Yet another odd match to watch from the Arsenal in a year that seems to be shaping up to be one of the oddest on record.
Arsenal started the game incredibly well. Our ball movement out of the back was superb, drawing the Liverpool press in and then hitting them with long, straight passes up the pitch to either Pepe or Willock on the wings. Technically these don’t count as “through balls” but that’s just because Opta’s definition requires a through ball to be on the ground, splitting defenders. But while these weren’t quite throughballs they were still very dangerous and Arsenal were able to create “half” chances off of almost all of them.
I have to say “half” in quotes here because as we have seen several times this season, Arsenal get themselves into tremendous position to score a goal and then don’t even take the shot. Eddie Nketiah had the best of two non-shot big chances in this match which he had taken off his toe before he could get his shot off.
We have been talking about the poor shot ratio here since Wenger’s last season. It was declining under Wenger but has gone into freefall since he left and we are routinely outshot now by even mid-table and lower table teams. As I have pointed out monthly for three years this is a problem largely because our midfield is so weak and easily pressed off the ball.
One result is that we can’t hold possession, which increases shots conceded. The other problem is that we lack technical quality in many positions on the pitch. So it’s not just that the Arsenal midfielders can’t see open passes forward (which they do actually often pass up) but they also take three touches to control and then compose a pass. This slows Arsenal’s attacks, makes it easier for the opposition to win the ball back, and gives us fewer chances going forward.
And add to that, Arsenal haven’t had a mechanism for winning the ball back when they do concede. Under Emery, we pressed a little at the start of his tenure and then gave up on proactive defending about 8 months in. Under Arteta, we seem to be pressing more in batches – which is perfectly sensible – but we also seem to have quite a worrying tendency to run out of gas when we do press.
So, it’s a mess of things that we can’t seem to get right: we struggle getting the ball forward, we can’t press for long to win the ball back, we can’t hold on to the ball in possession, and we are also often reticent to pull the trigger. And it makes for some often difficult viewing.
That said, the first half against Liverpool was none of those things, save one. I don’t have the StatsBomb pressing data but I feel like Arsenal pressed Liverpool often in that first half and the tackles numbers – where we attempted 19 tackles – seem to back that up. We also invited Liverpool to come on to us by using buildup play from the back and while I know that gives others the chills, I love it. It’s bold. You aren’t going to see many teams playing it out from the back and inviting Liverpool to press them high.
Strategically, it’s a sound move. Arteta knows that his team’s strength is Pepe, Auba, and Willock’s speed. If he can get Liverpool to commit players forward, we can launch “mini-counters” with these long, straight balls to our runners. And that’s just what we did. It was a clear plan, it was bold, and it was fun to watch.
And like I said above, Nketiah had a clear chance to get Arsenal on the scoreboard but instead he tried to over-elaborate and Adiran took the ball. Cedric and Willock had another chance, which was also snuffed out when neither player felt comfortable shooting. This isn’t the entire solution to get Arsenal more shots but it has to be part of the solution for sure.
But that fun lasted just 30 minutes. Willock was so tired he looked like a fish gulping air and I noticed that we were sitting back and not pressing so I wrote “press break” in my notebook. In a flash Liverpool were on top of us.
Arsenal were conceding spaces on the wing, packing players in the box. Liverpool were free to pick out crosses and they took four unanswered shots – Leno made a brilliant save off a Jota header but parried just to Minamoto who hit the crossbar. Arsenal limped into the dressing room at half time, lucky for the scoreline to be 0-0.
I expected Arsenal to come out in the 2nd half and press again but the 2nd started as poorly as the first ended. From here until the end of the match, Arsenal struggled to get out of our own half and it looked like the only way we could win possession back was when Liverpool missed a chance or Leno saved and was able to hold on to possession. Arsenal attempted 19 tackles in the first half and just 9 in the second. Liverpool had 6 shots in the first and 10 shots in the second. And Liverpool were the more active pressing team in the second half with 17 tackles to Arsenal’s 9. They had almost all the ball, they pressed, Arsenal shrank, and if not for Leno’s hands, Arsenal would have lost this match by two or three goals.
Arsenal did create one good chance: off a corner, we played it to the elbow, then back again, and cross. Holding got free and thumped a header but Adrian was able to save.
Arsenal also should have had a penalty when James Milner clearly handled the ball in the box but A) there’s no VAR at this stage B) the PGMOL has actually advised refs to flip the rulings for handball from the start of the season (we will see fewer or no handballs) C) Liverpool.
But we did hang on and kept the 0-0 scoreline. I’m not going to recap all the penalties. Maitland-Niles was cooler than a polar bear’s toenails but I also thought Pepe’s penalty was class – he literally made Adrian go the wrong way and poked in the shot. And of course, it was Leno the hero with the save off Wilson’s shot which put us through. But let’s also heap praise on Willock who had played so hard for 90 minutes and was not supposed to even take the pen! His placement was poor but the power was good and he snuck it under Adrian.
Now Arsenal get to play… Man City in the next round. Nothin is going to be easy this year, folks.
It seems to me when we rotate heavily and the youngsters take over, games often go like this. The tactics are even clearer to see than with the first team because they play more simply to instructions, and we often start out creating a lot of chances but without the quality to finish them.
And then in the second half we lack the experience to adjust and manage the game on the pitch, and end up being reactive and just dealing with whatever the other team is throwing at us.
The problem with “this” Arsenal at this stage is that both the team and the manager are finding themselves out. We talk of Arteta preferring a 433 formation but he is so fresh as a manager he probably doesn’t yet have a preferred formation. I see us facing more shots with 5 or 7 defenders on the pitch so I don’t think the formation has worked as much. What I do think is that the players are more committed to him than the formation. The reason we aren’t shooting might be this formation is tiring, too complex and boring. The same winger who expected to score is responsible for marking the left/right back who bypasses him with one or two touches. Our wingers then have to start a counter from way deep, by the time they are in advanced positions their legs are gone. When last did we see a Xhaka BOOM?
So true. Think Mikel has to be more bolder which can backfire but repeating what is working without new signings won’t help significant gains.
He has to, this team isjt winning the league but we should be more positive, less predictable, 5 defenders aren’t necessary especially because even with as all defenders on we still concede goals. I’m not sure what his trying to do but with these players we can do better than 7 defenders per match
The problem with “this” Arsenal at this stage is that both the team and the manager are finding themselves out. We talk of Arteta preferring a 433 formation but he is so fresh as a manager he probably doesn’t yet have a preferred formation. I see us facing more shots with 5 or 7 defenders on the pitch so I don’t think the formation has worked as much. What I do think is that the players are more committed to him than the formation. The reason we aren’t shooting might be this formation is tiring, too complex and boring. The same winger who expected to score is responsible for marking the left/right back who bypasses him with one or two touches. Our wingers then have to start a counter from way deep, by the time they are in advanced positions their legs are gone. When last did we see a Xhaka BOOM?
Two thoughts, finishing is arguably the most difficult skill. Now and again an Owen or Rooney hit their stride in their teenage years, but mainly it’s a skill produced through years of practice and experience. Eddie is better for getting playing time but doesn’t seem to be an instinctive finisher. Can’t wait to see where Martinelli is at when he returns.
My other point is that this is a condensed season and fitness and avoiding injury might might well be worth more than technical qualities. It’s a concern that we’re getting gassed so soon. I saw a stat today that Leeds have run 8km further per game than their next opponents (City). It’s a marathon not a sprint but fitness and rotation is going to be of even greater significance this season.
Emery had a long run which was more down to luck than anything. We’ve been outshot, outrun, outfought and deserved much worse than the six points we have. Arteta hasn’t convinced me, I think his Arsenal is still too soft, predictable and lazy to get anywhere. Arteta’s most urgent task is to build winners from a bunch of guys who are so used to losing that they don’t even give a damn.
This team is capable of doing better even with the available players. K at Everton early days but we are seeing a team full of positivity. Let’s not even think of leeds they are closer to the league than arteta will take us. They play to win we play not to concede.
