Last week I started to do a weekly recap of the Premier League matches in addition to match reports and other articles I write here. The reason for this is simple, I’ve never done this before and given that Arsenal are in a real title race now it’s important to know what the other clubs are doing in the league. This week, however, there’s no need to do two articles. No need to do a match report and a weekly recap because the two stories are integral.
On Saturday morning, Manchester United squeaked by Wolves with a 1-0 win thanks to a goal from “bad boy” Marcus Rashford. Rashford had been dropped by Erik Ten Hag for showing up to a team meeting late but Ten Hag pulled an “Arsene Wenger dropping Alexis Sanchez” and started Rashford in the 2nd half. Those three points moved Man U into the top four for the first time this season.
In the 7amkickoff matches, Man City got a draw at home to Frank Lampard’s Everton. I didn’t watch the match because I am boycotting Man City matches because they are dreadful boring. The only reason to watch them is to see them drop points, in my opinion, so I guess it would have been good viewing for folks so inclined. Haaland scored again. He has 21 goals already this season.
Arsenal’s other title contenders, the country of Saudi Arabia, struggled to get on the board in a 0-0 draw against Leeds United. Toward the end of the match, the Saudi side let tempers flare and Bruno probably should have gotten a red card.
For those who are interested in the fortunes of former Arsenal great Patrick Vieira, his Palace side bounced back from their atrocious two-red-card Boxing Day performance. The dominant image I had of that match was Patrick Vieira literally seething on the sideline as his team picked up a 2nd red. The good news is that they bounced back and did so with aplomb. I wish I had watched this match, Michael Olise provided two assists (both from corners) and Eberechi Eze scored a goal. These are two young players I adore so it’s good to see them playing well.
We’ll talk about the Arsenal match in a second, but let’s skip ahead to Sunday. In the early game, Spurs lost to Aston Villa and let’s make no bones about it, they played like shit. This is two matches in a row that Spurs couldn’t crack 1xG. Of course, after the game Antonio Conte did the thing he always does and complained that the squad wasn’t good enough. In a sneering post-match presser he laughed at the idea that Spurs were title contenders last season and said that the team needs a complete rebuild and then on top of that to add two 60-70m players every year. Lol.
In the late game, Forest drew 1-1 with Chelsea. Auba missed a huge chance to put Chelsea ahead and Chelsea still need a center forward.
This weekend’s results means that every one of Arsenal’s top four contenders (except Man U) dropped points. Of course we didn’t know that Chelsea and Spurs would flub up their chances but we did know about City and going into the match against Brighton, Arsenal’s players and management would have known that taking all three points was imperative.
And Arsenal started brightly. Ødegård took the game by the scruff of the neck from the first whistle, driving into the heart of the Hove defence. He was dispossessed but it didn’t matter since Saka was there and stroked home the goal cooler than a grown man on an inflatable unicorn.
Arsenal didn’t stop there, Zinchenko got in on the action and was clear through on goal in the 4th minute. His shot was stopped but Albion were rocked and the keeper started an inquest with his back line.
By the 6th minute, Martinelli had had three blocked shots, which I say not to be critical, but to show that Arsenal were going for the game. Two years ago, Arteta’s team would have sat back and let the game come to them when they took a lead. This year we attacked time and again.
Øde was in such imperious form that he played a nutmeg throughball to Martinelli in the 20th minute. Nelli should have just chipped it in but chose to pass to Eddie instead. Eddie wasn’t expecting the pass and what should have been one of the great all time assists was just another pass by Øde.
Brighton and Hove Albion didn’t sit on their laurels. They produced two good saves by Ramsdale, attacking on the Zinchenko side, Trossard got a shot off in the 15th minute and they countered Arsenal in the 20th minute, producing another save by Rambo.
In the 38th minute I started to worry for the Arsenal. Brighton were Hoving their Albion and producing some good moments. I wanted Arsenal to get a 2nd goal. And they did!
Ønce again it was Ødegård with the individual moment of brilliance. From the top of the box he was in the right place at the right time and smacked the ball into the net. He hit down into the ball, hitting it into the ground, the way that Özil used to hit the ball. I know that this will draw the ire of some but for me there’s not question that Ødegård is the exact modern #10 that Arsenal needed Özil to be. Øde presses from the top and he works hard out of possession but even more importantly, he takes control of games. Özil didn’t do either of those things – if he did it was fairly rarely.
