Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham: I look up, I don’t look down

by imothyt

Before kickoff my nerves were in a knot, one which had been drawn tighter at the news that the Arsenal captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had been dropped to the bench for disciplinary reasons. It was exactly the kind of bombshell the club didn’t need before the biggest match of the season and led me to wonder which Arsenal player would get the first red card? Dropping the captain is often a nuclear event and I figured the whole team would crater.

Boy was I wrong.

If anything Arsenal played harder than I’ve seen them play this season, they were first to every loose ball, they pressed with an organized fury, and they trapped Spurs in their own half. Harry Kane had just 10 touches in the first half of the game and Kane only had 1 shot in the first 80 minutes.

I know in my stats brain that there’s no correlation between pressing and goals conceded or winning or pretty much anything. But I still love to see a well executed press. The sweeping movement of several players pushing the opponent into makingpasses that they wouldn’t ordinarily want to make or just booting the ball long is one of the joys I get from watching football. And with some teams (like Liverpool and Man City) the pressure is extraordinarily complex and almost NFL-like in how it’s clearly a drawn up play that they will run at certain opponents. A good press, which is the opposite of “fackin run around a bit”, is majestic. And the reason why pressing numbers alone don’t correlate to much is that there is a huge difference between a good press and just pressing.

Yesterday Arsenal had both a lot of and a great press. It was Arsenal’s 2nd most total number of pressures this season (158) and the 6th most pressure regains (45). It was Arsenal 4th most pressures in the final third (49) and 2nd most in the middle (73). And leading all of these pressures was the impressive Martin Ødegaard.

Ødegaard had 28 pressures yesterday, 12 in the final third and 12 in the middle third and he led Arsenal with 9 pressure regains. He also led Arsenal with 3 players tackled but that doesn’t tell the whole story because he was either the leader or amongst the leaders in almost every offensive stat as well, including the only stat that counts for some folks, scoring a goal.

Of the two Real Madrid loanees, I would only take Ødegaard at this point because he offers Arsenal something unique and extremely useful: he’s a modern #10 type player, who doesn’t just run around finding space and tiki-taka the ball a bit, he is smart both offensively and defensively and he’s the kind of player you can build an attack and defense around.

Proof of that is how well he’s worked when playing with Smith Rowe. In some respect, Smith Rowe benefitted from Aubameyang’s tardiness. I’ve no doubt Arteta would have started Auba on the left and Smith Rowe would have been on the bench. But because Auba was late to a team meeting (before the biggest game of the year??? In the words of Joe Biden: come on, man.) Smith Rowe got a start and man did he grab that chance with both hands and shake it like a pit bull on a tire.

Poor Matt Dougherty didn’t know what hit him as Arteta’s left side crashed over him in waves. If it wasn’t Smith Rowe, it was Tierney, both players just washing Dougherty up on the beach time and again. By the time the final whistle had blown, Dougherty looked like a guy who had been drowned at sea or maybe a piece of washed up old driftwood, bleached by the sun and waves. Smith Rowe and Tierney combined for 0.6 xA (0.3 each, leading Arsenal) and 11 shot creating actions (6 for Tierney and 5 for Smith Rowe) with Tierney nabbing 2 goal creating actions* in the game and the game’s only assist.

And Saka man, what a guy. He had to be withdrawn at half time for a hamstring injury but he had 14 pressures in that first half and was a key member of that Arsenal frontal assault on Spurs. They had no coping skills for Saka and resorted to fouling him, which is what teams just do now.

I think we can see what Arteta’s game plan is going forward: pressing from the front, followed by midfielders filling in and helping to win the ball back in midfield. Overlapping fullbacks, getting players in the channels, dragbacks, crosses, and other goal creating actions from the half-space where (statistically) those types of passes are most dangerous. Arteta was mocked for wanting crosses and calling crosses dangerous but what he’s proven is that what he meant wasn’t long bombs from the half-way line (which we were doing at the time, to be fair) and rather crosses from those dangerous areas. It requires a player like Ødegaard or Smith Rowe (preferably both!) to play it right and when it clicks, man, it’s beautiful.

