A bad Lens to look through

That sucked and I don’t just mean the result. Nearly the entire performance was bad. Nearly every player was off, the team looked like it was stuck in treacle, and looked like we were playing with the handbrake on for huge segments. Maybe the flight delays made things worse (Arteta slapped that excuse aside) but this was the kind of performance that this team shouldn’t ever forget because it has to be one which they never repeat again. I never want to see Arsenal play 67 minutes and only manage 5 shots ever again.

The match started out well, Arsenal pressing high with Saka winning a ball off a terrible back pass. He set up Jesus who meandered a bit and wrong footed his defender to slot home a nice but low percentage shot. Arsenal kept up the pressure for a few more minutes and Kai Havertz got a decent chance, once again created by Saka, which was saved by the keeper.

A minute later, David Raya made the most telegraphed pass in the history of football, Tomiyasu switched off to the danger of it all, and Machado sprinted in to win the ball 5 yards away from Tomi. There was still a little work to do for Lens but part of the problem with Arsenal’s buildup – and why it’s so crucial for the keeper NOT to lose the ball there – is that the defense is spread out in order to create space to receive. Raya should have passed to Zinny who was wide open in midfield but he went for some numbskull big switch and it just left us open.

A little bit of blame goes on Rice there as well, as the DM he switched off on Thomasson and slowed his run down while the Lens player just walked into the space vacated by Saliba (who had incorrectly collapsed on Wahi). Rice can normally make up that space but was a fraction of a second too late and Thomasson curled in a peach of a goal.

Then Saka went down and to quote the movie Kalifornia “is it me or did this whole trip go to shit when we didn’t get our Lucky Lager?”

I wish I could say “Arsenal fought back” after conceding but like fuck we did. From the 21st minute to the 65th minute, Arsenal had 2 shots: Jesus’ 0.02 xG shot from a set play on the 45+2 minute and Trossard’s 0.2 xG shot saved off the line in the 48th minute. That Trossard shot was actually “created” by Havertz, who did get in one progressive carry and made one chance, with a casual dump pass to Leandro, who then juked his defender to actually create the big chance.

Lens nearly scored a second in the 63rd minute when Havertz and Gabriel had a couple of bran farts and turned the ball over easily. Hamed hit the side netting thanks to a timely intervention by Rice.

If we wanted to point to some “fight back” Arsenal had a couple of chances off set pieces in the 65th minute. Odegaard picked out Tomiyasu wide open on the 11m spot from a corner. The Japan international got full contact but just missed a chance he probably shouldn’t have missed. Technically a save but it was fired right at the keeper. Anywhere but right at their keeper and that’s a goal. There was a second, weak header, from a corner a minute later.

Lens kept up their pressure and again we turned the ball over in a position that you just can’t do because our players were all out of position for defending. Havertz lost a tackle, which left Arsenal’s back line in disarray (Zinny nowhere to be seen) and Frankowski marched into Arsenal’s penalty box unmarked. He picked out Wahi who swept home the shot. It was a delightful finish from another low xG shot. But they were chances created by picking apart Arsenal’s buildup play, which was a brilliant plan by Franck Haise.

You would hope that losing the game would waken the team but actually, Arsenal created 0 chances for the next 15 minutes as Lens just locked us down. Arteta made a raft of changes after the goal and Franck Haise countered with three of his own changes. As the game wound down Lens started to look tired and Arsenal finally got off a few shots: five of Arsenal’s 11 shots in this match were created/taken after the 85th minute. An abject performance from nearly everyone (yes, including Arteta) up to that point.

After the match, Arteta said that we did enough and that we should have won the match because of the big chances that we created. That’s an interesting theory but here on planet earth you have to actually keep creating chances until you actually win the game through real goals and not just point at expected goals. We won’t win the group on expected goals.

We’ll see if Arteta was being honest about “rotating” keepers* because honestly, Raya had a terrible game and I can’t see why he would keep his starting spot at this point. Arteta was asked about that and said he had no problem with Raya’s turnover. So, I seriously doubt Ramsdale will be starting anything other than the League Cup unless there’s an injury.

At this point it’s also fair to say that Kai Havertz is a problem. It was classy to give him a penalty a few days ago but it did absolutely nothing to help his overall game. I’m not suggesting that he needs to be sold or booed or hated but I would be dishonest if I didn’t say that whatever we are doing there with him just isn’t working. And frankly, I don’t want to hear about his supposed huge contributions off the ball, they are just basic contributions.

Havertz did have a lot of xG in this game despite having just one shot and one key pass but I explained that above. And his blown tackle in the 68th minute led to the second goal. So, he’s not the be all and end all of Arsenal’s problems but he’s certainly not helping us dig out when we need it. Maybe he’s kind of a luxury player in the sense that he’s not going to “take the game by the scruff” but he can disappear for 69 minutes and do just two things in a game which will give you a chance to win it, while playing defense the rest of the time? Like a new Ozil, but with defense. I don’t know but I do know that I’m getting sick of mentioning him and at this point I’m going to stop until he does something to win Arsenal a game.

The other problem is that Vieira was anonymous in this match, despite being subbed on for Saka early. Given their performances this season and last night, I guess Havertz should get the start? Maybe he’s a bit of a better defender? He does have height. Height is good, right?

Overall a very frustrating day and match. Arteta said that there were lessons to take from this and that they would do that in the next game. Let’s hope so because while you could say Lens were a bit lucky, I’d say that they created their luck and that Arsenal did not.

Qq

*I believe he was only saying this to spare Ramsdale’s feelings, but hey, we’ll find out soon enough