The first half ended with a flurry of yellow cards, two of them for time-wasting on Arsenal, which is comical considering the fact that just on Boxing Day, three players prevented Xhaka from taking a free kick (two by kicking the ball away) and none of them got so much as a warning.
Arsenal started the second exactly like the first. Eddie got the goal his work rate earned him, slipping in a bobbled save off a Martinelli shot. Arsenal were up 3-0 and cruising but then things went a bit pear shaped.
Arteta takes off White and Zinchenko and puts on Tomiyasu and Tierney. Five minutes later Kaoru Mitoma scores off a delightful throughball by Gross. Arsenal’s defense looked shambolic from the 60th minute on but this one was particularly odd, because Tomiyasu was just simply out of position.
It was 3-1 and there probably shouldn’t have been any nerves but they were there: Brighton is a bit of a bogey team for Arsenal and had started playing well. But Arsenal extended the lead thanks to an incredible one-touch, throughball by Ødegård to Martinelli. With that goal the entire Arsenal front line had scored, once again. Taking Arsenal’s lead to 4-1. Again, there shouldn’t be nerves but this is the Arsenal. We once dropped points with a 4 goal lead.
And to make it more vervy, Arsenal weren’t applying pressure. This allowed the Albions to clip in easy passes over the top and go directly at Arsenal’s newly discombobulated back line. That’s exactly what led to the 2nd for Albion: a long pass was poorly handled by Saliba and the ball fell to Ferguson who scored.
I’m not a fan of how nervous and out of sorts Arsenal looked at the end of this match. BHA should have had a third goal when Mitoma scored a great chance but was ruled out for offside when cameras showed he was offside when the ball was played, but came 5 yards back onside to collect. I’m also not a fan of that call. I get why we need to have it but I’ve always felt like a player coming back onside to collect the ball hasn’t gained any advantage.
After the match, Arteta echoed my sentiments about how poorly we closed the game, saying that there were still some things for Arsenal to work on. Which there very clearly are!
I get that Arsenal were winning the game, and by some margin, but in the 2nd half Arsenal only had 30% of the possession. That’s not how you close out a game in my opinion. Worse, this was the sort of passive defending that we saw in the bad old days of the Arteta regime. Nobody was applying pressure. We cannot play passive defense against ANY team in the Premier League. Arsenal lead the League in tackles in the opposition final third. That’s why it was so frustrating to see Lewis Dunk, LEWIS DUNK, dictating play against us.
Of course, you can pull me up for complaining about a win and going 7 points clear of the United Arab Emirates. That’s fair! But it’s just how I feel! I was nervous in a game where I had no right to be nervous. And those nerves were brought on by Arsenal playing that passive football I’ve hated for years. So, while the attack was some of the best I’ve seen from Arsenal in a decade, the worrying thing is that slip back into passive football. The good news, however, is that Arteta knows and will (hopefully) address the problem.
However! That’s all worrying about debts that haven’t been issued! We didn’t lose, we didn’t drop points, we won. And went 7 points clear of the United Arab Emirates, 9 points clear of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and 13 points clear of those turds at White Hart Lane.
It was a very good way to start the new year!
Brilliant post as usual Tim but gotta disagree with something. I watched the game and didn’t in the least feel worried. Even at 3 4 (disallowed albion goal) my son was bricking it. But I simply sat there calm n collected and said to him wind your neck in we won’t lose this game. I know there were phases where the other team will be on top but this team will go to the very end. Last time I felt this confident was 2091/2002. Trust me Tim and fellow fantastic contributors of 7AM. We will win it and bring it home. Its our time
And a very happy new year to you all
2091? Wtf lol. 2001/2002. Same red wine messes with the cranium lol.
Great post!
Listen, I have absolutely enjoyed this tremendous run. Everyone’s talking about this month’s fixture hell, but I couldn’t give a toss.
These boys have given me enough joy that I won’t complain if we go into February having dropped points.
This Arsenal is the real deal.