I’m going to talk briefly now about the match officials and two of the decisions that they made (and one that they missed). This is not me complaining about the officials but rather just giving my point of view on a few things. All of the decisions I’m going to talk about are judgement calls so there is no “right” or “wrong” way to call these. At best you can say “not for me” which is fine and you’re entitled to that opinion but again, it doesn’t mean that your opinion is correct. Nor mine.

For the penalty: Davinson Sanchez clearly clatters into Lacazette’s leg. It’s a late tackle. If that happens in midfield almost no one blinks an eye at him getting a yellow card for that tackle, it’s late and high. Yes, he’s going for the ball, yes, Lacazette has shinned the ball away, but again, if you tackle someone or try to block a shot and wreck into their leg, last I checked, it’s a foul. Additionally, the referees could have decided it was reckless or endangering an opponent and whether it was a DOGSO and then would have to decide whether Sanchez was trying to play the ball. Michael Oliver awarded the penalty straight away, VAR backed him up, and I agree that in both fast action and replay it was a penalty.

For the Lamela red card: an odd thing about Erik Lamela is that he’s a chippy little so and so and often slaps people in the face while “protecting the ball” but this is actually his first career red card. When he came on for Son, I mentioned that he’s a foul machine and wondered when the officials were going to start taking a look at the way he plays and penalize him for it. He even has a little fan club at Tottenham where Spurs supporters love him for exactly this: that he gets away with so much dirty play.

The one call that I think they missed was when Kane shouldered Gabriel in the face. Kane gets away with so much filthy play. From making a back, to intentionally undercutting players on headers, to shoulder barges in the face. I just hope that one day the officials will take a look at his body of work and start punishing him for it before he permanently injures someone. In my opinion, he’s worse than Ryan Shawcross in almost every way because I think he does this stuff intentionally where Shawcross was kind of just a big uncoordinated dope. But the worst part of it all is that he gets away with it. I hope he gets a red card in the first few minutes of England’s next tournament. It’s nothing less than he and England deserve for letting him get away with this nonsense constantly.

The only worrying part of this match were the final 10 to 15 minutes after Lamela got sent off. Arsenal suddenly went from bossing most phases of play to taking dumb free kicks, losing the ball, and lumping it up the field. I think there were a few things going on here. First, Thomas Partey’s energy and drive dropped dramatically after the 75th minute. He started making simple errors and I think we know why Arteta takes him off early now: he’s clearly struggling with full fitness. What I know about Atletico Madrid’s training sessions is that they are notoriously brutal. Simeone has a trainer that the players call the drill sergeant and apparently he makes them do stuff like run hills and do pushups. Thomas was only taken off early 8 times in 43 starts for Atleti last season. At Arsenal he’s only completed 9 of 17 starts. It looks to me like he’s struggling with fitness this season.

But the other worrying part is that in those final 10 minutes or so Arteta brought on Willian, who is ostensibly the guy we bring on when we need to shore up possession and Tim Stillman even called him one of our most technical midfielders. But he was utterly lost yesterday. Between him and Pepe and Thomas, they were actively hurting Arsenal’s possession. It was frustrating to watch and made me a nervous wreck for the final 15 minutes.

But the good news is that we gutted it out and took all three points.

After the match, Mou mou complained about the penalty and referees. He did say that his players were abject in the first half and I guess that’s fair enough. I wonder how much longer they want to listen to this guy who claims he’s never wrong and that the players are failures whenever his system is exposed? But whatever, tt was delicious lapping up his tears. Before the game he boldly said that he doesn’t look down the table, only up. It was a great quote and the lickspittles of fleet street chuckled and guffawed while publishing it. He does look down the table, he looks down his nose at teams below him and it was justice that in the end it was Arsenal who got the last laugh.