That hesitancy to pull the trigger is for several reasons and takes several forms, but one of the most glaringly obvious one to me in recent games is the one-footedness of Pepe. In my 25 or so years watching and supporting this team, I cannot remember another Arsenal player so glaringly one-legged. Perhaps you can, perhaps it’s just me. He had an overall good game against Crystal Palace, but the thing that sticks in the mind in cleverly being superbly played in on the right side of the opposition box (cant remember by who, but it took out several defenders), for a chance he only had to run onto and steer in. He tried to check and transfer onto his left (a more difficult shot) and the defenders shut the chance down. He’s got a sweet left, but for such a high profile footballer, his one footedness can be maddening.
Tim mentioned Elneny’s pretend press in the Liverpool game, and that’s one of the knocks I’ve had against the player for years. He’s soft, unassertive and predictable (did anyone believe that he’d score that penaly?). Tim would go on to mention his and Xhaka’s lack of progressive passing. Xhaka has improved under Arteta, but if he and Elneny are the answers, it is probably a question we don’t want want to hear. The lack of quality and guile in midfield is obvious. Maybe Liverpool can loan us back Ox.
btw, the Saliba situation does not pass the smell test. We were so keen on getting him back in July, that we would not let him play in a French cup final that he had his heart set on playing in. Yes, he lost his mom in May, but that would have been even more of a factor in July. Plus the club has a French core that he had seemed keep to hook up with. Plus he was given Vieira’s and Cesc’s shirt number. Plus he learned English to a serviceable degree. We are suddenly to believe that injury and homesickness are affecting him and he can’t settle? I think Arteta’s comments make little sense if you parse them, and I think it’s simply that he doesn’t rate the player, but can’t say so.
What the coach is showing — and it’ll probably serve him well — is that he can be an utterly ruthless operator. Guendouzi is a better midfielder than Elneny and Willock, but the coach has frozen him out, and that appears to be it. Let’s not even talk about Ozil. Again — even if you accept as I do that Ozil is done and should move on — Arteta’s explanations are circular and sound contrived. I believe that that is a directive from on high, because it contradicts the coach’s previous statements about and actions towards the player. However, Mesut owes it to no one to shoot himself in the foot financially.
Arteta may get neither midfield target we’ve been hearing about, and we may be stuck with what we have. A decade of dubious transfer dealings and transfer mismanagement seems to have come back to bite him, the blameless.
I think you’ll find yourself in a tiny minority holding him blameless if we fail to land either key midfield target. I’m seeing a lot of fan restlessness not so much at moving players on but not bringing them in, especially when you’re role has been expanded to include that responsibility. Fail to upgrade midfield creativity and the mood will be much less forgiving.
As for Saliba and Pepe it does seem Arteta doesn’t rate them but that’s £100M of spend there. Is not rating them acceptable? I’ve got serious reservations that Arteta has taken more additional responsibility than he’s qualified for.
claude! welcome back, brother. since you’re back, let’s get back to doing one of our favorite things: disagreeing.
totally agree with your pepé position. i remember rosicky being very one-footed. the difference is he was less technical but more creative and progressive than pepé. also, the ivorian holds the ball too long which allows defenses to fix and neutralize him.
concerning elneny, i thought he’d score the penalty. there’s a reason he was in the original 5 and his placement is typically good. anyone can miss a penalty, (except pepé). as for his lack of physicality, it’s who he is. it doesn’t mean he’s a poor player. remember when vieira left and gilberto was supposed to be more physical? it’s not something gilberto does. doesn’t mean he was soft or predictable. one thing he can certainly do is handle a press. likewise, the center mids are outnumbered 3-2; it’s hard to play progressive football with those odds and it’s worse when you’re playing against a midfield coached by klopp. give him a break.
as for saliba, i told gooners that it was crazy to think that this 19-year old was going to come in and be arsenal’s savior in defense. he’s still got a ton of learning and growing to do. as for losing his mother, i haven’t been dealt that fate so i can’t speak on it. i can imagine it’s heavy as everyone has a different reaction to losing a family member. a close friend lost his brother a few years ago and during that process, he felt the need to be strong for family members. six months later, it absolutely knocked him on his backside. as for calling him back before the final, that smelled of raul sanllehi. he’s unlikely to play much this season so another loan deal where he plays a ton of top flight games isn’t a bad move.
the decision to drop mesut and matteo is unsustainable. arsenal will pick up injuries and there’s no way that willock, xhaka or any of the others you mention are better than the aforementioned players. guendouzi’s potential is plain to see. likewise, mesut is a special breed that no one can deny. as arsenal continue to struggle to create…
“let’s get back to doing one of our favorite things: disagreeing”.