Emile Smith Rowe may make the bench v. NUFC, and his full return is not far off. What would it mean if he came in and started making a difference with minimal rustiness? Plus we will be adding to our depth on the next 30 days as well.
This is such a good time to be a Gooner.
Excepting (maybe) lasting world peace, nothing would make me happier than giving a severe home game beat down to the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia tomorrow.
All major milestones/holidays this year had Arsenal on top of the league
I have that invincible year feeling again
So COYG and let’s take this year head on!
But exuberance aside, question for Tim and the community here: When was the pivotal or watershed game when Arsenal became contenders?
For me it might be preseason and the early business for G. Jesus and Zinchenko
For me, it is much more recent, namely the last two matches.
Picking up where we left off before Le Coupe Mondial without Jesus,
Seeing Wenger back home vs. West Ham.
surviving the late wobble vs. Brighton
Happy New Year One Nil! For me, our win vs Liverpool was the biggest turning point. That’s a team we haven’t played well against and we went toe to toe with them and looked the better team. It was a huge monkey off our collective backs. The game a against Chelsea a few weeks later made me think this team was real. We utterly destroyed them and there was no more question for me as to whether we were in a title race. It’s a joy to watch us play and I’m just trying to stay in the moment for each game!
Cheers, LA, Happy 2023. Yeah, those were key games and I’m happy that they made you a believer earlier than me. I’ve gone through so many false dawns with this club, it took me until after these World Cup matches to think that there may be, just may me, a real chance for us to do something this season. Now if we manage to get all three points from Riyadh-upon-Tyne tomorrow, I’m going to continue New Year’s party mode for a few more days for sure!
For me it was the last 2 games as well. Maybe actually it was City drawing to Everton. I watched some of that game. They’re mortal. They are not better than us. They may not be worse, but we’re definitely punching at that level. It’s possible this happens.
I’m also going to cheat and say I saw this a year ago. After dropping Auba we looked phenomenal, and looked very good right until the end. I said that what we were seeing was a glimpse of this team at full potential, a peak into the future in 5 years. But I was wrong. We kept it together and then took it to another level. So yeah a year ago I was confident we’d be top 4 contenders this year because I knew we looked special. But I didn’t know it could be this good.
December 21, 2021. The 5-1 win against Sunderland. It was clear as day light to me what I saw.
https://arseblog.news/2021/12/report-arsenal-5-1-sunderland-inc-goals/#comment-1383243
That was quite a call, I see you got massively voted down as well, lol.
I’m not afraid to hold my hand up and say I didn’t see it. We have some folks who come on here just to rub it in.
I still hardly believe it but here we are and at this point I would say that we are title favorites and if we don’t finish top four it will be the worst failure of an Arsenal season in my entire time watching Arsenal, which is over 22 seasons.
😂😂😂Nostradamus!😂😂😂
You got this week’s lotto numbers?
Usmanov – What did you see that made you believe that?
“Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal combine like City and counterpress like Liverpool.” We saw this agaist lower caliber opposition almost immediately. It just took time to translate to a higher level. 👇
https://twitter.com/EBL2017/status/1591725042295279616
This analyst (and others) knew it could be special from the start:
https://twitter.com/EBL2017/status/1609540133128224768
Bonus reading re: Mudryk.
https://twitter.com/EBL2017/status/1596776118404939778
Difficult take this cottage industry of twitter tacticos seriously. Weird Voice-of-God tone combined with vague analysis. Every win is philosophy, every loss is someone failing the philosophy.
There is definitely a cottage industry of tacticos, but for me EBL is one of the few who is the real deal. This is his job and he has a degree in it, he is not just some wacko with a keyboard. He is raising his own profile by posting. It’s a win-win. More than that, I find his analysis is specific and consistent and he does not sling mud or get into petty feuds.
Fair enough Doctor – thank you for sharing.
I have all the love for Arteta and this project and have done for a long time. But I’m still not secure about this becoming a sustained title push. It’s not yet the mathematical mid point of the season. This young team has never been in a title race but the folks up north do it every year. The points total we are on pace for is insane and would be shocking to see sustained.
I still want to see this team rebound from the adversity of a poor result instead of letting ourselves dip for 2-3 games on the trot like last year. There has been a troubling lack of control in away matches against teams like Leeds, Southampton and Brighton. Defensive mistakes have not been uncommon. I don’t know if we can still dominate despite missing some players. We have been relatively lucky with injuries. Can Partey hold up through the fixture congestion?
