Five In A Row For Unai’s Arsenal But Some Remain Unconvinced
Sep 24th, 2018 by 'holic
Late Sunday kick-off’s now necessitate late Monday evening recall and an attempt to pick the wheat from the chaff of another excellent day at the football. A delicious haddock lunch was enjoyed before heading north for a large glass of something with good friends. It was a good day before the match had even started. That the Arsenal recorded a fifth straight win made it all the better.
You will all have seen the highlights by now so I’m better discussing the perception of what happened among those I enjoyed post match pints at a pub I didn’t know existed. The first thing to emphasise is that it was what is becoming a typical Gunners performance in recent weeks. We started slowly and allowed Everton far too many incursions into our box. I am starting to think this may be more by design than accident but I am struggling to comprehend the why?
It is not the deep-defending rope-a-dope that Arsene Wenger occasionally employed against our more competent rivals. We still commit bodies forward sometimes in excessive numbers and are unprepared for the inevitable break that follows the loss of possession.
Petr Cech chose a good day to produce almost the complete goalkeeping performance. He denied one-on-ones and longer range efforts whilst looking more confident in his distribution. It would be churlish to be too critical of anyone in his back four because at the end of the day they finally got the blank sheet that had eluded us. A week off for the culprits this week.
In midfield Lucas Torreira got the nod to start over Matteo Guendouzi and gave a polished performance despite picking up an early yellow card. Alongside him Granit Xhaka delighted and frustrated in equal measure. His industry was there for all to see but too often he gifts the ball to opponents exposing us to the counter attack. However when, not for the first time, we started the second-half with greater pace and purpose he was responsible for prompting so many attacks.
There was also an interesting combination of Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil who seemed to interchange at will and covered the left flank in turns to free up Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Neither of them seems to have worked out this dual role yet but for all that they had quiet spells both made us more dominant after the break. Indeed Ramsey claimed two assists for the goals, a dream curling strike inside the far post by the hard-working Alexandre Lacazette and a cleverly placed pass inside the same post by a clearly offside Aubameyang. We accepted the good fortune which had deserted us earlier when two solid penalty appeals were waved away by referee Moss.
Rob Holding gave a good account of himself as an early substitute for Sokratis. Everything crossed that the big Greek recovers quickly. Alex Iwobi impressed as a substitute for Aubameyang. Cech had to stay alert to the end as the visitors tried desperately to claw something back to no avail. So why a degree of unease among the faithful in the wake of a good result.
Perhaps we need to remind ourselves that a squad largely employed by a different manager are coming to terms with a different style of play. There are bound to be some who revert to what they have long been taught in the past. I think that nervousness may last until a quality rival is overturned and in that respect we will probably have to wait until we have played Liverpool to accept that we are, or indeed are not, on the right track.
23 Responses to “Five In A Row For Unai’s Arsenal But Some Remain Unconvinced”
Cheers H! Shame wont see you on Saturday.
Cheers Jez, I’ll miss you two too. ??
A very interesting take on the current situation Holic and one I generally agree with. My one departure is in relation to Xhaka. He doesn’t delight and frustrate me in equal measure the frustration is way more than the delight! I think he is a luxury we cannot afford and he doesn’t affect play enough to be worth a place. How many assists has he in the last two seasons? I’m sure Ned knows the answer. Certainly not as many as the number of times he fartarses about twenty five yards from goal.
I’m still not seeing much difference in style . The pressing isn’t anywhere near effective enough but the imposition of Torreira gave us a proper DM sitting neatly in front of the back four. It was interesting on his first start that we had our first clean sheet although in fairness without the superb Cech we would have lost.
Granit Xhaka assists:
16-17 3
17-18 8
COYG
How Lacazette and Aubameyang celebrates each others goals reminds me of York and Cole
Nice reflections, Guvna.
However I’m with TTG on the Xhaka frustration index vastly outweighing the productivity. How can a man capable of such accurate long balls prove so capable of such ineptitude when passing to a closely teammate under a bit of pressure. Short or fluffed or inaccurate passes occur at least once per game and cause us problems. Last season they cost us goals and points.
