an Arsenal blog

Southampton v Arsenal – live blog

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 19:30:55 GMT

Join us for live blog coverage of our Premier League clash with Southampton at the St Mary’s, kick-off 20.15

We’ve got up to the second live text commentary, updates, goal clips, observations and occasionally witty asides. If you want to join the chat, register an Arseblog Live account.

To do that, go to Arseblog Live – click login on the top right, and then choose ‘sign up’ to complete the process with your username/password, or you can use your Twitter, Facebook or Google account to register.

You can also get Twitter updates of key events – goals, cards, substitutions etc – by following @arseblog_live

CLICK TO LAUNCH Southampton v Arsenal – LIVE BLOG

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Southampton preview: Return of rested players should improve Gunners

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 06:45:26 GMT

For the second time in a matter of days we’re heading down to St Mary’s to take on Southampton. We lost 1-0 in the FA Cup, and Mikel Arteta needs better from his side tonight.

Despite the result on Saturday, there might be reasons for optimism. We lost, but it wasn’t as if we were played off the park, and the only goal of the game was a touch unfortunate from our point of view. Southampton basically played their first XI, and it appears they’ll be without their two first choice full backs as Ryan Bertrand is suspended and while Kyle Walker-Peters is struggling with a thigh problem.

Arsenal, on the other hand, rested some key players who are set to return to the starting XI this evening. We know that the players given a chance at the weekend didn’t really do a great deal to force their way into the reckoning, but a team this evening which has Kieran Tierney, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka and Alexandre Lacazette in from the start is much more cohesive and far more effective than the one we saw in the previous game.

I think David Luiz will come in to replace Gabriel who looked very rusty in his first game back. So too did Rob Holding, to be fair, but he’s been solid enough alongside both Pablo Mari and Luiz in recent weeks, so I think they’ll give the younger Brazilian a bit more time to recover from his Covid-19 enforced absence (quite how much is down to the effects of the virus and how much is just a month without playing is impossible to say. Hopefully it’s far more the latter the former).

Granit Xhaka should partner Partey, and beyond that the only real question is who plays from the left if Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang remains unavailable. Gabriel Martinelli started the last game and wasn’t particularly effective, however when you’re playing with a right-footed left back, and a ’10’ who is effectively the toothpaste to everyone else’s orange juice, it’s hard to get into a game properly. We’ve seen Martinelli combine well with Tierney, and with Smith Rowe, so that could be part of the thinking.

The other option is to play Saka there, start Nicolas Pepe on the right hand side and hope he can build on the flashes of positive play we saw from him in the cup game. So much of what he does is frustrating, but he did produce 5 key passes, creating a couple of decent chances, so there were some small green shoots from him. That would then allow us to keep Martinelli as an option from the bench should we need it – and when you think about who in this squad is capable of making an impact as a sub if we need to find a goal, he’s basically top of the list. He would add a level of pace and movement to the side that you just don’t get if you’re throwing on Eddie Nketiah, for example.

Mikel Arteta says of tonight:

“They are a really great team, they have a really good manager, they know exactly what they’re doing. They’ve been doing it for years now and they are good at it so we respect that and we expect a similar game on Tuesday.

“Obviously we will take things from Saturday’s game that we will analyse, we have already talked about them and will try to make them better in the next game. The one I really want to change is the result, because I want to win the game.”

Rotating for the cup was, for me at least, understandable, but defeat in that game adds to the pressure a bit for this one. Collectively, and individually, too much was lacking on Saturday, but in the end it was a single goal which separated the sides. If you’re looking for encouragement, it’s that we know we can play better and have done in recent weeks. The presence of key players in the starting line-up should make the team more effective, so if we can pose more threat – and perhaps play a 90 minute game instead of waiting for the half-time team talk to get us going – then we should be capable of a decent result later on.

As ever, we’ll have a live blog for you, and all the post-match stuff on Arseblog News.

For Patreon members, the Southampton preview podcast is here.

—

Later, the loan signing of Martin Odegaard is expected to be finalised and made official. He was at the training ground yesterday meeting his new teammates after undergoing his medical, and all the formalities are expected to be done and dusted today.

When it happens we have a big profile piece of him ready to get here on the main site, and a look at him from a data/stats point of view over on Arseblog News, so keep an eye out for those.

Beyond that not a great deal going on – yesterday’s Arsecast Extra is here, and I’ll catch you later for the game. Until then.

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Arsecast Extra Episode 395 – 25.01.2021

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 12:35:58 GMT

Welcome to another Arsecast Extra, the Arsenal podcast, with myself and James from @gunnerblog.

In this episode we discuss the 1-0 defeat to Southampton in the FA Cup on Saturday, how Mikel Arteta rotated his team, and what he got from some of the players who had chances to impress. There’s chat about Willian and how the deal is turning out in the worst possible way, the Folarin Balogun situation in relation to what we’ve seen from Eddie Nketiah, the ups and downs of Nicolas Pepe and how it is to separate him from the overall cost of his transfer, cautious excitement about the arrival of Martin Odegaard, Mesut Ozil moments, and lots more.

Visit Arsebiz to support fellow Gooners.

Remember, you can send us questions via which we’ll try and get to each week. Send them to either @arseblog or @Gunnerblog (or both) using the hashtag #arsecastextra. Best to send them Monday morning so they get noticed more easily.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast Extra on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes).

You can listen without leaving this page by using the player below, download the Acast app for iOS or Android, or download the MP3 directly using the link below.

Also, if you’re a fan of the show, please leave us a rating/review on iTunes, it’d be greatly appreciated.

Download – iTunes – Spotify – Acast – RSS

This Arsecast Extra was recorded with ipDTL

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Möving out : Møving in

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 06:43:33 GMT

Hey all, welcome to a brand new week. Hope you’re all doing well.

So, it’s official. Mesut Ozil has left Arsenal after seven and a half years and is now a Fenerbahce player. The deal was officially announced yesterday, with nice words from all involved.

Ozil

“I’d like to thank Edu Gaspar for helping bring about a professional and dignified solution in the past few days, and I wish everyone at the club the best in their attempt to continue to bring Arsenal back to the top, where we belong.”

Arteta

“Mesut was at the heart of many great moments for this club over the years, including those three FA Cup final wins. These successes will always be part of our history. We thank Mesut and wish him all the best with Fenerbahce.”

Edu

“We thank Mesut for his huge contribution to Arsenal. He has made more than 250 appearances, played in three Emirates FA Cup final wins and has given the fans and everyone at the club many wonderful moments on the pitch since he joined us in 2013.

I imagine there’s a sense of relief all round that this has finally come to pass. It’s also nice that the simmering acrimony that festered away in the background for so long was not part of the departure. I wrote about Ozil and his time at the club last week, I don’t know what more there is to say.

I suspect there’s a book to be written about this one, about everything that went on, and I’m sure that someone will do just that. I probably won’t read it, but that depends entirely on who writes it.

Good luck to him in Turkey.

So, as MÖ departs, we await the arrival of MØ. Martin Odegaard flew to England yesterday, and will reportedly have a medical today as his loan move from Real Madrid is finalised. Here’s what we know.

– Arsenal will pay a loan fee of around €2m for his services, plus his wages. This might sound high for four months, but the loan fees clubs look for are quite often significantly higher than that. When we were chasing Ivan Perisic a few winters ago, Inter Milan were looking for around €6m, so this isn’t ridiculous by any means.

– There is no option to make the deal permanent. I don’t think this is anything to worry about. If he does well, if he likes it at Arsenal, and we like him at Arsenal, there’s nothing to stop us making an offer for him if we want to. There’s no need to get hung up on the fact there’s nothing in the loan contract about it, and to be honest, issues like that can often delay a deal going through. Remember Denis Suarez? There was a lot of wrangling about a purchase obligation clause, we didn’t want it (for good reason), but Barcelona did. It meant negotiations went on all January, and in the end it meant a player who needed to be with us as quickly as possible to build up fitness ended up wasting a month, got injured in his second appearance for us, and never recovered.

– Due to the exemption for Elite Sport, he will not have to face a period of isolation, once he provides a negative Covid-19 test. Fingers crossed on that.

– We might have to be a bit patient. While Alex Kirkland from the Spanish Football Podcast assured me there are no real parallels between Odegaard and Denis Suarez in terms of their footballing ability (podcast for Patreon members here), there are some in the deal itself. The Spaniard arrived at Arsenal in January 2019 with just a handful of appearances under his belt for Barcelona that season. Odegaard has made just 9 appearances for Real Madrid, and the last time he did 90 minutes domestically was on June 14th 2020 in Real Sociedad’s 1-1 draw with Osasuna.