All that said we are here on merit and benefiting from the wobbles and rebuilds of some of the other usual suspects. Ready or not, this is our best chance to win a title since 2015 and we have a better team now than we did then. We can do it. But there is a lot of high pressure football ahead, starting with Newcastle, the form team in the league right now.
Hey Doc – finding a Partey backup would be higher on the priority list for me than Joao Felix or any other backup striker. That’s the one very clear weakness of this team. Tim’s been beating this drum for a long time and I agree. While we may not find a perfect replacement for him ( that tackle to start the first goal was sick!) We need someone above Elneny level. That’s setting aside my personal disgust with TP as it relates to his off field behavior, assuming it’s true. As Tim said recently it would be exponentially better not to have that stain on this club. I am hoping against hope that there’s some way he’s not guilty but I’m dubious to say the least.
Valid concerns for sure but I don’t see a way to replace what TP does in the short term. Even if we buy a top shelf talent in the position, it will take months for him to master Arteta’s sytem. It took TP himself 1.5 years. If we look north, the champs are in the same position. They rely on Rodri’s fitness game after game and they don’t really have a like for like replacement for him, or for Fernandinho before him. It’s a singular position that requires a singular type of player.
In terms of short term cover, I think El Neny is probably it. He’s not spectacular but he is tactically astute, works hard and takes care of the ball. And he knows the system and he has a relationship with the other players. I think it would be hard to find a player who will be immediately much better in the January market.
“We can do it. But there is a lot of high pressure football ahead, starting with Newcastle, the form team in the league right now”
Arsenal are literally THE form team in the league right now.
Fair enough and I did think about that after i pressed submit. I didnt correct myself though because they won 5/5 before this last gameweek.
“I KNOW THAT THIS WILL DRAW THE IRE OF SOME but for me there’s not question that Ødegård is the exact modern #10 that Arsenal needed Özil to be. Øde presses from the top and he works hard out of possession but even more importantly, he takes control of games. Özil didn’t do either of those things – if he did it was fairly rarely.”
This.
Justifies the hard decision that Arteta had to make on this matter. Emery tried to, it (among other failings of his) cost him his job. Till date Arteta is still not rated by some who see him through the prism of that decision. If the owners hadn’t seen the vision, Arteta could have gone the way of Emery.
It’s puzzling that there are still a few Arsenal fans who don’t rate Odegard. Puzzling!
Seconded! Who is a more complete #10 than Odegaard? He doesn’t have the generational ball striking talent of KdB, and he can’t carry the ball like Bernardo, and he doesn’t have a bag of tricks to win 1 v 1 like Saka. But he can strike a really good ball and he can carry if opponents back off. He works harder than any creative player I’ve ever seen. His positioning is perfect. He’s a coach’s dream. He retains the ball with a metronomic ease reminiscent of his manager’s playing days, only he does it in tighter windows higher up the pitch. And he creates chance after chance as if he was Mesut Ozil, who was for a time the most creative player in the world. Martin Odegaard: He’s a gem, and he’s our captain.
Happy new year, community. Im here much less and watch much less football, because I dont have the time I used to. All change, big change, necessary re-prioritisation of time. But this group is like fam by now, so I sincerely wish everyone a 2023 that improves in every area of your life. I hold out hope that I can have that long-threatened pint with Shard (his round, of course)
Continuing on Odegaard from last thread. No, Cesc Fabregas was better. Far better younger (17 onwards), better than Ode is now. Ode is amazing and I’ve been singing his praises from Day 1 here, mainly drooling about his weight of pass. He’s added raw productivity to his cerebral string-pulling, and he’s the best playmaker/ACM in the league right now.
Cesc, Vieira, Ozil and Abou Diaby were the most talented midfield players I’ve ever seen at Arsenal FC. Yes, Diaby. Cruel injury robbed us his potentially blossoming into a great player… baller skills with outrageous athleticism.
I’ve never seen anyone like Cesc in the gunners midfield. Head up, composed 2 plays ahead of everyone else. I’ve said it here before… he’s one of those players who’s rub-your-eyes outstanding the first time you lay eyes on them. I’m talking about a blimmin’ 17 year old.
