) just could not get out. In the last minute Eddie Nketiah flicked home from close range and after an agonising wait VAR confirmed that the goal stood. In a season of outstanding performances Saka’s magnificent skewering of one of the best full-backs in the country was quite outstanding. It was the finest performance I’ve seen from Bukayo and that boy sets a high bar. Things were getting serious! We had emerged from a testing period in remarkable shape and we were being regarded much more widely as genuine contenders for the title.
The transfer window
The January transfer window will forever be remembered as an example of the maxim that nothing exceeds like excess as Chelsea tried to buy up anyone with a pulse on a long-term contract for extraordinarily inflated sums of money and put them on ridiculous wages. As one of these signings was Mudryk, who was on the cusp of joining Arsenal, there was much ill-informed rubbish about Chelsea being a more ambitious club than Arsenal. Arsenal seemed to be willing to pay north of £80 million for a player that would probably not have been an immediate starter. Some of us suspected that Chelsea wanted to do some chest-beating and indeed some of the Neanderthal element of their supporter base crowed about the drive of their new owners and compared it to Arsenal’s apparent lack of ambition (or what we might regard as financial commonsense). How little they realised what a mess was being created at the Bus Stop.
Arsenal pivoted from Mudryk to sign the much cheaper and more experienced Leandro Trossard of Brighton who hit the ground running. They added Jakub Kiwior, a Polish centre back from Serie A’s Spezia, and on deadline day (having no luck in signing Moises Caicedo from Brighton) added Jorginho from Chelsea. Never having been a Jorginho fan before I have to admit his quality and temperament stood us in very good stead at times during the season. Edu’s dealings deserve scrutiny but it has to be said that there is a very clear plan emerging and one senses that there is excellent communication between Edu and Arteta. Better than Chelsea’s anyway.
The blip happens
Arsenal were now holding a significant points lead over Manchester City, although City had games in hand. Nobody at Arsenal seemed to be getting carried away but it was impossible not to fantasise about the possibility of a wildly unexpected title success. Bookmakers were making us favourites and we were all doing calculations about how many points we might need.
City deposited us out of the FA Cup in a tight game, but more significantly Everton with the new manager bounce of a Sean Dyche appointment beat us at Goodison. In our next game we took a 1-0 lead against Brentford only to see VAR official Lee Mason fail to do his job properly and disallow an Ivan Toney header that was clearly offside. It cost him his job but it also cost us two valuable points. When City beat us at home a few days later in a game where we had surprisingly dominated possession the media began to write off any Arsenal title challenge.
Revival!
Arsenal next travelled to Aston Villa facing their first mini-crisis of the season. Partey had missed the City game and Jorginho had replaced him and went in against Villa. Arsenal twice went a goal down and entered the second half 2-1 down but an inspirational second half in which Jorginho, Ødegaard, and Zinchenko were magnificent saw us run out 4-2 winners. That our last two goals were scored due to Emi Martinez first unwittingly heading in a rebound, and then being marooned upfield as Martinelli ran the ball into an empty net following a corner; this added immensely to the enjoyment. No phallic celebrations from Emi on this occasion!
That battling victory revived our spirits and we went on a run of victories over Leicester, Everton and Bournemouth. This latter victory was remarkable as we trailed within seconds of the kick-off, went 2-0 down and went into the last minute of the match at 2-2. The Reiss Nelson winner from our final corner was one of the most ecstatic moments in the history of our stadium and it was a marvellous strike in the most dramatic of circumstances.
A number of Holics travelled to Fulham for a small pre-match celebration and a comfortable 3-0 win. Trossard recorded a hat-trick of first half assists and towards the end of the match Gabriel Jesus returned. While we went out of Europe in the next match, of far greater significance were the injuries to Saliba and Tomayisu which ended their seasons. We lost the first penalty shootout ever staged at Ashburton Grove but our focus was now very much on the league. We despatched our next two opponents Palace and Leeds, both by 4-1 scorelines. Jesus had returned in goalscoring form and Ben White decided to channel Cafu and become a goalscoring full-back!
We begin to falter
I missed the start of our game with Liverpool at Anfield arriving home as Jesus gave us a 2-0 lead. We were in total control but the concession of a goal by Salah just before half-time radically changed the mood and despite a missed Salah penalty and a brilliant Ramsdale performance a late Firmino goal earned them a draw. Liverpool’s form was at least reviving but West Ham, our next opponent, were not showing any great signs of improved form. When we again went into a 2-0 lead through Jesus and Ødegaard we looked in complete control. A Partey mistake saw him mugged by Rice leading to a penalty which Benrahma put away. When Saka had the chance to extend our lead from the spot he sadly fired wide and we were punished just after when Bowen fired home. It was the most annoying and unnecessary concession of points since our game with Southampton in the autumn. And Southampton were next up. Bottom of the table what could possibly go wrong? A Ramsdale howler in the first minute and then a Theo counter-attacking goal was the answer. Martinelli pulled a goal back immediately but they extended the lead in the second half. Only another late, late show with goals by Ødegaard and Saka saved our blushes, but they could not save two points. We had now dropped six points in three games and City were looming very large in the rear view mirror.
