He's Going Down. He's Jurrien Timber 😟

This post should have been out earlier in the week. Apologies; I was away over the weekend, and have had some catching up to do. Anyway...

A review of the Forest game can start in only one place; the injury to new signing Jurrien Timber which looks like keeping him out for the bulk of the season. I'd like to wish him a swift and full recovery from what has unfortunately been identified as a torn ACL - that's 6-8 months, guys, and probably the end of his season before it's even started... 

And whilst Arsenal look well enough covered at left back on paper - Zinchenko, Kivior, Tomiyasu, Tierney, and not forgetting Nuno Tavares! - it's really not as clear cut as that. Zinchenko's injury record is not good (he's currently unfit), Kivior is a rookie in that position, Tomiyasu is barely back from serious injury himself, and it looks like Tierney, whose style of play appears at odds with Arteta's, may well be on his way out of the club in the next couple of weeks. 

But most importantly of all it affects how Arteta wants his team to play. Inverting full backs, and fluidity in the back 4 that effectively makes it just three or even two when Arsenal are attacking, will be affected by the loss of the Dutchman. I'm pretty sure that Arteta will revert to White, Saliba, Gabriel (although quite why he was left out of the starting XI on Saturday, and questions on rumours about Saudi Arabian interest need to be resolved), and then who starts if Zinchenko remains out. Certainly, Tomiyasu was far less effective when he came on; but that may be a function of the 'chalk and cheese' difference between Arsenal's first and second half performances in general.

Arteta's first team selection of the season was therefore something of a surprise. No Gabriel, and Nketiah preferred to Trossard up front. From the (delayed) start, it was clear that Partey was right back merely in name, as he spent much of his time at 6, allowing Rice to push further forward and removing some defensive duties from Havertz. But it was, in truth, a fairly quiet start, with Arsenal having loads of possession whilst faced with the predicted 'low block'. Indeed, Forest had the best early chance, when Boly's hopeful header forward freed Johnson between White and Saliba, only for him to rush his shot as Ramsdale advanced.

An illustration of why Arsenal found it difficult to break Forest down can be seen from this screenshot, which shows Odegaard and Saka in acres of space, the ball on the other side of the field, and nobody looking to switch play rapidly as Arsenal sides were doing for much of last season. Hopefully that will come:

But in truth it was all Arsenal early on, and there was a great familiarity to the play as the ball was perhaps not being shifted quickly enough to create the space required to test Matt Turner (for whom, despite his year at Arsenal, this was a Premier League debut). That was until some trickery from Martinelli on the left, which left both Aurier and Danilo 'on toast' (in truth, he had the measure of both of them throughout), led to an opportunity for Nketiah as the ball broke. A swift turn, a powerful and slightly deflected shot, and it was 1-0. By the way - clever trickery from Martinelli (if I tried it, I'd do myself a mischief!), but he'd lost control and there was, for me, an element of fortune that the ball broke to Eddie. Oh, I'm going to be in trouble for suggesting that!!!

Minutes later and it was 2-0, as Saka cut inside in trademark fashion and, to cries of 'Shoooooot!', unleashed an unstoppable thunderbolt into the side netting. No 'keeper is saving that! The collective 'Oooooh!' from the crowd as the replay came up on the screens said it all. 

Arsenal were in complete control. Declan Rice was 'everywhere', and Partey also roamed where he wished. White made a number of overlapping runs as Arsenal, in contrast to last season, mainly concentrated on attacking down their right hand side. Where last year I was often heard complaining that Saka wasn't seeing enough of the ball, in this match it was Martinelli who was somewhat isolated for much of the first half. But everything looked comfortable.

Then, close to half time, came the injury to Timber, It didn't look good at the time, but at least the medical team would have 15 minutes to assess him. Nonetheless, it was something of a surprise to see him reappear for the second half, and distressing to see him hop unpleasantly and then sink to the turf just three minutes after the break. 

The next 30 minutes or so were something of an anti-climax, in truth. Much of the zip had seemed to have gone out of Arsenal's play during the interval, and there was much less dynamic movement taking place. Slightly disappointing - boring, even - despite a couple of decent shots from distance from Rice.

And then... disaster. Forest substitutes Awoniyi and Elanga - I cannot fathom why Manchester United have let the latter go - combining in a swift break down their left following an Arsenal corner, Rice for one unable to keep up with the speed of the break, and Awoniyi's clever movement taking him in front of White to stab home. In truth, a really nice goal; and at the same time something with an air of familiarity about it for Arsenal. And so, instead of cruising, Arsenal were up against it and hanging on for dear life in a game in which they ought to have been out of sight.

Arteta finally made the necessary substitution, bringing on Gabriel to shore things up, and it was pretty comfortable from then on. But there are concerns. About not finishing Forest off when they had the chance. About a certain physical vulnerability that reminded me of the end of last season. And about mental fragility. But the three points are in the bag, and at the end of the day that's all that matters, I guess.

Other matters; one involving Arsenal and then a couple of other things that I spotted over the weekend.

Firstly, turnstile mayhem at the stadium. Arsenal need to get to the bottom of what went wrong just 45 minutes before kick-off as soon as possible. My family - including my disabled son - were caught up in it - and things were a little hairy for a while. Eventually, they just opened the gates and let everyone in. Unsatisfactory to say the least.

I just want to cover a couple of things that have bothered me over the past few days. Firstly, Chelsea's spending. It seems inconceivable that they are not breaking FFP regulations in spending the amount of money that they have. I think that they're up to almost one billion pounds in just three transfer windows, and they don't even have the income from European competition to help them. Surely the authorities need to intervene (unless their willingness to tie themselves and the players down to 7/8 year contracts mitigates against it?) - that's point 1 - and the other point is that with that sort of spending why shouldn't everybody be expecting them to be challenging for the title?

Secondly, the injury that looks like keeping Kevin De Bruyne out until the New Year. Good news for City's challengers, one would suspect - especially with Gundogan having departed over the summer - but I suspect that City will be into the market quickly; and possibly for bigger fish than Lucas Paqueta.

And finally, Manchester United being once more favoured by some terrible refereeing/VAR decision-making. Nothing has changed, has it? The last minute incident involving their goalkeeper flapping at a corner and taking out a Wolves attacker was a stone bonk penalty in the eyes of everybody - except for referee Hooper (who had already allowed both Wan-Bissaka and Antony to get away with earlier asssaults) and a VAR who - in his infinite wisdom - decided that it wasn't a 'clear and obvious error' not to award a penalty. Favouring Manchester United has started again, nice and early. I am pleased that this has at least been ackowledged by PGMOL with the officials being releived of their duties for next weekend - but that, and an apology, don't help Wolves.

Anyway, rant over. We move on to Monday night at Selhurst Park. Tricky. Let's see the fruits of Arteta's work with his squad - both on a physical and mental level - next week. COYG!