The mistake felt inevitable.
We were playing at Chelsea, a big game. Chelsea were standing off him, letting him have possession, letting him make runs into their half with the ball. They knew his history of making big mistakes, especially when he’s given a lot of room in behind – that space between Mustafi and his keeper is critical, like a security blanket. When he’s close to the keeper, he’s usually fine, but when that space grows, so too does his self doubt. Even the unusual appeal to emotion on the official web site – where he sat in a dark room and shared how much it hurt him to make mistakes, how much he didn’t want to make these errors but that they were just something that happened. The camera was the interrogator, an inquisitor, and Mustafi was making his confession. Please forgive me for the errors of my past, present and future.
But it’s an energy that runs through the entire team. It’s a desperate need to not make the mistake which compounds the inevitable mistakes when they do happen. So, Mustafi made a terrible pass. Leno came off his line and then swung a leg lamely at Abraham, who just danced around him. And if David Luiz tried to tackle Abraham rather than simply pulling him down the referee could have given a yellow card rather than red. We still would have conceded the penalty but at least we would have had a full team.
But incredibly, that same energy infects Chelsea right now as well. Kepa Arrizabalaga is the worst shot stopper in the League. It doesn’t matter what type of shots he’s facing – inside, outside, slow burners with the left leg of a right-legged player – he struggles to stop shots. His whole team knows and they seem to be shot through with an air of dis-ease. They seem unsure of themselves which is a very weird phenomenon to witness in a Chelsea team. We are used to Chelsea as a muscular, combative, and very assured team and yet here they are.
And out of that cauldron of anxiety came Martinelli. Mustafi heads away the ball, a whopper of a header which clears everyone. Martinelli controls and without a shred of indecision just runs. He runs at the best defensive midfielder of the last five years, a player with two titles, player of the year awards, a World Cup medal! Martinelli’s innocence just drives him forward. At one point he even loses control of the ball – in that moment I gave up on the play and I bet you Lacazette and almost every other player on the team would have given up on the ball – but instead of stopping he plunged forward, Kante fell over, and Martinelli sprinted past the remaining defender, run straight up to Kepa, and slotted it home.
And his celebration perfectly captured his own self-belief. He simply crossed his arms and stared into the crowd. Here I am.
Even Arteta had a moment of hesitation. A few minutes after David Luiz was sent off, Arteta told Rob Holding he was coming on. It looked like Arteta was going to make sure that Arsenal had at least two center backs. But who was he going to bring off? Ozil? Lacazette? Martinelli? The commentators seemed to think it was going to be Martinelli. That would have been an incredible mistake now in hindsight because this was right before Martinelli scored.
But something unimaginable happened. Arsenal, with 10 men, started fighting back. They contested loose balls, they started getting under Chelsea’s skin, making them look nervous. Arteta changed his mind. After the match, Mikel said this:
Not Martinelli (he wasn’t thinking of taking off Martinelli), but I did change my mind. I was thinking about that and I said, ‘I don’t want to send that message to the team’. We decided to keep it as we were and give them a chance. I wanted to see how they could respond to that. I didn’t want to make the response for them because I want them to be accountable for what they do and I didn’t want to make a decision so they wouldn’t decide for themselves. It’s a great response from them.
Mikel Arteta was effusive with praise for this team after the match and every word he said rings true but here he is talking about the spirit in the team and how they stand up for each other:
I am [proud]. The spirit they showed, the character, the fight and the leadership was there as well. You have to really stand up. When someone makes a mistake, it can happen in football, so someone has to take a red card for him. It can happen. What cannot happen is that afterwards we don’t stand up for him. Every single player did it with belief as well. I could sense it at half-time that they believed they could get back in the game. I wasn’t expecting Hector to score with his left foot obviously, but I’m very pleased.
They did stand up for each other. And even after the referees wrongly allowed Chelsea’s 2nd goal. That was textbook interference by Abraham on that corner. Coming from a clearly offside position, Abraham walked to the angle where the ball was coming in and then at the last second dodged out of the path of the ball. That goal shouldn’t have been allowed to stand. But it was allowed.
Arsenal of just a few weeks ago might have capitulated at that point and let Chelsea walk all over them. But they didn’t. They got up and did it all over again. They were out there, down to 10 men, in a hostile arena where the supporters were laughing at David Luiz being sent off and mocking Martinelli when he was shoved into the advertising hoardings. Some of the players were dead on their feet – Lacazette notably needs a rest. They were down a goal. The referee wasn’t doing them any favors. Everything about Arsenal over the last 4 seasons said to me “they are done”.