North London is Red.

Qq

*Both were on the Ødegaard goal: he was fouled and then after the free kick it was his pass which scored the goal.

52 comments

  2. Good summary. Covered well all the check marks:
    The Tiny Tots kicked, gouged and elbows us all over the pitch. Check.
    Mourinho threw his players under the bus. Check.
    Kane and Lamela further cemented their positions as monumental wankers and cry babies. Check.
    Saka was a stud. Again. Check.
    We managed to Arsenal it up? UNCHECK!!
    ESR had a MOTM performance. What a great week to be a Gooner.

  3. About the rabona: I wasn’t really impressed actually. If RvP or Cazorla received the ball in that position, what would they have done? They would have just used their wrong foot. That’s the difference between world class and “pretty good”.

    Lamela rabona’d because he was being shown onto his wrong foot by Partey, and he is terribly one-footed for a Premier League attacking midfielder. Lamela’s goal is at the level of say, Olivier Giroud’s scorpion kick. Nice improvisation and daring, but not the best ever goal in an NLD like what the pundits kept crowing about.

    1. Sorry man, that goal doesn’t come close to OG’s scorpion goal. OG’s goal was also about the fantastic build up leading to it. Apart from that, the goal yesterday needed a huge slice of luck, where it went between a player’s legs.

    3. The flip side to your argument of course is that Partey would’ve made an attempt to block his shot from the “wrong foot”, while the rabona was a complete surprise and ended up a goal.

    4. A bit harsh on Giroud’s goal: I think player, regardless of how technically gifted he is, would have got on the end of that poorly delivered cross. Sanchez’s cross went behind Giroud and that was the only way Olivier could have connected with it. It is a fluke, yes, but it doesn’t come from limitations, but rather unusually uncomfortable position player was forced into. Reminds me a bit of what Bergkamp said about his infamous goal: pass from Pires wasn’t great, so Dennis was forced to improvise.

  4. Kane will do those things in EURO Cup and English protectionists will pay hardly. Just like Rooney’s stubborn act against ronaldo a while back. I feel like … English national team players are not doing hard enough because they are spoiled in their local league.

  5. I have been highly critical of Mikel Arteta, but in the past few weeks I decided to kind of reboot my view on Arsenal and start from fresh.

    Arsenal for me was the pay off to a hard week at work or school. I got to watch a team that had a style, philosophy and culture that represented me 100%. They constantly tried to give me all of these. Even when they failed, I was proud that they tried.

    I feel like I have been holding onto what Arsenal gave me in the past, instead of rebooting my expectations and understanding that beautiful football comes in many ways, and what makes a certain football special is that it does not last forever, or can only be brought forward by an individual. its the reason I never liked the concept of saying a team needs to replace so and so with the exact same type of player. An example would be Viera and how for almost 15 years now a replacement was constantly touted as missing. this upset me because nobody we could sign would ever be a like for like replacement, football moves on. Tactics move on, types of players change and coaching has to change with the personalities out on that pitch now.

    I have always preached adaptability in everything I do, and now I have failed to apply it with Arsenal after Wenger left. So I have dropped my guard and opened up to a different Arsenal. My expectations on Arsenal, which are different to when I watch all other football, have to change and they slowly are.

    I really enjoyed watching us beat Sp*rs and everything that encompassed the performance. It was beautiful football in its own right, and football that I would have praised if played by any other side against the very same opponents. I still feel like Mikel sacrificed the first half of this season to prove a point, he is young and will learn better conflict management, but I am willing to judge him on reality instead of previous highs.

    North London is red and I am happy.

    1. Harsh to say that Mikel sacrificed the first half of the season. I don’t think you get to where we are now from where we were before, without going through what we went through.

