Rejuvenated Arsenal continued on their upward curve - and crowned an excellent Christmas week - with a one-way snowball fight massacre against a dire West Bromwich Albion side.
Truthfully, there wasn't really a moment's worry as a confident-looking Arsenal dominated The Baggies from start to finish. The only danger, frankly, was the possibility of the match being abandoned due to snow as there were moments early in the second half when the ball seemed to not be quite running as one might expect on the pitch.
So, to team selection, and Arteta gave the recently retuned Martinelli a day off in order to restore Alexandre Lacazette to the starting line-up; Aubameyang reverting to a familiar left-wing slot. Bukayo Saka had recovered from the knock he received a Brighton and took his place on the right. The only other change was the more creative Ceballos for Elneny in midfield.
Arsenal dominated from the off. Bellerin, Saka and Aubameyang both twice had reasonable chances - Auba could perhaps have done better at the far post from Saka's cross - and at one point I spotted Leno almost on the halfway line, so compressed was the play. The only opportunity West Brom had in the first 20 minutes was when Xhaka - who else - lost the ball and a pass clipped over the top to Phillips meant that Leno had to make a save.
And then Man of the Match Kieran Tierney took over proceedings halfway through the first half. From Holding's pass, he turned Furlong inside and out before curling the ball into the far corner from the left corner of the penalty box with the inside of his right foot. Unexpected - as I thought he only used that foot for standing on - but quite exquisite.
5 minutes later it was two. With Arsenal completely dominating the ball as they searched for an opening, Smith Rowe suddenly quickened up the play with a clever ball to Saka. The latter found Lacazette as the former switched out to the right and into the space that Saka had vacated, and the Frenchman switched the ball out to ESR as Saka continued his run into the box. Excellent telepathy, nurtured at Hale End, between Smith Rowe and Saka meant that each knew what the other was doing, and Saka had a tap-in from 6 yards. A goal that wouldn't have been out of place in the peak Wenger years; lovely stuff, and West Brom were torn apart.
As the half passed, Arsenal's domination grew, if anything, and as a portent of things to come Lacazette began to attract the ball like a magnet, missing a couple of reasonable opportunities. He was very much involved in the centre, but Aubameyang from out wide really was not.
Allardyce must have got into West Brom at half time, as they tried to get closer to Arsenal in the early stages of the second half. That, along with the snow on the pitch, gave me a moment's concern; but in truth Arsenal were completely in charge. West Brom did have the ball in the net early in the second half, but there was a clear offside in the run up to it that even I spotted!
AMN replaced Bellerin on 53 - must be a small knock I think; no news yet. Almost immediately, quick feet from Ceballos in midfield and a ball clipped over the top let in Lacazette, who forced a decent save out of Johnstone. And 5 minutes later the Frenchman had the goal he deserved; set up by Saka and then ESR, but in truth there was some truly awful defending in there from former Arsenal trainee Semi Ajayi. And then a fourth - Lacazette from Tierney's cross at the end of another sweeping move; Laca's fifth in four matches, and he has his mojo back.
Auba, as I have already intimated, was looking a little forlorn out wide - although he had played a part in the fourth goal - and whilst he came close a couple of times it is clear that he once more badly needs a goal to restore his confidence. It was really the only thing missing from the performance.
So that's 9 points out of 9 over the Christmas period. From a crisis, Arsenal can now very much look up instead of down. Up to the dizzy heights of 11th place, but more important just 6 points off of fourth. There have been a lot of draws over Christmas, and that has helped. A couple more wins over Palace and Newcastle - games which immediately follow Newcastle in the FA Cup - would be extremely helpful, as the quality of opposition does go up after that. But in the meantime the pressure is somewhat off, Arteta and Edu can look at the transfer window (both Ins and Outs), and we can also look forward to welcoming Gabriel and especially Thomas Partey to the side. Suddenly, things don't look anything like as bad as they did a week or so ago.
I loved Kieran Tierney's televised interview prior to the match, in which he modestly explained how hard work was the key and how good our youngsters are. Surely a future Arsenal captain - perhaps even in the Adams mould - is in the making here. He played really well, yesterday, but was rivalled for his Man of the Match award by Lacazette. The Frenchman has always been a 'streaky' scorer, so let's hope he carries on in this vein.
Saka looks like he's going to be a superstar, but for me the key has been the introduction of Emile Smith Rowe. I/we had been crying out for some creativity from midfield, and somebody in the Number 10 role. On the assumption that we won't see Ozil again, then we can hopefully look forward to ESR growing into the role and becoming one of the first names on the team sheet. He has added shape and purpose to the team.
Onwards to our defence of the FA Cup, which starts next weekend. On the assumption that both we and Newcastle rest players for the game... well, our squad is considerably deeper than theirs, so we ought to go through.
As for West Brom.. well, they were awful. I'm not sure that even Allardyce can save them.
I'll be back next week to hopefully review that very progress, In the meantime, Happy New Year and let's hope for health, happiness and vaccinations all round in the next few weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment