Arsenal’s Trip To Brighton Previewed

The return to football didn’t exactly work out well for Arsenal on Wednesday night when they were well beaten away to City. They were already struggling to withstand a dominant City when David Luiz had a brain freeze and handed them two goals as well as bagging himself a red card. It left us with nowhere to go and we were lucky not to lose by more than the three goals City put past us.

The excuse offered by Luiz after the game beggared belief and it’s difficult to understand how he could have been in the match day squad given his state of mind. He might not have started the game, but the early injuries to Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari meant he came on along with Dani Ceballos. His subsequent suspension along with the injury to Mari severely limits our choices in the centre of our defence for the rest of the season.

Elsewhere Mesut Ozil didn’t even make the match day squad despite 20 players making the trip and it leaves questions to be answered about him too. We didn’t get to see record buy Nicolas Pepe at all despite our complete lack of penetration in attack and the more you think about the game the worse the conclusions you draw about it. I realise different players would have been at different levels after the lockdown, but I found the decisions on both players by Mikel Arteta puzzling to say the least. That’s not to say I don’t think Arteta is the right man for the job as I think he will turn us around, but it’s going to be a slow and sometimes painful task.

At least we have the chance to bounce back quickly away to Brighton this afternoon and it’s a game we just have to win if we are to keep any hopes of catching the top five alive. On the plus side we have played a competitive game since the lockdown and Brighton haven’t which might just give us an edge. However, that game didn’t go well to say the least and it can’t have done much to build confidence.

I think Arteta will have to make a few changes to refresh the team as well as shaking things up a bit. He will have to bring someone in to play alongside Shkodran Mustafi in the centre of the defence and I suppose Sokratis Papastathopoulos is the obvious choice while Rob Holding could get the nod too. Kieran Tierney looked pretty good filling in there when Luiz was sent off at City and it meant Bukayo Saka was able to play at left back too. I think we’ll see Sokratis in the team and who would have believed only a few months ago that Mustafi would become our most reliable central defender.

Hopefully Xhaka will overcome his injury to take his place in the team as our options without him are very limited. Maybe Lucas Torreira will be ready to play, but I doubt it which should mean Matteo Guendouzi plays again. I thought he was one of our better players against City, but maybe that’s because some of the others did so little.

Without Ozil we have absolutely no creativity in our midfield, but I doubt if we’ll see him play and it’s hard to know what the future holds for him at Arsenal. It’s been so long since we saw the best of Ozil, but he performs best with good players around him and he’s been starved of them far too often at Arsenal. Even taking that into account his output has deteriorated immensely and his future at the club has to be in doubt. 

He won’t be going anywhere though as it would be impossible to offload him in the current climate given the enormity of his wages. I would love to see him back in the team at his very best, but good performances from him have become few and far between and it’s telling to see Arteta follow the example of both Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery in leaving  him out of tough away fixtures. If he doesn’t play it leaves room for Joe Willock or Ceballos to complete the midfield. 

I think we will have to see a change in attack too, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has to be in from the start with the other places up for grabs. I would like to see Gabriel Martinelli and Pepe in the team and I hope they can offer more in attack than the team did against City if they get the chance. Despite our shortcomings against City we still have some pretty good players and we should be favourites to win against Brighton.

Aubameyang wasn’t exactly impressive against City, but he is our best player and without him in it the team look highly unlikely to score. We’re going to have to find a way to score more goals if we’re going to climb the table and he’s our best hope of doing that. Who knows where he will be plying his trade next season, but it’s beginning to look like it won’t be at Arsenal.

I was full of hope with the season coming back, but it didn’t take long for Arsenal to crush that hope. I’m trying to believe in the team ahead of Brighton and I know they’re capable of taking the three points, but they will need to show so much more than they did at City. If they don’t win I honestly think it will be time to throw in the towel in our quest for a top five finish and hope we can win the FA Cup.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Shambolic Defending Sees Arsenal Draw 2-2 At Watford

Arsenal went to Watford yesterday knowing a win would put them third in the table before they started their Europa League campaign in midweek. Unai Emery brought Mesut Ozil and Dani Ceballos in for the injured Alexandre Lacazette and Lucas Torreira who wasn’t injured, but they were the only changes from the 2-2 draw with Spurs. A trip to the team holding up the rest of the table offered us the perfect opportunity to get our second away win of the season.

While we didn’t exactly play well in the first half two goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had given us a seemingly comfortable lead. What occurred in the second half was shambolic at best and we were incredibly lucky to come away with a point in the end. The fact that we handed Watford their two goals on a plate made it even worse.

When you look at the stats for the game they make for very uncomfortable reading from an Arsenal perspective. Watford had 31 shots against us which is the most by any team ever against Arsenal in the Premier League era. Two thirds of those shots came in that second half which saw Watford have a shot almost every two minutes.

In five games this season we have handed the opposition five of the eight goals we have conceded on a plate. No other team conceded more goals from errors last season and we’re already well on our way to obliterating that total this season. We signed David Luiz to solve our central defensive issues and he has already gifted the opposition three goals in his four games and probably cost us three points in the process.