      If anything, I think what happened in the Autumn was that some of the players showed themselves to be off the pace and not showing the required levels of concentration or desire. The manager is still frustrated by mistakes, lapses, slip-ups and losses of control, but a penny seems to have dropped.

      Sometimes it just needs one player with a particular attitude or intelligence who just gets it, and who can then lead by example. We were hoping that player would be Partey, but while he’s shown a lot of qualities, for my money Odegaard’s integration has been invaluable. As a loanee he’s raised the bar, demonstrated the kind of play that others have not quite been able to envision, and raised the team’s confidence. I think he’s been a massive influence on Smith Rowe.

    2. I’ve had to reassess Arteta as well. I was leaning Arteta out in November, and I’ve completely changed my tune at this point. I agree with Greg in that I don’t think he wasted the Fall. I think we really underestimated the enormity of change that needed to happen and how much the culture had to be fixed. Arteta dealing with all of that deadwood in the dressing room and in training must have taken a huge toll. And we saw with Auba yesterday, the culture still isn’t where the manager needs it to be. He has had to take some difficult actions to clean house and root out the holiday mentality. It almost cost him his job, but I think yesterday’s win made it clear he’s the boss. His way, his non-negotiables are real, and it’s just taken time to get it instilled. It won’t be done till he gets some more of his players this summer, but as Tim said, “we can see Arteta’s game plan going forward.”

  6. You perfectly captured the roller coaster of emotions I felt yesterday. When I learned Auba was being disciplined, I thought it was fitting for a team that has been its own worst enemy all season to do this on derby day. Then to have us come out and dominate as we did made me really excited. Then the Lamela goal and it’s back into misery. Then Odegaard scores, we get a penalty in our favor for once, Lamela gets sent off. Everything is rosy, right? Then we play like U9’s for the last 15 minutes, including 2 near equalizers, but we win in the end. I was exhausted by it all, but really happy.

    Your point about ESR was spot on. I think I also fell into the trap that ESR and Odegaard were an either/or thing. Together, they can really offer a lot. Both have excellent scoring potential and combining them with Saka or Pepe and Auba presents a huge headache for opposing defenders. If MO starts believing and we see some results in the table and/or Europe, he may start to question returning to Real for an uncertain role vs. staying and being a key player in a team on the rise. Let’s hope that’s how we all feel about the club by season’s end.

    1. Very encouraged by the way ESR and Tierney combined down the left hand side. That bodes very well for the future. They caused Spurs so many problems. That came to an abrupt end when Willian came on, of course. We were back to being 10v10. It does make you wonder where you fit Martinelli in, but what a problem to have. I do wish Arsenal would not give away fouls just outside the box. It was the only way Tottenham were likely to score.
      I loved listening to the pundits debate the penalty. I’m staggered that professional footballers don’t know or understand the laws of the game.

      1. Desperately waiting for Bill to pop up and tell me Smith Rowe is overrated and is probably just a flash in the pan. Once the adrenaline wears off, he will “hit a wall” and sink into obscurity at Brentford.
        Dearest William, when that actually happens, can you write in and let me know. I’d hate to miss it.
        Thanks

  7. I’m looking up, seeing a lot of teams dropping points, and liking what I see… Not sure where we’ll finish after the next 10 games, and to some extent I don’t really mind as long as the current form continues or improves.

    After that – well I just remembered that the Euros, Olympics AND Copa America will be played this summer, which sucks because I really want this squad to have a proper pre-season together. Let’s see who’s likely to be involved from Arsenal…

    Saka – Euros
    Tierney – Euros
    Xhaka – Euros
    Leno – Euros
    Gabriel – Olympics?
    Martinelli – Olympics?
    Willian – Copa?

    1. At the current pace of his development and if he stays healthy, ESR just might get the call up for England and get named to the bench. Unlikely but it would cool see both Saka and Smith Rowe capped for England at such young ages.

