Alexis Masterclass Delivers The Points
Nov 2nd, 2014 by 'holic
The morning after the night before. The ‘holics, as ever, have been a bad influence, clearly. It was good, however, to be celebrating what became a comfortable win once Arsene worked out that Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini were in excess of the required number of holding players against limited opposition to the tune of one.
For over an hour Burnley clung to the point they so desperately craved by fair means or foul. Again we cannot blame them for that. We can once more bemoan the refereeing weakness that allows constant disruption to the flow of the game and the timewasting antics of the goalkeeper. He also missed a blatant penalty when the already booked Boyd palmed a Santi Cazorla corner to safety.
Breaking the frustration however was the outstanding Alexis. His appetite for work, whether attacking or defending from the front, is astonishing. No surprise then that he was close to opening our account, along with near misses for Danny Welbeck and Cazorla.
With Sean Dyche constantly urging his troops back into their defensive trenches I thought we might see a half-time change. It was just past the hour mark when finally we introduced Aaron Ramsey for the skipper and the match was almost instantly transformed.
The long overdue lead was secured when Chambers sent in a glorious cross from the right flank and the outstanding Alexis placed his header to perfection inside the post. It was no more than he deserved. Provider turned scorer minutes later when Chambers pounced on a blocked Welbeck effort to drill home the second.
Theo is back
The arrival, as substitutes, of Theo Walcott and Lukas Podolski added to our firepower in the closing stages and both were desperately unlucky not to add to our tally as we cut loose. In stoppage time the scoreline was made more representative of the gulf in class between the teams when Alexis, who else, grabbed his second goal courtesy of a Gibbs set-up.
There seemed little disagreement in the post match discussions in the pub. Most, it seemed were surprised we went with two holding players for so long. Alexis and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were outstanding and pretty much everybody else was competent at least. There were special mentions too for Nacho Monreal, again performing better than expected alongside Per Mertesacker, although he will face sterner tests than Burnley were able to provide.
It will be interesting to see when first we will start with Theo, Alexis, and Danny Welbeck. This coming week would be good, boss.
All in all a good day spent in very good company.
60 Responses to “Alexis Masterclass Delivers The Points”
A very good day, the best this season at The Grove. What was going on at the Tolly before the game?
at last a reasonable 30 mins at the end of this game, but it must be said that without the never say die attitude of Sanchez we may not have won this. His first goal was a great battling header he got himself between two bigger defenders and really had no right to win the header let along guide it to a goal. I wish we had a few more with his attitude
Imagine this
Ramsey Arteta
Walcott. Alexis. Chambo
Welbeck
Mad pace.
Top 4
Like a trophy
Fine account, Guvna.
Have we turned a corner in that second half? Remains to be seen.
Murder in the next street, countryman. The bloke was caught outside the Tolly and when I got there they were dusting around a sawn-off on the deck.
Holy Mary! Thought you’d been refused a pint due to no ID and had kicked off!
Cheers Guvna, dozed off to MOTD a happy bunny.More chinks of light breaking through the fog.
great
Hehe to no ID ๐
Nice one guv’.
Good day all round. Glad to see that we are once again creating the chances, the goals will come in droves if we continue in this vain. Theo looked good on his cameo, as did Ramsey, easy does it with them may be the best policy
Up The Arse.
Good stuff ‘holic!
Did n’t get to see it live, but watched the whole game this a.m. on ArsePlayer. Given where we were and the paucity of defensive reserves, I have no issue with the Flamini/Arteta selection in any game at present. Change after an hour was perfect for me, enabling team to up the tempo against a tired opposition.
We looked like a team with some fucking stones again. Long may it continue.
Fine piece, Guv’nor. Fine piece.
Nothing more to add, and for once, I shall attempt to add nothing more.
COYG
Murder near the Tolly?
I.S.I.S.?
Ebola?
‘Holic attempting to nick a refreshing beverage without proper identification?
Mercy, time to lock up the womenfolk and children. ๐
In Alexis I Trust.
BMBD
Really good game on our part yesterday. We could easily have scored three or four more. Burnley were not very good at all, but you can only beat what’s in front of you and we tore them to pieces in the end.
