And it all went quiet in the city
And the wind blew down the road
Someone cried out “Subvert”
And the people all went cold
Good morning everyone! I am predictably in a good mood after Arsenal ran out 1-0 winners against Pep Guardiola’s well oiled Manchester City. I stayed in an effortlessly good mood as well, playing disc golf with my friend Cleveland and losing to him by one stroke (+1, +2) on our favorite course (White River Red, winter set up) but all the while playing with just a smile on my face. That’s what a win over City will do for folks.
I admit, however, that the way the match started didn’t have me feeling ebullient. If Arsenal supporters were full of nervous energy before the game, it seemed to transfer to the team who made a number of key mistakes with what looked like simple passes. David Raya, in particular, was just bad. He nearly did the same dumb ass kick out right that gifted Lens a goal, he had a number of passes into midfield which were just stupid, and he nearly conceded a goal when he dawdled on the ball (after a bad pass from Gabriel, tbf) and Alvarez closed him down. But it wasn’t just him, the whole team struggled with City’s press.
And we have to be fair here, every team in the world struggles with City’s press. This is literally what they do best, they are pressing monsters. And so are we! We just got a taste of our own medicine.
Arteta’s game plan was pretty solid if it was intended to beat their press. He put Jorginho in midfield and with City deprived of Rodri and de Bruyne, Jorginho was the best ball-handling midfielder on either team. You can only play the team in front of you but you have to give credit to Jorginho, he was pure class in and out of possession. He’s not the most glamorous MFer but when you need someone to be ultra secure in possession, he’s your go-to man.
And Jorginho works really well with Declan Rice in MF, just in front of him on the left. Dec is the “cleanup on Aisle 6” guy, of course, and I continue to marvel at his impeccable tackling. He had at least three inch-perfect tackles in this match where he curls his leg around the ball-carrier and pokes the ball away without even so much as touching the opponent. It’s magical. And – just to go off a bit because I love him – he is the guy who should probably be starting in the #8 role. He was very good there yesterday, leading the team with 4 shot-creating-actions along with the 6 interceptions+tackles.
Where Arteta did seem to maybe get it wrong was starting Trossard and Nketiah. Arteta said that Trossard felt a muscle pull in the 30th minute and that’s why he was subbed off but even if that’s true Trossard was almost anonymous in the first 30 minutes. And Nketiah did the thing he does, which is to say offer nearly nothing but a bit of running around. He did get 18 touches in 74 minutes, but one of those was a kickoff and the other two he got when he stole the ball from Øde while he was in the act of shooting. He also took a stupid shot when he really should have passed but since he basically can’t pass, I guess that made sense. Nketiah would be a good forward on a team like Luton in the Championship but he is just outclassed in these big games.
So, considering that Arteta brought on Kai Havertz for the largely ineffective Nketiah and Havertz got the assist (to Nelli, the other sub) for the only goal in the game, maybe it was real galaxy brain stuff and Mikel wanted to have some dynamism toward the end of the game? You know, the whole thing I said at the start of the season about options and depth?
Maybe it was and maybe it wasn’t the game plan but whatever it was you have to say that it worked. Havertz knocked down the ball for Nelli to pounce and put into the net. Yes there was a deflection. Here I am, not caring at all.
The other part of the game plan was very clear: limit City’s chances, make the game very difficult and frustrating for them. Haaland had just 20 touches and got zero shots. I felt like Saliba jockeyed him very well, so much so that the big squishy faced Norwegian started crying to the ref looking for help. Have you ever noticed that his face looks like it’s way too small for his head? Like it’s a face that belongs on another, much smaller head? Anyway, we kept him quiet. We kept the whole team quiet! They only had 0.5 xG (we only had 0.4 xG so, they also kept us quiet, which isn’t really hard when Nketiah is the starting CF and offers so little. Seriously, do not, under any circumstances, go to FBREF and look at what Gabriel Jesus did in this game and compare it to Eddie Nketiah).