So, as exciting as it is to bring a player like him in, and as anxious as we all might be to see him regularly in red and white, patience will be required. There’s just no way we can throw him in and expect him to play game after game after game. Arsenal will be more than aware of this, and I suspect that his fitness issues, and the time it will take him to get up to speed, are part of why we saw Emile Smith Rowe rested completely for the FA Cup tie with Southampton.

The importance of a player like that to our on-field efficacy is beyond question now, and when you only have one of them, you have to be a bit protective. There’s a reason why we’re bringing in another one, and while I don’t think Odegaard’s talent is in question, it will be a bit of a challenge integrating him while getting him match-fit at the same time. Expect plenty of substitute appearances in the early part of his loan, and hopefully it won’t take too long before he’s ready to start, but if you’re expecting him to come in and just plant his flag in the first team straight away, think again.

So, hopefully the deal goes through as quickly as possible, because there’s plenty of work to do. In the very short-term though, we have to prepare for a game against Southampton tomorrow night, looking for a bit more than we got on Saturday. A full preview of that etc, in tomorrow’s blog.

As ever, James and I will be recording an Arsecast Extra for you this morning. As ever if you have questions or topics for discussion, send to @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re on Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Pod will be out before lunch, until then.

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Southampton 1-0 Arsenal: Rotation shows why some players remain on the fringes

Sun, 24 Jan 2021 08:38:24 GMT

Match report – Player ratings – Video

The first of two games against Southampton in a matter of days didn’t go well for Arsenal yesterday. A Gabriel own goal was enough to give the Saints a 1-0 win and our defence of the FA Cup was ended.

Having spoken about rotation in my preview and how I fully expected it, I’m not going to be too critical of it. It’s what I thought he would do, in some cases I thought it’s what he should do, but rather than taking the opportunity to force their way into the manager’s thinking, it became a demonstration of why certain players haven’t been playing very much recently.

There were just too many off their game to have come away from this one with a positive result. Gabriel returned for his first start since the EFL Cup game on December 22nd, and he looked very much like a player who had been out for a full month. Mohamed Elneny is usually more reliable in midfield, but a player who almost always gives you a steady 6/10 was a lot worse than that. Gabriel Martinelli never got going on the left, and had fewer touches than any outfield player bar Alexandre Lacazette who came on in the 71st minute and touched the ball just 5 times (an indication of how our game was played).

On the right Nicolas Pepe disappointed again. I know when you look at the stats it shows he was probably our best attacking option, making 5 key passes. There was a nice free kick to Martinelli, and a good ball to Eddie Nketiah which the striker didn’t make the most of, but overall so much of his game was frustrating. Sent down the right by Hector Bellerin, in exactly the kind of space we all hope for him to get, his touch let him down and the defender got back. Another simple pass from Bellerin between the lines into his feet, and the ball just bounced away from him. I don’t know if it’s concentration, lack of confidence, or whatever, but he has this ability to make relatively easy things look more difficult than they are.

To be fair to him, I don’t see a lack of effort or application – although some would argue that ties in with letting simple moments pass him by – I just think we’re seeing things that we have consistently seen since he joined. In the beginning you can look for reasons/excuses as to why it’s happening (new league, new club, new language, coach turnover etc etc), but 18 months into his Arsenal career you have to ask if this is just who he is as a player. If it is, it’s quite worrying.

Another player with a chance to find some form … any kind of form … was Willian, and again he dropped another stinker. Like I said yesterday and in the podcast, I understand why he was picked even if I didn’t like it too much. I even understand why the manager publicly pledged his support for him and Pepe. But if we’re not actively trying to find a way to cut short his tenure at the club and finding a new club for him this summer (yes I know how difficult it is), we’re not doing our jobs properly.

We all know he had a good game on the opening day against Fulham, but since then he has produced no goals, and just a single assist (for Gabriel against Wolves). Perhaps it’s confirmation bias on my part, but unlike Pepe I see a lack of effort at times. If I’m being kind, I see a player who looks absolutely lost at this club, unsure of himself, unsure of his role, the squarest peg trying to fit into the roundest hole, and he was asked again to play in a kind of number 10 role which isn’t where he plays as a rule.

I think we’ve already seen signs that the manager has accepted he’s got a problem with this player. He hasn’t started in the Premier League since the Everton game on December 19th, and when we needed a goal against Crystal Palace, he wasn’t called on from the bench. The emergence of Saka on the right and Smith Rowe has relegated Willian to an afterthought in Premier League terms, and that’s no bad thing. The mooted arrival of Martin Odegaard gives us more choice again. The bad thing is that we’ve given this guy £200,000 a week for three years, and having just ‘solved’ the problem caused by having an aging/declining player on a big salary, we’ve got another one to deal with. It’s a mess that needs to be cleaned up as quickly as possible. There’s no shame in a transfer not working out, it happens all the time, the bigger issue is when you keep doubling down to try and justify it, and yesterday Willian was pretty much in the last chance saloon anyway.

Ahead of him, it’s time for an Eddie Nketiah discussion. He did have a couple of chances, but didn’t make the most of the one fed to him by Pepe – his toe-poke looked more dangerous because it hit a defender on the way through – and late on he slashed wildly at a chance in the box and put it wide. I know strikers depend on service, but Eddie is a player who, if he doesn’t get any of that, doesn’t give you much else. He’s a penalty box predator, but outside of it he can run and he can press, but he offers little to our overall game.

I don’t want to make this about another young striker we have because I think it’s something worth talking about in and of itself, but how much do you need to see of a young player before you more or less know if they’re going to make the grade? I feel we’re kinda there with Eddie, and as he heads towards the final 12 months of his contract, we have to ask has he done enough to earn a new one, to deserve that investment of time and money? We’ve given him chances, we’ve built up his experience and his value, and there’s an optimal time to sell players. It feels very like that’s where we are with him.

In the end, it was a slightly unlucky own goal which separated the teams, each side had 11 attempts on goal, 2 each on target, so it wasn’t as if we were played off the park. It was just that Southampton didn’t seem to need to do a great deal to be appear dominant, aided and abetted by our rotated side which had simply too many issues on the day to produce anything like a winning performance.

It’s a shame to have gone out in such tame fashion, but I don’t know that it taught us a great deal we didn’t already know. There is such a gap between the players who can help us win us games, and those who can’t. The hope for Tuesday is that more of those players will return to the starting line-up. We might well be without captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who had to leave because of what Arteta called a ‘personal issue’ before the game. Hopefully everything is all right for him and his family, which of course is the main concern above and beyond football.

This defeat, and this performance, adds more pressure to Tuesday night’s return to St Mary’s, let’s hope we can find a response.

Till tomorrow.

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Southampton v Arsenal – live blog

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 11:33:20 GMT

Join us for live blog coverage of our FA Cup clash with Southampton at the St Mary’s, kick-off 12.15

We’ve got up to the second live text commentary, updates, goal clips, observations and occasionally witty asides. If you want to join the chat, register an Arseblog Live account.

You can also get Twitter updates of key events – goals, cards, substitutions etc – by following @arseblog_live

CLICK TO LAUNCH Southampton v Arsenal – LIVE BLOG

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FA Cup preview + keeper signs as January window gets busy

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 07:38:53 GMT

FA Cup action today as we face Southampton at St Mary’s. It’s impossible to look at this game without also taking into account we face Southampton again on Tuesday in the Premier League, so I suspect this is a game in which Mikel Arteta will rotate a fair bit.

In terms of the team I’m accepting of the idea that we’re going to rotate for a couple of reasons. Firstly to give some players on the fringes time on the pitch. There’s a lot of football to play between now and the end of the season, and we need as many players as match-fit as possible. Fitness and form are very different things though, and one of the manager’s big challenges in the next few months is extracting some of the latter from individuals who have struggled in that regard.

The W word. Willian. He’s been awful, there’s no sugar-coating it, but I think he’ll play today. He is never going to be my favourite player or anything like that, but it would be to the collective benefit if he managed to be less awful and bit more like he was on that one fleeting day in an Arsenal shirt at the start of the season. He has to be capable of better at some stage, doesn’t he?

Similarly, Nicolas Pepe has been disappointing too this season, but in my book not as bad as Willian. He does have five goals and three assists to his name in all competitions, but every performance is held up against his price-tag – fairly or otherwise – and he too is someone capable of more than we’ve seen this season.

The manager spoke glowingly of Eddie Nketiah ahead of this game, ruling out a January loan departure despite how little he’s played of late. Will he get the nod today? It’s over a month since he last scored, but he’s hardly had any minutes in that period. Today could be an opportunity for him. Folarin Balogun played last night for the U23s and scored a hat-trick, so won’t be involved today.

