Arsenal has lost the chance to shorten the gap to Liverpool with a draw against Fulham. This post is not going to be tolerant, understanding – it will be spilling out of pure frustration. In the season when the City is going to shambles, we are not doing needed things to claim the throne. And it is the main source of frustration. This time it is one man responsible for losing three points – manager Mikel Arteta. One point was gifted back by the VAR referee, but no more than that.
Let’s start from the beginning. I don’t like our third kit. It’s pale, it’s not strong, it’s not exciting. It looks like someone has washed different colours in the washing machine. And now it’s printed in memory with a loss in Bournemouth and a draw today. The feel from the kit is quite similar to the Chris one we had last year, which we wore on loss to Bayern and.. surprise, surprise on loss against Fulham away. The employee who approves these kits should be asked serious questions.
The starting line-up was a second punch in the gut. Partey as a right back and Timber as a left back just doesn’t work well. It’s been proven time after time that while defensive we look sold, we start struggling creatively. In the attacking phase Partey drifts to midfield (where he feels more natural), Timber also drifts to the right (since he’s right footed) and they both join Jorginho who’s already anchored there. Which means three players occupying similar areas and duplicating each other’s functions.
I don’t know where Zinchenko is, but the only reasonable explanation of his absence should be injury and not any educational measures.
As soon as I saw this line-up, I could suggest three alternative options:
- Profile left back – Miles Lewis-Skelly or Tierney. As long as Tierney was on the bench, apparently he is the preferred option now. I understand the reluctance to play him after such a long break and can suggest two more options.
- Partey at right back, Timber at central back, Kiwior at left back. If we already accept Partey on the right that drifts into midfield, left-footed Kiwior could be occupying wide spaces and provide support to Trossard.
- Timber at right back, Kiwior at left-back and Rice at central back. With Fulham setting up 5-4-1 we shouldn’t have expected many attacks from their side and Rice could have handled it pretty well. Essentially the only goal came from Kiwior’s double mistake, so not sure Rice would do worse. In this case the midfield or Jorginho or Partey with Merino would complete the balanced set up.
I personally would go with number three, because Timber at right back is just world class. We’ve seen him do magic and I wouldn’t want to lose the combination power of him + Saka + Odegaard.
In the first half the drifting to midfield became pretty clear. 3 aforementioned players and sometimes Rice were all occupying the midfield area, which made the defensive work for Fulham wing backs much easier.
Timber, Party and Merino occupy similar congested space in second half.
The fact that Partey drifted to midfield forced Odegaard to pick up the ball in his zones time after time. Consequently, the area that Odegaard usually occupies was empty and it got much harder to crack up the Fulham defence.
Timber, Party and Jorginho are in the middle, Odegaard (red) asks the ball in RB position.
On the left side Trossard (while having a very decent first half) was time and time left alone against 2 Fulham players (including Iwobi who dropped in as a fifth defender). Considering that even in this set up he created a couple of good chances, is already quite impressive. At some point he got so frustrated and ran in the counter on the right side to overload Fulham with Ode and Saka, but teammates didn’t react timely.
Trossard against two defenders with no teammate support.
The change in Martin’s position can easily be confirmed by comparing his heat map vs Forest(left) and Fulham (right). Against Forest he was threatening through the middle, because there was proper right back support.
Below we can also see Timber’s heat maps from the same matches. We can see that he was more central when playing as a left back.
I have seen this pattern every time Partey and Timber were in wing back positions. The only game where we were quite good and this set up was actually justified – was the 2:2 draw against Liverpool. And this is of course an exceptional case, because we needed to close the best player of the season so far (Which Timber did a very good job of). Well sorry, Iwobi is far away from Salah in his attacking threat. Against Newcastle and Fulham it was a struggle. When did we score 13 goals in 3 games? When Timber was on the right.
I can’t understand how Arteta doesn’t react to that! Either he doesn’t see it (and then it’s a very bad sign for him or for his analytical team that he potentially doesn’t listen to) to he’s just being very stubborn, trying to do over and over things that don’t really work.
I have told many times already that in this league we should count on conceding one goal in most of the games. When we face Jimenez, Watkins, Cunha, Isak, Joao Pedro, it’s hard to keep them silent all 90 minutes. So we should be counting on scoring at least two goals each game.
Did we create enough chances to score 2 goals in the first half? Not really. The main danger was again from set pieces. But this shouldn’t be our main plan. It’s a great addition to have for the variety of goals, but it’s already given us victory on Wednesday. It would be naive to count on set pieces to gift us a second victory in the week. It’s too much to ask from Rice – deliver 6 ideal crosses second time in a week.
Ok, we struggled to open them up in the first half, we are down 0-1. What comes after the break? Nothing! No changes. Arteta hasn’t learned anything. He hit the forehead on the wall, but he comes after the break to hit the same wall again. Moreover, even for the last 20 minutes, when we could take a risk and introduce Tierney or send Kiwior on the right, what Arteta does? Just changes players strictly by their position, keeping the same non-functioning defence.
Instead of Trossard struggling against two, let’s see how Martinelli does the same task. Instead of Odegaard searching for spaces where he could get the ball, let’s see how Nwaneri does the same job. Logically, Nwaneri isn’t as good as Martin in understanding the game.
What fecking title are we talking about with such an approach? The defensive strength is what dominates Arteta’s thinking. Solid defenses do NOT win you titles, despite the misleading narrative. Solid defenses win you a spot in TOP-4 (How are you doing Spurs?). However, if teams want to take a step higher, a solid attack wins you a title and there’s statistics confirming that. It’s no surprise, because as long as you constantly score 2-3 goals you are more likely to grab all three points than when you try to keep a clean sheet. And that’s the approach Liverpool is taking this year.
It’s hard for me to put blame on players for this draw. Trossard was good. Merino was very impressive when came on – I wonder why he’s not playing from the start. Partey and Timber were solid defensively, and attacking-wise we’re just not utilizing their strengths. Martinelli was dribbling and putting in crosses in the final stretch of the game, almost producing a winning assist.
And Saliba – the man is just a menace. His leadership skills became more clearly visible in Gabriel’s absence. He, of course, won many duels. But what also amazed me specifically in this game – how after a Fulham long shot, he was able not only to win a duel, but to actually find a teammate with a header or a foot flick. He has such amazing ball control and awareness. We are very lucky to have him. And actually when Jimenez was scoring, he made a right choice. What was the probability of Jimenez hitting a corner from there? It was much more likely he would try to get closer to the goal, and that was Saliba’s movement was showing.
What next?
In the midweek we play a home Champions League fixture against Monaco. I don’t expect us to have much trouble there. At home we usually create a bunch of chances even with a rotated squad. Sure, Monaco might try to replicate the 5-4-1 setup and even cling onto a draw, but it’s not really a major concern for the European competition.
What is of concern – our run in the Premier League. Like I said in the previous post, it looks to me that Arsenal might lose more points than Liverpool in this congested month because of the exact scenarios like what happened yesterday. And also I don’t think Arteta learned anything, otherwise how else to explain only like-to-like subs?
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