It looked to me like City were frustrated and started lashing out. Kovacic had two red card worthy tackles in this game, for which he got one yellow card. Referee Michael Oliver* – who is the same ref who gave Martinelli two yellow cards without even stopping play – saw both tackles clearly and decided that it wasn’t enough to warrant a red. Some of the commentators were saying that “the ref shouldn’t decide the game” and I agree with that but not at all in the way that they mean it. The ref isn’t deciding the game if he gives two yellow cards for two studs-up tackles on two players’ ankles, the player is deciding the game at that point. The ref IS deciding the game by REFUSING to give the correct punishment. And if you go back and watch Kyle Walker on Martinelli, you can see him literally punching Nelli in the back at about 51:40-52:00 on the game clock. Walker was not happy having to play up against a press and dribble beast like Gabriel Martinelli!
I will say something nice about City: Rico Lewis is going to be a great footballer. He’s already better than a lot of older players and hopefully he gets a move away from City to a club with values.
Anyway, I’ve blabbed enough. It was a good win for the Arsenal and takes us to the top of the table. I’m not at all worried about Tottenham and their supposed title challenge. They were given three points by the League and their xGD/90 is 7th. They are clearly riding high on Ange juice and having thrown off the shackles of Harry Kane. It will all come apart soon. It is, after all, the history of the Tottenham.
*Just a couple notes on referee Michael Oliver. He is a Newcastle supporter and is not allowed to referee Newcastle matches or even any matches of clubs that are around them in the table during the last few months of the season. I imagine if he ever gets dropped to the lower leagues he also wouldn’t be allowed to referee Sunderland matches. He has refereed Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton, and Man City the most times and he has given Liverpool and City just one red card each (both were double-yellow) and Arsenal and Everton 5 red cards. He’s also given Liverpool 15 pens, Everton 16 pens, and Man City 11. He’s given Arsenal 5 pens and he’s given our opponents 12.
Yes, that was ludicrously bad refereeing on the Kovacic fouls. I can just about see the first one being orange instead of red. Though it was worse than the one by Jones last week that was upgraded to a red. But to not give a card for the second one… Those would both have been straight reds for Xhaka.
And yes, Nketiah was pretty useless this match. Wasn’t even pressing that well. At least Haaland was equally useless.
And I’m starting to think that Trossard is best as an impact sub. He mostly hasn’t had great matches when he starts.
But in general, pretty pleased with that. We were a little shaky and they pressed like crazy for the first 30 mins. But after that we settled down, and were the better team for the remainder of the match.
I hadn’t noticed any problems with Trossard’s starting performances. I’ll have to go back and have a look. Thanks for the tip.
I looked on FBREF and the evidence is overwhelming that he’s great both starting and coming off the bench but mostly starts. He has 17 goals and assists in 15 starts over the last two seasons.
Interesting. Not how it has seemed to me watching things, but maybe recency bias on my part?
Walker punched Nketiah in the back, but yeah, he looked like he was about to punch Jover after the game. ManCIty were for sure losing their cool. It’s a new day.
I love the subversion idea because it’s so true. I saw a replay of the match. We subverted a team so well known for football automatisms by getting in their face, on and off the pitch:
On the pitch, William Saliba won 100% of his duels and registered a 97% passing accuracy. He didn’t commit a single foul or get dribbled past once. He was almost perfect.
Between Saliba and Gabriel Erling Haaland failed to register a single attempt. Not a one. He only had 23 touches and completed just 11 passes.
Off the pitch, it wasn’t thankfully, like going to a fight and having an (ice) hockey breakout, but it was plenty testy. This Arsenal can get under opponent’s skin, which is something I’ve long wanted to see.
Damn! I didn’t see that about Saliba!
Saliba may need to consult with his accountant sooner rather than later regarding his ownership of Norwegian goods and whether this is a taxable asset.
Great read- thank you
I think you are being way overly harsh on Eddie. The few times he was given the ball deep in their area, he had literally no one showing to help him. No runners and no movement to give him a passing option. His pressing certainly isn’t at the level of GJ or Ode, but he had a couple of good pressing moments.
In a game like this you need an outlet upfront as an option to bypass the press. Neither his physicality nor his ball control are good enough for the goalie to target him even occasionally, so we’re forced to go short all the time and live with the significant associated risks (Raya), or take the safe option and keep giving up the ball cheaply (Ramsdale). Raya tries to target Jesus on the right wing a lot more in the second half, which at least cut out some of the own-goal-adjacent stuff.