But they weren’t done. They kept attacking. And even though there was a little bit of hesitancy in their shot selection at times they kept coming at Chelsea.
And it was Bellerin who scored the equalizer. Bellerin on his left leg, his chocolate leg. Bellerin who’d suffered an ACL tear against Chelsea almost exactly one year ago. Bellerin who’s often derided on his Instagram and Twitter for the crimes of getting dressed and eating healthy. The player who has been the focal point for toxic masculinity’s rage at modern Arsenal. It was fitting that he scored the equalizer because every one of his haters had to just shut up for 10 minutes. And if they have any love for Arsenal at all left in their dried up little hearts they had to celebrate his goal. They had to celebrate him.
Oh and he was the captain of the team yesterday.
After the match Arteta talked about how proud he was of his team for standing up to Chelsea and standing up for each other. But there was another quote which maybe didn’t make the rounds. Talking about Xhaka filling in at center back, the Arsenal manager said this:
Everything I ask him to do, every training session, he’s like this and is willing to do it. Today, I knew the moment I put him there, I don’t know how well he was going to do but he was going to put everything in. He was great.
This is his “non-negotiable”. This is what Arteta needs from every player. He even said he wants it from every staff member.
This is also what we all want as fans. Most rational fans understand that mistakes are going to happen and that some players are going to be more error-prone than others. But what we can’t stand is watching a player make a mistake and then just quit. This is why people love players like Torreira and Martinelli so much. They aren’t perfect but they never quit. They put everything in.
(source: arsenal.com)
I would want to experience what the team experienced yesterday. They made themselves proud.
1. More than the goal, it was the celebration that really cemented the Martinelli love. Lots of players score that goal maybe (though not many of this current team): Auba does, and certainly many others in the league. But it was the goal by an 18 year old and then that cool, calm celebration. Just so confident. It was iconic, and will last long in the memory.
2. This is why coaches love Xhaka: “Everything I ask him to do, every training session, he’s like this and is willing to do it.” That’s the secret sauce for how he gets picked over and over despite his clear faults. It’s explicable now, and it makes sense.
I’ll even give some credit to Mustafi. It was an awful mistake. One in a string of far too many. Given that, we’re probably better moving him along.
But yesterday, a lot of players probably making a mistake that big, and given the history he’s had, would probably have let their heads drop and hidden. But he didn’t. Like pretty much everyone else, he played well and hard for the rest of the match.
He took one in the groin for his sins and then got an assist. I suppose you could say he also got the assist for Chelseas’ first goal. Quite an eventful match for him.
Lol at “he took one in the groin for his sins”
He really tried after the mistake
Great write up. I, too, was very pleased with the result. And maybe it was just how the highlights I ended up watching were edited, but I think Hector was saying “c’mon, let’s go” after his equalizer–like they could start up again and get the winner!
So much more fun being Gooner now
I’ve been wanting to read this report to relive the match. Enjoyable.
Martinelli’s second touch was way too heavy. He miscontrolled the ball, kicked it too far ahead of him and had Kante not slipped, it would have been an easy interception. But I am typing this from the safety of my living room. I did not have a supremely self confident forward charging at me. What I say about his heavy touch is not a criticism… it is praise for the way he just stormed through. Now, faced with the keeper, a defender on his shoulder and Pepe wide right, a lot of FAR more experienced strikers would not have had the calmness and presence of mind to stroke it past the keeper at the precise moment he started to go down — i.e. when he was most unbalanced. Our senior strikers, Auba included, messed up a few of those in recent games.
Martinelli is an amalgam of technical excellence, poacher’s instinct and ferocious industry. He’s tough, and a fighter. Now we also know that he possesses the calmness of the best finishers. He has a touch of the Alexis Sanchez.
Mustafi’s header clear was something else. He got so much distance on it, that it cleared Chelsea’s like of attackers, and Martinelli’s sprint was on.
As for the Luiz red card, even with the shove, it’s a yellow. There was an Arsenal defender practically on the goal line. I heard it said that it was a “last man” situation. It was not. It looked to me a clear but clumsy foul… not a cynical one.
Arteta would have liked more than 1 point out of 6 against Chelsea. But hey… with 10 men, that was a good result,
Thumbs up from me for that comment
I paused the game at the 50 minute mark to go do something. Came back and decided to just go to “Live” since I figured we must be down 2 or 3-0 by now. 1-1. Wait – what? Rewind, hitting the 30s back button repeatedly like a maniac… um, a Chelsea corner at 1-0, skip 15s forward, wait, a goal? How? I must have gone too far. Nope.
