Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea
This is the game, the one which people believe was where Arsenal’s season turned around. My overwhelming sense of the match was that Arsenal were lucky. I understand what the post-match xG says but my notes paint a different picture. That penalty was light and it looked like Tierney was falling over before the contact, Xhaka’s 2nd goal was a DFK and low percentage even for him (he’s good at DFKs), and the third goal wasn’t a shot (come on, that was a cross, you can see the surprise on his face). After that, Arsenal did play well: Martinelli’s audacious overhead kick, Tierney created a big chance for Martinelli, Lacazette got a great chance but shot too close to Mendy, Elneny hit the crossbar, and Pablo Mari gives away a penalty but Leno saved off Jorginho’s stupid penalty.
You could also see how the balance of this Chelsea side were better than they were playing. Arsenal were forced to foul them on every counter that they got but the problem was that they didn’t generate enough counters. Timo Werner, when he ran at Arsenal, gave Mari and Holding fits. Xhaka was forced to foul Pulisic. And even Kante looked like a poor simulacrum of himself – he fouled Saka to give away the DFK that Xhaka scored – and that takes some doing considering the fact that people are widely tipping him for the Balon d’Or this year.
But the good notes in the notebook were about Arsenal finally playing between the lines (with Smith Rowe), about Smith Rowe pressing up top and doing a job man-marking Jorginho, Tierney is mentioned a lot for his attacking play, and of course Saka was there pushing Arsenal forward. The most successful component of this match were these three players. The future of Arsenal FC.
Brighton 0-1 Arsenal
- Xhaka playing without pressure
- Looks like a dead rubber match
- Arsenal slow buildup
- Brighton have all the shots early
- Xhaka apologizes for not picking up runs (3x)
- Smith Rowe fouled twice, no call
- Arsenal forwards are running but no one seems to find them
- Elneny give away, Xhaka standing and pointing
- Bernardo should have scored but Jahan forces a good save from Leno
- Bellerin’s best cross, Martinelli chance
- Why are Smith Rowe and Saka taking corners??? (Because Pepe and Willian aren’t on the pitch?)
- 2nd half
- Saka picks out Auba, BIG SAVE
- ANOTHER! ESR evades a phalanx of fouls, passes to Martinelli who just misses.
- Saka and Smith Rowe have that football empathy that Wenger wrote about in his autobiography
- Laca scores! Xhaka was backpassing but Holdinho passes forward, Saka beats his man, and Laca scores
- Now how are we going to play?
- BHA have tons of bodies forward
- Arsenal holding on to the lead now
Thoughts: this was a great example of Arsenal starting slow, putting in a few great minutes, then hanging on to the lead. This was quite a frustrating component of the Arsenal season this year. If you’re optimistic, that means we have another gear to go up; if you’re pessimistic, that means we were a bit lucky. I also noticed how harsh I am on Xhaka in these last two batches of notes. He’s always struck me as quite a dumb defender and that gets under my skin but it’s also likely that I’m still angry with him for that pathetic red card a few games ago.
WBA 0-4 Arsenal
- Arsenal getting some great chances early
- Lord of the North! With the snow pouring down, Tierney beats his man twice and scores a screamer with his right foot.
- Saka makes it 2-0 but it’s the 1-2 football that’s the star of that goal: ESR plays in to Laca and then makes a run, Laca passes it back to ESR, Saka makes a run, ESR crosses, tap-in.
- Smith Rowe is imperious, fantastic 1-2 football all over the pitch
- Off ball movement!
- Saka is showing for the ball, despite getting fouled all the time
- 2nd half
- Warning goal: ruled offside, Arsenal slow, WBA have figured out that Bellerin is a bit slow to the ball over the top and test him twice
- Arteta takes Bellerin off and puts on Maitland-Niles
- Laca scores off a bunch of slop, but hey at least we are in their box
- Laca 2nd – this is more fluid – Auba charges, pass to Tierney, cross to Laca for the easy goal: running, passing, moving.
