You have to go back to September 2019 to find the last time Arsenal beat Aston Villa in any match. And worse, since beating Villa 3-2, the Gunners have lost three in a row 1-0, 3-0, 1-0.
And it’s not like Arsenal have been unlucky. These are all typically close affairs with both teams putting up nearly the same expected goals numbers. But that last win, that 3-2, was the last time I can say that Arsenal actually played well against Villa.
Unai Emery started Maitland-Niles at right back and from the start he looked like a player who didn’t want to be on the pitch. He wasn’t supported at all by Nicola Pepe in front of him – who did almost nothing in defense for 90 minutes – and the midfield was overrun by the likes of John McGinn which exposed the entire defense time and again. But Ainsley picked up an early yellow card for a half-foul from behind (reminiscent of David Luiz’ red card where he ran across the player’s legs, tripping him while shooting) and as you know, the referees take a view that players are “responsible for where their limbs end up” so he really can’t have much complaint since he did stop a counter attack.
So, it was an early yellow for AMN but that wasn’t the biggest problem in the opening phases of the game. Arsenal were just outplayed by Villa who showed superior energy and drive. They would get their just desserts very soon.
Villa scored in the 20th after Matteo Guendouzi just let John McGinn walk past him in the box. It didn’t help that Maitland-Niles didn’t close down on El Ghazi’s cross but most of the blame can and should go to the Frenchman. McGinn was left completely unmarked in the 18 yard box and when the ball fell to his feet, he converted with a simple shot.
That was followed a few minutes later by the red card. If the first yellow was harsh, the second yellow was light. Maitland-Niles flew in, studs up, and even raised his studs up more through the tackle. A clear straight red in my book but Moss let him off with a yellow. Maitland-Niles limped off the pitch with help from the Arsenal physio, adding injury to his insult.
Down to 10 men, Unai Emery was forced to make changes and he brought on Calum Chambers for Saka up top and then later Torreira and Willock for Ceballos and Xhaka. Down to 10 men, down a goal, Villa bunkered in and tried to hold on to the lead. But Guendouzi made up for his previous mistake and barrelled into the Villa penalty box only to be brought down by Engles (who was working on his manifesto?). Pepe stepped up and scored his debut Arsenal goal with a penalty straight down the middle.
30 seconds later, Villa reclaimed the lead. Arsenal of that period were well known for their ability to switch off or “lose their heads” and so it happened that Grealish burst past Chambers and Sokratis, slid in a neat cross and the dread pirate Wesley scored to reclaim the Villa lead.
Arsenal shut down for 10 minutes before Unai brought on the subs and the Gunners just went into scrappy football mode. I don’t remember much of Torreira’s tenure at Arsenal other than the fact that whenever we played him, it was scrappy. It was an endearing quality for the man, too bad it wasn’t enough to overcome his very obvious deficiencies in other areas.
A few minutes after the changes, Aubameyang got a big chance and several other players got shots off but it was Chambers who scored the equalizer, missing first only to claim the rebound and score with a foot poke.
And a few minutes later Auba was driving at the Villa defense when he was brought down in the D. John Moss rightly gave the direct free kick and after a convocation, it was decided that Auba would take it. He scored, shooting around the wall.
Arsenal won 3-2.
It wasn’t a classic Arsenal performance but winning when you’re down to 10 men is so damn difficult to do. And the boys showed real grit to keep fighting for the full 90 minutes and gut out that win.
Arsenal host Aston Villa tomorrow in the first match of the weekend and I had a quick read through Arteta’s press conference this morning. He offered the usual stale paste about the performances (we have to play with more fluidity and try to score the 2nd goal, etc.), the well rehearsed answers about Lacazette and other players that Arsenal are after (or not, he won’t say, will we renew Laca, can’t say, etc.), and one slightly robust answer about the abuse Steve Bruce and his family has suffered during his tenure at Newcastle (it’s bad and people shouldn’t do it).