  8. Oh, I dunno. Perhaps Willian will be kidnapped by a Colombian drug cartel. Is he insured?

  9. Aside from the last 10 minutes, that was perhaps our best performance this year. We dominated a pretty decent team, not a relegation struggler or a Europa minnow. This despite Laca having kind of a stinker from a shooting perspective.
    Very impressed by Odegaard. You can see why he’s been so highly rated. Not that Ceballos is awful, but Odegaard is a different level. The best loanee I can remember us having. The only issue is that I’m not sure with him playing at this level, is RM even going to let him go anywhere? And if they do, it’s not going to be cheap. But if it becomes an option, certainly would rather we shell out for him than for Aouar.
    Partey really dropped after about 75 min. Lazy passes and mistakes. Hopefully he’s still working himself back into fitness.
    And not only did Kane commit a yellow/orange level foul on Gabriel, I’d have said that the free kick he earned out on the side was from pretty much a dive.

  10. Am I glad we beat Spurs yesterday? Yes. Did I see a dominating performance by Arsenal from start to finish? No. Do I think if it was say Brendan Rodgers instead of Mourinho we would’ve lost the game? Yes. Can we finish the season strong and prove the doubters wrong by putting in a number of consistently good performances, and qualify for CL by getting top 4 or winning Europa League? No. I hate to rain on everybody’s parade but yesterday I saw an average team in 10th place beating another average team in 7th. And I’m being very generous in how I use the word “average” here. We were decent (especially going forward) in the first 45 minutes. We were perhaps even a bit unlucky not to score at least one goal (what a strike by ESR that hit a crossbar). But once again, we conceded first, albeit against the run of play. Spurs can probably consider themselves unlucky too when they lost Son to an early injury. It definitely disrupted their game plan, and Mourinho and Co. did not have a back up one. The second half it could’ve gone either way, especially in the last 10-15 minutes while we were playing with a man advantage(!). Kane had a nice header ruled out for offside, struck a post, and Partey did pretty much everything possible to gift them a goal. But luck was on our side for once, and we prevailed. Collective Whew’s were heard all over the globe. I stand strong in my original assessment though. It was a game of two halves between two shi… average teams. I was more impressed by our win against Leicester a couple of weeks ago, tbh, even though they were missing a few key players. Had Mourinho decided to offer a different, more offensive/pressing approach to his game, the result might have been very different. But as it stands, we benefited from his dated tactics. Luckily for Spurs though, he will likely be gone at the end of the season. As for us, we’ll be stuck with Arteta for at least another one because apparently this season is a write-off and finishing in 10th below the likes of West Ham, Aston Villa, Everton, etc. and not qualifying for European football is completely acceptable for Arsenal FC. Granted, we do have another 10 games to play so perhaps Mikel will have me eat a huge slice of a humble pie but somehow I still doubt it. Regards. P.S. DST sucks ass.

    1. A bit “glass half empty”, Upstate. It’s all about making progress from a few months ago, when fans actually considered the possibility of relegation. I too would very much doubt that we make Europe this year, but then when we were on that winless run, I didn’t expect to. I can see signs that we are on the right track, but it will take time and there will be ups and downs. On the other hand, Spurs were awful. If I was one of their fans, I’d be far more concerned, and they are. Keep the faith!

    2. >Do I think if it was say Brendan Rodgers instead of Mourinho we would’ve lost the game?
      Didn’t we just beat Brendan Rodgers a few weeks ago though? He had a better team than Spurs too.

      1. Just to clarify my Brendan Rodgers comment… I meant if he was in charge of Spurs instead of Mourinho.

    3. Yeah Upstate I don’t agree, I thought we were almost as good against Spurs as we were against Leicester, in the way that we absolutely had their number and dominated them (up until the last 10 mins which Arteta said was maybe the worst 10 mins we have played all season). Against Leicester we attacked better, perhaps, but Mourinho is a more defensive manager. And to say that if we had been playing Rodgers we would have lost… well, as you point out that’s not what happened when we played him, so…

      As for our league position, it’s not fine or OK for Arsenal to be out of Europe, but it’s kind of too late to worry about that. In terms of league position, most of the damage was done in the first 15 games. Our form has been up and down, so this varies a great deal depending on which date you draw the line, but if you had started the league on matchday 15 we would now be 4th, two points behind Leicester in second, with a game in hand. And that includes our recent run of bad results.