I know Torreira is expected to provide the support ot make Xhaka a better player but I can’t see how another player can correct such persistent defects. I really can’t see Xhaka adapting to the Emery play-out system as he seems not to have the coolness or the quickness of thought or slickness of feet. I hope he proves me wrong but I do think we need an upgrde there.
Meanwhile I do think Torreira will make a major difference and Sokratis (get well soon) is looking the business at CB.
Unlike some, I have no problem seeing Laca start at CF and PEA on the left with fluid interchange (most usually yesterday with Ramsey). It does seem to be quite productive. Once Mesut finds his mojo I expect much greater productivity.
Celebratory Montenegro on the rocks on the bar.
Onwards.
Who needs monks when you have Pangloss?
Xhaka gets an assist every 679 minutes played, compared to every 378 mins for Ramsey and 240 mins for Ozil.
Ramsey and Ozil also score more regularly, every 378 and 437 minutes respectively, against Xhaka’s 1,019 minutes.
These numbers are for career Arsenal games.
The conundrum about Xhaka is that if Emery has the team playing out from the back in order to play through the lines of the opposition, then Xhaka’s great strength, extremely accurate but very long passes, does not seem to fit with that, although it obviously offers a Plan B.
You rightly praise Cech, ‘Holic, but his distribution looked (and was) better because he hoofed it long at the slightest hint of trouble and only passed short when there was no pressure on — not an unsensible strategy by any means.
Ned – Are those stats Monk-confirmed? If so, it would appear that I can read the Fantasy League history section. Who knew?
Glad you had an enjoyable day out H,
Good food and drink among friends,and 3pts to top it off,what’s not to like.
More intrigued by the name of the pub you never knew existed.
As for the game,summed up very well by your good self and contributors in the bar,with only a couple of points of digression over certain players. We are still in the early stages of a complete change of structure and playing style at the Club,and as such there are going to be some speed bumps along the way,so i am not going to criticize anyone individually.
A team is the sum of all its parts,and i have faith in Unai to adjust and tinker here and there till he is happy with the balance of the team.
What i do find immensely encouraging,is that we are winning games despite not looking truly at ease with the new system on the pitch.
Interesting comments from Peter Cech in an interview on ESPN,where he said that under Arsene,sometimes style won out over substance,that it was more important to play the Arsenal way,than to get your hands dirty and fight fire with fire to win the points,and we were never a hope of winning the league.
He said everything had changed and there was now a much more demanding culture on the training ground,with everyone working their socks off to keep their place,with competition for every position.
Which is how it should be.
Something Santi alluded to during last week as well,where he said the players lacked the belief that they could compete for the title during his time there.
I am an unashamed fan of the new setup and our new Manager,and i am really looking forward to watching the unfolding evolution he is bringing to my beloved Club.
For those interested,
there is a fuller view of Cech’s comments over on the Guardian website under David Hytner moniker.
Thanks for the stats Pangloss and Ned.
They are about what I would have suspected. Not good enough to have a pivotal midfield player contributing at those levels and perhaps no coincidence that in the two seasons he has played we have missed out on CL qualification. Ozil and Ramsey get stick but they produce so much more
By the way if anyone has seen the awfully staged FIFA Awards surely they can do better than Idris Elba even though he is A Gooner and some of the very amateurish staging. A bit pathetic
Clive, it was El Comandante in Annette Road. Never been there in my life and it is literally around the corner from the ground.
Formerly the Lord Palmerston, Google tells me. Now. Cuban themed.
There is a Piccadilly line strike which coincides with the game tomorrow. I think talks to settle it are ongoing but should it happen Im not going to try to get there. £10 wasted but what the hell.
Cuban themed.
They have a dress code but H was able to stroll in.
https://i.imgur.com/tGbkrCy.jpg
had experience revolution-y themed bars
populated mainly
gardener-mown grassroots
working (on-their-imaginary-novel )classes
supping wheat beer from them big tall pint pots
at 50p more than the bar next door
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https://extramuralactivity.com/2013/07/04/che-guevara-lynch/
but
of course
there are other opinions
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wrong ones
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3VfugdCTTU
Hehe, Cynic. ?
cba knows. 3 pints were £15 ? Love the Polly link, thank you. ??
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