Arteta’s ‘Lightbulb Moment’

As I was driving around on various errands on Friday afternoon, my mind was mainly occupied by thoughts on Arteta’s team selection later in the day. Hopefully, I pondered, he would have learned the lesson about isolating Thomas Partey as he had done on Monday. And he would surely find a place in the starting line-up for Alexandre Lacazette after his fine cameo and crucial goal on Monday.

Thinking about how he might fit all the pieces of the jigsaw into place, I got to wondering if he’d set the team up looking on paper like a 4-3-3, with Auba nominally playing off the left, but actually go 4-2-3-1 with Lacazette playing more of a link role in the hole behind the skipper. Which was exactly what he did, and we got to see this celebration yet again:

So either we are both geniuses, or it was merely bloody obvious? I go for the former, obviously... But perhaps it’s just possible that he has finally hit upon the best way to utilise the resources available to him. His resources; because this is finally his team. 

Could this be his ‘lightbulb moment’; the flash of inspiration that finally changes the fortunes of the team and starts to bring them back towards contention? Have Arsenal, in Arteta’s own words, just gone 'bang’?

Projecting forward, I’d suggest that the building blocks of a half-decent side are in place almost all over the pitch (the forward line will need to be addressed over the next couple of seasons, obviously). Recruitment has (finally) been good, and Arteta appears to have now hit on a system that suits the personnel. 

And so to the game, and starting with team selection. Tierney’s injury was something of a surprise, I guess, but as it transpired Tavares’ first Premier League start was a resounding success. He’s raw, to be sure, but he’s quick, powerful, and completely fearless. 

We’d probably been expecting Saka to miss out in the aftermath of McArthur’s assault on Monday (I’m still angry with Mike Dean - we saw a yellow upgraded to a red in the United/Liverpool game, after all), but as it turned out it was Pepe who made way. The other, and perfectly understandable, change was Lokonga - a genuine central midfielder - for Odegaard, who’d looked like a fish out of water in that role on Monday.

Of course, it wasn’t obvious (Sky were certainly fooled!) until they lined up quite what the formation would be, but I was delighted to see that Arteta had gone with the formation that I’d hoped he would. And it put Villa on the back foot straight away.

So from very early on, I had few concerns about any downside to my hopeful Tweet:

Lacazette, by dropping deep, not only gave Arsenal an extra option in transition - flanked of course by our two superkids - but also put continual pressure on Douglas Luiz, the Villa ‘pivote’. And behind him the presence of Lokonga close to Partey made the latter’s life so much easier.

What I also liked was the willingness to play a quicker, more ‘front foot’ game. It was slick, there was much more of a willingness to move quickly and attack between the lines, and quite simply Villa were unable to cope with the intensity. It’s a great pleasure to not have to witness ‘umbrella football’ for a change.

Of course, Villa’s shape didn’t help them. Why they’ve changed it since last season I cannot fathom. But three centre halves and the wing backs pushed up often means that there are gaps in behind, and Arsenal continually exploited those channels, pulling the centre halves out of position continually. 

Moments that illustrated the change of intensity from the very start included ESR carrying the ball inside and forcing the defence to back-pedal (he did it all game, in fact), Saka finding space in the right channel more than once, Tavares’ marauding runs down the left and Ben White’s confident 60 yard burst. Auba had the ball in the net early on, but a very marginal foul called against Laca saw it ruled out. Partey unluckily hit the post following a free kick awarded against Mings, who’d been unable to cope with Saka yet again. And a couple of minutes later the Ghanaian’s shoulder helped an ESR corner into the net. It was the very least that Arsenal deserved.

And all of this stemmed from the added solidity given by the presence of Lokonga alongside Partey. And what I’m trying to illustrate here is that this added central solidity - something that was palpably lacking on Monday - allowed Arsenal to attack from wherever they liked.

Arsenal’s injury time penalty award was perhaps somewhat fortuitous, but of course we’ll take it. And it led to the first bit of interesting by-play regarding ex-Arsenal goalkeeper Emi Martinez. First he tried his patented mine games trick, and Laca put him in his place. And then the Argentinian saved Auba’s spot kick, but was powerless to prevent him from clipping in the rebound. He was gutted!