I don’t know why we do these press conferences. Surely it would be easier if the press secretary just drew up an email to everyone hitting the topics that they want answers for. These things are beyond anodyne now and have strayed into formulaic. “No we won’t talk about Lacazette’s contract situation. No, we won’t tell you our lineup and strategy. We rarely ever even give injury updates, sorry about that. Oh and “controversial” topics? Well, here’s our answer: abusing people is bad!”
Am I abusing them? Nope. It’s the way that these things work. Every sport that I watch. It’s the exception that a press conference is even worth talking about. And it’s unusual for a coach to break down and have a moment. But I guess that’s what we are really doing with these things. They are like NASCAR: we watch 498 laps for the two laps where there’s a wreck.
Sorry folks, no wreck today. And let’s hope we don’t have a wreck tomorrow either. Though, since it’s Villa and we aren’t quite as good as they are, we will have to swerve quite hard to avoid it.
I am taking my 10yo to the Villa game, our first home match ‘in person’ for two years. Here’s to a slightly more robust performance than the two banks of wet cardboard that let Palace back into the game and had to desperately scramble a point *sigh*
Well, that’s hardcore, Four Candles. I hope you two at least get a good game!
It was A Good Night for him 🙂 thanks!
Enjoy the game. Palace was my first post the Co-vid outbreak. Crap game but we were just grateful to be there.
I did a straw poll with surrounding fans…. Lots of wanting to believe in the new recruits, lots of concern about the manager and performances. Tempered with just glad to be back at games and a general sense that expectations are on the floor, so things can only get better.
And that last point sums it all up. I was watching ‘Pool vs Atleti thinking we were playing a semi-final against AM for the EL cup not all that long ago. Then with Emery we made the final. How standards have slipped.
sorry but i missed the previous thread and wish i hadn’t; there were quite a few morsels there.
arsenal don’t have mediocre talent, they have mediocre management. this is what happens when you give a guy with zero management experience the keys to the arsenal car. he’s gonna crash. this guy has never even managed a youth team. what did anyone expect? he has ideas but simply doesn’t have the experience to know what works. what’s more is that his ego is continually lowering the bar by him making excuses for results.
second, give vieira some credit. here is a guy, brand new into his gig, with a bunch of new players, minus his best guy, coming to north london against a coach in his third season at the club with huge financial backing and all of his best players available. despite that, vieira still got a result on the road and was unlucky not to win. understand, palace didn’t nick a result. they were the better team because vieira maximized his available talent which is, by both convention and definition, what management is. you can say that vieira taking off eduard was bad but it wasn’t. his team were up at the emirates with ten minutes remaining and arsenal had 4 strikers on the field. what would any of us had done? it was arsenal that had to nick a result.
I’ve watched Vieira now pretty closely at three different clubs and he plays absolutely bare-bones football. Maybe they will stay up this season but they are 14th and their only win was thanks to a red card against Spurs. They have been outplayed in 6 of their 8 matches this season. As much as I love Vieira (and I truly love him for his time at Arsenal) I can’t see any reason to believe that he’s a good coach, much less an elite coach.
There’s a good article on his tenure at Nice, very fair and mentions both his strengths and weaknesses. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/07/patrick-vieiras-lack-of-football-philosophy-cost-him-his-job-at-nice
What you’re seeing with CP under Vieira is exactly what we saw at Nice – he’s pretty good at defense but overall his teams play turgid, basic football. And when the wheels come off (like they did at Nice and will do at Palace, probably this year) his teams are truly dreadful to watch.
His NYCFC tenure is the one which I think got him his job at Palace. He had a decent tenure there and the fans, pundits, and players liked him. His 1.67 ppg record there is mediocre, but NYCFC haven’t been much better without him (they finished 1st in his last half-season and then 5th and now 8th). But based off what I’ve seen at Nice and now at Palace, I’m comfortable saying he’s mediocre.
I’d agree generally that I haven’t seen anything from Viera that would put him much being mediocre.
