It's Happening Again

I don't know about you, but I'm getting a huge sense of deja vu over what's been unfolding in front of our eyes these past few weeks. In truth, Arsenal haven't played well for probably two months now - the game against Tottenham notwithstanding; but, let's face it, they are garbage! And the performances are starting to reflect themselves in the results.

I can remember foolishly expressing thoughts (not on here) in early February that the title race was likely to turn into a procession. Boy; do I wish that I'd kept my trap shut! Almost since then, Arsenal's form has fallen off of a cliff; of course, at the very same time that Manchester City traditionally come on strong. And I think that this actually bears some analysis.

Year after year, we see Pep rotate his squad early on in the season - occasionally and seemingly inexplicably leaving players that we'd expect to be automatic starters on the bench for week after week. Results often reflect that, but they somehow stay in touch. And then, as the season heads towards its climax, he puts his best team out again and again and again. They hit form. They hit rhythm. And they look to be unstoppable. It does help, of course, when one can find £100m+ in January to pinch the best players from two other Premier League sides - and that's irrespective of the historical charges of financial mismanagement that continue to sit over both them and the league as a whole. But leaving that aside, on a sporting level they look absolutely formidable at the moment, with their midfield and wingers on fire, and Haaland reaping the benefit.

By contrast Arsenal look leggy. Fatigued. Lacking in drive and focus. With key injuries. Foggy of thought and deed. And this must surely be because when they looked formidable themselves in the early part of the season, Arteta played his best team again and again and again; wearing them out to a point when they appear to have nothing left at this crucial time. There would have been little harm in rotating one or two players out throughout the autumn, but he has run his key players into the ground.

Timber's muscular issue is down to exactly that. Calafiori cannot stay fit for more than a couple of games at a time. Hincapie pulled up in an international match with a muscular issue. The centre halves have been forced to have time out themselves. Odegaard has suffered innumerable injuries this seaaon, and cannot stay fit. Rice is knackered. Zubimendi is out on his feet. Saka remains out weeks after we expected him back. Havertz is struggling to regain form and fitness. Eze is barely back from his own ill-timed injury. Trossard is unable to regain his early season form. It comes to something when such an expensively assembled squad seem to be leaning so hard on a 16-year-old to see them over the line!

What is - or was - the answer? Well, I'd never be one for wholesale changes at any point, but the failure to use so many of the squad players to rotate the starters out is frankly unforgivable; and is coming home to roost. Sure, the squad players aren't as good as whatever we all regard as the First XI, but judicious rests for one or two key players over the course of a week or two would surely have paid dividends. Mosquera could have played more. White, whilst never having regained his high standards of previous years, could have taken some of the burden off of Timber. MLS has been given little game time, and the lack of use of Christian Norgaard is negligence bordering on the criminal. Saka has been overplayed, and is suffering the consequences of that. Nwaneri sent away on loan. Merely swapping one or two players out at a time would and could have made the difference. Yet here we are.

I haven't posted on here since after the Cup Final. Which, on top of showing up how much the Pupil still needs to learn from his Master inflicted the sort of psychological damage on the Arsenal squad that only makes the physical frailties appear worse. Heads have dropped, energy levels have gone through the floor, and nothing short of drastic surgery is going to solve this. 

But the schedule is relentless. Don't get me started on the way the football authorities in England treat their top representatives compared to the French and Germans, by the way... It's the second leg against Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday, and then the season-defining return against Manchester City - which by the way I am dreading - on Sunday. City - now out of the Champions League - will have a full week to prepare for that.

So what would I do if I were the Manager of Arsenal for the week? Well, firstly I'd take a few chances on Wednesday, in order to keep some key players fresh for Sunday. For all that there's an opportunity to get to a Champions League semi-final, Sunday is far more important! We have the lead, and we should go for the jugular.

Sporting are nothing like as dangerous a side away from home as they are in Lisbon, so I'd take a few calculated risks (this without knowing how close the likes of Timber, Calafiori, Odegaard and Saka are close to returning). Start Mosquera. Keep MLS in the side in order not to risk further damage to either Ricci or Hincapie. Start Norgaard for Zubimendi (this is a must for me!). Put Kai up top to give Gyokeres a little break. Start Trossard in order to leave Martinelli as the 'finisher' on that side. And go easy with Eze.

