{"id":7909,"date":"2023-05-22T17:24:48","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T16:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7909"},"modified":"2023-05-27T14:37:07","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T13:37:07","slug":"perfection-in-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7909","title":{"rendered":"Perfection in Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1246297891\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:66.66667% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1246297891?et=Cfg6zvkSQ7lGIehJ98F-og&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=ltR6R7n62orcrNta8BYoYorr5nFN5euQ33XxoA0pqpw=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier in the winter when Mikel was asked if Arsenal could sustain their excellence towards an originally unpredicted attempt at winning the league, Arenal manager had surmised that we would need to be perfect until the end of the season in every aspect to sustain such an ambition. One suspects he knew what he was talking about, especially given his past proximity to the title-winning machine \u2013 I am intentionally keeping aside the discussions about the ethical\/legal dimensions of how that machine was built, for the Arsenal manager and the squad can have no control over the arc of that development \u2013 that was at that time chasing us, a few points behind and with a couple of games in hand.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prescience in that observation has lately been demonstrated as Mikel\u2019s young squad \u2013 especially after losing a few of their key personnel to injuries \u2013 had started to falter at the final weeks of an exhilarating campaign, whereas the machine kept up its inexhaustible march.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal traveled up to the land of Robin Hood (and Friar Tuck) with the hopes of a final twist in this league season\u2019s tale, a twist that was to be no less legendary in proportion than one of Robin\u2019s escapes. While the silk-and-steel dominance over high flying Newcastle had rekindled such a hope just a couple of weeks back, last Sunday\u2019s capitulation at home against a clever and spirited Brighton side highlighted the difficulties of sustaining that level of excellence in the closing days of the campaign.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Saliba\u2019s back injury has turned out to be season-ending and his absence has proven to generate a negative domino effect along the spine of the side, earlier forcing Partey to take up more responsibilities and covering more space in the middle which most likely had contributed to his mistakes, and subsequent loss of form. Whereas Jorginho has played very well indeed in place of Thomas, he doesn\u2019t quite provide the incision and verticality of the Ghanaian and we had started to look more labored in transition. Then came the loss of Zinchenko and only in his absence came we to appreciate truly why Mikel persisted with him even when the odd defensive mistakes started to pile up, sometimes even leading to conceding goals: a tight technical control of the midfield, variety of passing, and clever manipulation of spaces. Whereas Tierney is a wonderful left back, the Arsenal team this season had become used to relying on the creative unpredictability that the Zinchenko &#8212; Xhaka \u2013 Martinelli axis of controlled chaos brings. Gabi too has now been sidelined for the rest of the season after being hacked down in the Brighton match.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Credit to Mikel to try to solve this problem with tactical innovation by deciding to play Partey in a kind of \u201cright flank Zinchenko\u201d role, weighing the loss of Saka-White understanding on the right flank against the potential gain in midfield control by playing Partey-Jorginho-Xhaka together.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Ramsdale<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">White \u2013 Kiwior &#8212; Gabriel<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Partey \u2013 \u00d8degaard \u2013Jorginho &#8212; Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka \u2013 Jesus \u2013 Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bench didn\u2019t include Reiss-Nelson due to illness, but in addition to the usual suspects had three academy players: Walters (who is indeed not an entirely unfamiliar sight anymore), Bandeira and the highly promising Cozier-Duberry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We were playing against a team that for a long time this season seemed to be headed straight back to the championship, despite (or maybe even because of) amassing a significant number of experienced and quality players, albeit some of them past their primes. However, a recent run of good performances and results especially at their City Ground home had brought them to a stage where they just needed one more win to stay up, and as the match started it was evident that they were determined to make the home advantage count and ensure their survival without having to stay in the fight through the final day madness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In contrast, Arsenal looked labored on the ball and surprisingly bereft of confidence in their movements and passing. Possibly that was due to the change in shape, or the pressure of knowing that a win was absolutely necessary if we were to retain any hope of winning the title, or loss of confidence because of last weekend\u2019s result, or tiredness of body and mind that had now started to take over as the adrenaline of hope rapidly recedes, or maybe a combination of all of these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Nottingham Forest players were faster to react to fifty-fifty balls, and more alert on transitions, especially the pair of Gibbs-White and Awoniyi who combined to score their goal at the nineteenth minute, the former interrupting an uncharacteristically lazy cross-field pass from \u00d8degaard to release the latter on the outside of Gabriel, and even though our Brazilian defender used his pace to cover the ground well and put in a well-timed tackle, the ball bounced against the Nigerian\u2019s shin and bobbled up and past an onrushing Ramsdale. There may have been an element of fortuitousness in the manner of the goal, but it was a well-deserved one from Forest who had started well and by then had sensed a tentativeness in Arsenal\u2019s approach that they were ready to exploit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nottingham Forest 1 ( Awoniyi 19\u2019) \u2013 Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal was dominating possession, but much of that dominance was wasted in possession without purpose or penetration, moving the ball around in the now dreaded horseshoe shape which had at times still crept into our game. We missed Martinelli\u2019s directness, White\u2019s overlapping runs (Partey refusing or unable to combine with Saka in that role), Zinchenko\u2019s movements and passing, and it seemed we would need a moment or two of individual brilliance to bring us back into the match.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though Saka, Jes\u00fas, Trossard and \u00d8degaard all tried their very best \u2013 and there were a few times when some of the passing around the penalty box did resemble the best of Arsenal this season \u2013 there was a degree of turgidity and sloppiness on the ball that stopped us from building any sustained goalmouth pressure.&nbsp;&nbsp;Even then we should have earned a penalty as Jesus \u2013 trying to latch on to a well-placed long pass from the deep \u2013 was hauled down in the penalty box when he was the closest to the ball and was going to find himself in a goalscoring position. I would like to say that it remained a mystery why VAR didn\u2019t take a closer look. But we all know that ineptitude, when demonstrated repeatedly, loses its ability to surprise. Power often resides on the barrel of low expectations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first half ended without much of a hope for Arsenal. It was felt that Mikel may want to switch the formation\/personnel to bring back a modicum of fluency to our play. The beginning of the second half showed that unless he did so the match was likely to slip away. Around the 63<sup>rd<\/sup>&nbsp;minute he made his first substitutions: bringing in Tierney for Kiwior and Nketiah for Xhaka. In Tierney we finally had someone willing to combine with his forward on the outside and stretch their defense away from the congested central areas. His wing-play inspired a few decent crosses from others as well, though Keylor Navas (Joel Campbell\u2019s Costa Rican teammate, a pointless bit of Arsenal trivia) was dominant enough in the air to handle all those assuredly. Saka tried his best, and maybe a few years from now when he is at his absolute peak he will be able to manufacture a moment of pure individual magic in a match like this to haul us back into contention when we are playing this poorly, but even his best efforts didn\u2019t create enough to swing back the momentum. He did bring out a good save from Navas, and Jorginho had an attempt from a corner that was deflected over. Martin \u2013 so often the orchestrator extraordinaire, demonstrating abilities, desire and intelligence \u2013 and Trossard both were disappointingly well below their best, and the well-known limitation in Jes\u00fas\u2019s otherwise well-rounded game, the inconsistency in his ability to create scoring chances for himself even when things are not going well, did not help.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We earned a flurry of corners that we didn\u2019t create much from, and the only other substitution made by Mikel \u2013 Vieira for Trossard \u2013 failed to influence the game. Fabio is a wonderful talent on the ball, but the questions remain if he can really handle the pace and physicality of this league. We Arsenal fans have had seen fair share of diminutive young playmakers with supreme abilities on the ball, and even though you would choose none of them to defend you in a fistfight, on the football pitch they were not at all easy to push off the ball the way Vieira is. I am sure Mikel\u2019s coaching staff have a special plan for him in pre-season.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the game ended in the loss that ended our title challenge \u2013 and the Forest fans and player erupted in joy at their own survival in the top flight \u2013 and much of the football media started to masticate on regurgitated cliches, I myself have nothing but love, pride and admiration for this team. Not many people are mentioning the immensity of their achievement, the fact that we are likely to end up with a points total that is bettered only by one other team in Arsenal\u2019s glorious history, a points total that in an era of a more level-playing field of financially un-doped teams would have been more than adequate to win the league, that while the pre-season predictions had us mostly outside the CL positions we had secured Champions League football with weeks to spare, that we had played some of the most scintillating, innovative, enterprising football the league has ever seen, and put on more remarkable comeback performances in one season than most clubs would need a few decades to combine. All with the youngest team in the league, and the youngest (or second youngest) manager in his first managerial job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you Arsenal! Looking forward to an old-fashioned final day thumping of Wolves, and the continued upward curve in the seasons to come.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Earlier in the winter when Mikel was asked if Arsenal could sustain their excellence towards an originally unpredicted attempt at winning the league, Arenal manager had surmised that we would need to be perfect until the end of the season in every aspect to sustain such an ambition. One suspects he [&hellip;]<\/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\/7909"}],"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=7909"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7937,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909\/revisions\/7937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}