Anyone who couldn’t see the possibility of Luiz’s propensity for errors making out defence even worse than it was last season was looking at his arrival through rose tinted glasses. I said when we signed him that I honestly didn’t think he was a good fit, but we needed a central defender and we probably didn’t have very much to spend. You have to feel for Callum Chambers who played well in our first game against Newcastle, but has had to watch from the sidelines ever since.

You can’t completely blame the defence though as they didn’t get any protection from the players in front of them. Watford were given free reign to run at our defenders and they didn’t have a clue how to cope with it. Despite all of that Watford couldn’t find the back of the net until they capitalised on two ridiculous errors from us.

As bad as Luiz’s penalty they gave away was it had nothing to compare to the goal Sokratis Papastathopoulos gave away. The insistence on playing the ball out from the back is admirable, but there is no point in doing it if you haven’t got a clue how to do it. The casualness of his pass to Matteo Guendouzi was unbelievable and it made it far too easy for Watford to score.

The admission by Granit Xhaka afterwards that we were scared in the second half was almost unbelievable. These are supposed to be professional footballers and to think they were scared by the teamat the  foot of the table attacking them is quite incredible. Not only that, but it also gives every other team in the Premier League a template for how to play against us and how to get at us.

If it wasn’t for Aubameyang who knows where we would be and there were fans saying it made sense to sell him during the summer because of his age. He now has as many goals as we have gifted the opposition (5) in our first five games and the rest of the team have three between them. He’s going to have to score a lot more goals than he did last season if we’re going to have any chance of a top four finish.

For me it’s up to the manager to get the message across to the players as to how he wants the team to play and then to get them to put that plan into operation. I wish I knew how he wanted to play though because we don’t have a style of play and we’re dependent on players making something out of nothing rather than imposing ourselves on the game and the opposition. There’s a long way to go this season, but performances like the one against Watford fill me with fear rather than the optimism I want to feel.

The games are coming thick and fast now with a trip to Frankfurt on Thursday night followed by a home game against newly promoted Aston Villa. It’s a Carabao Cup game at home to Forest then and that’s followed by a League game away to United. It will be very interesting to see how all of those teams approach their games with us and whether we will be capable of dealing with any pressure they put on us.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Spurs: NLD Preview

After winning their first two games Arsenal came crashing back to earth last week when they lost 3-1 away to Liverpool. While it wasn’t as bad a defeat as we have suffered at Anfield in recent seasons it still showed we have a long way to go to match the pacesetters in the Premier League. However, our aim this season has to be returning to the top four and the Champions League football it brings.

A defeat at Liverpool might not have helped that cause, but a home game against Spurs is far more important for it. They are definitely one of the other four teams looking to take one of the two places available in the top four as Liverpool and City look set to fight for the title again. There are those who think Spurs will challenge both City and Liverpool this season, but last week’s home result against Newcastle showed exactly why they won’t.

Unai Emery has taken some stick for his formation against Liverpool last week, but it might have been different if either Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Nicolas Pepe had taken their good chances to put us ahead in the first half. I don’t think his tactics were right for the game, but at least he tried something he thought might work even if it did seem like the players were unsure of how to enact his plan. I doubt if we will see a formation like that at home to Spurs and I think he has a much better idea how to beat them.

We beat them 4-2 at the Emirates last season and would have won away to them too if it wasn’t for a last minute penalty miss. Interestingly that penalty would have been retaken if VAR had been around due to encroachment from the Spurs player who eventually stopped Aubameyang scoring the rebound. With VAR in use at all Premier League games we can only hope it will catch the serial divers and cheaters that abound in the Spurs team.

The manager has a few decisions to make in his team selection and the toughest one could be about Nacho Monreal. It looks like he could be on his way back to Spain with the European transfer window still open, but he is currently the preferred left back of those available for selection. If he lets Nacho leave it means playing Sead Kolasinac on the left of what will probably be a back four and he seems more than hesitant to do so. 

When Kieran Tierney is back to full fitness he looks destined to make that position his own and it makes economic sense to let Nacho leave. Do we keep him until at least January for just one game, but then again it’s a very important game and one we just cannot afford to lose. It’s a complicated call for the manager to make and he has to be conscious of so many factors when he’s making it.

Other than that decision it appears the rest of the back four picks itself with David Luiz, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Ainsley Maitland-Niles keeping their places in front of Bernd Leno. Luiz showed exactly why there were doubts about us signing him at Liverpool last week when his errors led directly to two of their three goals. He can be a very good player, but he also has that ability in him to cost his team goals in big games in particular. I just hope we won’t see that side of him on Sunday.

The full debut of Pepe last week gives the manager a real selection headache up front. I’m one of those fans who believes we have to play Aubameyang through the middle if we’re going to get the best out of him. If he plays through the middle it doesn’t really leave any room in the team for Alexandre Lacazette, but he’s exactly the type of player you want in a local derby.