Are Arsenal’s slow starts a lack of confidence? WBA is our easiest PL opponent of the season and we played very well from the start. That Tierney goal seems to have been lost like tears in rain but it was a cracker and could have been goal of the season.
Arsenal 2-0 Nuke (FA Cup)
- Andy Carroll misses a wide open chance after Arsenal fail to clear
- Slow start for Arsenal, I’m thinking about tahini and garlic sauce
- Auba shot, good save
- Andy Carroll yellow for an elbow on Willock
- Cedirc yellow for a dumb foul
- 2nd half
- Willock gets a chance
- ESR comes on to save Arteta’s season
- Saka comes on for Willian who didn’t get a mention in my notes till now
- Xhaka on for Willock who had equally been anon
- Not sure why I have “ESR nearly red” (Two-footed tackle, ref went to video and rescinded it for a yellow card))
- Leno makes 4 saves
- Andy Carroll misses another big chance (Leno saves) after Arsenal fail to clear
- Xhaka hits a volley shot
- Smith Rowe goal – assist by Lacazette (off the chest), Smith Rowe hits the ball across the keeper, far post, off the inside of the post and in
- Incredible ball from Xhaka on the edge of the box, sees Tierney making the run, plays him in behind with the splitter, Tierney crosses, Auba scores
(Need to do a better job of keeping more detailed notes on big moments)
Arsenal 0-0 Palace
- Minutes 1-10 – smooth and fast with a few breakdowns ruining otherwise good possession for Arsenal
- 18′ Bellerin tripped, no pen
- 34′ Bellerin shot, should have left it for Laca
- Tomkins header, hits the bar
- 2nd Half
- Xhaka in a role reversal: good defensively, awful offensively
- Credit to Palace – executed their plan as well as they could
Arsenal 3-0 Nuke (PL)
- 3′ – Nada
- 5′ – Everything wide
- 6′ – shopping list: Ricotta, bacon, Pho noodles, pho beef, fresh moz, sliced turkey, squash (made a turkey bacon club!)
- 8′ – Holding tells Almiron to “fuck off” lololol
- DID SOMEONE TEACH XHAKA HOW TO TACKLE??
- Lewis should have been given a red card for Elbow on Saka
- Auba HUGE miss (Saka shot, Darlow save, open goal)
- Partey blew an open-field tackle on Almiron
- Love seeing ESR go wide and exchange the ball and runs with Saka
- Movement up top but the midfielders not passing to them
- Forwards running but no one passing to them, it must be by design
- Fast break from Partey to ESR, drives, passes, Auba miss
- 2nd half
- Lacazette shot, Darlow good save
- Thomas pass to Auba for the goal – Thomas dribbles out of pressure, passes 50 yards forward to Auba, Auba just drives in and beats Darlow for the goal
- Smith Rowe and Saka combining so well wide – Tierney passes up the line to Smith Rowe who just toys with his defender, drives into the box, and drags it back for Saka who seems to know where to be. Again, this is just that “empathic” passing from these two.
- Newcastle have quit – they’d quit on the last play but now they have fully quit
- Tierney with a non-shot big chance, flashed across the 6, Lacazette just slept
- Lacazette big chance saved by Darlow (created by Saka)
- Cedric nearly dribbles out of play (VAR checked) and drags back for an easy Auba goal
Based on the statistical evidence (the fact that he went from a 30% v. dribbles guy to a 50% v. dribbles guy) yes, it looks like Arteta might have taught Xhaka how to tackle. It also probably helps that the Arsenal midfield is more compact and that the fullbacks are coming inside. Note how few times I mention Auba’s misses in the first two of these and how often it appears now. Also note, how often I mention him getting into better positions. This contradicts arguments that “he’s just fallen off due to age” and indicates more that it was a paucity of service in the first half compared to the 2nd. He gets a ton of shots in this match that I didn’t account for in my notes. The Saka/Smith Rowe combination is real and it’s magnificent. As good as Saka is this season (and well deserving the PoY) Smith Rowe was crucial to helping him blossom.