That said, I’m not sure Arteta even makes it to that level. He’s had more time and a lot more resources. And not done any better.
Another top quality post Tim. I have a feeling we will win
Josh.
It depends on your definition of mediocre. My childhood sport of choice was baseball and its still my favorite sport. The team I support is the Texas Rangers and they have been arguably the worst team of all 30 MLB teams for the last couple of years and historically they have been around for about 70 years and we are the only team in all of baseball that has never won the world series. To me that is how you define “mediocre talent”. The current Arsenal squad on the other hand have mid table level talent which in is not at the level of the talent during the Wenger years but mediocre may be a bit harsh.
What is mid-table level talent? I love the way you make things up to fit the moment. West Ham played and won in the Europa today. They played in Europa because they finished in the top third of the table last season. Want to talk about mid table level talent? Compare our squads. Go ahead. Who is their top table level talent?
(btw, I support the Mets (who’re not great). Just because my American-side family lives in Queens, and my Jamaica (Queens) resident sister supports the Yankees. From the Bronx. Which makes her a bangwagonist. Which I dislike (sorry, G. Still love you)
Press conferences are quote farming. We have copy to fill and families to feed, you know 🙂
I actually thought that Arteta was strong and spoke well on Bruce threatening to walk away from management because of abuse from fans.
And speaking of the come-from-behind win against Villa… can you see an Arteta team doing that? Mikel having the tactical flexibility to get something out of nothing?
A snapshot of recent seasons after 8 games:
Season Manager Points F A Position
———————————————————————————————————-
2021/22 Arteta 11 7 12 12th
2020/21 Arteta 12 9 10 11th
2019/20 Emery / Arteta 15 13 11 3rd
2018/19 Emery 18 19 10 4th
2017/18 Wenger 13 12 10 6th
2016/17 Wenger 19 19 9 2nd
2015/16 Wenger 16 13 7 2nd
Remarkable in hindsight to think that Emery had us in 3rd place at this point 2 years ago, and we sacked him less than 6 week later. I know he’s not particularly well liked by gooners (and there’ll probably be some weighing in here to tell us how bad a fit he was), but that was a stunning lack of patience in a hire… a hire who had us finish 5th the previous year. We are being as patient with Mikel as we were impatient with Unai. But hey, no wins in 7 is a tough place to be in.
But on the bright side, what that shows is that fortunes can change pretty quickly. That’s something Mikel would want to remind us of. Third by the start of December? 🤔
Apologies for the dreadful formatting.
Good point about Emery. His indecision cost us and him. But he knew how to get the team scoring.
Scoring goals will make or break Arteta. Unless you’ve got Tuchel levels of defensive discipline playing for 1-0s is too risky.
We’ve played 4 home and 4 away but only scored the 1 goal on our travels. That has to improve.
We’re in a gentle run of home games against similarly placed sides. Have to max out these games before Liverpool.
I think with Emery it a communication problem made worse by the language barrier. Not his fault though
We are so mid-table right now, it’s painful. Both Leicester City and Arsenal are on 11 points but LFC are well ahead on goal difference.
Both teams are only 3 points off 6th place but it may as well be 30 points, as they are miles away from Manchester United right now.
It’s confusing and irritating to watch us. We don’t/can’t press, we can’t handle teams pressing us. We can counter-attack quite well but not often and without strategic intent. Watching Arsenal on the counter seems like a tactical novelty.
We ran out of gas playing a 4-3-3 and could not retain shape or purpose after 20 minutes and Auba’s early goal.
It’s mad watching Arsenal right now.
I thought Arteta’s post match discussion of the flow of the game and the shape of the team was interesting. He pointed out that the 433 setup wasn’t compatible with playing a transition game like we tried to do after going ahead playing on the front foot. I didn’t think of it that way but I definitely thought that we had them reeling and then slowly let them back into the game by ceding territory. We could and should have blown down the door if we had kept our foot on the gas. We need that leadership on the pitch to shine through in moments like that.