Like the Guv’nor I also thought Monreal had a good game. Also, the BFG looks much more like his old self again and he controlled that back four with authority. (On a related note: we may think our defensive options are somewhat limited, but look at ManUre in the game just now going on at the Ethiad – they are currently playing with a back four where two of them aren’t even defenders; we may have Monreal out of position but at least he is a defender to begin with)
Very nice to see Theo back in action. Let’s not put too much expectations on him after ten months out, but he looked really sharp and didn’t look like he’s lost any of his speed.
Poldi deserved a goal. How that post didn’t snap in half I will never know.
And then there’s Alexis… oh my. What a player we have got ourselves there!
…and ManU just had to take Rojos off for an injury and replaced him with a kid I have never heard of. That means they have exactly 0 (zero) defenders aged over 20 in that back four.
Spot on with the report Holic. I think you called all the excellent performances. I was underwhelmed with Santi who should have been subbed off. Rosicky would give us much more drive and pace which was what we lacked in our passing until Ramsey arrived. But if we hadn’t scored Alexis would have probably beaten eight men and driven one home. He was that good yesterday. I’m going for a 2-0 win on Tuesday and 2-1 down at Swansea
well called, holic. theo arriving from the heavens, though? or is it an iPhone issue?
scruz @ 17: iPhone issue. Saw that in the morning then checked it on the Macbook and everything looks fine here. ๐
Great report.
The Arteta-Flamini double pivote does look a little overkill in hindsight but it was important not to concede early “stupid” goals and as Rambo is still trying to find his form back he has not yet quite the superb balance between attack-defense that he used to be last season. As long as we are not chasing against dogged desperate defenses we would win these games, as we did last season dispatching most lowered position teams relatively comfortably.
Lars @ 15: Man U is playing rather well in the opposition half, it is their dysfunctional and injury-ridden defense that is causing them the problems, and lack of craft in the center of the pitch. City should have probably had a couple of penalties in the first half.
We should really beat them at Emirates this season. Play pragmatically and not give Di Maria any time and space, control the midfield and our frontline would have more than enough to score a couple.
Thank you guvnor for an excellent match report and not least of all for giving Monreal the credit he deserves for helping us get through our defensive crisis. The criticism of Wenger for not buying another defender in the summer has been alleviated a little by Nacho’s excellent filling in. Knock on wood we don’t have another defensive injury or that my words put the jinx on the Nacho man. On the attack I thought we looked more free-flowing than any game this season. Quite possibly because the opposition was not as good but also because of the players we had out there. When Cazorla finally puts one in he might go on a run and score three or four in a short span. Again, knock on wood. COYG.
Cracking report Holic matched equally impressively by Bath’s late last night effort. We all saw the same match so no need for further ramblings from me in this respect other than to say what a player Alexis is – just phenomenal.
The match was great and so was the pre-match and post match sessions in the Tolly. Wonderful to meet up again with the Guv’nor himself and Trev, Bath, Snowy, Tabs and a few less familar faces. Personally I was driving in this instance so was a virtue of sobriety, using Zico & H2H as my inspiration ;-). Post drinks Bath & I ventured to the Chip Inn,as recommended by BtM,for some much needed solid intake. Eventually picked up Mrs & Ms Uply from Gatwick Airport @ 2400 and arrived home in Devon at 0400 after a 400 mile round trip. Needless to say today has been a gentle one!
Well played Uply sir, well played.
Agree with everyone that Monreal had a very intelligent display vs Burnley, although I would not fancy him against in-form Bony next week.
Can’t wait for Kos to return, to be honest. Couple of sources say late November, but no reliable info on when he might be available from the club at the moment. Another Vermaelen never ending injury based on our luck, or just a long rest needed for this type of injuries- time will tell.
Spawny Spurs spoil perfect weekend. They were utter pony though.
Fine report. ‘Holic. Only thing to add is that Nacho does have more than a dozen caps for Spain during the era of its finest team ever, so he is hardly a neophyte.
To Dr F’s point, if we concede the first goal we do have a nearly insurmountable uphill battle ahead. We have only won one of the five league games this season where we have gone 1-0 down (Palace, Everton, Man City, Spurs and Chelsea). And the win against Palace in the opener took a goal in time added on to the 90 to secure the victory.