I lolled so hard at that, you could hear me a mile away.
You make fair points, Josh. How ca a man disagree? 🙂
On Saliba I’d say that if the first youre hearing of his mom’s death in May is in the midst of a number of explanations in October for a failure to make a single matchday squad, I flat out don’t believe it. Ok, there’s some credibility attached to it in that he’s going back to France and not up to Newcastle, but still, my BS antenna is going off.
I does not make me heartless or unsympathetic — heck, I sincerely wish Trump a full and speedy recovery — I just flat out don’t believe the explanations now being offered by Arteta. He’s simply not as good at the neat, artful fibbing as Arsene was.
—“ heck, I sincerely wish Trump a full and speedy recovery “
Why?
The guy lacks a single redeeming quality.
The same Trump who publicly ridicules people with disabilities? There is a special place in hell for people like that. I would personally go round and offer him a bottle of bleach.
I would say there’s about a 95% chance that Mesut Ozil will not play for Arsenal again outside of some “farewell mesut!” match. Even if there are drastic injuries to all of the forwards I think Arteta would be foolish to just welcome such an obviously disruptive and unwelcome character back into the team.
Also, he’s no where near match fit, and hasn’t been a top level player since 2016.
The door is still open for Guendouzi.
Josh, I’m with Claude on the Elneny pen.
Everyone misses one eventually but his was just plain awful.
Not looking at the keeper, not hitting with power, and not going for side netting or anywhere close to it, is the perfect trifecta for how not to take one.
Pressure. “It’s all in the mind”, as George Harrison once said. The great
Dennis Bergkamp missed one against Man Utd and never took another one. Couldn’t do it.
On Pepe I do believe the system we are playing isn’t suited to him at all. I saw him in France and this system is just too much on the boys. Our style is closer to west brom than to liverpool. Its too taxing on the players. An inverted forward just like aube needs to be playing closer to the box that wider. Just as you have Salah and mane tucking in. His a good dribbler but the point is to beat one player and be through on goal as compared to playing out wide beating 3 players and crossing. This formation isolates players and our team spendsmore time running than positioning.
Xhaka is decent but shouldn’t be our solution maybe in a 433, as the box to box not the holding mid. His nowhere near fabinho but might do a better job pushing up. Same with elneny. They are players who just keep the ball moving.
Saliba might be a case of the manager not rating him. We thought he would be the answer to holding but not to be at this stage particularly because mikel seems to prefer experience over youth
Saliba not playing in the French final was strictly a money thing – we would have had to pay an extra appearance bonus.
If we’re to use Pepe as a winger it should be on left side so he can fire over to the box quickly with his only peg! Every fan (and defender) knows what he’ s going to do when (and if) he gets to the goal line. – a few extra seconds allows the central
defenders to re-group. So what do we do? Play Auba centrally? He’s more effective
coming inside from the wing.
“Cooler than a polar bear’s toe nails…”
…oh hell, there he go again, talkin’ that sh*t.
Play on, playa… 🙂
ha! i used to work with a kid from sacramento who loved outkast; that’s the only place i’ve ever heard that saying. with that, nile’s penalty was very cute.
+1
love the bergkamp article you linked on the previous thread. like you, dennis (and vieira) is my favorite player; (they’re 1a & 1b and i don’t have the gall to call either the b-side). likewise, i warned not to expect too much from pepé. he only scored 13 goals from open play in france in his best season where lacazette routinely scored twice as many and he’s struggled in the premier league. only giroud has maintained his goal production moving from france to england. with that, pepé can hit a dead ball like few in the world.
i didn’t see the first half of the game yesterday but this formation is not going to create a bunch of chances. long balls are too easy to defend. that’s why arsenal create so few chances. likewise, it’s ugly to see arsenal depending on boom-ball to create their chances. bottom line, it’s not entertaining.
i would like to see arsenal go to a back four, starting holding and the new gabriel and put three in midfield: elneny-ceballos-willian/mesut.
what’s the point in playing with three center backs AND a double-pivot? is it reasonable to expect 2 center mids to play progressive football when they are always outnumbered in midfield? what’s the point of having wingbacks when your strikers have to do so much defending? i just don’t get what arteta is doing. signing aouar or partey is introducing those two players to the same struggles that we have to endure right now and won’t improve arsenal’s attack without jeopardizing something else. for this strategy to produce progressive football, arsenal would have to sign 2 vieiras and there isn’t even one vieira out there.
