Another Champions League night against what looked like a second easiest opponent ended up in a very narrow victory and quite a troubling pattern. The overwhelming response to the toothless defeat to Bournemouth was – the most important thing is not the result, but how well we react.
The good reaction lasted only first half. There were moments, there was threat, there was a goal. And even if it was an own goal, it’s still Martinelli who takes 99% of the credit for the leg work and the precision of the shot. In general, Martinelli was our only bright spot in attack this game. He posed a constant threat from his side, he ran past people, he was very active in proposing himself. The rest of our attacking players… quite pale again. Havertz has put a lot of legwork in the game, but he’s a very dependent player. He can connect the game, but he needs the players he will connect. He can overcrowd the space, but the space should be crowded with one other threatening player and it was not the case in Tuesday.
Does leaning on experience really help?
The starting line-up mostly disappointed. No long awaited Nwaneri, but Trossard, who had a total stinker, was given a go again. No Merino to integrate, but same old Thomas Partey, who would need to put another shift against Liverpool. And if Partey/Merino debate has proven Arteta’s choice, Trossard has put another quite long stinker shift with a “f*ck all” penalty crowning it. It is unclear why Trossard was the one to do the kick, since the kick definitely didn’t spark with confidence.
The only interesting option was Gabriel Jesus on the wing. He has all the qualities to be a viable alternative there. His only problem is overthinking. He is all the time in his head and it’s killing him. He can easily dribble past two defenders. If only at this moment he would give a pass, Ronaldinho could clap from the stands. Gabi seriously needs sessions with a therapist that would explain him that as soon as you start enjoying football again, you would immediately gain back gaming time. I wonder if the club has a specialist to work with players having such issues.
Poor Ethan
The Nwaneri situation is terribly handled by Arteta. The coach named him as Odegaard replacement. Despite it being a significant challenge, Nwaneri stood up to it. He showed spark, threat, creativity every time he was given a go. But he was not given enough chances even for a partial replacement.
What message does the coach broadcast? “No matter how hard you try in 10 minutes you have, you will still sit on the bench for the next 90. No matter how much the team is struggling creatively, you will sit and watch it. No matter how badly the experienced player performed before, he will still play the next game. No matter how bad the experienced player looks in the next game, he will still play for 80 minutes and be substituted for a defensive mid.”
What motivation does it give to the player? That he shouldn’t try hard, because it doesn’t matter anyway. It won’t speed up his development, it won’t give him more chances than the coach planned initially.
Nwaneri doesn’t live in information vacuum. He has agent, he has friends, he has family, they all see how he’s playing, they all will be talking to him about it. He has access to Internet, where various journalists and bloggers are excited by his performance. What should the player think when everybody around is saying that he should get more time? The longer it continues, the more chance some decent club will come for him in the transfer window. Do you think Leicester or Southampton would not benefit from him playing in #10 for them? I think they very much will. And if he leaves, it would be totally on Arteta.
Why does Arteta not give him more minutes? I think it’s because of his stubbornness, because he set up some view in his head and he doesn’t want to adjust it despite changing circumstances. He decided to lean into experience and only give the 17-year olds up to 10 minutes again and only to one at a time. If Miles Lewis-Skelly is on the pitch, then Nwaneri will sit. And it looks like again it was pre-decided that MLS gets Champions League cameos and Nwaneri gets Premier League ones.
I am sorry, but it’s thinking of 70-year old coach, somebody like Hodgson, but not of a fresh young mind. If we lack creativity, and we clearly do, then we could bring a creative talent more often than it was planned. Arteta might be great at understanding football, but he’s clearly not good at people management. Even if someone like Nwaneri is not fully ready in your opinion, you need to reward them for great performance and bravery to show that their efforts are not left unseen. You need to motivate them to work hard and see that this work brings results.
So what’s the plan for Liverpool?
That’s where we come to the toughest part. I don’t see how we are going to create trouble for them. The only chance that we have – is fully fit Bukayo Saka. If he isn’t fit, then all the threat we have is coming from Martinelli. If Slot sends one of the sixes to double up on Martinelli our threat could get limited to set pieces only.
And Liverpool can clearly afford that. They can afford to be conservative and prioritise nullifying our threat over creating their own and, for example, leaving Trent on the bench for Joe Gomez. If they exit from Emirates with a point, they would be in great position and, more importantly, their mood and confidence would definitely be up after getting 4 points from Chelsea and us. Remember how upbeat we were after exiting Etihad with a point. If only it lasted a bit longer…
The defensive setup is really an interesting question. Two weeks ago I fantasised about White-Saliba-Gabriel-Timber combo that will be very tough to beat. But surely this is not happening. The only ones we can be confident in are: Gabriel and White. I don’t really like the idea of Partey playing at right back against Liverpool. He doesn’t have the pace to compete with Luis Diaz and also really hate to break down Rice/Partey partnership in the midfield that can work well in the defensive midfield area, arguably, the most important one. The match on Etihad in September was a clear demonstration. Which means one thing: White should play right back.
Now, if Timber is actually fit to play, the my first priority would be to put him in against Salah, where most of threat was coming from in previous games with Liverpool. Which leaves us with the Saliba-shaped hole in the centre of defence. I would fill this hole with Kiwior. I don’t think this position would be the most challenging. In the end he would have to oppose Darwin. It’s mostly speed bursts that he has to be aware of and I think Kiwior has speed in his pocket. We could also setup to give Gabriel the Darwin-marking mission, and leave Kiwior to identify and cover free spaces.
If the Timber is not fit to play it’s actually quite a pickle and there’s no good option:
- Calafiori got injured and it doesn’t make sense to rush him, while he is not known for his 1:1 defensive skills.
- Zinchenko is fresh from the injury and doesn’t have a good record against Salah.
- I don’t think Lewis-Skelly is a great option. Seeing a young kid as opponent will only motivate Salah to dribble past him.
- Kiwior was not particularly good against quick dribblers from high positions.
- Tomiyasu is out.
What I would probably do is get either Zinchenko or MLS, but not task them with 1:1 work against Salah, but rather see them joining the attack upfront, while leaving Ben White and either Partey or Rice deeper in defence, in other words have a trio (White – Kiwior – Gabriel or whoever they will be) defending in attacking phase. Since Martinelli is our main hope, it would be also beneficial to have a left back that can actively help him creating threat.
The task at hand looks very very difficult. What were you thinking about, Leandro?