Let's see.

Meantime, I want to take a quick look back at the defeat to Bournemouth. A defeat that said everything about what has gone wrong for Arsenal this season. Sure, Bournemouth are a decent side, and were well rested following the inordinately long break due to internationals and then the FA Cup semi-finals (whoever designed that weekend to have zero Premier League games needs stringing up!). But we are Arsenal! 

Make no mistake; Bournemouth were the better side. They exploited Arsenal's lack of zip, pressing the player on the ball, creating overloads and causing chaos throughout. They forced Arsenal into indecision, and into mistake after mistake. For their first goal, White and Saliba's relative positions were incorrect, and MLS failed to track Kroupi into the box. Sure, there was a really unfortunate deflection in there, but you make your own luck. For the second, pressure on Raya led to an injudicious pass, and to the ball not being properly cleared. They won the ball back, and a clearly suffering Zubimendi let Scott run off his back into acres of space. 

You could argue that these were two isolated incidents, but that's not the case. The lack of energy and focus was palpable. Most of the players seemed paralysed by indecision - starting with Raya! Arsenal could barely string a decent move together. Raya himself stood over the ball for seconds at a time - again and again. The defensive line couldn't beat the first press. And the time it was taking to get the ball back into play from throw ins was an embarrassment, as players visibly hid from the ball. Rice excepted - and with some help from Eze when he came on - the midfield was dysfunctional. Havertz had a shocker in there. Zubimendi's effectiveness was almost at zero. Martinelli was almost invisible. And Madueke had yet another one of  'those' games - although to be fair to him Michael Oliver ought to have taken action on his marker Jimenez early on. The ball would not stick to Gyokeres. 

And for all that the crowd were desperate to get behind them, all we ended up up was being frustrated time and again by the seeming lack of response from the players. My wife, next to me, did her bit, as did supporters in front of and behind me. But I could sense the mood and I became very introspective; something I am not proud of. The stats told me afterwards what I already suspected; David Raya made the second most passes of all Arsenal players, and received no less than 38 back passes. The amount of risk-taking that went on when trying to play out from the back merely heaped more and more pressure. So many players close to our own goal; thus bringing theirs up the pitch. And a virtually empty midfield. When you're going for a title, this is completely unacceptable. Forwards!!!

If Arsenal got a single thing right on the day, it was to ensure that when they were awarded their penalty that Gyokeres took it. I've not seen anyone hit the ball as hard from the penalty spot in my lifetime watching football. When Havertz picked up the ball, I was screaming: "Give it to Gyokeres!" And the Swede smashed it home.

Arteta made three very early changes to try to change the course of the game, and it did help that Eze started to knit play together a bit more where Havertz had been unable to do so. But Petrovic in the Bournemouth goal hardly had a single significant save to make. In truth, it was fairly easy for the away side, and Arsenal got precisely what they merited from the game - nothing!

How did we get into this rut? Well, we can trace it back to the series of poor performances over the past couple of months. But the psychological damage from the Cup Final may be terminal. With the FA Cup defeat merely compounding that. Make no mistake, Arsenal are in a very difficult place at the moment, and Arteta needs to get them to bounce back immediately. 

A change of tactics may help. Less of the formulaic 'control' nonsense, and the opportunity to display a bit more flair, and play with more freedom. That may be what I'd be drilling into the players. I'm sick of the 'umbrella of death' tactics, and have been crying out for weeks to see more vertical passing, and more attacking through the centre of the pitch.

The other thing I'd like to see is some bravery. A willingness to take the game to the oppostion, and take them out of their comfort zone. There has simply not been anough of that at all for some considerable time now. Opposition teams have known what to expect from Arsenal. It's all too predictable. It's time to step things up; because not being prepared to take chances is simply not working. As Thierry Henry himself said after the game: "You can't be in a title race and play like you're protecting something instead of going to take it. If you keep dropping points like this, don;t talk about the title. You're giving it away. Again!"

All we can do is get behind the players, and try to drive them on by force of will. It's becoming more and more difficult to keep the faith, but a double is still on... difficult as they may be to believe at the moment.

I mean... it could be worse. We could be Spurs fans.

COYG!