Then there’s the need to bring Gabriel back into the fold, Dani Ceballos will fancy a game in midfield, and there are no shortage of options for Arteta to change things. Usually when we consider team selection we think primarily about what we want to see, but there are things I don’t want to see. Kieran Tierney is one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, but he played in the last round against Newcastle, had to go 120 minutes and then missed our next league match which contributed to our poor display against Palace. With the potential for extra-time there again today (there are no replays this season), I’d rather see Ainsley Maitland-Niles at left-back, even if his display in his last outing there wasn’t great.

Similarly, Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka are too important in Premier League terms to start today. It’s not that they can’t play a role, and as we saw in the last round, their introductions helped the cause considerably, but we have to manage their fitness as best we can. It’s a tough one for Arteta, I get it. He knows that those three players are becoming increasingly crucial for this team and how it performs, but he has to find the right balance and also find a way to be effective without them. I suspect at least one of them might start though, and I suspect it’ll be Tierney so let’s hope it’s a beautifully freezing day on the South Coast so he can be in his element.

We know Southampton are a good side, we have very recent experience of them and the dangers they pose. Nevertheless, they’re in the same kind of boat, knowing they have to pick a team to get the job done today, as well as ensuring they have their strongest team available for Tuesday evening which, as much as I love the FA Cup, is the more important game in my opinion. It’ll be interesting to see how the managers approach this one, and what impact it has on the game itself.

As ever, we’ll have live blog coverage for you, and all the match reaction etc over on Arseblog News. Join us for that.

—

Meanwhile, we had some classic out of the blue transfer action yesterday when, without days/weeks/months of rumours, stories, rodent or gonging percussion based Twitter accounts providing every tiny scintilla of information you never knew you needed, Mat Ryan signed on loan from Brighton.

The club have been seeking experienced cover for Bernd Leno during this window, and having fallen out of favour with the Seagulls, we made our move for a player who gives us just that. He’s 28, has plenty of first team football under his belt with Brighton and the Socceroos, and he provides some reassurance in the goalkeeping position that, with all due respect, we don’t have with Alex Runarsson (who is expected to go out on loan).

He’s also an Arsenal fan, which is relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but which is still a nice sidebar to the story. He says:

I’m really proud, it’s great and it’s hard to sort of put into words the emotions and feeling that this is becoming a reality.

All those mornings as a young kid in Australia, getting up to watch the Champions League games and all that at four o’clock in the morning when I had school and these types of things. The support back in the Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp days, all these sorts of things, to now be here fills me with a great sense of pride and achievement.

Best of luck to him, and good luck too to Runarsson if and when he departs. As Ryan is not home-grown, I assume he’ll take the Icelandic’s place in the squad as and when we resubmit our lists for the Premier and Europa Leagues.

There are also stories linking us with Ryan Bertrand as cover for Kieran Tierney. He has less than 6 months left on his current deal with Southampton, which sounds rather familiar, doesn’t it? Here’s my thinking on this. It’s is precisely the kind of permanent deal we should not do. There is no justification for handing a contract of any duration to a player of his age, someone heading into the September/October of their career, and who has had a decent but unremarkable career.

If it’s 4 months of cover on loan, which gives us time to identify/source a younger player to compete with Tierney, or for the player we already have our eye on to be available in the summer market, then I think it’s something we could live with. But again, there’s just no justification for this to ever be anything other than a loan.

Right, let’s leave it there. Yesterday’s Arsecast is here, if you haven’t had a chance to listen already, while for Patreon members there’s a Martin Odegaard podcast available, chatting about the player and all the rest with Alex Kirkland (@alexkirkland) of The Spanish Football Podcast (@tsf_podcast)

Catch you in a while for the game.

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Odegaard chatter increases as Arsenal seek Smith Rowe cover

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 07:11:27 GMT

Morning all.

Does anyone know where all the foxes have gone? I used to see foxes a lot around where I live. Since the pandemic, they’ve basically all disappeared. I don’t know why. These weren’t magnificent foxes either, like the ones you might occasionally spot when out in the woods. The ones with the big bushy tails and glistening coats.

These are urban foxes, usually a bit thin and scabby looking, but they were always around. I’d see them when out with the dogs. The dogs would go crazy. Whatever instinct they have regarding foxes would not result in happy times for the foxes if there was a set-to between them, but a) the dogs are on leads and b) the foxy fellas are good at scampering and clambering and jumping over walls (German Shepherds are not good at that last bit).

Anyway, maybe it’s just an issue around here. Maybe they’ve moved on to a better place (where there are more bins to scavenge and not the great fox paradise in the sky), but I’m curious if anyone else has noticed. I recognise too that this might be me going a bit stir-crazy during another lockdown, but there you go.

An FA Cup weekend lies ahead, we face Southampton at St Mary’s, the first of two games there in a matter of days (we play them Tuesday in the league too). I suspect there’ll be some significant rotation for the cup game, but we’ll deal with that in tomorrow’s blog which previews the game.

One thing I would like to see is a rest for Emile Smith Rowe. Not because I don’t think he’s playing well, obviously, but because ensuring he’s fit for the league and isn’t played into the ground is a genuine priority. It also raises the question of what do we do without him.

It’s interesting that there’s a lot of noise about the possibility of signing Real Madrid midfielder Martin Odegaard on loan. It’s a deal that would make a fantastic amount of sense in the circumstances:

Good player – check.
On loan – check.

Er, that’s about it. A good player on loan. It means we’re not shelling out on someone in this window because we’re kinda forced into it. As I wrote the other day, what Smith Rowe has done will certainly have had an impact on the recruitment thinking, and even aside from that it’s vitally important that the players we bring in are the best ones we can get. The January window doesn’t often afford you that luxury of time, planning and availability.

Odegaard has a decision to make about where he’s going. Real Sociedad, where he spent a season on loan last year, are also keen to bring him back on loan, and given the various complexities of a move abroad during a worldwide pandemic, his comfort with that club and how easy it would be for him to settle in for what would be just four months, it could be the easiest option for him.

However, where Arsenal might have an edge – leaving aside the powers of persuasion we hope Edu and Arteta have about a move to London and Arsenal – is the ability to offer a financial package that might be substantially more attractive. Sociedad have European football too, so that’s not an issue either way, but aside from covering his wages, I wonder if we can offer an incentive that Sociedad can’t. Let’s see what happens. There are conflicting media reports about his destination, it seems certain one way or the other that he’s going to leave Real Madrid before the end of the window, so the next few days will be interesting.

I also think it’s in everyone’s interest to make something happen as soon as possible given how quickly you need a loan player to settle in and start producing. We don’t need another Denis Suarez situation where we faffed around all month, paid a lot of money to sign a player who just never got fit or contributed anything. There are some parallels with Odegaard and the Suarez situation too. The latter came in from Barcelona having made just eight appearances that season and really lacked sharpness and fitness; Odegaard has played just seven times for Real Madrid this season, so how match fit he is, and how long it might take him to get up to speed to a new league, a new country, and all the rest, has to be a consideration.

Update: Literally as I’m writing this, I’ve seen a couple of stories from the Spanish press (El Confidencial and a Basque outlet – details here) say Odegaard to Arsenal is basically done, so let’s see how it all goes in the days to come.

Interestingly, Arteta didn’t rule out a move for a natural left-back to provide cover for Kieran Tierney, although he did highlight the options he has available to him right now (Bukayo Saka, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, and Cedric Soares). It’s been well reported that the club are seeking goalkeeping cover for Bernd Leno too, so it might be a case that we see some incoming action before the close of the window on February 1st.

Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. As ever on a Friday there’s a brand new Arsecast for you, in which I chat to James Benge of CBS about post-match interviews, Edu, Smith Rowe, and lots more. All the links you need to listen/subscribe are below. Enjoy.

Download – iTunes – Spotify – Acast – RSS

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Episode 612 – Post-match interviews

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 05:37:06 GMT

Welcome to another episode of the Arsecast – the Arsenal podcast.

On this week’s show I’m joined by football correspondent for CBS, James Benge. We begin by chatting about post-match interviews, and why so many of them are bland and uninteresting. Is it the players, the questions, the strange timing of these interviews, the media landscape in which they’re carried out, or a combination of all of those things. We then move on to Arsenal in a week where the squad has been trimmed, and chat about the work that Edu has to do to convince people, and in what kind of time-frame we can properly assess it. There’s some Emile Smith Rowe, transfer window, analysis of the last couple of weeks, and lots more.

