Well, Arsenal have been busy this week! Not only did they have to train to face off against uhh… fellow mid-table.. team.. erm, Southampton but also they put pen to paper: locking down Cedric (bed) Soares, David Luiz, and Pablo Mari; extended Danny Onions’ loan deal and by most accounts have signed or will sign Bukayo Saka to a long-term deal.
I try not to be too negative when it comes to signings because let’s face it, Arsenal are a mid-table club with such deep financial problems that they were forced to ask the players for a pay cut. Not only that but the club look set to miss out on European football next season, plus there are grave doubts clubs will be allowed to play in front of supporters any time soon, which is a further huge blow to Arsenal’s bottom line.
Instead of being negative about signing a player to a four year deal who hasn’t played a single minte for the club during his 6-month loan, I will say the following: I really like Pablo Mari and hope he recovers quickly from what the club are calling an ankle injury. He’s a big fella, he likes to get stuck into tackles, he’s left footed, and I hope he is able to adjust to the Premier League.
Also, Edu and Mikel Arteta both rate all of these players and feel like they fit into their plans and I feel like Mikel Arteta deserves to pick the players he wants on his team. I may have had an initial few negative emotions on twitter but those have subsided and I’m resigned to this.
The really great news is Saka. Arsenal need to keep their young players in the team, develop them, and improve their ability and value.
As for the opponents we face today, Southampton are yet another of the Arsenal bogey teams. Arsenal have only one 1 time in the last 7 away matches at Southampton (in the League) back in May 2017. Coincidentally, Cedric (bed) Soares played in that match:
- 34/46 passes (Ward-Prowse in front of him was 30/31)
- 3 Key Passes (That was his most offensive season of his career, notching 39 total key passes, he’s been steadily declining and combined 29 for the last two seasons)
- All three Key Passes were long-ball crosses
- 1 tackle
- 0 interceptions
- 1 block
I don’t have any of the more advanced metrics (carries, forward passes, etc) for that match because that’s the cut off for that data available through StatsBomb.
Arsenal were outshot in that match 14-11 and Soares played in a much more attacking role than he has done in his last three seasons. But still, it was Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil who dominated that match. Ozil had 6 key passes, playing in that space that Soares vacated (no doubt at the behest of his coach).
Anyhow, that was three years ago and none of those players are the same as they were. Time marches on.
Today’s match is a weird one to call. Southampton are 14th but only 3 points behind Arsenal in 11th. Their home form is terrible, but Arsenal’s away form is also terrible. Southampton also have a history of loving to play against Arsenal. And Arsenal are just statistically all over the map and difficult to predict.
With a win, Arsenal could climb as high as 9th and depending on the Burnley/Watford result (playing at the same time) could drop to 12th. The match is only available in the USA through the NBC Gold streaming service. If you haven’t already paid for the annual subscription I would probably recommend watching just the highlights on GoalZone later this afternoon.
correction…the game is also shown on peacock if you guys have it.
this is going to be a tough game. i have a fear that nathan redmond is gonna feature based on the form hector has shown since the return. likewise, i think the jury is still out on tierney (i don’t fancy him but it’s still early). i’m no fan of the inverted wingbacks that arteta has brought from man city and i fear that mustafi and holding will be exposed today. we’ll see.
Not a pretty watch. We didn’t play much good football and we didn’t control the game but that’s been pretty much standard this season. However Eddie made his luck and took it. BamBam had a good game and really should have scored a couple. Holding looked good in defence and Xhaka added stability to midfield. Martinez proved himself to be a good keeper. Saka was excellent early on but faded after a kick – I really hope we can persuade him to sign a new contract. Importantly we scrapped it out and Willock sealed the win with a late goal after a superb double save by Martinez kept them out. A win was the most important thing tonight. Style can come later.
agreed 100%. i loved holding winning everything in the air. likewise, i loved martinez’ long ball from the back.
xhaka is an experienced campaigner and seemed to provide a bit of stability to a very young midfield.
eddie was very efficient, particularly with his defending. while he’s not a typical center forward, i love that he plays within himself and finds a way to help the team.
3 points is all that matters at this point in the season. For better or worse we still have a chance to finish in a Europa league spot.
We don’t have the right squad to play eye pleasing stylish football. Arteta played with a younger ozil, Cazorla, Wilshere, Kos, Nacho etc and then he spent several years with Pep. I am sure he understands our limitations better then any of us. He just needs to find a way to scrape 3 points whenever possible.
It wasn’t pretty, but I’ll take it. Xhaka may have his issues, but the midfield looks much better with him in it than Guendouzi. And Holding has definitely done enough to keep his spot(making the re-signing of Luiz even more puzzling).
Not sure what the story is with Bellerin. He seems to have lost both pace and touch. Hopefully one or both can be recovered. He probably needs a rest, maybe they can use AMN there on Sunday?
Arsenal USA’s own TV listing (https://www.arsenal.com/usa/news/features/where-to-watch-arsenal) says today’s match against Southampton is at 3 pm Eastern (12 pm Pacific) but when I tuned in at that time the second half had already started so I did not watch. Thanks to the dot com for saving me from 2 hours of dreariness!
In the eighties when we went to all home games every other saturday we would normally do a bit of clothes shopping and have a wimpey or something.
but even in the middle of winter we would find a comet, rumbelows or dixons and from 4.30 we would watch the last twenty minutes score updates on the televisions through the shop windows .
when teletex and ceefax came out it was cutting edge technology.
sign times have changed.
Arteta has not been able to do much to improve the attacking side of our game. We don’t look all that much different then we did under Emery or Llundberg. What Arteta has done is to improve our organization and concentration on the defensive end and made us more difficult to beat. Emery and Freddie were never able to do that.
i’ll be more convident about the defence if we can go 2 games unbeaten.