Ode’s first time ping into space into the run of Martinelli was pure Cesc. Ode is very special, and my favourite Arsenal player at the moment. I like guys who see the whole game. Cesc did. Ozil did. Arteta the player did. He does. Imagine if Madrid still had him, Tchouameni and Camavinga as their central core. They must know that Arsenal pulled off a heist.
Happy New Year to you too!
Happy New Year Claude! I miss your input but trust the reprioritizing is helping you achieve the improvement you seek. Hope you have a wonderful 23!
LA, amigo…Thank you for that. You too, Tim and Josh.
Important to say that, irrespective of where we get to from here, that Mikel has prevailed in the bigger argument. I say this as someone who has dinged him on some things, while praising him on others. But who hasn’t hesitated to biff him hard, where warranted.
Nothing succeeds like success, I’ve always said, and I must be true to that. This is a tough, resilient, stylish team playing good football and gutsing things out against tough opponents. A team of attractive, fearless young players.
Getting off to our best start ever is a pretty big effing deal. Arteta’s decisions and decision making have been vindicated. That is how fair accountability works. And he has a chance — touch would — of crowning it with a league title. That’d be huge. Barring a collapse that pitches us out of the top 4, what he and his team have done is already big and consequential.
Does that mean we walk back every previous criticism? Of course not. He’s grown and he’s learned. But most importantly, he’s showing that he IS the manager that his biggest backers told us that he was, or could be. If you’re being fair, you have to acknowledge all of this.
It’s a great time to be an Arsenal supporter, even if I mostly catch highlights these days.
Happy for Eddie, above all. Said here when Jesus went down that he’s the one who’d have to step in, not some expensive import. I hope it continues. Was disappointed in Partey’s displays for Ghana, but he’s been huge for us on his return. That outside of the foot poke tackle to set us off for our early goal against Brighton was top class
I see below that Josh say I’ve become Shard 😊
I dont know what that means, but Shard teased me early in in the season about my love for Odegaard, my main man. I hope and expect that he’s a believer now.
happy new year, claude. good luck moving forward but, like you alluded, we’re like fam; everyone is rooting for your success and you’re always welcome. you’ve just become shard.
If NUFC become the next Chel$ki, the next Man City, as so many other clubs supporters are fearing, this season might be the best, perhaps only chance to take points from them for a long time.
Maybe they’ll sign a Robinho who’ll be a bust and take another season to sort themselves, but it is highly likely that they WILL sort themselves and be the next monied and therefore dominant club in the PL.
We have a chance at home tomorrow, much more so than at St. James Park later in the season. We need to do this. CYOG!!!
What I said – Riyadh-Upon-Tyne. Ronaldo may be their Robinho Sr. (very senior!), but as I said above, it’s only the beginning. It’s all happening:
https://www.teamtalk.com/newcastle-united/cristiano-ronaldo-stunning-clause-emerges-facilitate-transfer-al-nassr-announcement
Rumor is that Ronaldo could move to NUFC from Al Nasser if the English club qualifies for Champions League.
It’s all happening. Like I said: Riyadh-Upon-Tyne
Like at Man U, this would actually make them worse, rather than better. If he were willing to be an impact sub, it might help, but he’s not.
Can’t see Howe supporting this even if it was a possibility.
We’ll probably drop points this month, with the January fixtures, but so will City. Just check City’s fixtures and the congestion they got themselves into by remaining in the League Cup. They have 6 games in 18 days, trust me, they’re dropping points. Arsenal have 4 games in January. It’s not inconceivable we enter February having extended the lead over City.
Another thing, which I talked about here as far back as October, City are not as good as pundits made them to be at the beginning of the season. Haaland is having a Ronaldo-at-Juventus effect on them. He scores a ton of goals but the team is actually worse than the previous two seasons. They’re are games like their last when they miss the guile of Jesus, Sterling as an option.
It was ridiculous to me that people didn’t believe Arsenal were in a title race by October.
If we can just close the Mudryk deal before the Spurs match, our position will look really good. And if somehow we end up with Joao Felix too, then we would be almost certainly sorted for forwards for the rest of the season, touch wood.