Southampton 1-0 Arsenal (FA Cup)
Arsenal start nervously and never really recover. Cedric playing LB seems to be the focal point for everything Arsenal are doing both good and bad – Southampton score between his legs.
Pepe has stopped running. Arteta tries to make a bunch of changes, bringing on Partey and Saka for Martinelli and Elneny. Communication has been poor all match up to now – Especially between Willian and Martinelli which seems odd.
Cedric makes a foul throw.
Pepe moved right and makes a shot for Nketiah.
Lacazette on for Bellerin, Saka moved to LB, Cedric to RB. Arsenal have reverted to long Cedric crosses.
One where Arteta’s tinkering and Arsenal’s terrible squad management (1 LB) have cost us the chance to advance in the Arsene Wenger Memorial Cup.
Southampton 1-3 Arsenal: “these ding dongs again?”
- Southampton score in the 3rd minute when Arsenal don’t mark Armstrong on a corner and he scores a rasping half-volley
- WAHEY! Xhaka is passing throughballs to Pepe who is running in behind the Southampton defense! Arsenal equalize as Pepe uses his… strength.. to hold off the defender and shoot across goal. Good stuff but the keeper went down early and fell to the wrong side.
- Southampton looking good value for a 2nd goal
- Header saved
- cut inside missed
- cut inside missed
- Arsenal score a 2nd – broken playin midfield, falls to Xhaka, simple pass to Laca , who plays a mediocre ball to Saka. Saka beats two defenders and then rounds the keeper who’d made a huge mistake coming out and scores a big chance. This isn’t “good play” but rather scrappy
- Arsenal have a penalty denied, lots of contact on Lacazette, VAR and ref say he threw himself to the ground. Okey dokey!
- 2nd half
- Cedric to Saka to Laca for the third
- Partey off (Wayne) with a cramp
Arsenal 0-0 Man U
- Playing Cedric at LB, cool. Cool football club you have there, bro.
- Arsenal are sitting back and letting Man U have the ball, that’s one way to beat a countering team: counter them (guess who did that to them in the EL final?)
- Smith Rowe and Pepe combing well
- “It’s going to be about very small moments”
- Cedric gets a yellow for an elbow
- Bruno intentional studs on Xhaka, no card
- Why is Pepe not running? Like we are supposed to be countering the countering team and we aren’t even countering?
- Holding doing well
- Cavani foul throw
- OOOHHH… Martinelli saves a goal with an important header to stop an open shot by Rash
- On the other end of the pitch Pepe also saves a goal by doing 8 stepovers on a counter attack and allowing the defenders to get back
- McTominay goes off to take a shit.
- OOOOHHH David Luiz blocks Bruno’s DFK to save another goal
- Willian on for Martinelli, gets off a pathetic shot
- Cavani HUGE miss
- No surprise: Man U are attacking Willian
- Oh wait, time to play football now! Lacazette hits the bar on a DFK
- Smith Rowe forces a save
- Back to this: David Luiz forced to make another save, this time off a Shaw cross
- Pepe is getting abused by Luke Shaw. LUKE SHAW
- Pepe shot 82′ – just wide
- Odegaard on for Smith Rowe – him and Partey combined well for a few minutes
The result was probably correct. We just can’t play a RB at LB and expect to get results against top clubs or Man U.
Wolves 2-1 Arsenal: “this shit again”
Early part of the game: Saka nearly scores, another shot saved from Saka, Thomas is beating his markers, Xhaka sees Cedric, Cedric, dumps a pass to Saka. Xhaka makes a nice tackle on Podence.
Pepe forces a good save from Patricio then scores! “He rekt Semedo, Neves, and scored with off leg.” This would become a feature for Pepe this season, using his right leg to do stuff. Again, I give big credit to Arteta working with Pepe on development.
Laca and Emile linking nicely.
The wheels come off: David Luiz red card, they score a penalty, we can’t get back into it, Leno red card for DOGSO, done. You can argue about the DL red card all you like, he knew what he was doing and has previous doing exactly this thing where he runs behind a player to “accidentally” trip them up. But the mental collapse looks a lot like early season Arsenal to me.
Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal
- Cedric with a lazy back pass, pounced on, Gabriel beaten, cross in and Mat Ryan beaten by Watkins because Holding’s block took it an unlucky way – but that’s what happens when your defenders pass each other hospital balls and can’t catch an attacker
- Arsenal slow and not clicking
- Xhaka DFK great save Emi
- Partey having a bad one – a lonely party, where no one wants to play with him, slow dancing, poor passing, not supporting, poor touch, not dribbling
- Another hospital ball by Cedric – so happy we play him at LB
- Traore with a huge chance, just opened up the supposedly tight Arsenal defense, then tries a cheeky chip which is saved by Mat Ryan
- Saka fouled, could have been a DOGSO, not given, Arsenal fans going to be angry about that
- Saka fouled again, this time yellow for Marvellous
- Saka fouled again, clearly being targeted
- Grealish wants a foul, he’s mad he’s not getting the calls that Saka is
- 2nd
- Villa off to a great start: half chance for Watkins, full chance for Barkley – Holding and Cedric can’t keep up, Partey is looking lost in MF
- Partey yellow
- Cedric off, Odegaard on – Arsenal looking better, loads of good touches but no real final product
- Great save Ryan off Grealish
- Hmm… Pepe gets a shot off again with the body holding off his defender, saved by Martinez
- Villa really picking on Rob Holding, opening him up time and again. No giant chances here but this isn’t good from Arsenal by any measure
- Arsenal craft a half-chance very late – between Willian, Saka, Smith Rowe, and the Odegaard coming in to that spot Smith Rowe likes to pass to at the top of the box
I guess you could forgive us for playing so poor in this match because we’d had two guys sent off in the previous game and had a few injuries but we were totally bossed by Villa. Partey would sit out another month after this match with a hamstring injury.
More later this week
And finally, on review, and having watched the highlights again, I want to go back to my point that Arsenal didn’t “turn it around and become a totally different team after boxing day”. We know that they looked slightly better statistically but including the four matches against awful teams (15-19) in that bundle really throws off the data. What happened here is that yes, Smith Rowe and Saka found a groove, but if I’m right, and I’m pretty sure that I am, what we will see is a swift reversion to stodgy football after this run of matches against these particularly poor clubs. One that is already showing up in the red card mental implosion and the big loss to Villa.
More great stuff Tim. Thanks again.
One thing that struck me while reading thru your notes is you mentioned Cedric’s struggles playing at LB more then once. I certainly agree that having only one LB on the roster is another example of poor squad management which I believe is the single biggest reason we finished in 8th place. Clearly the squad was going downhill rapidly during the last couple of Arsene’s seasons but its been 3 years now and there is no evidence of a coordinated rebuilding plan.
The other thought that occurred to me is lot of people have criticized using Xhaka as a LB later in the season when Tierney was out but I think the reason he did that becomes much clearer when you read your game notes. When your only options are bad options such as this case the manager is going to be criticized no matter what he does.
Yeah, I’ve identified LB as the most critical need in the squad. But hey, apparently we are going for an 8th right-footed CB.
Tim. Sorry I didn’t get back to you a couple posts ago regarding players age related declines. I also understand that the issue is complex. However, look at what has happened at Arsenal in this century. Anelka, Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, Hleb, Fabregas, Adebayor, Walcott, Diaby, Eduardo, Van Persie, Podolski, Gervinho, Giroud, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil, Sanchez have all had a significant decrease in their goal scoring and/or their minutes by their age 32 season. That seems like a pretty inclusive list of our notable attacking players in this century and the correlation is 100%. Its impossible to dispute the significance of the early 30’s in the case of Arsenal and I have a hard time accepting that somehow Arsenal is way outside of the norm for the majority of world football. I suspect the players you mentioned in your comment are the exceptions rather then the norm.
Tim I haven’t said a proper thank you for these review posts, for taking the notes in the first place and for writing them up here. Thank you. Look forward to the next batch.