Anodyne answers but I didn’t appreciate the lecture on the Steve Bruce thing, especially because he denied he was talking about the fans when he was talking about the fans.
But this was also like the 3rd time in a few weeks where he’s declined to say we need at attack and create more chances when saying ‘yes’ would be the easiest answer. It seems like he doesn’t view that as a problem.
On Patrick Vieira, my (lesser informed) opinion is that he’s the sort of coach who does the majority of his work before the game and then tells his players to go out and express themselves. I like the signings Palace have made what with all the free agents they had leave. If Vieira had something to do with that, my guess is he’ll do well in the long term although I have Palace finishing 15th this season (their stated target is to avoid relegation)
Claude.
Mid table talent is a group of players who are unlikely to collect enough points over 38 games to compete for the top 6 but you expect them to collect enough to finish somewhere between 7-11th or 12th place in the table. Occasionally teams will outperform their talent level such as Sheffield united a couple years ago and Leeds last year and everyone wants to give the manager credit but those teams and their managers usually fall back to earth soon after that just like Sheffield last season and Leeds so far this year. I believe most teams finish around the level where their talent level is
okay, tim. i don’t agree with your assessment because i’ve watched vieira closely as well, both at nycfc and nice. there were mitigating circumstances in play at nice. essentially, he got screwed at nice because the owner sold everyone and brought in way too many young players, many of whom were on loan. vieira got the sack before he could figure out what to do with them soon enough.
my initial argument was to say i don’t believe either unai or mikel were better options than vieira. you haven’t addressed that; you simply stated that you thought patrick was mediocre. so let me be more direct: if vieira’s mediocre, what are emery and arteta? remember, vieira just came into the emirates with a brand new team and kicked arteta in the face, diaby vs. john terry style. besides, talking about vieira also includes who he would bring as part of his backroom staff, namely dennis bergkamp and a few others and how they could help vieira manage the team.
doc, arteta’s statement about the 4-3-3 not working effectively is exactly the point i’ve been making. it’s not his players, it’s his strategy that’s limiting the players. the reality is it’s not that difficult to teach transitions in any formation……if you have the experience. it’s interesting to hear you give praise to leadership as i remember for years, you declaring that neither experience nor leadership mattered that much. that’s not an attack on you. i’m simply appreciating your change in perspective.
Josh to be clear I was taking about leadership on the pitch. My reading of the situation is that Arteta did not want them to drop off like that and the players themselves needed to reorganize.
mattb, you’r spot-on calling out arsenal’s inability to score away from home.
claude, i saw your cute post about how aubameyang scored in his last 3 home games. that doesn’t mean he’s playing well. is he scoring on the road? understand, i’m not implying that he can’t score on the road. however, i’m trying to expose how limited aubameyang is, particularly in arteta’s set up. if he’s not scoring, how does he help the offense? this reason alone is why i’ve always lobbied for lacazette to start, not ahead of auba, but along side auba. lacazette can create for others, play with his back to goal, facilitate the attack, win and keep the ball high up the pitch, etc. he can also score goals.
speaking of laca, i just watched arteta’s presser from yesterday and it seems half of the questions he were asked about lacazette. is he starting? what’s his contract situation? it’s laughable. i told you guys in the summer that this would show it’s head. remember, laca has already come out and said he’ll not sign an extension. arsenal came back in a post on the website saying that they hadn’t even offered lacazette an extension. i told you guys this lacazette situation wouldn’t go away. arteta looked very uncomfortable answering those questions. we’ll see.
Well, my bro, Laca gets a start. And the early reports say 442 (could be wrong). We’ll see how we get on. On form, he deserves it.
p.s. havent heard “cute” used in relation to me or anything I said or did in in 3 decades. She’s a distant memory, sadly.
Well Josh, you got your wish and Lacaman is the energizer whose performance has us ahead 2-0 at the half! He’s been absolutely everywhere. I loved the energy from the whole team though. That was as complete of a half of football as I’ve seen from us in a few years: Passing, positioning, competing, running hard, organization. It was all there. I think we’ll see a different second half, but Arsenal already showed what they have in them.