Follow James @jamesbenge

If you want to become an Arseblog Member on Patreon, you can sign up at patreon.com/arseblog for just €5 per month.

If you are a regular listener via iTunes, if you would be so kind as to leave a review/rating that would be greatly appreciated.

Download – iTunes – Spotify – Acast – RSS

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You’ve gotta fight for your right to paaaaaaaaartner Partey

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 13:00:38 GMT

When Arsenal activated Thomas Partey’s release clause in October, they were paying for an instant and significant upgrade in midfield. The engine room has been an issue in recent years and it stands to reason, with Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin all leaving since 2018. (Whatever you think of Coquelin, he was a key part of Arsenal’s midfield at one point). Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi have also left on loan.

The rebuilding of the midfield area has been blighted by the failure to secure transfer fees for all but one of the aforementioned. As a result, the club have muddled through, bringing Dani Ceballos on loan- twice- even though the player is insistent he is not interested in a permanent transfer (as is his right, of course).

Mohamed Elneny has been welcomed back into the fold after a loan spell at Besiktas and last January, Mikel Arteta had to basically beg Granit Xhaka to stay after his tiff with Arsenal supporters. Joe Willock has 39 Premier League appearances for the club in this malleable midfield environment. The midfield has lacked consistency and, let’s be honest, quality for at least the last three seasons.

Partey is, hopefully, the first brick of the midfield rebuild. It’s probably too early to conduct any victory laps (many of us made this mistake with Torreira, for example) but it seems obvious enough that Partey is a cut above his counterparts. His performances against Manchester United and Newcastle in particular demonstrate an ability to create transitions.

When he tackles, he tackles forwards and not only takes the ball off the opponent but takes it in stride. Coaches often refer to this as ‘regain and retain.’ His top three pass combinations on Monday evening were to Granit Xhaka, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang and Emile Smith-Rowe. The positivity in his passing was a real boon not least because of how quickly he releases the ball.

Emile Smith-Rowe has sped up Arsenal’s play in the final third and, hopefully, Partey can be a similar type of catalyst in the middle third. Dani Ceballos and Granit Xhaka are not bad footballers, they have flaws, clearly, but both are good at what they do. The issue is that they are too similar and like to take too many touches, which has led to slow, deliberate play.

In my view, Xhaka and Ceballos both do their best work in a similar area of the pitch and the presence of both leads to a giant chasm between midfield and attack. Smith-Rowe’s presence between the lines has bridged some of that gap but Partey is just able to move Arsenal another 10-15 yards further up the field.

His presence also creates greater verticality for Arsenal, with Partey sitting between a number 6 and a number 10, there are more lines of progressive pass available. The question now is who partners Partey? I would still like the club to sign a better defensive midfielder than Granit Xhaka but I am not sure how likely that is this summer.

Ceballos doesn’t belong to Arsenal and Mohamed Elneny will have one year left on his Arsenal deal come June. I think it’s reasonably obvious that there is no way back for either Torreira or Guendouzi. Granit Xhaka will have two years left on his current deal and, at the age of 28, it would be the perfect time to sell him on.

However, with Guendouzi, Elneny and Torreira all likely to be sold permanently this summer and Dani Ceballos to return to Spain, adding Xhaka to that swelling departures list seems unlikely. It is clear that Arteta values Xhaka, earlier this week he said, “he’s playing really, really well. He’s still a player who can evolve and it’s great for us to have him back.”

Interestingly, he also described Xhaka as “young” which is not a term often assigned to 28-year olds in football. However, I wonder if Arteta sees this position as a country for old men. Arteta didn’t start to play the position himself until he hit 30. When he says Xhaka is “a player who can evolve”, it suggests that he thinks Granit Xhaka’s Arsenal race is not yet run. In short, whether we like it or not, don’t be surprised if Xhaka gets another contract extension.

Assuming that to be the case, the question then becomes how a Partey Xhaka partnership might work for the next 18 months at least. I have seen it asked- and indeed have asked myself- whether Xhaka is capable of deferring to Partey as the eggs and flour of this particular cake mix.

Xhaka is an alpha personality (which has not always worked out well for him), can he cope with being the condiment to torture another cuisine based analogy? Partey’s presence ought to simplify Granit’s role and limit his number of responsibilities. When paired with Ceballos, the two midfielders end up alongside one another like fußball players- often way inside Arsenal’s half.

With Smith-Rowe and Partey there is a clear 8 and a clear 10, leaving Xhaka to patrol a smaller area of the pitch and an area he is more comfortable in. One would hope this would lead to less stress for the Swiss because he doesn’t really deal with stress well. It also allows him to be emphatically left leaning since Partey prefers the right side.

Ceballos and Xhaka’s partnership was awkward because both players preferred to start from the left. In fairness to Xhaka, he performed a very altruistic role early in Arteta’s reign, operating in the left-back space so that Bukayo Saka could charge up the touchline. This was not an ‘alpha’ role, it was a deferential role and one he executed without fanfare.

I do think Xhaka needs to get his mojo back in possession- against Newcastle two of his top passing combinations were Rob Holding and David Luiz. Sometimes a team does need to go backwards to go forwards but the backwards pass shouldn’t be the de facto pass. Xhaka has a good forward pass in his locker- we know this.

He doesn’t necessarily execute it as quickly or as smoothly as Partey but we know he can fizz a ball between the lines. Partey and Tierney were also among his top passing combinations against Newcastle and those are the passes he will need to make more of. Assuming my read of the situation is correct and Xhaka is part of the manager’s medium to long-term planning, I think the player is fortunate to have made it to this juncture of the Arsenal rebuild.

I think that is largely borne out of circumstance as other midfield players just haven’t panned out as we had hoped. This isn’t a gift horse Xhaka should look in the mouth either, he has been given the chance to play alongside a top class central midfielder for the first time since Aaron Ramsey’s departure. How he can best complement Thomas Partey should be central to Xhaka’s thinking.

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Sokratis goes as squad trimming sets up summer squad butchering

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 07:07:36 GMT

The great Arsenal clear-out continued yesterday with the announcement that the club and Sokratis Papastathopoulos had agreed to an early termination of his contract. There were less than 6 months left to run, and he’d have been free to go in the summer anyway, but as a free agent now he’ll have some more doors open to him.

Technical Director Edu said:

On behalf of Mikel, our coaches, players and everyone at the club, I would like to thank Papa for his contribution to the club.

He has been an important part of our group and has been a model professional throughout. The negotiations to end his contract have been collaborative and we wish Papa and his family well for the future.

He, along with soon to be ex-Gunner Mesut Ozil, had been omitted from the squad entirely this season, so it makes sense to include him as part of this January trimming exercise. If you were being cynical you might say we’ve gone from being a club that lets players run down their contracts and leave for free, to one which is now actively paying them to go away. But the reality is that we’d have had to pay him anyway if he’d stayed until June so sorting something out now is a more proactive way of dealing with the situation.

Sokratis joined from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2018 for £16m and made 69 appearances. When your final season is one in which you don’t play, in which you’re not even included in the squad and you play the odd U23 game to keep your fitness up, it’s hard to argue it worked out. I’ll say this though: I’ve seen much worse defenders play for this club, he wasn’t anywhere near as error prone as the likes of Shkodran Mustafi or even David Luiz, but it was clear his limitations on the ball, rather than his actual defending, were what concerned Mikel Arteta.

By all accounts though, he was good professional, despite the situation he found himself in. For a senior player it’s humiliating not to play and to have to turn up to training every day, but he was a really positive presence around the training ground, helpful to the young players (not just the ones in the first team squad but those up and coming at U23 level too), and he wasn’t at all a disruptive presence.

He’s been linked with clubs in Turkey, Spain and Italy, and hopefully he can find somewhere that’s a good fit and enjoy the final years of his career. The best of luck to him.

His departure, along with that of Sead Kolasinac and Ozil (it’s apparently due to be announced later in the week because he’s undergoing a period of quarantine since his arrival in Turkey), make sense. They’re obvious in the context of this season and how things have played out. It also demonstrates that there’s been some coordination, some planning, about how to bring the squad back to a more manageable size.

Like I said though, that’s easy right now. Get rid of those who haven’t been playing or who aren’t in the plans. What we do come the summer is going to be a lot more interesting, and this is where I think we’ll be more accurately able to judge the work of Edu and Arteta in that Technical Director/Manager combo.

Right now, it’s a bit of a clean-up operation, even if one of those with the hazmat suit and disinfectant spray was part of the crew which made the mess in the first place – something which is hard to ignore. Nevertheless, when KSE ruthlessly, brutally canned Raul Sanllehi, they obviously felt there was insufficient grounds, or at least enough distance, not to do the same to Edu, so he’s been given a chance at redemption. Perhaps that will make him laser-focused on doing a good job, although I realise that’s a very glass half-full outlook.