Martinez had already been on the receiving end of a few boos and cat-calls from the home fans, due to his well-documented continual desire to talk about the manner of his departure from The Emirates, and he was now the pantomime villain. Comparisons with Ramsdale began to be made in the crowd, with ‘Aaron Ramsdale - he’s better than you’ ringing around the arena. Highly amusing, and I guess he asked for it. As I Tweeted at the time:

And now a word on Ramsdale, who had very little to do throughout the entire first half, but what he had to do in the second half he did really well. And his distribution is nothing short of superb; at Ederson levels, in fact. Those Arsenal fans who doubted his signing have all been silenced, and he’s already a cult hero. He’s exactly what we needed.

Villa’s half-time change of formation did cause a shift in the direction of play, and Arsenal’s defence bent, but did not break. Whilst at the same time Arsenal looked just as potent going forward as before. As illustrated by ESR’s goal, which came about as a result of Auba’s exquisite flick around the corner to set him free. As Jamie Carragher said on commentary, our blond bombshell runs just as quickly with the ball as without, and there was little doubt that he would bury the opportunity. 

And here’s an extra bit of by-play with Aston Villa, who you may recall made a couple of derisory bids for ESR in the summer. We were apparently after Buendia (who was apparently playing in this game?…), and we can see who got the better end of things. I’m not sure how much money might be needed to prise Emile away now, even if anyone tried. A minimum of £75m, and certainly not the £30m that Villa offered. 

Laca came off, exhausted, after 66 minutes - quite rightly to a standing ovation. And Odegaard slipped into the number 10 role that clearly suits him a lot more than central midfield. Lokonga was relieved by forgotten man AMN with 29 minutes left, and he did well too. In fact, nobody in red could be marked under 8/10.

The only downside in the entire game was Partey chickening out of a challenge on the edge of the penalty area that led to Villa’s goal. Ramsdale was absolutely furious - and it didn’t do much good for my Fantasy team either! But there’s nothing else negative to report, and hopefully we can see the momentum continue into next weekend. It’s a good test - Leicester away is not easy.

And now finally a quick word on Manchester United. And here it is: hahahahahahahahaha. Of course, any day that both United and Sp*rs lose is a good one; but that was special. Solksjaer is doing a wonderful job, and certainly gets my vote of confidence.

For United's mauling to have taken place on the 17th anniversary of the Old Trafford Conspiracy that cost The Invincibles their unbeaten run - once again, karma.

I’ll be back next week. I’m the meantime - COYG!

Laca Rescues Arsenal From Arteta's 'Cunning Plan'

You know, I really don't know what to make of Mikel Arteta any more. For a man in his first job... well, it's one that's increasingly looking too big for him. He seems to be over-complicating things; trying to reinvent the wheel - and out-thinking nobody but himself.

Football is essentially quite a simple game. And at Premier League level the opposition is extremely well scouted. There are essentially no secrets. 

So why, when he fully knows that Crystal Palace play with three central midfielders - without fail - every week, would he choose to go into a game against them with Thomas Partey; plus a man for whom central midfield is not his natural position?

Of course, it's not quite as bad as going with just Partey - and literally nobody else - in a crucial European semi-final as he did last season. But it does indicate another lesson not learned. Because Palace absolutely had the run of midfield on Monday evening.

It's all very well trying to get all your 'best' players on the field at the same time. But if it doesn't work formation-wise, then to me it's pretty damn obvious that you shouldn't stick square pegs into round holes. And for all of Martin Odegaard's qualities, tackling and the positional sense to play in central midfield are not what one immediately thinks of. When I saw the team, I immediately thought that the shape was simply wrong. And I'm no coach; that's for sure!

You've just got to look at what the best English teams are doing at the moment. With Chelsea, irrespective of the opposition, it's two of Jorginho, Kovacic or Kante. Liverpool have Henderson and Fabinho; at least one of them always plays. Against Atletico in their European tie, Klopp whipped off Keita at half-time in order to get both of them on the field in order to nullify the threats the Spaniards had been posing. Even Manchester City will use Rodri or the now aging Fernandinho in there (and increasingly often Bernardo Silva) . (I'm not bringing Manchester United into this discussion, by the way - they're as much of a shambles in central midfield as Arsenal are). And it's that element of control of the ball which the most successful clubs use as a springboard. Always have - always will... so what the hell does Arteta think he's going to achieve by going against that grain?

