2021/22 Arsenal Season Diary pt.2

Welcome to part 2 of my season dairy, the virtual version of my hand-taken match notes. When we left off Arsenal just won 2-0 against Leicester and today we kick off with a 1-0 win over Watford.

My notebooks aren’t exclusively records of Arsenal matches, I have a number of notes from Marseille, Atalanta, Newcastle and others. I also randomly jot down quotes that I come across from other walks of life and when I was compiling yesterday’s post I forgot to add this one from Phil Tippett (Star Wars special effects manager) who was paraphrasing Milos Forman when he said “If you want to take a good shit, you’re going to have to eat well.” I guess you could think of these diaries as my meal diary! And now, here’s my shit:

Arsenal 1-0 Watford

• AMN tackle, pass to Lacazette, but Saka goal offside – lol goal celebrations before VAR – AMN playing well, good tackling, nice passing
• Lacazette lucky not to get a yellow card for a late tackle (17′)
• Good transition D by Arsenal after Ben White made a silly run forward
• Boring game so far
• Danny Rose fouls Lacazette, referee makes the easiest pen call of the season
• Terrible penalty from Auba, easy save. WTF is wrong with Auba?
• Gabriel header on a set piece, saved by Foster
• Watford pressing the Smith and winning the ball off him, they seem to have figured out how to press us
• Fans on twitter complaining about Watford fouls but the ref just gave us a pen which should have been worth a goal

2nd Half

• Auba yellow for obvious foul
• another yellow for a Watford player
• AMN fouls Saar but
• Ben White wins the ball up high and
• loses possession but
• The Smith scores and
• VAR… LETS IT STAND! yay
• Øde scores but its ruled offside because Auba got a touch – he’s now actively hurting the team, this is hard to watch
• Ramsdale saves a goal with a great flap, Arteta is furious that we aren’t tracking back well
• Ramsdale huge error – calls Ben White to leave the ball and then misses the tackle. Josh king with an easy chance, which he misses. That kind of miss is why they will probably get relegated.
• Kuco red card for faux kick on Tavares. Tavares had done well to get forward. Watford complain that there was no contact on the foul but the only reason there was no contact is that Tavares leapt out of the way.
• HAHAHA! Cheeky play to take the ball into the corners Øde, Martinelli and AMN

Liverpool 4-0 Arsenal, 30 November 2021

• Cagey start, neither side really stretching, both performatively pressing
• Tomiyasu early nerves, bad clearance
• Ben White tries to carry the ball out, poor touch, turnover for a Salah shot
• Liverpool turning up the high press
• Arsenal can’t get the ball to stick
• If Arsenal are going to score we’ll need a precise counter, or luck
• Auba gets away with pulling an arm, no card
• They are targeting Tomi, another attack on his side
• Arsenal have stopped playing the ball out, now just going long and hoping to win the 2nd ball
• Arsenal are running plays off dead ball situations, we play like an American football team
• Arteta is waving Arsenal up frantically but Liverpool break quickly and Arsenal panick
• Ben White clears a great cross from TAA
• First real chance of the game: TAA piuts in another great cross, Thiago has a shot on the volley, Rams saves but fumbles and has to fall on the ball before Mane gets to him
• Arsenal score but Auba offside
• Arteta and Klopp get into it after a hard challenge by Mane on Tomi – yellow cards for both managers
• Getting feisty now, lots of challenges
• Roberts gets past his marker, plays a drawback cross, Salah gets a shot but Ramsdale saves and collects under pressure
• Arsenal cut open again and TAA has a shot saved
• Fabinho stops a huge breakaway
• Auba bad slide tackle, free kick for Liverpool, absolutely brilliant goal. Undefendable in my opinion. TAA to Mane header and Gabriel just couldn’t get to it. If you can put the ball on a dime like that – from that distance??? – with that curl and dip? there just isn’t much the defenders can do. Crazy good delivery.
• Fucking Klopp cups his ears at Arteta what a dickhead
• Arsenal come down and nearly get a Saka – Smith Rowe chance
• Mane hard foul on Tomi
• Mane fouls Tomi AGAIN, this time the Arsenal players go to protect him

2nd Half (this bit is ugly)

• High press wins the ball back from Lokonga, Ox gets a shot
• Another high press turnover, shot for Salah
• Long punt turnover, Salah shot
• Liverpool come on in waves, Arsenal crumble like a California beach
• Tavares back pass to Jota, who just goes around Ramsdale and scores
• Arteta takes Lokonga off for AMN? His first pass is.. 20 yards straight out of play
• Tomi pressed off the ball Thiago shot
• Tavares caught again, Salah stopped by Maitland-Niles but Mane gets a shot off
• AMN caught in possession, Jota gets a shot but crashes into Ramsdale and both guys are down
• AMN turnover but.. NO SHOT!
• Ben White now just clearing the ball
• Ramsdale going long every kick
• Arsenal seem to have given up, no movement, just want this to be over
• Wait.. Laca passed it to Auba, beats the greatest defender who ever lived and forces a great save by Alison – do we know if Alison’s aim is true?
• Laca subbed off for Øde
• Tavares another giveaway
• Incredible save Ramsdale, Jota shot across him gave him a chance to get to it
• Fabinho yellow for foul on the Smith
• I guess Gabriel’s been pretty good
• Tavares another bad pass
• What a counter attack by Liverpool: Jota’s header to put Mane through and the cross was superb to Salah
• Partey gets a shot.. on target
• 4-0, no one in MF, easy play forward, all the defenders chasing ghosts, TAA delicious cross, Minamino goal