The guillotine falls
I watched the pivotal game with City from a hospital bed. It didn’t improve my mood or my condition and for me our realistic title challenge ended there. City had gone through the gears and were playing superbly; on the night we played they reached the sort of heights they latterly reached against Real Madrid. Without Saliba to handle Haaland our task was hopeless and we were outplayed. It was a very comprehensive 4-1 defeat and although Sky tried to propound the fallacy that there was still a title race going on it ended at the Emptihad that night despite the fact that in our next two games we played two excellent matches. We turned over a hapless Chelsea with Ødegaard netting twice and our Norwegian captain led us to an encouraging performance in the bear pit that is St. James Park. Ødegaard got the first goal and Martinelli forced Schar into conceding an own goal in the second half. Again in a big game, in a febrile atmosphere Ramsdale played superbly to earn a magnificent clean sheet. Leaving City aside we had proved that we could deal with the sides who had hampered our Champions League chances during the previous season – Newcastle, Palace, Tottnumb, and Brentford.
But the feeling that our title charge was over was heavily compounded by a comprehensive defeat by a Brighton side who were as skilful as they were physical. Arsenal, for the first time this season might be accused of lacking the appetite for a battle. This was even more evident the following week in a turgid 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest. The early concession of a goal to Anowiyi was a step too far and a very lateral and uninspired performance followed. That loss handed the title officially to City so we’d taken the battle technically to our penultimate game of the season which was a sight further than anyone else did. In our last game we had a party. Ironically Arteta picked exactly the side that had played so poorly at Forest and they thrashed Wolves 5-0! Granit signed off with two early goals and our last goal of the season was scored by Kiwior. Trossard racked up two more assists. Interestingly no player scored more than 15 goals this season but we had four regular scorers and Granit emerged as a pretty regular scorer last season.
The lessons of an epic season
I thought long and hard about using the word epic in the heading but I think it is justified. As I was writing this article I received a phone call from a Chelsea fan. He commented that I must be delighted to have had such a wonderful season. Lest we forget we finished nine points ahead of the team in 3rd place ( ManUre) and 13 ahead of Newcastle in fourth, 17 ahead of Liverpool and 24 ahead of our North London neighbours who just pipped us to the fourth Champions League spot last season. We actually reached the total to qualify for the Champions League on April 1st! The maths is too difficult to calculate the gap to Chelsea! We scored at least 3 goals in 12 of our home matches and in total scored 88 goals. We did concede 43 but 17 of these came in the last 10 games which Saliba missed; we conceded only 33 in the previous 28. Overall, this was probably at least 8 too many. Interestingly, we were the strongest team in the league away from home but only had the fourth best home record where we conceded 7 more goals at home than we did away and only recorded four clean sheets. But this still constitutes real progress in cold, hard terms and also underlines that the Premier League is fiercely competitive.
There were reasons why we made this progress. Firstly we strengthened the team. Saliba, playing at last was a revelation and is one of the best young centre backs in Europe. Interesting that the more experienced Gabriel clearly lost confidence when Saliba was injured. We very much need William to commit his future to the club. He will be a serious target of predators as he could play for anybody although he definitely found Ivan Toney a handful! Gabriel Jesus made a tremendous impression with his skill and effort but reverted slightly to type as the goals dried up, although post his injury he scored more freely again. Zinchenko endeared himself to Arsenal fans with his skill, attitude, versatility, and amazing aerial ability. He became our first inverted full back but also made some defensive rickets, especially towards the end of games. He is also regularly injured. Frankly I think I prefer Tierney as the starting left-back in games where we face quality wide men. In the winter window Jorginho was a canny acquisition and ultimately pushed Partey out of the first team midfield. £12m for his experience and quality is a good deal. Trossard began brilliantly and created assists for fun, including three in one half at Fulham. Although he faded slightly towards the end of the season he possibly suffered because his versatility can sometimes mean that he finds it difficult to hold a fixed place in the team. Kiwior has just made his way into the team. Personally, I’m not yet totally convinced by him but it is early days and he has real potential.
Another area carefully neglected by the media was our discipline. Arsenal had four players sent off in the previous season but they did not receive a red card in 2022/3. We also received 9 fewer yellow cards. The early Arteta days were notable for a plethora of red cards with Xhaka to the fore but the improved discipline of the team meant that we did not have a suspension during the season. That is not an accident and does the team great credit. You can be sure if the figures had moved the other way it would have been highlighted!
In Edu we trust?