Very happy with that!! Still so much room for improvement but that was exactly the performance that was required. Chapeau!
My decision to watch a match live is being rewarded. Much, much better from us today. How long has it been since a Gooner has been able to say we defended well? We played well at the back, which we have utterly failed to against even lesser opposition.
Level on points with the 6th place team! (albeit having played a game more) Not bad for a team with “mid-table talent”, eh Bill? Or is it merely form, which will correct 😉
As I said, Josh, “on form, he deserves it.” (Laca starting). And indeed he won the penalty. But the man who really knit us together and made us play was Partey, who was imperious in the midfield. Partey is a monster for Ghana on offence and defence, and does not look half the player for Arsenal. That’s on Mikel’s setup. Here’s hoping that we see more of Black Stars Thomas. ESR was terrific too.
Arteta got his tactical setup spot-on today. And btw, with Laca off and Auba central, the captain’s clever flick played Emile in. Not bad for a guy who’s not a real CF. Good run by ESR.
It’s not Auba or Laca… it is, when tactics allow, Auba AND Laca. In a front 2, please.
Super save from Emi on the penalty. Unlucky on the rebound.
Can I love Ramsdale more? No I cant. Guy never stops barking and leading from the back. He’s lie a beanpole Peter Schmeichel. He went ballistic on the goal we conceded, with Gabriel soft and White doing his Mustafi thing (this time a half turn, non block) for the second time in a week.
Oh and Tavares is a really good buy. Big, strong, fast, fearless. Had a good game. Villa right side got little out of him.
Best Ben White game of the year by some distance from this view! Crucial block on Ings at 2-0, another big block at 3-0, crucial header ahead of Mings on a set play and showcased his ball progression too.
MOTM a tossup between Gabriel, who owned Ollie Watkins all day long, organized and dominated in his half and his box, and Lacazette who played like a man possessed and spearheaded that first half barrage.
Youre arguing with yourself, Doc. I said they were poor on the goal, and Ramsdale correctly gave White a bollocking for poor closing down.
They can play well overall AND concede a poor goal, you know. Both can be true.
I thought that Partey and Emile were our standouts, but these things are subjective. So I won’t quibble with this. Agree that Laca was absolutely terrific. Auba and Tavares can be pleased as well.
Overall, a good team performance.
Not arguing with anyone… adding to the discussion. Nothing personal my man.
Claude
Much better game today. After the last couple draws everyone was down and thought the manager didn’t know what he was doing and then one good game and just like after the Spurs game when everyone was full optimism and everyone thought we had finally found the secret to continued success. The next time we have a bad game or 2 we the whole mood will reverse. Last season in Oct Nov there were a lot who thought we would be in a season long relegation battle. The fact that we play 1 or 2 good games does not mean we suddenly have top 4 potential and if we play 1 or 2 bad games it does not mean we are relegation fodder. Everything does change depending on whether we are in good form or not.
The best we can possibly finish after this round of matches even if every team ahead of us loses is 9th place and that is mid table.
“Last season in Oct Nov there were a lot who thought we would be in a season long relegation battle.”
Really? Who really, seriously thought this?
“The fact that we play 1 or 2 good games does not mean we suddenly have top 4 potential and if we play 1 or 2 bad games it does not mean we are relegation fodder.”
This is a perfect illustration of how you black and white things to death, Bill. Im sorry, but I detect no such wild mood swings here.
Bill, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt but you’re treading a fine line when you say ‘everyone’ three times. There’s a broad range of opinion shared here. It’s not accurate or reasonable to suggest we all think and make the same comments.
I said this in the prior comments section but our schedule lightens up after playing teams 1,3,4,5 and 9 in the table in the first 7 games so it’s almost inevitable that our table position will improve
I always think those early season stats are funny. “After three games, the teams who have played undefeated team X have the worst records in the league!”