Arsenal 2-0 Newcastle

• Well, they start with pressing
• Willock is playing!
• 2x in a row Nuke are aggressively protecting throw-ins
• White and Gab being tested by this big lump
• Tavares is getting forward a LOT
• Lokonga amazing pass to Saka diving shot just wide (16′)
• Ben White is going to have a record progressive passing game (ha! I just looked it up and it was his 2nd most progressive passing match with 474 progressive yards. His best match was Cry Pal (3-0 loss) with 505 yards. But this win was by far and away his most progressive CARRIES with 369 yards and 5 trips into the final third.)
• Tomi gets away with a foul but MØ draws a foul near the penalty arc. MØ gets his DFK on target
• 3x throw in pressure but this time we switched and got a good throughball
• Ø has had a number of miscontrols but he’s playing with good energy
• Tavares has had… 3 shots? (he ended the game with 6 shots, for 0.2 xG)
• Ramsdale 1 hands a Shelvey shot
• Tomi has a shot from distance
• Auba huge miss, hits the uprights
• Matt Richie yellow for a block on Saka
• Tomi good cross, The Smith good shot, Tavares bad shot
• (I drew a line so I’m guessing this is 2nd half?)
• Krafth yellow card, followed by what should have been a 2nd yellow but he gets away with it
• Nuke now getting physical
• Saka created 2 chances and Arsenal finally get the breakthrough – really good goal with the Smith feeding Tavares to play a throughball to Saka. Brilliant for him to stay onside and hit the far post. He’s been really good today.
• Arteta telling Auba where to press and he’s now winning the ball back
• Oop Saka down, Martinelli on for him.
• Lol, Gollum Wilson wanted a penalty for a teensy touch but Arsenal go down the other end and Tomiyasu puts in a delightful chip which Martinelli one-touch-volleys into the net. That’s a real Gold Medal Martinelli goal
• The Smith tries to get Auba a goal but he misses
• Non shot big chance for Nuke, ball just flashes in our box as Ramsdale and the entire back line is beaten
• Lascelles shoulder barge on Martinelli, no call and he looks to have a concussion

Arsenal 2-3 Man U

I watched the match, didn’t take notes.

Let’s see what I can remember… uhh.. VAR correctly ruled Smith Rowe’s goal should stand after de Gea tried to say one of the Arsenal players stood on his foot. The rest of it was pretty shit.

Mike Dean v. Arsenal

• Playing it out the back, then going long, and turning the ball over
• Xhaka is doing some weird anti-pressing
• Cool, now we are inviting high press?
• They seem to be marking Partey out of the game
• When we get the ball we don’t seem to turn and attack
• Partey launches a ball out of Goodison park
• Partey multiple turnovers
• Non-shot big chance there by Demarai Grey
• Godfrey stamps on Tomiyasu’s face and Mike Dean doesn’t even make a call. This is Godfrey’s second stamp on a player (the other was Son) in a month. Trying to say it’s not intentional at this point is bizarre.
• Tierney shoved into the hoardings by Gordon
• Godfrey now knees Saka and we are going full Mike Dean at this point
• They score off a set play but Richarlison was offside
• Arsenal’s been hemmed in our own half this entire match because we are getting kicked up the pitch but we finally get out of our own and Tierney puts in a lucky cross which Ø side foots off the half-volley 1-0 to the Arsenal

2nd Half

• Dead ball, 40 yards out, Arsenal play the ball backwards. fucking hell
• WAHEY! Godfrey finally gets a yellow card for his third red card tackle, this one on Saka
• Dacoure with a great drive, no one stopped him because Xhaka shouldn’t even be playing today, D passes to Rich and he’s offside AGAIN.
• Martinelli great run, bad cross
• Xhaka yellow for a very Xhaka foul
• Tierney off for Tavares
• Martinelli off with cramp
• Gabriel goes down
• Xhaka is dead
• Tavares turnover
• Saka fouled again
• 75′ everything is “going pear”
• Now Tavares is down from a Gordon foul incredibly high on the shin, how on earth is Mike Dean allowed to referee Arsenal matches?? He admitted publicly that he was afraid of Arsene Wenger and his record of refusing to award red card and penalties in Arsenal’s favor suggests that there is something deeply different about the way he refs Arsenal matches. It should be investigated, honestly.
• This is incredible, like two teams fighting relegation. Arsenal under the cosh, can’t keep possession, and there you go, Grey hits the bar and Richarlison scores the rebound.
• Really bad decision by Arteta to play Xhaka
• They are going for it. We have 11 guys in our box just clearing the ball.
• Øde wants a handball. I guess he’s never heard of Mike Dean.
• Saka cross to Nketiah, hits the upright, Auba on and suddenly we are attacking
• Øde good chance
• Oh.. wow.. Andre Gomes slays Xhaka and Ben White in midfield and then passes to Grey who hits what has to be goal of the season: long bomb off the upright and in.
• Iwobi should have scored too
• And of course, Auba misses with his last kick (would turn out to be his last ever as an Arsenal player)

This is where we will stop today. Tomorrow’s blog post is back over to Josh and the third installment of his epic story about how he came to be an Arsenal supporter. That will give me time to write a couple of days worth of notes.

Take care.

Qq