      I agree we can look like a mid-table side right now because we still struggle with some basic issues but the trajectory is good, and, to be honest, everyone looks like a mid-table side right now except City. This is a crucial period coming up, to see whether we can sustain this improvement and beat the teams in front of us.

    4. I must agree with you in everything you say.

      It appears to so many of our colleagues that a single struggling swallow does make a summer.

      That they also assume that Arteta initally planned for ESR to play which belies the fact that he had hardly featured for quite a few games.

      Arteta had no choice but to bring him in as he did for the Chel$ki game, in both cases because his first choice could not or was not being allowed to play.

      I did not expect ESR to play and despite his good perfomance I am sure that Arteta does not really want him to play because he is too indisciplined, ie he plays by inspiration when Arteta wants the players to play by numbers, the numbers that he dictates.

      He will be phased out again, as he was after the Chel$ki game, but, perhaps, somewhat quicker.

      Arteta and Mourinho are peas from the same pod. They want to fully control their players throughout the 90 minutes.

      For Mourinho that has brought success but only temperarily because after a couple of years the players cannot take it any more.

      The same will happen with Arteta, but without the success.

      As the experienced players, who find it difficult to play in a straightjacket are removed one by one, we will be left with youngsters, who by and large will do what they are told, and journeymen like Cellabos who are there because their home team doesn’t want them, as they are not good enough and are hoping for some sucker to pay a lot of money from them.

      My fear is the the Kroenkes are prime candidates to be those suckers as they seem to be in thrall to the suoer agents.

  11. Does it make sense to start giving more direct free kicks inside the penalty box? I know we saw a lot of them in the 90’s right after the backpass rule was introduced and I enjoy them a lot (Shearer’s came to mind for England WC qual). But now it is a dying breed as all GK’s are now very comfortable playing with feet (much so that some are better with feet than hands?). So, if we introduce DFK in penalty box for some lighter fouls or handballs that is not DOGSO, it would lessen this controversy. Some fouls or handballs clearly do no not merit PK that could dramatically swing the outcome of game (like Laca’s probably) but we have to somehow punish as it was clearly a foul against Laca.

    1. no. a foul that is considered by the laws of the game as a direct free kick that happens in the box is a penalty, full stop. there’s no controversy here. just because lacazette jammed up his shot doesn’t mean sanchez’ late challenge should be ignored. a late challenge is a direct free kick foul and often a yellow card is often awarded. the referee got it spot-on to award both the penalty and issue the booking to sanchez. anyone who’s confused by what they’ve seen doesn’t understand an uncontroversial law of the game. with that, their confusion shouldn’t mean a controversy for the rest of the football world.

      2. All those people who say it was not a penalty, have used the location of the ball as an argument ie the “chance had gone”. True it had, but that’s totally irrelevant. The law says that kicking or tripping an opponent is a direct free kick. If it’s in the penalty area, then it’s a penalty. It doesn’t matter a jot where the ball is. I wouldn’t swear to this, but “attempting” to kick or trip an opponent comes under the same category. Incredible that professional within the game don’t even know the rules!

        1. I really like Micah Richards and a few weeks ago he said that all the players are required to attend a rules meeting at the start of the season (with the refs) but they all hate it, don’t pay close attention, and most of them don’t understand or remember the rules or the presentation.