When you look at the squad though, here’s still so much to deal with. Such as:

David Luiz – out of contract in the summer, surely he’ll go, and we’ll be free of his big, big wages (don’t let the spin about pay cuts fool you).

Shkodran Mustafi – out of contract in the summer, and if it were up to me I’d be quite happy if he were given the same kind of deal as Sokratis this month. Or drive him out to the woods and leave him there, whatever.

Dani Ceballos – a tidy player on his day, but I don’t think he’s done enough for us to spend any money on him. Anyway, he wants to go back to Madrid.

Sead Kolasinac – I know he’s gone now, but he’s still got another year on his deal. Sort that one out, give him away to Schalke basically – and bring in a left-back to cover for Kieran Tierney.

Calum Chambers – heading into the final year of his contract. Do we extend? Looks unlikely, he’s barely featured this season after his unfortunate ACL, therefore sell.

Mohamed Elneny – will have 12 months left on his contract come the summer. Having played a fair bit this season and reestablished himself a bit, he’s someone who could, and should, generate transfer funds when we sell him.

Alexandre Lacazette – A solid contributor this season but pushing 30 and going into the final 12 months of his deal. There have been no efforts made to extend, which suggests it’s not in our plans, therefore sell.

Eddie Nketiah – Yet another one going into the final year of his contract. He’s done fine, but has he done sufficiently well to be offered new terms? I not convinced he has, so it’s decision time.

Those last two are interesting because we could lose two strikers, as well as up-and-coming youngster Folarin Balogun (who really should, if he wants to stay, be looking at that pathway opening up for him), and with Aubameyang turning 32 in June, the addition of a young striker will be an absolute necessity in the summer window.

Then add the Ainsley Maitland-Niles situation to the list because it looks as if he’s going to have move on to play regularly. I don’t think it was bad to turn down the £15m Wolves offered in the summer because that fee is not good enough, but he’s an England international now who has reached a plateau at this club, and summer feels like it might be the right time to cash-in. Similarly, Reiss Nelson has struggled to establish himself, he could be another to depart.

So a very bloated squad could, without too much fuss at all, become extremely lean, so how they manage those situations, as well as sourcing incoming deals to make us better is going to be absolutely crucial. It’ll also be quite fascinating to see what they do and how. Are the structures in place to do this amount of business in an efficient way? Time will tell, I guess.

—

The manager meets the press this morning ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup clash with Southampton. We’ll have all the stories on Arseblog News, and I’ll be back tomorrow with more, including a brand new Arsecast.

Until then.

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Cautious optimism

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 07:37:48 GMT

Morning all. How are you doing? Hopefully you and yours are all keeping safe and well. It’s still a bit scary out there, so take care.

The last couple of weeks have been very good for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, and not simply because we set the bar so low with what came before. We’ve moved up to the giddy heights of 10th in the Premier League, having taken 13 of the last 15 points. When you looked at that run of fixtures – Chelsea, Brighton, West Brom, Crystal Palace, and Newcastle – you’d have taken that if it had been on offer. Perhaps we’d have settled for a draw in the Chelsea game and hoped to win the others, but the Palace draw after beating Frank Lampard’s side felt disappointing all the same.

Nevertheless, there have been many positives in this run.

Clean sheets

Four clean sheets in those five Premier League games, and five successive clean sheets in all competitions – despite a bit of rotation in the back four – is very promising. Three of the teams in the top four as it stands have conceded more than us in the league; only Man City, Sp*rs, and Aston Villa have conceded fewer (and Villa have, because of Covid-19 postponements, got four games in hand, so when those fixtures start to stack up for them it could well change).

That we’ve been able to combine some defensive solidity with scoring actual goals – something which was an issue for so much of this season – suggests there’s a new-found balance in the team which augurs well.

The right-hand side of the front three

We bought a £72m player from Lille to be the future on the right, and – despite some flashes and moments of quality – it hasn’t really worked. We brought in an overly expensive, far too old player from Chelsea to either provide competition or essentially replace that club record signing, and so far it has to go down as one of the worst transfer deals Arsenal have ever done.

The solution lay within. Bukayo Saka has done everything we wanted Nicolas Pepe to do, and more. He’s done more than Willian has ever looked capable of in an Arsenal shirt – that opening day aside when he provided two assists and had a shot on target. Since then he’s been little short of disastrous.

I think there’s still some discussion to be had about where exactly Saka will end up, but such is the quality of this young man that he can produce consistent performance levels in the many and varied positions he’s been asked to play since he broke through into the first team. For now, he gives us what we need from the right, and there’s no reason anyone else should take his place there.

Note: the flip-side of this positive is that we have a £72m player declining in value week on week, and we’re paying a 32 year old £200,000 a week to sweet FA, so those are problems the club need to solve one way or another.

Emile Smith Rowe

Like night follows day, you can’t mention Saka without acknowledging the impact of Smith Rowe. What the 20 year old has done in such a short time is verging on remarkable. It’s always difficult to find the right balance between praise for, and excitement over, a young player – and crossing over into hyping him up too much.

We’ve all known that a ‘creative’ midfielder is a necessity, and to put his impact in a kind of zeitgeist perspective, his three assists in five Premier League games this season is just one fewer Mesut Ozil produced in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons combined. In 610 first team minutes in all competitions, he has five assists and two goals, meaning he basically has 1 goal involvement per 90 minutes (87.1 mins to be exact). Yes, the sample size is small, so it skews things a little, but leaving stats aside, your eyes tell you plenty about the player and how much quality he has.

I can’t say for sure, but I’d be very surprised if his emergence hasn’t meant Mikel Arteta and Edu have had to reassess their potential recruitment plans. It’s a difficult one. We can’t put all the pressure on Smith Rowe this early. We have to manage him carefully, especially as he has had injuries, and there’s just no way he can, or should, play every game between now and the end of the season.

But what he has done might mean a rethink in terms of the kind of player we bring in. You have to protect Smith Rowe physically, but you also have to protect his potential and not block his pathway. He needs support and competition, of course, but it has to be sensible. It’s a tricky one, but then that’s why Edu and Arteta are handsomely rewarded and it’s an important part of their work. Ensuring one of the brightest talents to emerge from the Academy in recent years has a good career at this club is also one of the ‘best’ kind of problems to deal with. It’s far preferable to not having that quality at all.

More from experience

A short section, but we’ve seen better from Alexandre Lacazette in this period. He’s playing closer to the penalty box, he’s got people to combine with higher up the pitch (ESR in particular), and he’s scored a few goals. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s lack of goalscoring has been a problem, but it’s not been his fault alone. We’re getting him the ball in more dangerous positions now, and he now has three goals from his last six games.

The return of Thomas Partey is obviously a huge boost too. His quality is obvious, and perhaps what’s most promising is that he can’t possibly be 100% match fit yet. He’s been out too long, he’s going to ease himself back into things a bit and when he’s fully up to speed I’m excited to see what he brings to midfield. Even Granit Xhaka deserves a mention. Since that dimwitted red card against Burnley, he’s played well. He’s an imperfect player, but he’s been solid during this run, and thankfully managed to avoid too many of his weaknesses.

A word of caution

It was difficult during the bad run to make the case that things weren’t as bad as they seemed. When you’re that far down the table and flirting with the R-Word, you have to acknowledge it’s not good enough for a club like Arsenal. That was only a few short weeks ago, and while I know there’s a short-termism about football opinions that’s certainly amplified online, on social media etc, I think it’s important not to get carried away by this good run.

We have, more or less, matched the kind of expectations this club should have in terms of points from games against opposition like this. As I’ve mentioned, there have been real positives, building some momentum and confidence again is really important, and hopefully will stand us in good stead in the weeks and the games to come.

All the same, it’s too early to start crowing about anything. We set the bar so low, we’ve lifted it a bit higher, but it’s still some way from where we need it to be. We should compartmentalise this period, because there’s a lot of hard work to come, and how well we deal with that will be the measure of how much progress we’ve made in these last few weeks.

—

I’ll leave you with the brand new Arsecast Extra. If you haven’t had a chance to listen already, all the links you need to listen/subscribe are below. Till tomorrow.

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Arsecast Extra Episode 394 – 19.01.2021

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 12:05:30 GMT

Welcome to another Arsecast Extra, the Arsenal podcast, with myself and James from @gunnerblog.