I could see what the plan was. The trouble was that it was a stupid plan. A plan so 'cunning' that Baldrick would have been pleased with it. Play all round the outside and keep out of central midfield - what sort of a plan is that? It took Palace by surprise, I suppose, because Arsenal were on top early on; looking good and getting the early goal.

But totally unsurprisingly the experienced duo of McArthur and Milevojevic, supplemented by the high energy levels of the promising and exciting Gallagher - got to grips with the matter in hand and held court for all but those first 15 minutes or so. Of course, it does help when they've got one of the greatest central midfielders of all time as their manager (I'll come back to that). But 15 minutes was all the time Palace needed to get used to whatever Arteta was trying to do.

What the lack of coherence meant was that Arsenal were really poor out of possession, and slow to organise themselves and get the ball forward when they won it back. By which time Palace tended to be back in their shape, and that made it difficult to make the necessary progress and chances. Odegaard himself didn’t make a single tackle all day - he didn't get close enought to any opposition player to be able to do so - but equally didn't find himself in areas in which he could influence the game going forward either.

And Arsenal had no answers once (Zaha-less) Palace had worked them out. Partey and Odegaard didn't work as a team, found themselves either isolated, in the wrong place or too far apart from each other time and again, and the gaps between the lines were enormous. The fans worked it out soon enough - there were groans from all around me and all around the ground from as early as the 20th minute as the tide of the game turned - but Arteta did not effect a change until half-time (and whether the injury to Saka forced that or not I guess we'll never know).

I'm not going to dwell too much on the details of the game. We all know what happened. We scored early, but didn't/couldn't push for the second as they took control. McArthur should absolutely have been sent off for that assault on Saka (Saka had been booked for a snide one a little earlier - after two or three of their players had got away with similar, but kudos to Mike Dean for doing what he tends to always do to Arsenal). 

Ramsdale made a terrific save from Gallagher's volley with literally the last kick of the first half. Lokonga came on for Saka at half-time, but still hasn't got the experience or positional sense for the Premier League in my opinion (so empty was our midfield at times that I was expecting to look round and see Guendouzi back in a red shirt!). Partey and then Lokonga were both caught in possession and within seconds the ball was in our net (too much backing off by the central defenders if you ask me...). 

And then the frantic finale when Vieira repeated Wenger's old mistake of inviting the opposition on - I still recall with disgust the two injury time goals Sp*rs scored to make it 4-4 all those years ago - and Laca scored an equaliser that Arsenal almost certainly didn't deserve.

So yet again we take a point that was frankly barely deserved. And what's of most concern is that the 3-1 win over T*ttenham is now starting to look like a bit of an outlier. For Arteta's sake, both results AND performances need to pick up - and quickly.

From what I saw on Monday, we've got the wrong ex-Arsenal midfielder as manager. Of the two in the technical areas on Monday evening, one is a colossus - in more ways the one - and the other a small man trying to make his way. I still want it to work out for Arteta, but I sense that we're all becoming less and less convinced that it will with each game that passes. Villa on Friday is now a must-win, or he's surely going to start to come under severe pressure. 

I'm not in a good place with Arsenal at the moment. Can you tell? Still... COYG!

One final note here - on Mohammed Salah; who is rightly being lauded for his currrent form and end-product. He is scoring fantastic goals every week, and people are raving about him. As they should be. But it's worth mentioning that he's not the first to be doing the extraordinary on a consistent basis in the Premier League. I give you one Thierry Henry... lest we dare forget.

And that's it - Friday night for Villa at home, so I'll be back with you over the weekend.

Hard Fought Point. We Move On.

I don't know about you, but I've actually been to the Amex Stadium. It's a perfectly lovely and serviceable place (and the beer is reasonably priced), but it's absolutely in the middle of nowhere. You can't walk there, as it's quite some way (uphill mostly) from Brighton itself, and occupies a spot in a valley that it shares with the University of Sussex. And, as it turns out, it's in the perfect spot to catch any bad weather blowing in off the English Channel; directly into the faces of the away fans, I should add.