    2. The backpass free kicks were “indirect”, as I remember. What I also recall was how difficult they were to manage because the defenders had to be 10 yards away from the ball, which was impossible. You basically had a line of players on the goal line all eager to charge the kick down from a few yards away. Messy rather than Messi. Not easy for defenders, but not easy for attackers either. The only Arsenal player who was any good at them was Davor Suker, who had the skill to smash the ball in off of the crossbar.

  12. The football gods work in mysterious ways: Auba loses track of time and Emile gets to play with and not instead of Martin. Suddenly, we have 4 fearless, enthusiastic players on the pitch: Odegaard, Tierney, Saka and Smith Rowe. And we become danderous, audacious. We went to the throat, without hesitation, without complex. High press verticality, one on one’s, … Such a nice game! Such pride!
    Of course, I hated the last 15 minutes, like everyone else supporting Arsenal. They were a demonstration of the weight of psychology in sport: a weakened team taking the upper hand for no other reason that the fact they had nothing to lose. I liked Luiz very much during those tough moments.
    A lovely win. And against both Tottenham and the vilest coach in the world. Bliss…

    2. Agreed Serge,
      Those 4 players you mention are all under 23. If, as Arsenal fans, that doesn’t get you excited then all I can say is, you can’t have blood in your veins. We still have Martinelli and Saliba to come. There’s the making of a very good side for years to come.

  13. Incidentally these alternative league tables on Transfermarkt are a lot of fun.

    While Arsenal is 4th in the form table since matchday 15, Liverpool is 16th.

    In the calendar year table for 2020 Southampton are 5th, and for 2021 they are 20th. What happened this year?

    In the table without stoppage time, Spurs move up from 8th to 5th

    Right now Arsenal are one of only two teams who could mathematically finish both first or last this season, a true mid-table side

    In the all-time premier league table, Arsenal are second on 2,052 points, 239 behind Man Utd, BUT only 4 points ahead of Chelsea!

    What’s that? Do some work?

  14. it was typical jose mourinho. in “big games” he plays to not lose; he plays what wenger referred to as “anti-football”. everyone knew that a good way to get at arsenal was to press high…but that’s not the jose way.

    i’m happy with but not surprised by the performance. arsenal have already proven this season that they can play well in big games without aubameyang. the captain can’t be late to meetings, full stop. as a pro, unless there’s an emergency, there’s no reason to ever be late to anything.

    i really like odegaard. he’s getting better every match day. can arsenal get him? my hope is he believes that he can grow under arteta in a special way that he can’t grow under zidane and will seek the move…we’ll see. like tim said, he was kinetic on both sides of the ball. one of my favorite highlights was a play when saka forced their left back to dribbled to the middle. ødegaard rotated over from a blind spot to press the ball and 3 seconds later, smith rowe was smashing a shot off the cross bar.

    the press works not because it’s scripted but because arsenal’s third defenders (people away from the ball) understand and actively play their role; they understand that even 40+ meters away, they can put pressure on the ball. tim’s exactly right when he mentions forcing players to do things they don’t want to do. to elaborate on that description, you develop a situation that makes your opponent uncomfortable. both by convention and definition, that’s what pressure (the press) is. pressure is also the first principle of defense.

    1. …and, despite the penalty, i thought lacazette was a bit off-color. i wonder if there’s any truth to the rumors that arsenal will be looking to move him on in the summer and if that’s affected his performance at the weekend. i don’t ever recall questioning his effort but his effort on sunday was far off the high standard he’s set. we should continue to monitor that situation.

      1. Not trying to say your eyes were wrong but he did match his season averages for most of his stats. I wonder if he just looked a bit off because Odegaard and Smith Rowe were so awesome?

        1. my primary gripe is that he allowed the attack to get too far ahead of him without trying to take up his normal forward position. he usually drops deeper than the central defenders to create a mismatch in midfield. but then he usually gets forward. there seemed to be less impetus to get forward on sunday. this meant attacking players often had to pull the ball back as there was no one in the box to pass to.

          what i did like is laca’s post-match interview. when asked about aubameyang’s exclusion from the team, laca seemed unaware that the club had announced it as a disciplinary issue. it was only announced by a club spokesperson after kickoff. lacazette wouldn’t have known that but still looked to insulate aubameyang. he talked about arteta saying that everyone would play. that, i did appreciate.