After years of Wenger selling on players at their peak, it’s certainly been accepted by most gooners up until now that players decline when they hit their early thirties. That acceptance seems to have faded when talking about Auba’s new deal, but not when talking about Willian’s, and much as I love Auba this is a kind of wishful thinking.
As an out and out forward, especially one reliant on mobility, Auba’s average output is going to drop by roughly 10% a season from here on in, all other things equal. Statistically, his poor season is not explained by decline, but he will decline.
Ironically, asking an older winger to play a more conservative role where he’s not trying to beat the fullback every 5 mins is a good way to extend a player’s lifespan, asking someone to score All The Goals as a striker from a wide left position, in a team that creates few chances, is not.
On Xhaka from the last thread, all I will say is that it’s inconsistent to assert all season that the manager is responsible for whether players are good or not, and then to turn round and say that Xhaka’s improvement is down to his own experience.
It’s clear to me that Arteta coached and set up the team in ways that suited some players and not others. Xhaka benefited, Auba didn’t. It’s far too simplistic to say that Arteta is terrible because he didn’t get the best out of some players, when he clearly got the best out of others. It points instead to what we’ve been saying for years, that we have a very unbalanced and uneven squad that makes management a nightmare in which there are no perfect solutions.
i agree with one point and am unsure if i agree with another.
i agree that willian is older and we should respect that he may have lost a step. as a result, he’s had to change the way he plays in order to be effective. losing a step, i don’t want him making dribbles he won’t win. keep the ball. if he needs to reinvent himself ensuring he can be effective, i’m fine with that. if not, it will be the end of his career.
i don’t know that i agree that arteta made xhaka better. i don’t recall if tim said it but i’ve never said arteta made any player better or worse. i know that xhaka has improved, year on year with this past year being his best and i put it down to experience. right or wrong, it seems silly to take a guy who’s still getting better and sell him for a ham sandwich.
should arteta get credit for xhaka’s improvement? i don’t know. the improvements he’s made don’t seem to be tactical in nature but more down to xhaka playing within himself. before, xhaka often tried to do things he couldn’t in a desperate effort to make a play and he simply does that less often now. that comes with knowledge of self and that comes from experience. maybe arteta helped him with that. maybe emery did. all i know is that he’s leaving for half of what arsenal bought him for and i predict he’ll continue to improve for the next 3 years. that’s what i believe and that’s why i have a problem selling him, particularly at that price point. with that, i don’t know everything. we’ll see.
What he might gain in intangibles at the age of 29 (marginal considering that was always his thing) he’s sure to lose physically. A double pivot is no country for old men. You’re responsible for a whole half of the pitch essentially. Tim does a great job explaining exactly what we have to give up by playing someone who can’t hold his own in the open pitch. That’s been a problem at Arsenal since the loss of Mathieu Flamini. Want great attacking football? Get a mobile midfield.
Your notes, succinct , are a treasure trove. One can see so much in hindsight, specially when someone provides his notes.
Thanks Tim
That Chelsea game in particular saved Arteta’s bacon. And the result takes us back to the debate we had here immediately after Chelsea’s Champions League win, with some gooners asserting that they’re streets ahead of us. Better squad you can say, out of sight you cant. We sometimes go to too great lengths to absolve the coach, and sometimes to blame him. Everyone should stop going into a predictable crouch, one way or the other.
You mention ESR (and his combo play with Saka) lot. Not coincidentally. He plays like a peak Arsene player… plenty of movement, especially without the ball. His addition to the staring xi, and his play, brought a dynamism that had previously been lacking. From memory, he also unlocked Lacazette. It was also the point at which Arteta seemed to accept that William wasn’t working, in both senses of the word.
I can’t wait to see what he gives us next season. Shame that Team England is so rich in the forward areas.
i agree that chelsea aren’t streets ahead of arsenal. however, their midfield is. i’d take their whole midfield over arsenal’s. i love esr but i’d take mason mount over him all day every day.
chelsea’s biggest need is at center forward. if i were them, i’d go all in for harry kane. if chelsea get harry kane for the next 5 years, it’s a wrap. timo werner is a striker, not a center forward. i knew when lampard said he’d play werner up top that it would fail…just like it failed for germany in the last world cup. it’s why chelsea have struggled to score goals. harry kane fixes all of that with his goals and assists. chelsea would be a problem.