Well… yeah… they all lost to this one team. That means there are only two other games that they could’ve won. Teams that win early are high in the table early. And vice versa. More meaningful would be to look at squad strength by a metric such as SPI:
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premier-league/
By SPI and in order since the start of the season, we’ve played teams 13, 1, 3, 20, 17, 9, 7, 16 and 12. That’s not a ridiculous schedule, in fact it averages to about 10th place.
SPI has Arsenal as the 5th best team in the land but the chasing pack of 6 teams are all closer to us than we are to Man Utd at 4th, so the variance of possible finishes for us is huge: 4th through 10th all realistic. This all feels about right based on what we’ve seen so far.
Excellent points.
Why can’t everyone play like Laca did all the time. That’s all that it takes really.
Pleased to beat Villa. I didn’t realise they were such a niggly, kicky, cheaty team. Horrible. It’s always nice to beat teams like that.
I thought Arteta made some good changes from the Palace game. Tierney, Pepe and MO have been very ordinary of late and that is being polite. I thought Tavares made a great deal of difference on the left hand side. On current form Tierney is going to have to up his game to get back in the side, as much as I like him.
Lokonga looks like he may come good once he fully understands what his role is.
I did wonder when they bought MO, whether they would try and slot him into a deeper role in midfield, bearing in mind the number of forwards we have. I don’t think it works, to be honest. I think he has to play as an out and out “number 10” or not at all.
I was interested to see Ollie Watkins, as his name has appeared a lot in the press recently. I’ve even heard that Arsenal were looking at him. To be honest, I had no idea what he was like. With a name like Ollie Watkins, I somehow pictured a big lump of a centre forward, possibly Welsh. Needless to say, he’s nothing like that! He’s quite quick and mobile, but I didn’t see anything special particularly. He could easily have been sent off in the 1st minute. If they did do go after him, which I hope they don’t, you can assume they’ve given up on Martinelli. Very similar.
I didn’t see what the penalty incident was all about. They don’t show contentious issues on the big screens at the stadium. I thought that perhaps there had been an off the ball incident and an Arsenal player was about to get a red card. Thankfully not. Martinez did his usual trick of putting off the penalty taker. Credit to the ref, who stopped it, but it still seemed to work as Emi saved the first attempt.
Nice goal from ESR in the 2nd half, even though it looked like it took a deflection. The thing to note was that he made that run in the first place. Unlike Pepe, he always looked in control of the football. Very calm in front of goal. Neville and Carragher gave him man of the match on Sky, apparently. Arteta also referred to “lifestyle changes” whatever that means.
“Credit to him and obviously the staff here that are all the time monitoring and build that education with him and he’ll only get better.
“He should demand that in his game because he is capable of doing it. I’m pleased that that is developing. He still needs to develop more in other areas as well.
“The other night he wasn’t 100 per cent fit but he stepped forward and he wanted to play with a difficult injury that he had.
“There is no complaining, he is just looking forwards, he is really determined, he has changed the way he is living as well a little bit and some of the habits that he had and he’s been superb.”
So there you have it.
the thing that i absolutely love about emile is his mobility. the kid is always moving at the right times to the correct spaces. this is arsenal’s biggest problem. only he and lacazette have good off-ball mobility. when they both play, they unsettle defenses. players like pepe and auba stand around a lot, which makes them easier to defend.
mobility is the first principle of attack that’s not about shape or geometry. the most frustrating player for a defender to defend against is a striker who’s always moving. it’s mentally draining. you always have to know where these guys are or you’re going to have a bad day. i remember chatting with tim about this some years ago and how he was always impressed with theo walcott’s movement. i said that theo’s runs were not good, he just did them with a lot of speed. emile, however, has fantastic movement off the ball.
if i were arteta, i’d emphasize mobility from the front men. if we could get auba and pepe moving smart without the ball, the arsenal attack would be terrifying.
