Wham! Arsenal continued their recent decent run of results with a comfortable and frankly totally unsurprising win over injury-ravaged Leeds United at Elland Road in Saturday evening. However, some people are never happy, and I'll cover some of the continued concerns in the post below:
In the context of the current massive spike in Covid infections, this game was perhaps lucky to survive when so many fell by the wayside, and there is Covid in the Arsenal camp (Sambi Lokonga is one of the victims, along with one or two fringe players and some staff also). Poor Leeds, however, cannot catch a break; it would have been a great help to them for this game to be off.
So, with Auba surprisingly still 'banished', Arteta made no changes. I'd been expecting ESR to get back into the starting line-up, but no; not yet anyway. Leeds are of course decimated by injury, so the pre-match signs were good for a much-needed away win. Some rotation will need to take place in the next week or so, however. Perhaps a game against Norwich City will give that opportunity.
And so to the game, and Leeds bizarre tactics in the context of the state they are in. Bielsa loves to play man-to-man marking all over the field, with high intensity, but an intelligent footballer will exploit that by dragging defenders into places they don't want or need to be. And that was certainly the case on Saturday, with Lacazette's 'false nine' role causing havoc as Arsenal's attacking midfielders were thereby given the freedom of Elland Road.
Leeds held on for all of 16 minutes, and then Martinelli popped in a neat finish after the ball had broken to him off of Lacazette and Forshaw. Leeds players made at least three separate errors in the lead up to the goal, and that pattern continued for most of the night. I must point out Bukayo Saka's role in the build up, however, as he exploited the space offered with the sort of pace and precision that we know will make him a superstar in years to come.
On 28 minutes, it was 2-0. Martinelli exploited acres of space right in the very heart of the Leeds defence and lofted the ball over the exposed Meslier. Nicely taken, but too easy at this level. Leeds need to change their ways in order to survive.
And just before half-time it was three. Saka burst in from the right hand side and his goalbound shot took a slight deflection on the way in. It was an absolute stroll in the park at that point.
Firstly, the incident which saw Rob Holding report an alleged racist insult directed at one or two of Arsenal's black players whilst they were warming up. Thankfully, this sort of thing is becoming much less prevalent - at least in the UK - but I'd expect that the 'gentleman' responsible will find himself persona non grata at Elland Road from now on. Kick it out!
Secondly, Granit Xhaka - and what goes on in whatever passes for his brain. He had a perfectly serviceable 7/10 game - more than adequate against this opposition - but at 3-0 up early in the second half first stood in the way of a free kick and then moments later made a totally unnecessary and frankly dangerous tackle on Raphinha. How he managed to get away without a booking for either of those efforts I could not fathom, but he made up for it later by getting booked for time-wasting. Pointlessly. He's an idiot.
And finally - and some may regard this as churlish - the game finished at a 'mere' 4-1. Arsenal took their feet so far off the pedal that there was actually a moment when we all feared that Leeds might get back into the game; and that would have been utterly ludicrous. I'm fully aware that Arsenal are nowhere near to Manchester City, but they didn't give Leeds a single sniff earlier in the week, and rattled up 7 goals. That's what Arsenal could - and should - have aspired to on this day.
And so, inevitably and totally unnecessarily, Leeds were allowed to work their way back into the game. They only managed a single shot on target at that time, but questions needed to be asked of Arsenal's commitment at that point. Arteta does make his substitutions a little later than I'd prefer, too, and I suppose that may be said to add to the malaise. Until, finally, on 73 minutes, White's very poorly judged slide on Gelhardt led to the award of a penalty to Leeds. Which Raphinha despatched expertly. And the wobble really started. Ludicrous...
Arteta finally woke up and brought on ESR for Saka, and it wasn't long before Emile had exploited yet another gap in the Leeds defence to despatch Odegaard's exquisitely chipped pass with ease past Meslier. A lovely goal... and the thing is; if they'd really gone for it Arsenal could also have racked up 7.
Just a quick word before I go. And for those who still claim that I'm obsessed by Sp*rs... I'm not, but: what a terrific game of football that was between them and Liverpool, resulting in a 2-2 draw. They could have won, but also should have conceded a penalty and had their skipper sent off for a wild challenge. And, of course, who wouldn't want to play against a Liverpool side shorn of Van Dijk, Fabinho, Henderson and Thiago? I know I'd love to see Arsenal take such a weakened Liverpool side on, instead of the full strength one that murdered them a few weeks ago. But they still couldn't beat them!
But that's neither here nor there. There's no need to worry about that lot. So it just remains for me to wish my thousands of readers a Merry Christmas! I'll be back early next week. Have a good one, and COYG!
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