Mount and Foden for that matter became what they are because they played their way into the sort of experience and form you need to sustain high level performance. Mount got his break under Lampard two years ago and has blossomed as a result. Smith Rowe has the chance to be better than Mount this time last year if he gets a similar run under his belt. He’s really only had 6 months of consistent first team football in a season that was a mess.
omg, just watched erickson go down from nothing; terrifying!
holy shit, they’re doing chest compressions on the field.
Josh
Latest I have heard is Erickson is awake and stable. Its sounds like he was awake and alert when they carted him off the field. Hopefully this was not a true cardiac event or if it was cardiac it was caused by a correctable arrhythmia
Josh.
Any team in the league would be hugely improved if they added Harry Kane. He lead the league in both goals scored and assists. Son was 4th in both goals and assists. They both found a way to pile up those stats for a team without a whole lot of creativity and playing most the season for Mourinho who seems to be a very tactically conservative manager. Auba from the previous couple years certainly found a way to score lots of goals playing under Emery and he did the same in Arteta’s first 1/2 season.
I suspect Arteta went into this season expecting 27-28 goals and about 10-12 assists from auba and Willian. The fact that those 2 did not come close to those numbers and we had no one to compensate is the single biggest reason for 8th place. If they had produced the type of number we expected we almost certainly would have made a Europa league spot. Those numbers were reasonable expectations based on the previous history of those 2 players. However, you are taking a big risk anytime you build your attack around a 31 and a 32 year old player. We could expect low teens in goals from Laca but unfortunately we had no other reasonable options and we had no choice other then to count on Auba and Willian. The fact this squad has such limited options is the single biggest reason we have been stuck in neutral for 4-5 years. IMO the fault lies with the front office who should have been doing a better job of rebuilding the team during 3 years since Wenger
Rebuilding a team is obviously very difficult especially when we were moving away from the Wenger era where he had total control of the team. Clearly the squad needed a rebuild at the end of the Wenger era but there was also huge pressure to quickly regain the top 4. Typically a team that is rebuilding is trying to get younger however, 3 years after the end of the Wenger era we started this season with a the expectation that our forward line would be Laca age 29 Auba age 31 and Willian age 32. It’s more evidence to me of a lack of a coordinated and well thought out plan for reinvigorating the team.
If I’m Arsenal this summer, I don’t tell anyone who I really want, throw a bunch of smoke bombs out on Twitter to throw people off the scent, and then quietly wrap up 4-5 deals for up and comers in the 20-24 year old age bracket in positions of need, guys who are dying to prove themselves and who fit with Mikel’s team first ethos.
Stay away from hype track players like Bissouma or anyone who shines at the Euros. The name recognition alone adds millions to a player’s value. How much do you think Dumfries’ value changed from yesterday morning to today? Too much. How much of a tax is there on Bissouma because there are thousands of fans clamoring for him? It’s leverage that his agent and his club will use to drive up the price. A similar player could be had for a fraction of the cost, leaving more funds to invest elsewhere. “Just sign all the players” is not the Arsenal way. We are not Chelsea and I don’t want us to become Chelsea no matter how much trolling they do or how much success they have.
I agree that’s the best way forward doc.
Unfortunately I don’t see it happening for two reasons
1) It seems impossible for us to make deals without everyone and their grandmother knowing about it.
2) Do Edu and Arteta have the courage to eschew establish names and take a chance on upcoming players ? It’s still a question mark for me
1, it is impossible but what you can do is apply misdirection. Call lots of agents and clubs, keep in touch with them. Create 20 stacks of smoking leaves and don’t let on which one you actually want. Then, when you’re sure, move quickly to seal the deal.
2, I think taking chances on the likes of Mari and Runarrsson, even Magalhaes shows a willingness to invest in up and comers. One of those was a dud but it was the right type of purchase in terms of age and cost.