How we went from defending a corner to scoring 13s later has probably been the best thing I’ve seen all season. I laughed with joy.
You know what – f the transfers. Keep the powder dry and just run with this group. They seem to be responding. Let’s not mess it up bringing in Joorabchian or Mendes detritus.
I unexpectedly find myself agreeing with you 100%. Barring more injuries, I think our best way forward at the moment is to keep building the positive team spirit and try to establish better creativity through consistent team selection. And the image of you laughing with joy brought a smile to my face. We must be doing something right, eh?
Really surprising performance by the team against Chelsea. There were so many things that I liked and I saw some solutions to some persistent problems we have had for a while now.
1. I really liked the composure shown by the team after going a man down. Instead of panicking, they trusted in how they play and kept calm against all that pressure. They mostly made the right decisions on he few occasions when they got on the ball, played to attack the gaps left behind by Chelsea and the attack did the most to aliviate pressure on the defence.
2. Organisation and concentration was very good. It reminded me of the Arsenal women’s team after Joe Montemurro took over. The team seems to be building confidence through the defence. The team’s ability to soak up pressure in a deep block with ten men and regularly keeping teams from creating much against us when we are dominant is a really good sign for next season.
3. The midfield two of Ozil and Torreira scared me, but it kept solid and showed me something interesting. Ozil can’t tackle, he isn’t an intense runner and is really strong, but what he does have is tactical inteligence. In the two, for something like 30 minutes he didn’t do much but just look to block passing lanes and not stray too wide or too far forward. Tim has said we need a defensive midfielder for ages, and I dont think we really need a tough tackling and hard running player there, just a positiinally disciplined player who can anchor the side well. Guendouzi came in and started running all over the place and we were a bit ragged for a few minutes, and then when he started settling down and holding shape, we were able to play with a better structure on and off the ball.
4. Xhaka at centre back was an eye opener. I love the type of player that Xhaka is, but his role as a third centre back in the build up is forcing Ozil deeper, which pulls Lacazette deeper as well. I think this is why our creativity has been so poor for the last couple of years. We have basically been playing with a single player in midfield, or pulling Ozil who is our safest pass into the half spaces in the final third.
Ramsey used to isolate Xhaka to build up, Xhaka would get pressed because he can’t dribble and we would lose the ball. Our reaction? Pass it long to the wings or Ozil drops deep, but in doing so, we lose his safety on the ball in more advanced areas.
Now Xhaka drops deeper, and Ozil has to drop in again but an out ball that allows for better advancement of the ball from there doesn’t exist.
We end up giving Lacazette the ball at the half way line where he is not as dangerous, Pepe gets the ball at the half way line and then has to dribble from there and all the way into dangerous positions and Aubameyang is already playing out of position.
We need to solve our ball progression through the departments and get the ball into the feet of our most dangerous players, in the positions were they can do the most damage and then we can start judging their creative output. The same way that, the attacking players need to provide as much cover for the defence as possible, to provide a plartform for the defence to keep clean sheets, the defence needs to do the same for the attack. Under Emery, none of these were helping the other.
5. I do not think Ozil and Pepe are compatible. I think Pepe is an amazing player who is able to beat players, shoot well and create chances. He is like a right sided Alexis. The issue I see is that Ozil likes to drift to the right to combine with Hector and the winger on that side. Ozil likes quick combinations and Pepe seems to hold onto the ball for a bit too long at times. I think the right side was Ozil’s to play the Pepe role while the right winger would be more of a direct runner who thrive with off the ball movement, like Ramsey in 15/16 and Walcott for the most part.
I feel like Ozil has to adapt better to Pepe and not the other way around. Pepe has a long term future here and is going to define how this team is going to play for the next few years. Ozil is going to have to show more patience when Pepe has the ball and his movement will have to change a bit to create space for Pepe. Maybe if we solve our ball progression issue, we might be able to see Ozil start running in behind the defence to stretch the pitch, instead of just dropping deep or recieving mostly in the half spaces.
6. Thanks to Tim and everyone for debating points with me on this site. I have been using this plartform to work on my English. It has helped me so much because I now have a degree (done in English) that I wouldn’t have gotten without the constant debates and dialouges about a team that I love.
congrats on the degree, devlin. you’re a credit to this forum.
i understand your point about the lack of chemistry between pepe and ozil. however, i think it’s pepe that has to adapt more to ozil. speaking more directly, pepe is a great dribbler but his link up play sucks. he can’t seem to play quick combinations and relies on his talent alone, not guile to beat players. i’m going to say something very controversial here; if pepe improves his link up play, he can be the closest thing to messi in world football. that’s how talented he is. however, he’s got to become a smarter footballer and learn to play 1 and 2-touch football. if he does that, i really believe in his potential for greatness. we’ll see.
