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.
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