Arsenal has grabbed another 3 points, extremely vital to the title race. Both goals were scored after around 10 attempts of taking corner kicks. And how juicy those deliveries were! All the bitter fans of other teams calling Arsenal “Stoke City”, embarrassing and so on – do you even realise how much skill goes into a set piece? Brilliant deliveries time after time from both sides, runs into potential ball landing zones… only the finishing was a bit behind Gabriel killer level.
What is interesting to watch – is the more corners we take, the more nervous their defenders and goalkeepers get. There was an article on Arseblog about the theatrical play of corner kicks. I tend to agree that Saka’s suspense before the actual corner is part of this mind game routine. It plays in the head of defenders and goalkeepers who become more prone to make a mistake.
Blend first half
But except for all this happiness, there were some concerning points. As expected, Amorim has prepared a specific setup for Arsenal. He has put 5-2-3 setup with a predicted strengthening on the right side. Before the match I had seen Malacia (who didn’t play for 18 months) on the right side and Fernandes in the right defensive midfield zone. It didn’t look like the pair that would stop Odegaard and Saka, however they did it quite well.
Both players looked pretty exhausted for the first 60 minutes. I was concerned about them being overtrained in this packed match period. However, in the last 15 minutes, when we scored a second goal and made MU open up, both players just flourished. So it was probably a mental exhaustion to play against really good defenders.
Here I can’t ignore Mazraoui. He is just a brilliant defender when he doesn’t have attacking responsibilities. I remember how he closed Saka in April in the away game vs Bayern Munich. This is probably the only player that could strengthen Arsenal. I know we have plenty of defenders and basically he’s a non-injured version of Tomiyasu.
One interesting detail that I have noticed only after the game – was that Amorim had changed all front three from the Sunday game against Everton. This is quite a smart move. If their idea was to keep the score close for as long as possible, it’s quite smart to put out three players that can cover a lot of ground and stop Arsenal’s ball progression.
Amorim shifts 9 players between Everton and Arsenal, leaving only De Ligt and Onana play the same role
Luckily they didn’t have many options in their locker once we opened the score. Arsenal saw the game out quite comfortably.
Personnel review
Trossard has shined and once again confirmed how he can change a game when coming from the bench against a tired opponent. I was a bit disappointed by Nwaneri not getting some minutes at the end of the game. I think he could feel quite confident considering how the game played out.
With regards to the personnel – Martinelli had a stinker of a game. I thought that since he got a rest against West Ham, he would be electric on his side. However, again a lot of wrong decisions. No confidence in finishing. I tend to agree with some observers that he is now too much in his head. When he arrived young, it was all about instincts. Now he thinks before each action and loses his sharpness.
I think Kiwior’s performance was quite an interesting case. He started the game quite shaky, missed a couple of passes, lost some aerial duels. But as the game went on, he became more and more confident. So that by the end some fans called it his best game in our t-shirt.
The exact same thing happened in our February-March run. Kiwior gets more confidence – the more competitive games he plays. It’s a clear case for Arteta to give more time to his rotation options so that they can perform well when called in the time of trouble.
And Timber – what a beast! He can do everything – 1v1 defending, combining with Saka, finishing cornets. Timber on the right is objectively an upgrade on Ben White (apologies to the Benjamin Fan club). White is not as good in 1:1 defending and headers. Jurrien completes a trio of world class defenders with Saliba and Gabriel. I guess it would be interesting to try out if White can bring some defensive solidity on the left when he’s back, because I don’t really want to see Timber not playing in his best position.
Liverpool? Again?
Liverpool lost points at Newcastle. I am very happy that we shortened the distance to seven points. However, I watched both games closely and if I need to bet, I’d say it’s more probable that Liverpool will increase the gap rather than shorten it in the next month.
While they were definitely the worse team in the first half, it’s all related to their tactics in the game. They don’t control the ball and invite the opponent to attack and have chances. The opponents feel these gaps and start attacking with more and more people. Which essentially leaves some free zones in defence. Then as soon as Liverpool turn on their counterattacking gears, they start creating chance after chance. And with the form Salah is in, they convert those chances with striking efficiency.
We, on the other hand, build our victory piece by piece through the series of building blocks without taking too many risks, by keeping defence tight, using set piece routine, combinations on the right side.
The problem is that their approach: of who scores more will be most often successful, just by sheer quality of players. Let’s say they give up 8 big chances and create 6 or 7 for themselves. Who would you bet on to convert them into more goals? I would bet on Liverpool, at least while Salah is flying. On the other hand if they keep it tight and create 2 big chances against the opponent’s 1 chance, the game can still end in a 0-0 or 1-1 draw.
Liverpool’s pattern of game against Newcastle was the exact same pattern that happened against Villa and Brighton earlier in the year. It took monumental individual brilliance from Isak and Schär to secure a draw.
Until teams start to roll out the deep block against Liverpool and intentionally give away the ball (the way most set up against City and Arsenal), Liverpool will be collecting plenty of points. Currently all the mid table teams until West Ham, lost games in such fashion and the only loss of points came from Forest, who actually rolled out a deep block and waited for the end of the match to use their chance to score.
Liverpool results again top to middle teams. Each time they scored at least two.
And amongst teams below West Ham, only probably Everton have enough defensive quality to keep Liverpool at bay. The Everton that they were supposed to face tomorrow. There are rumours this game is going to be delayed because of the weather. I really hope this happens:
- If we can win, then the gap will shorten to 4 points and it’s always better to have points on the board rather than the game at hand.
- The replay might come at a time when Salah is not scoring every shot he takes and it will also congest their schedule.
Only positives so far 🙂
Fulham slippery road
The next game is Fulham away. Last year we had the worst performance of the season in this arena, right around one year ago and we have to be very careful.
On one hand, Fulham seem to be playing football themselves and letting the opponents play this season. Which is usually a good setup for Arsenal, since our defense is more solid than the opponent’s one. On the other hand, they are in a very good run – draw against Spurs with plenty of chances, and win against Brighton. They also have 2 players that would be eager to show Arteta that they are worth much more than he assessed them.
My hope is that without Palhinha (who was a menace at ruining the creative play), we’d get more freedom and will be able to score more goals. There’s a possibility that they will also deploy a 5-4-1 with the clear intention of a satisfying exit with a goalless draw. In this case we’d have to go back to being Set Piece FC again!
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