{"id":1648,"date":"2020-10-26T16:40:06","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T16:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1648"},"modified":"2020-10-29T15:35:06","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T15:35:06","slug":"deja-vu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1648","title":{"rendered":"D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After the pedestrian display midweek that\nwas nonetheless efficient enough to get us all the three points away at Vienna\nin what would most likely be our relatively toughest match in the Europa group\nleague, we reassembled back at our home ground in the league against a team who\nfinished above us last season and who will be fighting for the same top four\npositions that must be our number one priority this season. So, we can be\nforgiven to harbor the hope that while the team will retain at minimum the\nefficiency from the midweek fixture, they will also raise the overall\nperformance \u2013 especially in the creative third \u2013 to a degree required to assert\ntheir authority in the match to ensure all the three points stay in London. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leicester and Arsenal were starting the\nmatch with identical nine points from five games, but the foxes a few positions\nabove us in the league table due to their superior goal difference thanks primarily\nto an eye\u2013catching counterattacking 5\u20132 win away against Manchester City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta\u2019s team selection was positive\nenough, while also acknowledging the opposition\u2019s threat in the counter, even\nin absence of Vardy in the starting line\u2013up, he was on the bench. Mikel has\nstarted to slowly move away from the 3\u20134\u20133 formation especially against teams\nthat are happy to concede possession to us. That theme continued with a \u201cmodern\ntraditional\u201d 4\u20133\u20133 formation: Leno protected by a back four of Bellerin and\nTierney as the flying fullbacks, Gabriel \u2013 our player of the season so far \u2013\naccompanied in the center of the defense by his senior compatriot David Luiz. The\nthree man midfield saw us Partey making his home debut, with Xhaka and Ceballos\nback, and on paper that does look like our most balanced midfield as of now,\nalbeit still limited from a creative perspective. So, the hope was that the\nfullbacks attacking down the flank and helping the forward three of Saka \u2013 Lacazette\n\u2013 Aubameyang will get us the goal(s). Aubameyang started on the right, except\nfor short spells in Saint\u2013\u00c9tienne and Dortmund where he played on the right it\nis not a position that he is known to enjoy. So Laca down the middle and Saka\non the left. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno had an uncharacteristically\nunconvincing night away against Rapid Wien, and the game started with him almost<\/em>\nconceding one of those goals that looks wonderful if you are an opposition\nsupporter but remains an embarrassing moment for a goalkeeper. His clearance as\na sweeper fell onto Maddison\u2019s path, and his instantaneous attempt at goal had\nLeno scrambling back. Even though Gabriel too was following the trajectory of\nthe ball and had covered a great distance to stand a chance to clear one\nsuspects if the shot was indeed goalbound we would have been 1\u20130 down at that\nstage.  A reprieve! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A minute later we earned a corner. Ceballos\nsent a tantalizing delivery into the box which Lacazette scored from a glancing\nheader. However, the celebrations were cut short by the promptly raised offside\nflag. The reviews show that it was Xhaka \u2013 standing in front of Schmeichel \u2013\ndeemed to be in the offside position. Was he interfering with the game? In my\nopinion no, but VAR reviewed the decision and left it as it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that moment it seemed like just a matter\nof time Arsenal will get the opening goal. Even though we were not particularly\nfluid or imaginative, we were holding on to the ball, passing it around\nefficiently enough, and using David Luiz\u2019s ability for a long pinpoint pass to\nwork around Leicester\u2019s low blocks to get Tierney, Bellerin, Saka and Laka onto\nthe ball. We earned a barrage of corners from such moves but didn\u2019t make them\ncount. Some of our corner taking has been abysmal this season, and whatever the\ndead ball specialist working on in the playing ground seems to have regressed\nthe team. Even Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 \u2013 when he is playing \u2013 has sent some\nuncharacteristically poor corners this season and it seems like we have been\ntrying too hard to create newer patterns. Hopefully this will eventually work\nout. A team like ours lacking so much in midfield guile and imagination cannot\nbe so wasteful when it comes to free\u2013kicks and corners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xhaka took a very poor free\u2013kick, hitting\nstraight at the wall. Ceballos after the first corner started to regress in his\ndead ball deliveries at an alarming rate, Gabriel attempted a bicycle kick from\nanother corner, Laca wasted a chance when from Tierney\u2019s cross he headed\nstraight to the goalkeeper. Hector saw a yellow card, as did Fuchs and\nTielemans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auba and Saka switched sides a few times.\nThis is the kind of game with two lines of four defenders deep in front of\ntheir penalty box moving from side to side where Auba on the wings do not make\nany sense at all. The cleverness of his movement and unpredictability of his\npositioning is entirely nullified by being away from the goalmouth, and his\nspeed on the counter\u2013attack doesn\u2019t even count because there is no space to run\nbehind the defense. This was an absolute waste of our best \u2013 and at this time\npossibly the only truly world class \u2013 player in a vital game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Luiz and young Saka were the only\nones looked like making something happen. Luiz was given time on the ball and\nhe delivered some exquisite passes on the feet of our fullbacks and forward\nline. Saka once or twice turned himself well and showed good first touch but\nthe final decisive shot or pass never came about. The match had started to\nassume the now familiar look of somewhat toothless arsenal attack being easily\nblunted by a well\u2013drilled team who did their homework and more than happy to\nhave us meaninglessly pass the ball around. There were moments when Auba was\nmaking clever darting runs in and around the box but none of the midfielders\ncould thread a ball to him. Simply recycling the ball without drawing any\ndefender out of position or without any ability to move the ball rapidly\nthrough the lines by playing in neat triangles around the defense is as futile\na footballing exercise as it is boring to watch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So as the second half resumed it was obvious the only way we could get a goal from this game was by hopefully a piece or two of magic from our captain, and surely the team would have been told to get him more involved in the game?