Bit of a delayed post. Sorry; was away for a couple of days.
Plus I've been thinking. A lot. About Arsenal. As you do. Sort of a stream of consciousness. Anyway...
Arsenal 2 Fulham 2. One of those days, I guess. So much went wrong; and at the wrong time. Although plenty went right as well. But there is quite a bit to be disappointed - even angry - about, Because if that's going to be a microcosm of Arsenal's season then it's going to be one of underachievement.
I want to talk about team selection, about formation, and about mentality - both strength and frailty. Because all of these had a bearing on the result. Less about the timeline - we know what happened, and when - but I guess it all links in.
It's impossible to get inside Mikel Arteta's head, and to work out what he's trying to do with his squad. But I'm going to have a go.
He appears sold on the inverted full back system that enables an extra body in midfield. It worked well in the main with Zinchenko off the left throughout last season, and in the Ukrainian's absence so far Arteta has looked to do the same with the right hand side. For me, this really hasn't worked (you just have to look at the first goal on Saturday), as it has unbalanced the vastly influential White - Odegaard - Saka triangle that terrorised left backs all last season. The sooner that Zinny is back and ready to start, the sooner Arteta should, for me, look to revert to last year's back 4. And especially with it being Manchester United next up.
It feels to me that Gabriel has been a victim of Arteta's fixation with inverting a full back, as the entire back 4 has been moved around as a result. Granted, Big Gabby is perhaps less gifted with the ball at his feet than others, but wastes very few touches of the ball.
Arsenal have started with a different left back in the three games (down to Timber's injury, for sure; but there's been an element of over-compensation for that), and two of them are simply not left backs. Arteta has moved Saliba over one spot to left centre back, and Ben White to right centre back.
Just to get Partey into the side? No; I feel it's to ensure that he can get Havertz into the side. But it has meant that the German has had to try to get to grips with a complicated and unfamiliar system with zero continuity behind him.
Was Havertz somebody the Manager really wanted, or was he more of an opportunistic purchase? Certainly, his suitability for the 'left 8' role is not obvious, and he's something of a hybrid forward - in positions in which Arsenal have plenty of cover. I'm prepared to give him time - it took the likes of Bergkamp, Henry and Pires time to bed in, I recall - but I am still to be convinced. As are many others - the applause when his name was called out to be substituted wasn't pleasant. He has that Chelsea stigma hanging over him. And as a Chelsea-supporting friend of mine said to me on Sunday: 'If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, then it's probably a duck'.
One thing Arteta must NOT do, however, is persevere with Havertz just to try to prove that he was right. Points are the most important currency. He must not lose sight of that. And whilst I'd prefer to see Partey at 6 and Rice at left 8, that's not sustainable for 55 games. So alternative personnel must be sought. And until Havertz hopefully proves us wrong I'd question what any combination of Trossard, Vieira and ESR cannot do compared to Havertz.
Of course, all the new players will need time to bed in, but for me Arteta should have stuck more rigidly to what worked last year in order to ensure that this was the case. All these positional changes have done is create uncertainty - especially in transition and out of possession. Yes, Arsenal have dominated the ball almost throughout all three games. But there's been far too little of the fluency we've been hoping to see. How much of that is down to bedding the new guys in, and how much is a result of - for what of a better word - tinkering from the Manager is open to debate. And, for me, he's over-thinking it.
Look; I may not be saying this at all had we held on to win this game. But we didn't; and to be honest I'd been thinking about writing a post about Partey and (mainly) Havertz last week. It's a fact that lack of cohesion has a lot to do with the dropped points. Along with individual errors - and a bizarre change in mindset as soon as they took the lead. I can understand that Arteta had looked at the first three matches, deemed them all very winnable, and decided to take the chance to experiment. But there have been injuries to cope with - the loss of Timber after half a game was a crushing blow, but that of Zinchenko has perhaps been the most significant (and yes, I am including the temporary loss of Jesus).
I believe that Fulham's first goal was as much down to a discrepancy between the 'automatisms' that Arteta talks about and drills into his players, and the reality of what the players have been asked to do differently now. Last year, everybody knew where White, Saliba and Gabriel were likely to be when Arsenal had the ball. On Saturday, Thomas Partey - nominal right back - couldn't wait to get into central midfield and had vacated his post within 30 seconds of kick-off. Suddenly, the spaces normally occupied by White, Saliba and Gabriel were not occupied, and Saka's pass went to precisely where he should have expected Saliba to be. But White was wide to cover the space vacated by Partey, and Saliba hadn't moved over. In fact, there was as much space between Saliba and Kivior (a bizarre choice at left back) on the other side as there was between Saliba and White. Cue misplaced pass, and Pereira was clean through.