I had a commitment last night and couldn’t watch the game. Honestly it didn’t bother me unduly beforehand. This morning of course seeing not just the result but reading the apparent manner in which it was achieved, I’m bummed.
Having criticised him before, it seems Arteta is due credit for the set up and approach to this one.
On a separate point, I have read a few comments about ESR having a great game. His consistency is just ridiculous for a kid his age
good performance, good result. emi martinez apparently sent texts to some of his former team mates how they wouldn’t score on him. i love that banter. likewise, i enjoyed the fans shouting “aaron ramsdale is better than you!” classic banter.
happy with the boldness from arteta. i know he said after the palace game that he was unhappy with how the team sorta sat back after the first goal. however, that’s what they’ve always done since he’s been the manager so i considered that lip service. clearly, the emphasis in training was not do that and the team looked like a proper arsenal side.
they appeared to play a 4-2-3-1 with emile on the left, saka on the right, and laca central behind auba. we’ve seen this look before last year and it worked okay then as well. i would have used the same personnel package but with laca in the 9, auba in the 11, and emile in the 10-spot. what’s for sure is that you can’t argue with the team’s performance on the day. well done to mikel.
special shout to ben white. in a game where arsenal are ball-dominant, he really shines; very david luiz-esque. the team can’t sit back, even against top teams like liverpool and city. they’re simply not built to play that way. he gets exposed when they do. likewise, nuno is an absolute monster. that kid’s got two hearts in his chest; never stopped running and never looked tired. another adjustment from monday is that the defenders didn’t allow the villa frontmen to turn like they allowed benteke to the other night. happy with the pressure. even up the pitch, laca pressing douglas luiz and the strikers pressing and winning second balls. dynamite performance from arsenal.
i appreciate you guys giving trying to give me props on my lacazette call but i simply want to see the team play well and it’s hard to see that when he doesn’t play. so many sleep on his quality and i don’t see how. many point out that he’s only scored x amount of goals but it’s because he doesn’t play regularly, not because of a lack of quality.
when laca arrived, he was sharing time with giroud and alexis. that january, arsenal sold both players but brought in aubameyang and he’s been sharing time with auba ever since. breaking down last season, he got 13 league goals in 20 starts (18 center forward starts). that’s a dynamite strike rate, not to mention how he facilitates the attack and his play leads to others having high-quality chances. don’t be a novice, only looking at his goals. you have to look at other qualities as well as goal actions per 90-minutes, etc. bottom line, arsenal play better when he’s on the field. i read somewhere that he had a goal action every 46 minutes last season. i don’t know if that’s true but it wouldn’t surprise me.
about a year ago, i predicated that arsenal would be in this conundrum if they didn’t extend lacazette before last christmas. this guy is in the last year of his contract and, at this point, there’s no incentive for him to sign an extension. arsenal had an opportunity to show how valued he was but they didn’t. would they have had to pay him more? yes, but you have to pay for quality. likewise, it’s still much cheaper to pay him a few quid more than to try and replace him. arsenal paid a lot of money for lacazette and it’s going to prove foolish to lose him for nothing, especially with him still in his prime.
there are a lot of teams who would love to pick up a player with lacazette’s quality and experience on a free transfer. off the top of my head, he could move to champions league teams like psg, man city, juventus, barcelona, or maybe even liverpool right now and they would be better with him in the side. he could even move to bayern if lewandowski leaves. he’s got options. yesterday’s game was in prime-time; we’re not the only ones to notice how well he played. last month, i mentioned the club essentially boasting on the website just last month that they hadn’t even offered him an extension (in reply to laca saying he wouldn’t sign an extension). we’ll see how this works out.
If we are OK with Laca being a beast for half the game or little more, then is fine to keep him. On the other hand that winding off might also be due to his not getting game time.
Laca made a difference. He manages to knit the play, which is often lacking. The big problem he has is his “legs”, or rather lack of them. In short, he’s just not quick enough and he faded quite badly before he came off. I can’t decide whether his legs have gone completely, or he just isn’t match fit. Either way, I don’t see how you can offer him another contract, which would be expensive. I personally think that if we are building for the future, we need to look elsewhere.