There’s some evidence accumulating for Havertz being workable as a 9, I hope we see more of it.
Yeah, Jesus did surprisingly well with the long balls sent his way. Especially since he’s 5’8″.
Hmm, around the 70th minute I became increasingly annoyed that we weren’t winning any long balls at all. However, you hare a sharper tactical eye than I. I shall rewatch (because the game is so glorious I should rewatch anyway). What a win.
Sure, that’s fair. My problem isn’t the good things he does, it’s rather that he does so few of them in 90 minutes that it’s a huge drag on our forward play.
I’ll be honest and say I got a bit of perverse pleasure from the mechanism of the goal – seeing Arsenal score so late and that too by smacking a City player right in the mug, oh man! After all that sh*thousery from Kovacic it was delightful to see!
Off-piste but I was surprised with Havertz no 9 performance. I think he can do great hold up and run in behind when the opposition is playing a high line. Jesus can but his lack of height means any high balls are more easily delt with. Also a few minutes before the goal he plucked the ball out of the air and reminded me of Giroud. If he can get into the groove a bit I think he might turnout pretty valuable
I would love to see this tried more often than whatever it is that Nketiah does.
This is one time where Arteta got the subs right. Tired is spot on here about Havertz. His height and strength really made a difference allowing Raya to play long balls and us to retain possession. And his layoff to Gabi for the goal, while not spectacular, was perfectly executed. Tomi making that crazy run, playing smart defense helped close things out was also great. I also have to say, despite my misgivings about the person, that #5 had a huge impact. I remember thinking, “Who is going to be willing to play a difficult/risky pass to give us a chance?” That’s a 30 yard pass between 3 defenders that finds Tomi. So easy to overhit or misplace. Tomi does well but that’s not an easy pass to recognize and have the guts to execute. He adds an unmatched level of security and dominance when he’s teamed with Rice and Odegaard. Let’s see how long it takes for him before he’s on the bench injured again. Still – nothing to complain about today. A huge win. I’ve been all smiles like Tim.
Yeah, I still have a variety of issues with #5, between the off-field stuff and the injuries.
But when he’s on, he can be quite good.
Yes, the rape allegations, the injuries, and the fact that he’s a massive defensive liability.
Superb, gunners. That’s a big psychological lift.
On Kai, it’s what some of us have been saying for a few games now. He’s a CF, not a left 8. I said elsewhere before kickoff that if we ever saw him come off the bench, I hoped it would be for Eddie. That was good classic CF play to chest it and pass it to Eddie. Please kill the Kai-post-Xhaka experiment, Mikel. We already have the league’s best box-to-box midfielder, our #41. Our most consistent player, imagine when he starts scoring regularly, as he will.
I dont think that Trossard played that badly, or as badly as fans say he did against Lens. A superb bit of skill almost got him a goal in France, but he was denied by a save the goalie didnt know too much about. I thought he was tidy against City.
Arteta executed perfectly, in choice of subs and in altering the tempo late in the game. I think that this was his best game as Head Coach.
I didnt like the fans being nervous nellies on Raya’s shaky moments. They need to cut that out. Your only job in the stadium is to cheer the players.
Good write up, Tim. “The ref IS deciding the game by REFUSING to give the correct punishment.” Amen. That and “they’re not going to call that at this point in the game” or “that would be given if it wasn’t in the box” or any of the other bs statements about calls. A foul is a foul. Sorry for the mini rant.
Love Gabbi’s directness. I think you’re right in that Walker was just pissed he was getting worked.
I think, just a hunch, that Trossard has been carrying a knock for a while. He hasn’t seemed himself for a couple of games. I haven’t read anything, but he just seems a little off. Or he’s a bit unhappy.
Saliba is a stone cold killer in defense. I loved seeing the second best player on Norway’s national team on the ground looking to Michael Oliver for help. Priceless. BTW, I wouldn’t let my kid near that guy. He gives me the heebie jeebies.
Agree on Eddie. It looked as if Martin was getting on him a few times during the game for a lack of effort with the press. I don’t think he brings enough in possession to not go all out on the defensive duties.
“the second best player on Norway’s national team”. LOL!!!