We had a lively debate in last year’s off-season about our ability to move players on for money. Edu is well-respected at the club, seems to have great emotional intelligence and has excellent contacts in certain markets. But we can’t keep paying top-dollar for players coming in while failing to raise serious fees for players we want to move on. I shudder to think that we might be contemplating sales of Balogun, Patino, Tierney, and possibly Partey. I hope we aren’t because that would leave holes in our squad that we will struggle to fill. But if we did sell them we’d need to raise £120 million for that much talent. Let’s say I’m not convinced Edu would raise 60% of that figure. Yet we will be expected to pay £80 m plus for Declan Rice, £70 m for Caicedo and if we are interested in Maddison we’d need to shell out at least £70 m. Other clubs seem able to extract giant fees…
But there’s another thing. We’ve bought well, superbly in some situations but we’ve also had our share of duds. It happens to every club (except Brighton). On the plus side we’ve bought exceptional talent in Saliba, Ramsdale, Gabriel, White, and Martinelli who are all worth much more than we paid for them. But we’ve also added Nuno Tavares, Sambi Lokonga, and Fabio Vieira. Tomayisu is a fine player but is very fragile. The jury is inevitably out on Marquinhos, and Trusty may never play for us (although he looks worth serious perusal). Cedric and Mari were stop-gaps who largely washed their face but it would be wrong to assume every player we sign slips seamlessly into the first team squad. Sadly I feel we vastly overpaid for Vieira, a player who is too frail for English football. But we have no chance of selling him back to Portugal for anything like we paid for him so a loan is probably the best outcome we can achieve.
What is the point of Hale End?
If Charlie Patino wants to move on this summer and if Balogun agitates for a move it will underline how hard it is to integrate young players who have come through the system into the first-team squad. Smith Rowe hasn’t started a game all season. Will Brooke Norton-Cuffy or Lino Sousa be considered good enough for the first team? Of our Youth Cup finalists who will have a career with the club that nurtured them? Frankly what is the point of running an Academy where none of the graduates, however talented are considered good enough to play in our first team ? If Hale Enders stop following the path forged by Bukayo Saka we will lose a huge amount of the tradition that has fuelled great Arsenal teams over the years. Bukayo is exceptional, a wonderful ambassador for our club and a magnificent player (if overplayed by Arteta). But when will we see his like again? I’d rather see BNC understudy Ben White and Charlie Patino replace Elneny while ESR competes with Ødegaard rather than you know who. Arsenal need to breed talent that plays or Hale End will become a white elephant.
Arteta is better
The dynamo that drives Arsenal is Arteta. His appointment was a brave and far-sighted move and he has clearly received and appreciated the support he has had from the Kroenkes. We could have sacked him at least twice but we are not Tottnumb and we are in an immeasurably better place for keeping him. Jogo de posicion, his favoured style of play, requires intelligent and skilful players and coaches but it works. Our football is not only successful, it is exciting and attractive and we’ve seen some stunning performances this season including some wonderful home matches. Arteta is far from the finished article and he is still an inexperienced manager. Lest we forget he began at Arsenal by winning the FA Cup with a rag, tag, and bobtail unit left by Unai Emery. Arteta has driven the club forward and realises that success requires fans to be taken on the journey and for a family atmosphere to thrive, hence the chocolate Labrador at the training ground and the promotion of North London Forever as the club anthem.
Arteta will get better and let us pray that he reaches his peak with us. He is not perfect. He doesn’t rotate as much as I would like but maybe he doesn’t yet have the squad to do so. We concede too many cheap goals especially at home and noticeably our record in defending set pieces deteriorated over the season. But I am massively impressed with Arteta and we should ensure, as far as we can, that he has the right tools with which to work.
Players of the season
I’m conscious that if this were a podcast you might be running out of battery life but I did want us to have a wide-ranging debate on a remarkable season. I will end by trying to pick our player of the season. The possible candidates are, in my view, Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Saka, and Ødegaard. Others were at times magnificent, in bursts: Xhaka, in his valedictory season, Partey until his form fell off a cliff, Gabriel whose confidence has recently plunged, Martinelli, a huge and growing talent, and the two City imports Zinchenko and Jesus who aided us enormously but also illustrated why a side at City’s level felt able to sell them.
Ramsdale excelled often when we needed him most and is superb (usually) with his feet. White is a quality Steady Eddie who never lets us down but occasionally took a chasing from a fleet-footed winger (Mitoma, Rashford). Saka is such a delightful boy it’s hard to resist giving him the prize but I felt he suffered at times from being overplayed, receiving double coverage, and often being kicked to death. Saliba had a magnificent debut season and the drop in our defensive efficiency was obvious when he was no longer there. But my choice is Martin Ødegaard. He proved a conscientious and committed captain and helped us dominate games with his passing, industry, and intelligence. The accusations are levelled that he goes missing in big games. Well, he didn’t go missing at Newcastle or Tottnumb or Old Trafford or Anfield, and he has a huge ceiling. He is my choice.
So there is my review of an epic season, and one that in years to come may be viewed as one of the most significant in Arsenal history. Something special happened in N5 this season, and I’m delighted that many of us were there to experience it. Enjoy your summer and prepare for season 2023/24. It could be very special!