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luiz had to be replaced just a few minutes after the restart because of what looked like a hamstring injury. He was replaced by Mustafi who himself was coming from a long injury lay\u2013off. Since Arteta joined Mustafi had learned to stop being so predictably error prone, but back in the minds of all of us long suffering Arsenal supporters there always lurks the possibilities of his generosity towards opposition forwards coming to the fore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luiz\u2019s substitution also robbed us of the\nprimary source of creative impetus for the evening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After writing that line above I realized\nthe ridiculous absurdity of what I just expressed. A thirty three years old\ncentral defender pinging long passes as the way to get us goals! I hope we do\nnot have to even think of something like that for the rest of our Arsenal\nsupporting days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we thought that game couldn\u2019t have been\nany more dull, we were proven wrong. We were slow, ponderous, lacking not only\nin creative inspiration but also in courage, no one willing to take a risk,\nsimply hoping for a goal. A moment of brilliance came about around 68th<\/sup>\nminute when Auba \u2013 now stationed on the left wing \u2013 delivered a lovely cross\nwhich Bellerin attacked with power but straight to Schmeichel. If only\nAubameyang was at the receiving end of that cross!   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few minutes before that Saka was replaced\nby P\u00e9p\u00e9, who moved about quickly from right to left to back to right, and asked\nfor the ball, but didn\u2019t do much when he had it. In my opinion he should have\nstarted this match, with Aubameyang down the middle, and between him and Saka\n(and Reiss, if he is ever allowed to play) we always stand a much better chance\nof fashioning out a few moments of creative spark and enough chaos in the\nopposition defense for Auba to benefit from. Given that we have no genuine\ncreativity in the midfield we must learn to become braver and more\nunpredictable in our forward play if we are to stand any chance of being in the\ntop four contention. Lacazette as false nine and Aubameyang down the left to\ncreate left\u2013sided overload in counterattacks with Willian\/Pepe providing\ntechnical security on the right has now become a tattered playbook that all\nmanagers have become wise to. This is not meant to be a harsh criticism of\nMikel, this formula worked flawlessly on our way to the 14th<\/sup> FA Cup\nvictory, but in modern football we need to be one step ahead of the opposition\nand this level of predictability will throw a spanner into Mikel\u2019s rebuilding\nwork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile Vardy replaced Praet around 60th<\/sup>\nminute. There were yellow cards to Lacazette, Evans and Maddison. Hector on\nanother day could have seen one more yellow and received his marching orders.\nAround 75th<\/sup> minute the Turkish international \u00dcnder replaced Barnes. And a few\nminutes later the dreaded inevitable happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not to particularly pick on Mustafi\nwho has some qualities and has played well enough under Arteta. But he had made\nso many of this exact type of mistakes in his Arsenal career that it must now\nbe clear that he cannot really be a long\u2013term solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tielemans sent a precise through ball to \u00dcnder outside of Gabriel. Gabriel did\nwell enough to not let him cut inside and have a shot at Leno. However, his\ndefensive partner completely lost Vardy and failed to track his run. \u00dcnder put\nin an accurate pass on the path of Vardy who was running free at our goal, and\nhe scored from a simple header past Leno. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 0 \u2013 Leicester 1 (Vardy 80\u2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Arteta we\nhave learnt to not concede goals like this, and it has been long enough \u2013 a few\nmonths in footballing memory can feel like a lifetime \u2013 that this particularly\nnauseating way of losing a match was experienced that we may have almost\nrecovered from the trauma of the seasons past. This was a not\u2013so\u2013gentle\nreminder that while tactics and discipline can go a long way to compensate for\nunderlying weaknesses, our rebuilding process must continue to bring in\nupgrades in all necessary positions. A central defender hoping to play for\nArsenal cannot forget to track runs of the only player in the opposition who\neveryone in the world knows will score goals if you give him a chance. This was\na gift. As Mikel later said, if we cannot win a match, we must ensure that at\nleast we do not lose it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remaining minutes were memorable only for how lethargic and devoid of ideas our team looked even after conceding. Nketiah came on for Tierney but didn\u2019t impact the game in any way. There was not enough determination \u2013 or even desperation \u2013 to score an equalizer and we ended up losing all the three points at home to one of our direct competitors for the Champions League qualification. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are free to theorize as much as we want, and we should in forums like this, but I think we should also accept that Mikel is not blind to the problems of predictable attack and lack of creativity that now characterizes the team. He has done a remarkable job in a short time to arrest the free fall, bring in structural and defensive solidity and no little resilience down the spine of the team, and made us a much harder team to beat. Now the second phase of his rebuilding must happen, and this is where not just thoughtfulness and rigor that will need to come in play, but also imagination and courage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will need all\nthe support we can give him.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the pedestrian display midweek that was nonetheless efficient enough to get us all the three points away at Vienna in what would most likely be our relatively toughest match in the Europa group league, we reassembled back at our home ground in the league against a team who finished above us last season and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1648"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1669,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1648\/revisions\/1669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}