In this episode we discuss the 3-0 win over Newcastle at the Emirates on Monday. The Gunners produced a much better second half to ensure the win and a fifth successive clean sheet. We chat about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang being back among the goals, the continued – and very exciting – impact of Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey’s start and what he brings to midfield, as well as an overall look at the last few weeks and the points we’ve amassed. Then there are listener questions about Ainsley Maitland-Niles, what Smith Rowe’s emergence means for the transfer business we might want to do for that position, Edu’s January clear-out, Cedric solid display, and lots more.

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You can listen without leaving this page by using the player below, download the Acast app for iOS or Android, or download the MP3 directly using the link below.

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Arsenal 3-0 Newcastle: You were only supposed to Smith Rowe the bloody doors off

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 07:26:47 GMT

Match report – Player ratings – Video

At half-time, going in 0-0, having drawn with Crystal Palace without scoring goal, and having seen Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang miss a couple of very presentable opportunities, it was hard not to wonder if it was going to be another one of those nights.

Newcastle, with their change of shape and Steve Bruce’s harsh words in their ears, were resolute and difficult to break down. For me the bright lights in that opening 45 were Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka whose combination presented the best chance for the captain. The latter’s low shot was saved well by Darlow, and while I recognise it all happened very fast and Aubameyang had to adjust at the last second to take a chance with his weaker foot, he’ll have been very disappointed not to score.

When Smith Rowe presented him with another good sight of goal which he leathered over the bar, I can’t say I wasn’t concerned. His shooting boots have been hard to find of late, and although part of his relatively barren run was because we weren’t creating chances for him, but these were good opportunities which he didn’t make the most of.

The second half was different though. Alexandre Lacazette set the tone, forcing a great save from the keeper, and it’s a shame there wasn’t an Arsenal player in there to pounce on the loose ball. Our reaction to an indifferent first half following a half-time ‘chat’ has been notable of late, which is good in one way, but perhaps we might look to be a bit more like it from the first whistle too.

The first goal came when Cedric won a defensive header, Lacazette played it first time to Thomas Partey, and with two touches he’d left his opponent twisted and then played a quick ball out to Aubameyang who had found space on the left hand side. He picked it up, drove towards goal with real intent, and having not made the most of a similar kind of position in the first period, he made sure this time. He took it into the box, opened up on his left foot, and smashed it home to make it 1-0.

Look too at the players in support. Lacazette, as the centre-forward, was charging up, but the two players closest to Aubameyang: Smith Rowe and Saka. So, it was only fitting that they should combine – again – to double the lead. And what a goal it was, a full-length of the pitch effort that began with Bernd Leno rolling it out to Partey, who gave it to Aubameyang. In support on the left, Smith Rowe took it on and watch the way he takes the ball into the box. His touches when he dribbles are just perfect, the ball is practically stuck to his foot. He looked up, saw Saka, played the pass and there was no mistake with the finish.

It’s difficult not to be excited by both of these players, because they’re on the wavelength of all their teammates, but it’s becoming apparent their own connection is a bit special too. According to Opta: “Emile Smith Rowe has assisted three of Bukayo Saka’s Premier League goals – they are the first English duo to combine for as many as three Premier League goals before either player has turned the age of 21.“

Smith Rowe could, and should have had another assist for Aubameyang, but under-hit his pass from the right hand side. He knew it too, but it was a rare moment where what he did failed. The rest of his game was just so impressive. He created four chances overall, he has three assists in his five Premier League games so far, and for me the most promising aspect to his performances is the maturity he shows in the non-attacking aspects of the game. From the first whistle he was buzzing around, coming back to cover space, and more than once his defensive contribution was to drop back in and nick the ball off an opponent when they had no idea there was anyone coming. That’s because players who nominally start in his position don’t often put in that kind of work, and it’s to his immense credit that he can combine that with consistent attacking efficiency.

His post-game interview showed a young man who is humble and keen to make the most of the chances he’s being given, and I think it’s fair to say he’s doing exactly that. You can’t put the team’s improvement down to his introduction alone, but he’s played a really solid part in it, and for me he was our man of the match last night – even with Aubameyang’s two goals, the second of which was created really well by Cedric who had a good game on his first Premier League start of the season.

It would be remiss not to mention Thomas Partey whose quality in midfield is just obvious. You just know when you’re watching a good player, someone who is a step above what we already have, and even after a lengthy absence when perhaps a little bit of rustiness would be understandable, his ‘presence’ (as Arteta noted afterwards) was on full display. Not simply the way he moved the ball quickly for the goal, which was obviously very pleasing, but his positioning, his coolness under pressure, and intelligence in that area of the pitch is a marked upgrade to this team. His substitution was pleasingly sensible, but he did plenty in those 67 minutes to offer real encouragement as to what he can bring to this side.

A quick word too for Rob Holding at the back who didn’t have a huge amount to do, but I thought he played with a kind of presence that was interesting. He was second only to Granit Xhaka in terms of passes, and when you have a ball hog like David Luiz outside you – again playing the game at his own pace – it perhaps illustrates a growing confidence in him from his teammates who are happier to see him on the ball than the Brazilian.

All in all though, a good night, another three points, and it’s now five clean sheets in a row. The Palace game was disappointing, obviously, but we’ve taken 13 of 15 points in the Premier League which is a decent return from this run of fixtures. Given where we were, I don’t think anyone would have turned that down if it were offered beforehand. Clearly there’s still plenty to do but going into this run of more difficult games, we’ve done plenty to restore confidence, start scoring goals again, and add some defensive stability – so hopefully we can use this platform in the weeks to come.

Right, let’s leave it there for now. James and I will be recording an Arsecast Extra for you this morning. As ever if you have questions or topics for discussion, send to @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re on Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Pod will be out before lunch, until then.

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Arsenal v Newcastle – live blog

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 19:23:00 GMT

Join us for live blog coverage of our Premier League clash with Newcastle at the Emirates, kick-off 20.00

We’ve got up to the second live text commentary, updates, goal clips, observations and occasionally witty asides. If you want to join the chat, register an Arseblog Live account.

You can also get Twitter updates of key events – goals, cards, substitutions etc – by following @arseblog_live

CLICK TO LAUNCH Arsenal v Newcastle – LIVE BLOG

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Newcastle preview: Arsenal have to do it in 90 minutes this time

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 06:56:48 GMT

After an Arsenal free weekend, in which I subjected myself to the tedious 0-0 between Liverpool and Man Utd – after our own 0-0 against Palace last Thursday – let’s hope for a bit better tonight from Arsenal.

Newcastle come to town again, for the second time in just under ten days, and it’s worth remembering that despite the fact we won 2-0 in the previous game, the goals came in extra-time. We needed 30 minutes more than we’ll get tonight to win the game, and let’s not forget that Bernd Leno’s heroics right at the death prevented the visitors snatching the win.

We were a bit shot-shy against Palace, having just 11 attempts on goal (2 in the first half), whereas we took a whopping 25 against Newcastle (17 of which came in normal time). In part that was due to how effective we were down the left-hand side with Kieran Tierney, so it was heartening to see him in full training yesterday. As I said, if there’s any risk, we should be cautious because there’s a very difficult run of games coming up, but if he is fit then it’ll be a significant boost.

At the back I don’t foresee any significant changes, but I’d prefer to see Gabriel start than David Luiz. Perhaps the younger Brazilian is lacking some match fitness having not played since December 22nd, but tonight is as good a night as any to get him back out there. He also plays in a much less self-indulgent way than his compatriot who dictated the pace of the Palace game to suit himself, not what the team needed on the night.

The big question for me about tonight’s team is if Thomas Partey is ready to start. He got 20 minutes against Palace, his first run-out since the North London derby at the start of December, and obviously that’s good news. Perhaps the plan is to ease him back into action, giving him late cameos for a couple of games to get him up to speed, but he must be itching to start and I’d say Mikel Arteta is itching to do it too.

I don’t think Partey is going to come in and be this midfield superman, defending, creating, driving with the ball, providing through balls, banging them in from 35 yards every other game, and all the rest. What he obviously does though is change the dynamic of our midfield, and increase its overall quality. Granit Xhaka’s six tackles against Palace were impressive – even if some of those were making up for his own mistakes – but he did that over 90 minutes.

In his brief period on the pitch Partey attempted just as many, and won four of them. Did you notice? Maybe, maybe not, because there’s a front-footed efficiency with how he wins the ball that is almost the opposite of the last-ditch way Xhaka tackles (and as we know fine well there are days when his timing isn’t quite as good as it was the other night). I do think the Swiss international will be his partner for the most part, with Arteta speaking highly of him ahead of the game.