I’m generally impressed with Ben Wright, or Benjamin as he would rather be known. One thing he did last night was bring the ball forward out of defence to great effect. Almost Beckenbauer-like. I always thought that was the big thing that made us buy him. He really needs to be encouraged to do that more often. By committing midfield players to closing him down, he opens up spaces for our players.
Not sure what “lifestyle changes” Arteta was referring to with regards ESR. As far as I can make out, after the game he makes his way back to his mum and dad in Croydon, a pretty dull South London suburb. Perhaps his mum gives him 2 eggs for breakfast and rations the amount of time he spends on his Xbox. He’s basically a kid. Nothing more, nothing less.
A good performance like that deserves all the praise it’s been getting. Can’t locate stats yet but I’m sure they will show anything other than passivity.
The best teams play the full 90 mins of each match with high levels of both intensity and composure, and it’s something I really hope to see again from Arsenal. “Alive” is a good word for it, we all know how it can feel when you feel calm but sharp, when you are on top both physically and mentally.
We’ve lacked either intensity or composure at different times in most matches this season but last night we were excellent.
Matt.
Using the word everyone was a very poor choice of words. Certainly not “everyone” thought we would be caught up in a relegation battle. I don’t mean to speak for every individual but look at the comment section from Nov of last season and there were plenty of commenters who seemed to believe that Arteta was dragging us down so much that we were likely to finish in the bottom 5 and perhaps even go thru a relegation fight. The whole point is that a lot of fans (not necessarily you or Claude in particular) get caught up and make judgements based on what happened in the last month or the last game or the even last half of the last game rather and that point is not changed by one poor choice of the word everyone
Yesterday we played really well and full credit to the team. We had more energy and played with commitment and executed the game plan very well and we were a much better team then we saw against Palace. Does anyone really believe that Arteta did something different this week that he has not been trying to do for the last 2 years? Which team is the real Arsenal? I think the answer depends on the form we are in at the time and how well the players execute on a specific day and who the opponent is. We have seen over the last 8-10 years that our form is often unpredictable and can change dramatically over the course of a month or a couple weeks or over the course of a single game which is why the recency bias that seems to be so strong is not accurate.
Can anyone really dispute the contention that for a lot of years the way we play and our results has been characterize by intermittent peaks and valleys that are sometimes predictable depending on how good the team we play against but often unpredictable like the game against Palace vs yesterdays game?
Bill,
Firstly, I don’t think we’ve necessarily got “bad players”. I can go back to the 1960s and 1970s when we had infinitely worse players!
There are a couple of issues here. The main one is that generally speaking the opposition has improved. It’s a bit of a cliche, but there are very few easy games in the Premier League now. That hasn’t always been the case. The way the TV money has been shared around means that most clubs can acquire perfectly reasonable players, even if they aren’t household names. These can be drilled by coaches into very effective units, who can be extremely difficult to beat. I watch them line up at the Emirates with 2 banks of four and wonder how on earth do you find the space to play an expansive game. If we get the time and space to play, we can look good. If we don’t, we run out of ideas and our heads drop. So depending on how well the opposition carry out their game plan, determines what sort of performance you get.
Teams are also fitter. Gone are the days when team like Chelsea and West Ham were regarded as “drinking” sides, who might turn up or might not.
From the Arsenal point of view, we’ve had a scattergun approach to recruitment. It never feels like the various parts are designed to fit together, which is absolutely crucial. A bit like Man Utd, we’ve become a side of expensive misfits, who can turn it on occasionally, but not at a consistent level.
I actually think Arteta has got the club back on the right track. We’ve mostly offloaded the mercenaries and discontents, so I’ve seen a vast improvement in attitude. Having players coming up through the club is a positive sign and an important part of building the identity of the team. This has to be encouraged.
We’re still not there, by any means.
Patience.