It’s a tough call for the manager to make, but I think he has to play both Aubameyang and Pepe with their pace and Spurs vulnerability to the ball over the top. Their defence is a little short on numbers at the moment and looking probably as vulnerable as ours. I think power and pace could be the key against them even if it means leaving Lacazette out of the team.

Winning the midfield battle could be crucial for us and getting to grips with the Spurs midfield won’t be as difficult as getting the better of Liverpool’s last week. Dani Ceballos looked very good in his debut against Burnley, but he didn’t find it as easy against Liverpool. I think he might just relish the chance to play against Spurs at home and show us exactly what he can do.

I would like to see Lucas Torreira alongside him as I think it’s a combination which could be very effective for us and surely Torreira must be ready to start by now after returning from international duty much later than the rest of the squad last month. As much as I like Matteo Guendouzi I would like to see how a midfield trio of Ceballos, Torreira and Joe Willock would fare together.

If the manager were to follow my advice he would have one player left to pick and that would depend on the formation he opts for. There are so many to choose from with Lacazette, Reiss Nelson, Mesut Ozil, Guendouzi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Granit Xhaka all looking for a chance to prove themselves. I think we will see Xhaka in the team, but probably at the expense of one of the midfield trio I prefer and the last place is still a toss up.

As much as getting the right personnel is important it’s also very important to get the tactics and attitude right on the day. If we can approach the game in the same vein as our home games against Spurs, United, Chelsea and Liverpool last season I think we will be on the right track. I hope the players will be anxious to put last week behind them and get one over on their local rivals yet again.

They have only won away to us once in the Premier League since 1993 and that was nine years ago. In the eight games since that defeat we have scored 20 goals against them and only conceded nine including scoring five twice and four once. When we turn it on at home against them the goals flow and that’s exactly what we need on Sunday.

If we can go into the international break five points ahead of Spurs on the back of a victory over them it would be a huge boost for us. While I could take a draw to keep us ahead of them a win is infinitely superior and well within our grasp. Let’s just hope the players can find the level of intensity and commitment needed in a local derby to take those three precious points and the bragging rights that go with them.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Kick Off The New Season At Newcastle

It’s hard to argue with what’s been a very good transfer window for Arsenal and hopes are relatively high going into the new season. It didn’t start too well with Aaron Ramsey leaving on a free transfer after the season had ended on a low as Arsenal lost the Europa League final to Chelsea as well as failing to finish in the top four. It didn’t look like we would be an attractive destination for any prospective signings with no Champions League football for the third season in a row.

With a couple of weeks to go it didn’t look too good, but the club worked tirelessly and managed to pull off some very good signings. Nicolas Pépé and Dani Ceballos will be real assets to the team even if Ceballos is only on loan for the season while Kieran Tierney looks like he will be a great fit too when he returns from his current injury. I’m still not sure about the deadline day signing of David Luiz, but I’m hoping he can help to improve a defence which badly needs improving.

We also signed Gabriel Martinelli and while he might get a few chances this season he’s definitely seen as one for the future. William Saliba was signed from St. Etienne too, but he’s being loaned back to them for the season as part of the deal and again he’s been bought with the future in mind. Of course it’s important to keep an eye on where we’re going and the future of the club is very important, but from here on it’s how this season goes that matters as our quest to return to the top four begins.

The ongoing situation with both Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac hasn’t helped with both players left out of the squad for “personal reasons” after the attempted carjacking a couple of weeks ago. If the rumours are to be believed there have been further threats to the players and it would be difficult for them to concentrate on football when the scum of the earth are targeting them and those they care about. The sooner the situation is sorted the better and it certainly does say a lot for the state of law and order in London at the moment.

We probably won’t see too many of our new signings from the start today with Pépé still short of match fitness and Luiz only arriving at the club late on Thursday. Tierney is of course injured while Martinelli is unlikely to play which just leaves Ceballos as a contender. I imagine we will see him in the team and he’ll probably play alongside Granit Xhaka in the midfield.

With all of those absences Unai Emery doesn’t have too many choices to make today. I’d be surprised if he included Shkodran Mustafi in the team considering he has told him he can leave the club which would mean we will most likely see Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Callum Chambers in the centre of defence with Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Nacho Monreal as the full backs in a four man defence. With the midfield duo already sorted that will probably leave Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on one side of the attack with Reiss Nelson on the other and Henrikh Mkhitaryan behind Alexandre Lacazette.

It’s a team more than capable of going to a Newcastle team who have lost their best two players from last season and winning. Newcastle have of course brought in some new players themselves, but they will have to be gradually worked into the team just like our new arrivals. They have a new manager too and it’s up to us to start on the front foot and make sure they don’t have a chance to get a foothold in the game and build some confidence.

I think we will more than likely get a narrow win and I hope to see Pépé come off the bench and make a contribution too. Of all our new players he’s the one I’m looking forward to seeing the most and the one most likely to have a real impact on our season. 

A win is a must for us followed by a home win against Burnley next week before two very difficult games ahead of the first pesky international break of the season. There’s no point in thinking too far ahead though and I’ll be more than happy with three points ahead of that Burnley game and the Liverpool and Spurs games.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.