Arsenal’s defeat to City last Sunday saw them give up their brief hold on fourth place as Chelsea and United both moved above them. There’s a long way to go in the fight for that all important top four place though and Arsenal are still in with a fighting chance of making it their own. If they’re going to make it they’re going to have to improve their away form starting from tomorrow’s trip to Huddersfield.
As away games go in the Premier League this season a trip to Huddersfield is as easy as they come and nothing other than three points will suffice. Huddersfield have taken less points and scored less goals at home than any other team and they have lost their last six home games. If we’re going to have any chance of keeping pace with Chelsea and United we quite simply cannot drop any points against Huddersfield.
Unfortunately I can’t say I’m overly confident of winning the game though because we have been nothing short of a disaster away from home for the last couple of months. We haven’t won in our last six games on the road and we’re the only team in the Premier League without a clean sheet away from home. The second half against City last week was so bad that we never even managed a single shot at their goal.
Unai Emery came in to replace Arsene Wenger last summer and it was probably a change which was well overdue. I hoped he would instill his style on the team and we could see some genuine hope of progress, but it’s actually getting progressively worse at the moment. I’m not for one moment suggesting we should part ways with him, but I think he needs to stand by his convictions and build for the future rather than trying to stumble from week to week seemingly without a clue as to where we are going.
He can’t seem to settle on a syestem or get the best out of some of his players such as Mesut Ozil. He may have his detractors, but surely a team lacking creativity cannot continue to overlook their most creative player for almost every game. Nobody knows for sure what the manager’s problem is with Ozil, but it’s pretty obvious at this stage that he would prefer to play without him.
Of course our chances aren’t being helped by our current spate of injuries and we are really struggling to find a defence that fits the name. Rob Holding was just looking like he was ready to fulfill his potential when his season ended abruptly away to United while Hector Bellerin’s season finished prematurely only a few weeks ago. Bellerin was our main attacking outlet on the right side and we’re really struggling to find a half adequate replacement at the moment while Holding was the only central defender who looked up to the task this season.
We have to make do with the players we have though and the best way to overcome our defensive issues is to make sure we click in attack. In the last few games we just aren’t making enough chances away from home in particular while we’re still letting in far too many. We need to find a way to put more emphasis on our attacking away from home and there can be no better opportunity than the game against Huddersfield.
I think we have become too easy for others teams to play against away from home and we have to find the confidence to change that. When we attack we’re far too vulnerable on the break and when we try to defend we keep making individual errors time after time. When the opposition sit deep we really struggle to open them up and we really struggle when teams close us down.
All of these are issues that have to be ironed out on the training ground and that’s where the frustration is with the manager. We thought we were getting a tactically astute manager who could shape the players in the way Wenger seemed unable to do, but instead it’s almost impossible to see any real change from last season. I know he has to deal with a squad that’s mostly not of his own making, but surely he can depart some sort of wisdom to them.
As bad as we have been away from home I still think we will take the three points and if we can win by a few goals we will probably get a lot closer to Chelsea as they travel to City on Sunday. I expect United to win their game and the way their season has turned since the arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer we could really struggle to keep up with them. They do have some tough games coming up and we will need to beat them when they come to the Emirates in a few weeks.
The manager will probably have Henrikh Mkhitaryan available for selection tomorrow as he has recovered from the injury he picked up against Spurs and I think he might well be given the role behind Pierre-Emireck Aubameyang and/or Alexandre Lacazette. With Ozil out of favour and Aaron Ramsey on his merry way in the summer I think Mkhitaryan and new boy Denis Suarez could be his first options to try to add some creativity to the team. Whoever he picks we have to approach the game in a far more positive manner than we have done in recent away games.
We have tried to sit on a lead when we have had it and utterly failed against Brighton and Palace while we tried to keep pace with Liverpool and were taken apart. We just didn’t show up at West Ham which is what happened in the second half at City last week where we seemed content to keep the score as low as possible. Surely the manager can get the players confidence to a level where they can go out and dominate a team who are almost just waiting for relegation to be finalised.
I’m not trying to be disrespectful to Huddersfield, but the change of manager didn’t bring the kick it usually does for struggling teams and I can’t see how they can avoid relegation at this stage. They try to play attractive football though and they are to be admired for it, but they are toothless in attack which is why they have only taken one point from their last 12 games. If we approach this game in the right way then that should be one point from 13 games and we should get our fifth away win of the season.
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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