Ugh! Sadio Mane tested positive for covid…two thoughts come to mind: 1. Why couldn’t he have tested positive before our league match this past Monday, and 2. How many of our defenders might have been infected. He was all over our guys, especially early in the game.
Is Covid transferred when you stick your elbow in someone’s face? Best let Tierney know.
I thought Pepe looked a whole lot more effective on the left. He linked well with Saka and got plenty of ball from Xhaka. A shame Tierney wasn’t playing as well.
The thing is the right wing is Arsenal’s “graveyard” position. The ball doesn’t find it’s way out there often enough and when it does it’s not “quality” ball. There also tends not to be other players to link with. You might as well have an overlapping linesman out there.
We saw this a couple of weeks ago with Nelson, who had a much better game on the left. A revelation.
What to do? The best option I can think of is to slot Auba back in the centre. He’s our only real goal scorer after all. I can envisage Pepe setting him up with chances from the left, which he wouldn’t do playing on the right, where all he does is try to cut in.
Does it matter that he is one footed? Not necessarily. It helps if you can use both feet, obviously. Liam Brady was an all time Arsenal great. He could open a can of peas with his left foot. In all the years I spent watching him, I can’t remember him once using his right foot. His right leg was purely for standing on.
Playing Willock on the right made a lot of sense. If the ball never goes out that way, then the quality you should be looking for is what the player does “off the ball”. Willock is strong in that regard.
Ahh MMW i had to respond to your comment bcos of the name Brady (swoon) only had left foot but could go inside and outside a like DB10, maestro. Jeez he was a genius and i go all misty eyed just thinking about him. I’ll leave you with this.I was at a match at Highbury many years ago. Brady picked up the ball from Rice on the right hand side about 10 mtrs from our goal. Sammy Nelson our lb ran mayb 60/70 mtrs up the left wing. Sammy is now stationery about 25 mtrs from opponents goal. Brady hits a 70 mtrs diagonal ball, Sammy standing still starts to applaud the pass before it arrived at his feet. And it dropped at his feet without him even moving Remarkable
God, I loved that man. I was once sitting in a local pub and he actually walked in. It looked like he was meeting his brother. I have never been so starstruck in my entire life.
He wasn’t quick and yet he ghosted past people as if they weren’t there. That left foot. He had the deftest touch I have ever seen. Magic.
It’s funny, you will find in London a whole lot of young adults of a certain age called Liam. Not in the least bit Irish. Basically, Arsenal fans who named their offspring, in honour of the man.
That also sounds like Sammy. The man who dropped his shorts and “mooned” to the North Bank. If there had been VAR, I wonder whether the ref would have referred that to Stockley Park? He latterly did hospitality work at the Emirates . You sometimes saw him wandering round Club Level. He hasn’t aged at all. The only difference is that he seems to be able to keep his pants on. Obviously mellowed. We had a very Irish team back in those days.
I went to a lunch at Highbury House where he made an excellent post-prandial speech. He’s a very entertaining speaker and yes, he did mention his mooning episode. A very nice fella.
Looking like the Aouar deal is off. We’ll see, but really depressing if true. It would be just so incredibly Arsenal if we failed to strengthen the position that we’ve most need strengthening this summer.
I’ve set my expectations pretty realistic I think (5th or possibly 6th is the most we could achieve with this current squad), but we could be in for a very, very long season.
It’s been off since the first bid. We don’t have the money to sign him because we can’t sell our junks.
Sadly, we’ve pi**ed all our money up the wall.
If Spurs avenge our 8-2, do we get to love the blue and white for 5 minutes?
That’s far, fr too much to ask Claudeivan. A quite impossible emotion.
I don’t want to go all Shakespearean, but:
Nay! Nay! and thrice Nay!
👍🏾