But Newcastle today, we really need three points. I don’t care about revenge personally, though I know a lot of fans want it, and maybe the players too. I just want a win for the sake of the title race. Here’s hoping for a points records-breaking season for Arsenal in 2023. Happy New Year everyone
i’m thrilled to be an arsenal fan. the game against newcastle still rubs me for a few reasons but they all pale in comparison to one moment. you know how they say that teams can lose the game in the tunnel. well, i vividly remember the look on odegaard’s face in that tunnel at st. james’ park. he was already beaten by the energy from that crowd. even xhaka came out after the game saying you can’t be afraid to play. i always believed he was talking about odegaard. he knows ode better than we do. i also remember the lazy defending by ben white, including the own goal he scored.
my watershed moment was not a singular moment. i don’t know if there is one. it was probably this summer during preseason. knowing that the same arsenal that started the season bottom after 3 games, actually blew it by not finishing in the top 4 last year; they were very consistent last season. likewise, knowing that same consistent arsenal were better for several reasons. this may seem arbitrary but i believe a player needs a season and a half to show settle at a new club. well, the beginning of this season marked odegaard’s season and a half point. likewise, already knowing what the club was capable of, seeing the quality that jesus and saliba added had me thinking that this team could do something. sorry, i’m still no fan of zinchenko and believe a fully-fit tierney is significantly better.
okay, the “season and a half” point is not so arbitrary, although i did make it up. it’s a narrative i’ve been running since seeing how good pires was after that amount of time at arsenal. it’s not universal but it applies to a lot of players. odegaard seems to be the newest.
Eddie Howe wanted to expose the one quality Arsenal’s midfield lacks, which is dynamic ball carrying. So he instructed his midfielders to screen passes into the forward areas. Partey, Zinchenko, Xhaka and the center backs constantly looked at 2-4 black and white shirts in front of them, forcing the ball wide. Arsenal’s central players don’t have the dynamism to move such a barricade around with ball carrying. Once the ball went wide, they trapped the forward against the sideline with 2-3 more bodies. In general they closed down Arsenal within a second or two in their own half. The amount of running they did in this match was incredible. Then they added the usual sheethousing, time wasting, and Burnleying and made it into a dogfight. That suited them. They came for the 0-0 and they got it.
From an Arsenal perspective, this game showed up the limitations of Granit Xhaka offensively, made worse on a night when his passing wasn’t very good. I wondered if Arteta would throw Vieira on in that position but he clearly feels Fabio isn’t ready for moments like that. It was also a demonstration of why we need Mudryk or a player like him. In a similar situation, City would bring on Grealish or Mahrez, and Liverpool can casually throw on Jota. We brought on… Tomiyasu. Granted, ESR and Jesus are injured, but it goes beyond numbers. Arteta needs solutions from the bench for the unique problems that each game will throw at the squad, and he just didn’t have them today. That’s where this squad is still lacking.
ESR might have helped, as he does have some of that ball carrying. Generally agree with what you said. Newcastle came with a plan and executed it well. I’d argue we maybe should have had a pen for the shirt pull and shove on Gabriel. The handball at the end is one of those I feel like are sometimes given these days, but really shouldn’t be.
Beyond that, I don’t have much good feeling for FIFA, but I’d have liked to see the WC timing in place…it might be the only way to get rid of all the timewasting in matches like this. Should have been more like 10 mins.
And yes, we definitely need another option in attack for matches like this. What would Arteta have done if we’d gone down 1-0 due to a counter?
He does and he is also probably the best on the team at arriving in the box at the right time from outside to in. He would’ve come on in this match if he was fit.
Totally agree on the added time. Five minutes was a joke.
At 1-0 down, I think he would’ve sold out to destroy the low block. In short that requires two attack minded players on each flank and bodies in the box. I remember against Fulham he put Saka at LB.
I believe xhaka created more than odegaard yesterday.odegaard couldn’t cope yesterday.
Good point, and interesting numbers on that. Newcastle really focused on shutting him down. He had only 29 touches and his pass success rate was 69%. His season averages are 53 and 83%, respectively.
i also noticed that zinchenko started making a lot of very penetrative passes after halftime; his passing was very good. perhaps a half time adjustment by the boss?