  16. before i’m an arsenal fan, i’m a football fan. being a football fan, let me say that lamela goal was class! it wasn’t luck; he’s done it before. i appreciate things of beauty on the football pitch…even if it was done by an opposition player. i hate tottenham but i always loved david ginola and jonathan woodgate. i hate man united but i always loved cristiano ronaldo. big up to erik lamela.

    an aside, in 2016 i coached a player named gaston. i used to call gaston “baby lamela” because their movements and mannerisms were so similar. both were lefties, similar height, similar build. they even look alike. he says that everyone says that but he doesn’t see it. i told him that they’re probably related (gaston is also argentine). one night in training, the boys were playing small-sided and he scored a rabona similar to the lamela goal on sunday. prophetically, he got some ahhhhs and ohhhhs from the boys. he threw up his hands and yelled out “coach, i’m going home” and started walking towards the parking lot…one of many funny moments that season. i’d seen gaston send crosses into the box that were rabonas during actual games but never a shot, during training or game. while the ball fell perfectly for him to take that shot, the finish wasn’t luck. when the lamela goal happened, i rewinded it, recorded it with my phone, and sent it to my team from last fall…and to gaston. we chatted via text for about an hour. i hadn’t seen him in a year; one of the players from the 2016 died in a car accident about a year ago and he was at a memoriam. it was then that gaston told me he’d stopped playing.

    gaston’s situation breaks my heart. this kid wanted to make it in football and worked so hard in training. he used to drive down two hours from hilton head just to be on my team. he had exceptional talent, a 3.8 gpa, wanted to be an engineer and clemson wanted him. unfortunately, he was a daca kid and when trump got elected, the idea of gaston going to clemson was unthinkable for his family. thank goodness, that clown is gone!

    1. When I first started doing stats scouting, I wanted Arsenal to sign Lamela.

      Your story is fantastic Joshua. Thanks for sharing.

    2. Sad story about your former charge Gaston. Had a similar experience with a law clerk at our firm. Top-shelf young man, but his mom experienced a brain aneurysm– which exposed his parent’s undocumented status in the time of TMFWWNBN. He was in his junior year of college too.

      Guessing Brunswick or vicinity? If so, good on those of you– for last November. Brilliant. The world turns on some small moments.

      1. it’s a shame. these people’s families have come to the states when they were children to give them every opportunity imaginable. many of these kids are very fine human beings. i absolutely love having daca kids in my teams. however, they’ve been vilified by the former president and his fear-mongering strategy because they’re not from northern europe; truly disgraceful.

        during rush hour, it takes an hour to get from hilton head island to the interstate. brunswick is where the ahmad arbery murder happened about a year ago. i live just south of savannah. brunswick is further 30 minutes south.

    3. Agree with Josh on the Lamela goal.
      Don’t care at what level one might’ve played, from pros to park play, if you’ve ever kicked a ball towards a goal, you’ve probably scored an upper ninety worthy of a highlight reel at one time or another.
      Rabona , and especially a daisy cutter type, is one of the hardest kicks to execute and Lamela excels at it.
      Not a fluke.

  17. Mostly as an afterthought to comments upthread about Arteta and progress? I’ve held a suspicion at points this season. That aside from Arsenal experiencing parts bad luck at times, some bad decisions against, and a large measure of incredibly bad decision-making? Arsenal also seem to come up against teams playing their best. Either in a run of form or just playing well on that day.

    Wondering Tim, if you’re aware of any ‘power ranking’ stats? Such as the type used to determine difficulty of schedule in US college football. Which might confirm or dispel this inkling– that Arsenal may have played a more difficult slate of teams to date?

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