I’ve said it before, this summer the main focus of our recruitment and rebuilding strategy has to be midfield. The fact is when you look at the options available to us, Xhaka is the second best central midfielder we have at the club, behind Partey. I think that’s an issue which needs to be addressed. Which isn’t to say he can’t play a part – assuming he’s content with a role which makes us less reliant on him and I’m not 100% sure he would be – but right now, on paper, Partey + Xhaka is probably the best we’ve got, and it’ll be interesting to see if that’s what the manager goes with later on.

Up front, Gabriel Martinelli is available again. My suspicion is he’ll start from the bench, but after a somewhat insipid, slow-paced display against Palace, his energy would be very tempting indeed. Then take your pick from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Nicolas Pepe, and Willian. We have options, no doubt about it, even if some are increasingly unconvincing.

Despite that, Arteta is going to have to get something out of the more disappointing guys between now and the end of the season, because we won’t get anywhere close to where we want to be if he doesn’t. Extracting the maximum from your squad, not just your starting XI, is crucial – especially when the games get more challenging and you also have to balance the Premier League v Europe thing a bit later next month too.

Overall, let’s hope we can do in 90 minutes what we did in 120 last weekend. I also think it’s interesting to look at Steve Bruce’s very strong pre-game quotes about what he wants from his team. Will they provoke a positive reaction from a team who came close to beating us with their favoured formation, or was that a manager digging his own grave with players who probably know they’re more likely to see off the boss regardless of how they perform? It certainly adds a little something to this one, for sure.

As ever, we’ll have a live blog for you to follow the game along with it, as well as all the pre and post-match stuff on Arseblog News. For Patreon Members there’s a preview pod chatting about the game, the Ozil story, and lots more – available here.

Catch you later for the game.

The post Newcastle preview: Arsenal have to do it in 90 minutes this time appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

A career of two halves: Mesut Ozil set for Fenerbahce move

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 08:32:40 GMT

Morning.

The only story this morning is the news reported by David Ornstein yesterday that Arsenal and Mesut Ozil have reached an agreement over the early termination of his contract. He now looks set to join Fenerbahce this month, and it can only be seen as a good thing.

Good for the club because this has been a significant issue for some time. When you don’t have a £350,000 a week player in your squad, questions never stop. Even if there’s nothing else to say, his presence, his stature, his star profile and all the rest continue to make it an ongoing issue.

It’s good for a footballer who will now get a chance to play. Maybe we’ll never get the true story of what happened, and I suspect there might well be NDAs and the like attached to this deal. Bottom line though, it’s now heading towards 12 months for a professional player not to have played a single minute of competitive football, and that’s no good for him.

It’s a shame it ended up like this, with so much acrimony and frustration, because it’s easy to remember the excitement and joy his signing brought us. A year before the so-called financial shackles were set to come off, we paid a club record fee for a world class player and what’s not to like about that? Part of that excitement was the thought we could replicate that kind of transfer deal, and the addition of Alexis Sanchez was another reason to feel genuinely optimistic about our direction of travel.

Then, for whatever reason, the summer of 2015 happened, and for me that’s a red-letter transfer window in our history. I don’t know if Arsene Wenger properly explained it in his book because I couldn’t finish it – I so dearly wish he’d employed the services of a proper writer like Amy or Philippe to do the book with him – but that the only arrival was Petr Cech was the football equivalent of driving into a brick wall. It’s especially painful when you think about what happened in that season, but I guess there’s no changing it now. The fact is though, we had the chance to build on the top class arrivals of Ozil and Sanchez, and didn’t.

I think there are some parallels between Ozil’s time at Arsenal, and Wenger’s. An era of two halves – much like the manager’s – which you can break up into pre-contract renewal and post, quite easily. One far more successful than the other.

In total Ozil made 254 appearances for Arsenal, scoring 44 goals and creating 77 assists.

Before the contract renewal on January 31st 2018

Appearances – 183 : Goals – 37 : Assists – 64

After the contract renewal on January 31st 2018

Appearances – 71 : Goals – 7 : Assists – 13

I think it’s also too easy to say it was just the contract. At the time, given that we’d made a complete mess of the Alexis situation, I was happy he stayed. The idea of Ozil providing service for a striker like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was a tantalising one, and I’m not sure anyone would have envisaged a situation where, in all this time, he’d provide just a single assist to one of the best strikers in Europe. Hindsight is easy, and there’s no question his wages and sharp decline became a big problem, but at the time I don’t remember there being any great objection to the deal.

The very obvious issue was the departure of Wenger. Everything we know about Ozil, everything we’ve learned about him down the years, is that he is the classic arm around the shoulder player. For better or worse, he needs what he needs, Wenger gave him it – and that preferential treatment stopped after he went. You can argue that it’s flaw of subsequent managers that they didn’t do the same, but it’s just not as easy as that.

When you come in and you want to impose your authority on a new squad, you have to treat everybody equally. Emery tried, it didn’t work, he folded, he brought Ozil back, he undermined himself, he lost his job (and I’m not suggesting it was Ozil’s fault, there was clearly a lot more to it than that).

I can understand why fans of the player, and those who wish the team had more creativity, have been critical of Mikel Arteta for discarding Ozil the way he did. What I’d say is this, Arteta didn’t fold, and it’s now not a case of the player seeing off another manager. I also cannot believe for one second that a former teammate, someone who knows first hand what Ozil can bring to the team when he’s in the mood, would deny himself that for no good reason. Like I said, I think there’s a lot we don’t know about what’s gone on. Maybe we’ll never know, maybe we’ll only get one version of it, but when it comes right down to it, the incredible decline of a player with so much talent is not something I’ve witnessed before – not to this extent anyway.

On his day he was a glorious footballer. He could do things that few others could, and there were moments and performances that should live long in the memory of all Arsenal fans. It’s too easy to let the ever-increasing cloud of the last couple of seasons obscure what came before. Yet there’s no question it stopped working, and it’s a shame there’s been such a public and ignominious end to his time at the club, and I don’t think Ozil himself, or at least ‘Brand Ozil’, has been entirely innocent when it comes to some of that.

Nevertheless, good luck to him. Hopefully he can have a good time in Turkey, rekindle his passion for the game, produce on the pitch and enjoy the final years of his career. In some ways, it’s quite fitting that basically his last touch of a football for the team was an assist, it’s just a bit sad there were so few in the final stages. And hopefully Arsenal can now move on, source a replacement (not like for like, but someone to address our creative midfield issues), and make progress as we rebuild for a new era.

Till tomorrow.

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What do you do without Kieran Tierney?

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 08:48:08 GMT

Morning all, a very quick Saturday round-up for you as we head into an Arsenal free weekend (due to our Monday night game against Newcastle).

First up, there appears to be good news about Kieran Tierney:

Kieran Tierney injury thought not to be serious – seems no tear to calf muscle + could return for visit of Newcastle on Monday. Concern when 23yo missed last night’s draw v Crystal Palace but was precaution & looking good @TheAthleticUK #AFC #NUFC #ARSNEW https://t.co/kVdmoFzxYP

— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) January 15, 2021

The question now is will he 100% ready for the Newcastle game? Not so much can he play, but should he play? There’s a real balancing act, because we definitely missed him against Crystal Palace and against Newcastle in the FA Cup last weekend he produced an assist and 6 key passes – the next best Arsenal player was 2. His importance to the team has grown and grown, and there’s a really simple explanation for it: he’s a really good player.

We have some ok players, some good and not so good players, but few really good players, and he’s one of the latter. I think the move to left-back now that we’ve returned to a back four on a regular basis has played a part, and people can point to tactics and systems, but the key thing is that he’s fit, he’s consistent (part of why he’s really good), and those kind of players stand out and become very important.

When you look ahead to what comes after Newcastle, I wonder is it in their minds to try and muddle through Monday’s game without him to make 100% sure he’s 100% fit. Here’s the run of games we face:

Southampton (A)
Man Utd (H)
Wolves (A)
Aston Villa (A)
Leeds (H)
Benfica (A)
Man City (H)
Benfica (H)
Leicester (A)

That is taxing, to say the least. I think we need to ensure that Tierney is fit and available for as many of those as possible. I know the next game is always the most important one, but sometimes you do need to think medium-term too (as the Partey issue recently demonstrated very clearly). He could well be fit for Newcastle and those games, but if there’s any doubt or any potential risk, let’s hope common sense is applied.

The fact that Tierney stands head and shoulders as the best left-back option is a testament to his quality, but also kind of a problem because when he’s not around we miss him so acutely. It’s complicated by the fact that Bukayo Saka, the most natural replacement we have for him, has become so effective in the final third. It’s not as if we don’t have options for the front three, but when they’re as unconvincing as Nicolas Pepe and Willian, I’d be very cautious about moving him from where he’s most effective and replacing him with one of two players who has done very little this season.