Now, there was a massive element of luck to the goal; even after that. Ramsdale was caught a long way off of his line - playing, as instructed, high up to make the extra man. Pereira, looking to lob him, completely - I mean utterly - missed his attempted lob and gave Ramsdale no chance with the miskick.
A series of unfortunate events...
A shock, but it was only the first minute. Plenty of time to sort things out. But, you will recall, this was the third time in less than a year (third in 9, in fact) that Arsenal had let in a goal in minute one of a home Premier League game. Bournemouth required the Reiss Nelson Miracle, the two points ultimately dropped at home to Southampton were the beginning of the end for the title challenge... and now this. Once is unfortunate. Twice is perhaps an unfortunate coincidence. Three times... unforgivable, frankly.
Arsenal were soon into rhythm following the setback. And the stats say that they were ultimately unfortunate not to have won the game. 71% possession, an xG of over 3, and a massive 'field tilt' advantage. All as would be expected. Not that I'm knocking Fulham. They were strong and disciplined, and deserved whatever good fortune went their way. But no team can win a title performing below xG themselves, whilst at the same time allowing the opposition to outperform its own xG.
It took a while - and the introduction of last season's fall guy, Fabio Vieira - to make the crucial difference. The half time appearance of Nketiah in place of Trossard (who had uncharacteristically struggled; but perhaps in a game that didn't quite suit his abilities), had helped. But this was spectacular! I'm not sure how high your expectations were when he took to the field (perhaps you, like me, would have preferred to see Smith Rowe), but there can be no denying the impact he made. Suddenly he was finding space that others had struggled to identify, the penalty was as 'stone bonk' as any penalty can be (as an aside, it was interesting that this time it was Saka who took it), and the movement and cross for Eddie's goal were of the highest quality. Way to go, Fabio. Kudos to Zinchenko, too; his reappearance had also contributed to creating huge problems for Fulham.
2-1. Finally! And then... who can tell me what switch went off in the players' collective minds? Suddenly, they were on the back foot; but why. They had dominated. They had finally taken the lead. There was nothing to suggest that they couldn't go ahead and score more. The change in attitude was inexplicable, and I never want to see it again. They suddenly made Fulham look like Real Madrid (even when they went down to 10 men; there can be no doubt about the second yellow card, by the way) and backed further and further off.
And then the final series of errors. A corner uneccesarily conceded. Some horrendous defending, with no less than three players doing a fair impersonation of trees as Palinha stole in and shot (slightly fortuitously) past a partially unsighted Ramsdale. A collective brain freeze meant that suddenly the previous 70+ minutes of straining every sinew had gone to waste. Forget the chances that Arsenal then still had time to make after that. The damage had been done. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!
Two completely unnecessary dropped points. Arsenal simply cannot afford to be doing this. There really is no need to take a backward step against that calibre of opposition. Arteta and his team ought to have dealt with it at the time, and had better be dealing with it now.
We're coming to the end of the Transfer Window now. There are still players to ship out, and perhaps another purchase in the offing. Does the loan of Tierney leave Arsenal light in defence? Perhaps. What else do Arsenal need? Maybe we'll see a surprise or two yet.
But more importantly, as you all know, it's United next. In truth, they've looked very uninspiring so far. But Arsenal need to start sensibly, dominate them as they look to dominate all opposition, and keep up the tempo throughout.
In truth, it's hard to like this United side. Their goalkeeper, interestingly, is very good with the ball at his feet, but appears to have neglected the shot-stopping side of his game and looks like a mistake is just round the corner.. Lisandro Martinez is a nasty little piece of work. And with the weasel-faced Bruno Fernandes now captain, and Antony on the right wing, it'd be easy to wish to don a pair of boxing gloves and punch them both hard in the face for 90 minutes at a time. I'd settle for putting them away in the traditional manner, I guess.
See what I mean?!? 🥊
We'll have to wait to see precisely what lessons Arteta has taken from this disappointing result. For me, I'd go back to the tried and trusted. Last year's back 4. Partey at the base of midfield. Rice at left 8 where he can do a similar job to the one Xhaka did last season. And the only question after that is whether to start Jesus over the in-form Nketiah. Havertz on the bench, please; the time for experimentation is over.
Come on Arsenal. Get back on the case. ATID!
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