Measured performance, Uply. It is all about the pacing…
Ned.
A glass half full view would be that we have only lost one game when we have gone 1-0 down. ๐
Faustus@20, agree completely about ManU. Not too bad in attack, but horrible in defence. They should have been down to nine and City were denied three penalties.
Lurky: Arsene has said Kos should be back after the next international break.
H2H: My cup would be running over, though, if we’d got the extra six points lost in the three draws. We’d be sitting second and just 3 points off the Chavs.
Lonestar. In Alexis I trust too. Partly because his departure is helping to destroy Barcelona. ๐
Although I was disappointed with the double defensive screen in front of the back four in a home game, I understood the cautious approach taken by AW, who admitted after the match that he wanted a clean sheet to boast the confidence of the defence.
The first half was a tedious watch and I couldn’t wait for the substitutions to put some energy into the MF. I was surprised Santi was not the first to go, little do I know.
Rambo did liven things up and the pace of the game was more like it. Would like to think we could start the game on Tuesday in a similar fashion.
The PIG had a couple of dodgy moments but the back four looked secure and hopefully they can maintain this level until Kos is back in the squad.
Loved Theo’s cameo and Poldi’s two fine efforts but the star of this and recent shows was our amazingly hard working Sanchez. What a player, a real super star, a contender for player of the season if he maintains this brilliant form. Let’s hope he drags the rest of the team along and we start to fire on all cylinders, sooner rather than later. Alexis please stay fit! We all love you.
COYRs
If AW’s idea was to start cautiously with a double pivot to ensure a clean sheet, or at least not a goal conceded early on, then it makes sense that one of the double pivots would be removed once he had decided that the defense was well settled and that the team had to play in a more attacking formation if it was to win the game. I also suspect that he wanted to give Arteta’s legs as much rest as possible before the Andelecht game.
Cheers Holic!
Good to see you yesterday, and nice to meet up with Uply again and an unfortunately very brief chat with Bath who was arriving as I was leaving.
I’m with Delia in terms of match report – very much a game of two halves for me.
I thought the two defensive midfielders were unnecessary against such limited opposition and hampered us greatly in terms of creativity. Although we did get one or two decent shots away – good efforts from Alexis and Welbeck – our approach play was laboured and painfully slow.
Surely enough confidence should have been taken from the 2-0 victory at Sunderland to allow us to take a little bit the handbrake off against Burnley at home.
Tactically the first half was a bit strange altogether. Over cautious and seemingly trying to get a lot of crosses in – an unusual one for us, especially as we had very few in the box to get on the end of them.
The confidence issue is a strange one too. Wouldn’t a rip roaring half and two or three goals have done as much as a half time clean sheet.
And before anyone jumps – no I am not unhappy/ungrateful/joyless at a 3-0 victory, but it was a very unsatisfying first half.
While I do agree that Monreal had a very decent game yesterday, I do think we are in big trouble at DM. For the first twenty minutes of the second half Burnley put up quite a decent effort and got through into our back four much too easily. And they did it along the ground – not just lumping in crosses.
The introduction of Ramsey did transform the game though. The characteristic ‘ charge of the Light Brigade ‘ began ten minutes earlier than usual and showed what we could have done to a very average Burnley.
Ramsey seemed to look stronger and altogether better than the very off-form player of the earlier part of the season. There was a much better drive through midfield and the chances, and goals, came.
The introduction of Podolski and the long awaited Theo completed the panic in the Burnley defence, and both were very unlucky not to enhance the score line. Podolski is such a waste to this team on the bench. He has an absolute hammer of a left foot – he nearly injured someone in the crowd during the warm up with a shot that missed the goal from about 35 yards out! – gets himself into great pisitions, and has very decent goal stats, especially considering the short time he actually spends on the pitch. I really wish the Podolski conundrum could be solved.
Sounds like a Len Deighton novel – The Podolski Conundrum – there’s another book for you to write, Holic. ๐
Oh, did I forget to mention Alexis ?
Wonderful, brilliant player who allies incredible skill and strength to an amazing work ethic.
What the Donald Duck were Barcelona thinking.
The Ox deserves special mention too. Huge improvement yesterday.
Plenty of Deighton novels in this team, Trev:
Funeral in Bellarin
SS-Gibbs
Ox Under Water
Mateta
Only 35 drinks?
Oh. We must have won!
Here’s to many more parched days…
Trev: one guess as to why we started with Flamini/Arteta even though it probably wasn’t necessary could be because Arsene wants to give the team some stability and continuity, i.e. the “make as few changes as possible and build some confidence” strategy. Or perhaps he was just being careful not to play Ramsey too much too soon after the injury. We could of course have played Rosicky instead of Arteta but for some reason Arsene seems to only want to play him in the later parts of the season, and again we come back to the stability factor. After all, when you are struggling for confidence it is usually better to make as few changes as possible as changes only adds to the insecurity. It could also be Arsene’s way of saying “Hey, it may only be Burnley but let’s not forget to defend”. If we look at it long-term we may also need the Flamini/Arteta combo against bigger teams and giving them more time together at this stage may be beneficial when we do need to play them both.
This does of course not in any way mean I don’t agree we have a problem in the DM position. Anyone, including Arsene, can see that and I really do hope we can do something about it in January.
Lars @37, I think you have the answer to the Flamteta selection there. The reason was probably a little bit of all of those plus a desire to ensure that the relatively untested combo of Mertereal at CB had adequate cover.
We have been crying out for an adequate defensive focus for ages (and off and on for years after we have been caught on the break with our centre wide open). There is no doubt that Flamteta compromises our attacking prowess but at this point it makes a lot of sense to give them playing time and end the pattern of losing the first goal.
Meanwhile a good signing at DMF or CB would add a long term solution to the problem.
Lars – yes, I get all those possibilities but I’m not sure what the big confidence issue is supposed to be against Burnley at home.
Sure, Hull was not great but we had a pretty decent week beating both Anderlecht and Sunderland away from home in the space of four days. If the idea was to let Flamini cover Monreal at CB, I think it worked out the other way round.
A win is a win and all, and I’ll take it, but with the quality of players we have compared to Burnley the first half was very frustrating. A much better second half though.
Morning, bath – cross posting.
Morning Trev. No I’m quite relaxed, mate. ๐
Trev, I’m not saying I agree with all those reasons, I’m just trying to guess what Arsene was thinking ๐
Where we do disagree though is the frustration of the first half. We played well enough to have scored at least twice before the interval so for me the frustration was more about not finishing off the chances we did create and not about how we played. Burnley set out to frustrate us but we kept our cool and in the end the reward came.
On another note, van Gaal keeps trying to shift blame in the tried and tested Harry Redknapp tradition:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/02/louis-van-gaal-chris-smalling-manchester-united-stupid
By all means, blame Smalling for the loss – let’s ignore that by the time Smalling was sent off ManC had already missed two sitters, should have had a penalty and despite not playing particularly well waltzed through United almost at will on several occasions. A decent ref would also have sent Rojos off and awarded a penalty to Yaya Toure shortly after Smalling walked.
I also saw his post-match interview on MOTD2 last night and the look on his face when he said “we are very close” (i.e. to being “the old Manchester United again”) told me that he was probably trying to convince himself more than anyone else.
I think we just got the answer to the reason as to why Arteta started instead of Ramsey – we simply didn’t have much choice:
Wenger said Ramsey had been โsick all weekโ and he used him only as a substitute.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/02/theo-walcott-return-win-burnley-arsenal-problem-balance
Right, I’ll continue to ramble on by myself over here in the corner ๐
I know not everyone likes Barney Ronay, but I think this is a very good analysis of the Manc derby:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/nov/02/manchester-city-united-derby-premier-league-collapsico
Hehe ๐ Morning Lars. Everybody else must be hungover from Saturday.
Lars…good links for post match thoughts.
Plus points from Saturdays match.
Nacho Monreal: Had a very good game. His positioning was good and speed of thought and passing was above average for a CB, no doubt due to his FB experience. His height / size though could be a weakness against some teams if they know how to exploit this.
The Ox….had a much improved game. He attempted a lot of man beating skills that Alexis shows, with reasonable success. I thinks he is learning from him and have high hopes for him for the future.
Theo…something in his game seems to have moved on. His last game against the spuds when he was used as a striker / inside forward, he showed good control and game awareness. Likewise in his short cameo on Saturday, albeit against a beaten Burnley side, when running with the ball, it was under control and he knew how to use it to the teams benefit. Previously when running at pace with the ball, there was no control and often with no end product. Early doors but there appears to a higher level of football intelligence, which aligned with his pace and good goal scoring ability will make him the talented player we always dreamed of.
The future is looking bright!
Good points Uply.
Anyone of you gents noticed that Theo looks more physically stronger and tougher after the injury, or I am imagining something?
Cheers Lurky….you are right, at long last Theo looks up for the physical challenges of the game…no more Mr Nice Guy!
A Game which was all about him, all about Alexis Sanchez. Yes there were others who played a part but sorry the main picture was all about him. It was not about his goals only, they were brilliant both of them but about his passion. The way he wants the team to close down opposition and the way he does it himself is a joy to behold. Yes at times his team mates get infuriated that he doesnt pass but then i rather have him being selfish this way.
3 points and a clean sheet was the perfect script though i am never convinced about flamini and arteta together, i am not convinced about flamini at all is a different matter but then when we have won i dont want to dwell on it.
The one who has been a thorough professional is Monreal, we all were worried about him but he has been admirable with his work rate and reading of the game and the one main difference between him and per is nacho wants to move the play forward than sidewards.
Chelsea win was the dampener but united and pool lost and that is always good.
Anderlecht tomorrow night should be a night off for Danny and Sanchez but i doubt it for Wenger would want the qualification done and dusted.
A start or an early substitution appearance for Theo and Jack should be nice and i want Poldi and Campbell to start please. Why do we have them on the bench?? to pose for instagram pics???
Finally happy Birthday to Ian Wright, what a player what a joy.
So pleased that the Alexis I saw for Chile is the same Alexis we are seeing for Arsenal.
Indeed, Uply.
Thought Theo looked purposeful, composed and surprisingly quick all things considered.
The thing with Theo, even if he’s not having a great game himself, is that he gives our midfield more room to work in because defences dare not push up so high.
Looking forward to Tuesday night – we have the potential to be scarily quick up front now, but that midfield must keep the ball moving more quickly.
Now if Arsenal could just move the seat in front of me forward about 4 inches I could watch in perfect comfort too. Not a lot to ask, is it ? ๐
Thought the same, Uply.
Hi Trev. Long time no speak ๐
I said the same to the BA staff last week…. iยดm thinking that youยดll have the same amount of success! An upgrade… not too much to ask!!
Hi Catalan,
You wouldn’t think so – it’s only one seat after all ! ๐
selfish bastards
Hello Holic and holics,
We got the win. The rest of you have covered it. Much obliged.
I am currently on my way to London. Tomorrow I will be at the Ems for the first time this season. Well excited.
Who’s going to be in the Tollie pre – match?
Brave man Gunnersaurus…
I saw a very similar fame to Trev and frankly agree that if we can’t be confident against Burnley at home when can we. We won that game primarily because Sanchez played out of his skin and had good support from the Ox , Podolski , Ramsey and Walcott. The catalyst for the change in style was Ramsey but what Trev would have sensed in the stadium was the degree of unease at our half- time display which was pedestrian even if we nearly got a couple of goals. The tempo of our passing went up significantly after we withdrew Arteta and developed a more positive mindset. However, I’m not sure if we would have been able to ease our way into the fame against decent opposition. Sometimes despite the fact we are strong Wenger loyalists we do excuse stuff that shouldn’t be excused in an ambitious club aiming for the top. The first half display as with the second half display against Hull were examples of a level I don’t think us acceptable given the talent at our disposal.
Interesting stuff on Flamini / Arteta
http://arseblog.com/2014/11/tactics-column-flamini-arteta-provided-base-for-alexis-to-flourish/
I said it above, given where we were and the gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes that followed our being in that place, I’m all for it. Wins are wins. Clean sheets are important, very important to this defensive set-up. It breeds confidence and further success.
Indeed Jez. Hopefully put into some context in the preview that follows.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>