I think Ainsley Maitland-Niles had an atypically poor game in that position against Palace, but he’s not really a long-term solution. We were also told when Cedric signed, that one of his qualities was that he could provide left-back cover. However, this is a player who has played just five minutes of Premier League football this season and can’t get a start in his natural position at right-back, so I don’t know how much faith anyone can have in him doing a job on the opposite side.

It presents an issue for Mikel Arteta and Edu when it comes to squad building. We need to be able to replace a left-back with a left-back. Whether that happens in January remains to be seen. I kinda doubt it as I suspect the priorities, if we do make any incoming deals, lie elsewhere. If it’s gotta be Saka, then so be it, but Arteta has to get more out of the two very expensive flops (and good luck to him in that regard). Come the summer though, having let Sead Kolasinac go, it’s something we need to address and I’m sure it’s not an issue they’re blind to.

For some interesting reading over on Arseblog News, Dom (@DomC0801) has put together a really interesting piece about identifying potential back-up using data (which is what the club will be doing given we canned most of our scouts), and video. Remember, Arsenal have a team of analysts on this stuff, and their own in-house data/video solutions, so this is how it’s gonna work in many cases. Identifying talent this way, then augmenting it with ‘feet on the ground’ work too.

You can read the piece here.

Elsewhere, I did laugh when I saw a story in El Mundo Deportivo linking us with a loan move for Barcelona’s Brazilian goalkeeper, Neto. On the face of it, you could say it makes a bit of sense. He’s experienced (31), not playing regularly, and we need cover for Bernd Leno.

However, the story goes on to say that he wouldn’t countenance any kind of move unless he was first choice (haha), and then it emerges that he recently signed up with our old friend Kia Joorabchian. A true test of whether or not our recruitment team has learned any lessons will be whether or not we give this average, ageing player a seven year contract on 8 million pounds a week. One to keep an eye on!

Right, I’ll leave it there. Lots to listen to on the brand new Arsecast Extra, despite the fact the game against Crystal Palace wasn’t much to write home about. All the links you need to listen/subscribe are below. Have a good Saturday, more from me tomorrow and any breaking news throughout the day on Arseblog News.

Download – iTunes – Spotify – Acast – RSS

This Arsecast Extra was recorded with ipDTL

The post What do you do without Kieran Tierney? appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Arsecast Extra Episode 393 – 15.01.2021

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 11:10:21 GMT

Welcome to another Arsecast Extra, the Arsenal podcast, with myself and James from @gunnerblog.

In this episode we look back at the frustrating 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace at the Emirates on Thursday. We discuss the absence of Kieran Tierney, the number of high touch players whose desire to be on the ball plays into the hands of an organised opposition, a lack of goal threat and a reality check after the last couple of games. Nevertheless, a clean sheet and the return of Thomas Partey were positives. We then answer listener questions about what we need to do at left-back if/when Tierney is absent, the news of an upcoming appointment at executive level, priorities in the transfer window this month, what exactly we’re trying to do with set-pieces, and lots more, including the long-awaited return of Magpie Facts!

Visit Arsebiz to support fellow Gooners.

You can listen without leaving this page by using the player below, download the Acast app for iOS or Android, or download the MP3 directly using the link below.

Also, if you’re a fan of the show, please leave us a rating/review on iTunes, it’d be greatly appreciated.

Download – iTunes – Spotify – Acast – RSS

This Arsecast Extra was recorded with ipDTL

The post Arsecast Extra Episode 393 – 15.01.2021 appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Arsenal 0-0 Crystal Palace: Reality check as Tierney absence hits hard

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 06:51:53 GMT

Match report – Player ratings – Video

No, I’m sorry to tell you cannot get those 90 minutes of your life back.

Our winning run came to an end last night, but if we’re seeking any positives this morning this does feel like the kind of a game that we’d have found a way to lose just a couple of weeks ago. Scant comfort, I know, but a clean sheet and the return of Thomas Partey after a month and ten games on the sidelines with an injury are what we’ve got to cling to this morning.

The absence of Kieran Tierney from the starting line-up was notable, and the initial reports that it was precautionary due to ‘muscle tightness’ made some sense. The post-game revelation that the Scot is due to have an MRI scan (not sure on what) are much more worrying. And look, it’s too easy to say that with Tierney we’d have won, but given the form he’s in he’d have given us a lot more down the left hand side than Ainsley Maitland-Niles who, it’s fair to say, struggled last night.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, he and Cedric are both capable of filling it at left-back, and while I’m certainly not pining for Sead Kolasinac, last night was an indicator that natural cover for that position is working its way up our priority list when it comes to the transfer market. Clearly there’s a bit of difficulty in attracting a decent player who knows he’s basically going to understudy Tierney for most of the season, but it still doesn’t alter the fact it’s something we need.

Nevertheless, I thought we started quite brightly, Ceballos pinging some nice passes around, but without being particularly threatening. There were some moments where, with a bit more composure and quality having worked our way into the final third, we should have caused Palace more problems than we did. They sat off, defended well, stayed organised, but we completely lacked the kind of spark we had against West Brom. I thought they quite cleverly cut off passing lanes to Emile Smith Rowe, which meant the connecting role he’s been playing was basically absent.

Palace grew into it. Zaha did that thing he does in every game he plays where he rages at every single foul committed on him (I think of him as Popeye and that behaviour as his spinach), and late in the half they could very well have gone ahead. James Tomkins hit the bar with a header, and Bernd Leno made an absolutely brilliant save from Christian Benteke after the striker out-jumped David Luiz.

Just a quick note on the Brazilian: his passing was decent, as it generally is, and he completed 5/10 attacking third passes too. I just find it frustrating that he holds onto the ball so long. When you’re facing a team like Palace who are well drilled and only need a couple of seconds to reorganise and get back into their shape, the quicker you move the ball the better. Luiz ambling forward with it, gesturing at others to move into space that has now been filled by an opposition player, then playing the simple pass he could have made 5 seconds earlier drove me mad last night. He plays at his own pace, rather than at the pace the game requires. It’s not to pin the result on him or anything, just something worth highlighting, I think. It’s a kind of seniority based luxury/arrogance we can ill afford in games such as this.

Ahead of him, Granit Xhaka had a mad game. Genuinely. He made a brilliant clearance in the second half to prevent a Palace goal; his 26 attacking third passes were substantially more than any other Arsenal player; he made 13 ball recoveries; and some of his tackling was superb. There was a brilliant challenge in the box to deny Zaha, he won all of his aerial duels, made 3/3 clearances and 6/6 tackles. Yet probably half of those tackles were necessary because he gave the ball away. I cannot fault his commitment, because he worked hard to make up for those errors, but I can’t really remember a performance like that before.

Having had just two attempts on goal in the first half, the second was much better with 9, although only two were on target. It didn’t click for us the way it has. Nicolas Pepe came on and didn’t make any significant difference to us as an attacking force; the service to Lacazette and Aubameyang was limited and too often the captain was hugging the touchline – another consequence of being without Tierney, I think. There were a couple of decent set-piece deliveries, and that was about it.

As I said at the top, the fact we got 20 minutes or so into the legs of Thomas Partey was good to see. As you might expect there was a little rustiness to his game, but we’re going to need him so his first step on the comeback trail is a real positive. Beyond that though, there’s not a great deal to like. If you were being kind you might say it was a performance that felt informed by the 120 minutes against Newcastle, but having seen a bit too much like this so far this season, it was all frustratingly familiar. I think we have to give credit to a Palace side who made life difficult for us, but we clearly didn’t reach the levels of the last few games, and that’s on us.

Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:

I am disappointed because we wanted to win the game but I think the draw is a fair result, because we lacked some presence and some quality in the final third to win tonight.

We will assess and review what we have done in the last two games that we have to do better. Defensively, we were really solid and we are not giving things away easily. We’re making it really hard for the opponent. In the final third, we’ve progressed a lot but today there are things that we have to do better.

I’ve been as encouraged as anyone by the four wins, but perhaps last night was just a little reality check. A reminder that there’s still plenty to do in order to achieve the kind of consistency you need at this level to win game after game. With Newcastle coming to town again on Monday, the manager will need to produce a better performance from his team if we’re going to take three points against a side that held us to 90 scoreless minutes less than a week ago.

—

Right, James and I will be recording an Arsecast Extra for you this morning. As ever if you have questions or topics for discussion, send to @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re on Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Pod should be out around mid-morning, until then, take it easy.

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