So it wouldn't have been much fun for Arsenal fans on Saturday evening. They may have had a pleasant day in Brighton itself (despite the rain), but would have had to leave fairly early to get bussed up to the stadium. And I guess that many will wish that they'd have stayed in The Lanes, because they'd have uncomfortably watched a distinctly uncomfortable 90 minutes of football as the team battled - somehow - to a goalless draw.

This was obviously a bit of a let-down after last week's ritual slaughtering of The Old Enemy, but I think that we have to put some things into context here. Firstly, Brighton had a proper game plan, and their players carried it out to the letter. And secondly Arsenal missed the positional sense - and left-footedness - of Granit Xhaka, but most importantly failed to adapt to the conditions. 

Brighton have had an excellent start to the season, so a point is no disgrace. Their manager had actually analysed how to make things difficult for Arsenal, and by making it difficult for Arsenal to play out short from the back by means of a targeted press, but additionally make it equally hard to go long because of their three man-mountain centre halfs meant that possession was turned over far too frequently for our comfort. 

In truth, it was a tedious game and a hard watch - one that won't live long in the memory - so we just need to bank the point and move on.

There were no surprises on the team sheet, with Lokonga replacing the injured Xhaka. And whilst he is a more progressive player than the Swiss he isn't acclimatised to the Premier League yet, and is probably more suited to a more comfortable contest than the one he had on Saturday. 

Additionally, there would have been a distinct advantage to having a left-footer alongside Partey, as Tierney was often left with no real out ball apart from a dink down the line, with either of Arsenal's central midfielders likely to turn into trouble in taking the ball off of him due to Brighton's shape. Brighton put pressure on Tierney, and especially Ben White - who of course they know a lot about - in order to restrict the ability to play out from the back. Conversely, they often left Tomiyasu as the free man, and he frankly had a torrid time both in and out of possession.

Ahead of them, Partey was not at his best; often out-numbered to be fair, and Odegaard had as poor a game in an Arsenal shirt as I've seen. Saka had his moments, but the most effective offensive player in the Arsenal side was once more Emile Smith Rowe. He looked, if anything, even better when he switched from the left hand side to the Number 10 position when Odegaard was hooked after an hour, and almost came up with a unlikely (and frankly undeserved) winner late on.

Right up top, Aubameyang was simply over-matched by the three enormous Brighton centre halves, and we saw some marked improvement - for a short while at least - when Lacazette went on to replace him and started to come a little shorter to receive the ball and link up the play a little more. The game was not suited to Auba's strengths, that's for sure.

There's not a lot to report on, incident wise, to be honest. Saka had a very early chance that he made for himself, and he and ESR were definitely a threat on the occasional counter attack (I'm not sure why Saka was switched to the left in order to accommodate Pepe late on, by the way, as I feel that he is far more effective from the right than the left and should have been left there).  

And it wasn't until the last 10 minutes that Brighton - despite their dominance of possession and almost constant pressure (the irritating Maupay at the centre of that) - managed a shot on target. Indeed, the only real scare was when Ramsdale batted a cross down in the first half and was clearly fouled by Duffy, causing him to spill the ball; only for Dunk to blast over the bar. Foul not given, but I suspect that VAR would have ruled the goal out. Late on, Ramsdale's timely intervention prevented Maupay from tapping into the empty net, but aside from that there was a lot of huff and puff - all of which made it a hard watch! - but no end product.

New left wing back Cucurella looks a great addition for Brighton, and they look sure to finish in the top half of the table. Neat, tidy and often decisive in possession; they are a very effective side and as such, and in the circumstances of the appalling weather, a point is no bad thing. One thing is for sure; last year, Arsenal would have lost this game.

All of which makes me despair when I read some of the stuff I saw on social media in the aftermath of the game. Things are simply too black & white for some people; why it should suddenly be #ArtetaOut just 6 days after the Spurs game is simply beyond me. It's as if Twitter takes away peoples' sense of perspective. Pathetic!

So we move on to another Interlull - and the delights of Andorra vs England! - and return with two winnable home fixtures in the space of a week after that. COYG!