Thanks guys. JOSHUAD, I think what you say about Pepe adapting to Ozil makes more sense than my point, because Ozil will have to almost take his game a step back or play slower to adapt to Pepe. Pepe adapting to Ozil means Pepe improving his own game, improving the speed of our play in the opposition half and in the long run we will have a better player in Pepe even after Ozil leaves.
Congrats Devlin and kudos to you. Onwards an upwards from a friend you may never meet (although we may never know what fate has in store) from across the pond.
Thanks Tony. I have been trying to become a chartered accountant and things are falling into place nicely. I travel a lot, so you never know.
Based solely on last nights performance , Xhaka looks a far better centre half than midfield player. Playing at the back gives him a lot less running to do, which is handy, bearing in mind his natural lack of athleticism. Also, seeing as he is always facing the right way, he rarely has to turn with ball, which he’s not particularly good at. Always useful to have one centre half with a left foot, so he ticks that box as well. I must admit, I feared the worst when I saw him line up at the back, but I needn’t have done. He seemed to buckle down to his defensive duties, rather than standing around ball watching. He was arguably one of our better players. I can’t believe I just said that.
Sooner or later, Martinelli has got to play as an out and out centre forward. Not to do so would feel like a waste of his unique and special talents. When rather than maybe.
“I didn’t want to make the response for them because I want them to be accountable for what they do”
that’s my highlight for what arteta said and has always said. that approach makes the players own what they do on the field. i absolutely love that.
we all saw several times arteta looking to make a substitution, initially with holding replacing pepe, which he decided against. then guendouzi replacing ozil. later looking to bring on maitland-niles for hector, which he decided against.
keeping three up front was my favorite call, eventually using laca as a hybrid 9/false 9. that said to the team “you’re a man down. deal with it!” once again, i loved that. that means the players have to own what they do. once players begin to own what they do, it’s not on the coach. the players know the strategy. leaders begin to step up. big up to xhaka for showing why his peers picked him to be the captain as he rallied the troops after going a man down and a goal down. especially with him leading while playing in a position that’s not his.
is this a turning point? we’ll see.
Simply great write up. Totally agree with you that we fans can also have the same split as Arsenal team members even when some mistakes occurred to move forward.
Tim, you can talk about Bellerin being the focus of toxic masculinity all you want but it’s hardly a coincidence that as soon as he sorted out his hair he started scoring chocolate leg equalizers in big games.
The evidence speaks for itself and the only reason more people can’t see what’s obvious is because we still, for some reason, don’t take the idea of stats that track a players performance with different hairstyles seriously.
+1
your point about kepa is not lost on me. chelsea paid a ton of money for him and he’s not made that team better. i watched a lot of bilbao because i like inaki williams but kepa never struck me as a world class keeper. there was also the drama last year when sari tried to take him off and he refused to be substituted. chelsea paid a king’s ransom for him when they could have gotten a considerably better keeper for half the price. i absolutely could not believe hector’s shot found the back of the net, but like most gooners, i was too busy celebrating to care about the quality of their keeper.
Hector’s missed a truck tonne of those shots over recent seasons. When he overlaps and plays one-twos, particularly with Mesut and his RW, space opens up for the left foot shot when he cuts inside. He’s taken a lot, and missed nearly all. Maybe it’s the odds; maybe Arteta worked with him on it.
One respect in which Hector looked unrecognisable to me was defending. Under Emery, our defensive play was passive/reactive and involved marking the space. So there was a lot of pointing and positioning and little actual tackling. Hector against Chelsea was throwing himself successfully into blocks. As I’d said here before, that was a part of his game he needed to improve to be the superb all-round full back that he could be. Looks like he reads 7amkickoff.
1. Who would have thought the way to cure Mustafi and Xhaka of their game losing mistakes is to pair them in a what should be a terrifying defensive two. Like two error magnets cancelling each other out.
2. Martinelli is going break our hearts.
I hear you. Let’s enjoy him for as long as we can.
If we can keep him next season, manage to get ourselves into a CL position, then improve the squad so that we believe we can win the league in the 21/22 season, distribute some of Özil’s wage in his direction when he departs then perhaps Martinelli son and his Dad will settle for a move to Spain only when he’s in his late twenties. Lots of ifs I know. It might happen. Dream …
To be completely fair Arsene also had a number of players who were looked really good with other teams but struggled when they came to Arsenal.