Gunners On The Up With Creativity Restored
Feb 24th, 2019 by 'holic
Unai Emery made some significant changes to the starting eleven that won 3-0 on Thursday. At the back Sokratis Papastathopoulos was preferred to Laurent Koscielny and Sead Kolasinac replaced Nacho Monreal at left-back. Ahead of them Lucas Torreira returned at the expense of Matteo Guendouzi, Aaron Ramsey displaced the unfortunate Mesut Ozil, and Alexandre Lacazette consigned Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to the bench. The manager explained his thinking,
“We need fresh team with energy, and quality”
Both sides started with the energy Emery had called for. Sokratis showed a turn of speed some have doubted he has to deny Redmond early on, much to the relief of the wandering Leno. In the sixth minute the same striker raced clear, no flag ensued, and we had Leno to thank for a brave block.
Moments later chaos reigned in front of the Clock End. Stephens hauled down Torreira but the referee didn’t immediately award the clear foul. Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s goalbound strike was back-heeled into the net by an alert Lacazette. Mr Scott smiled, I suspect knowing he had missed a blatant foul and got away with one.
The Arsenal 1-0 Southampton
Granit Xhaka just missed the target when the recipient of an Alex Iwobi pass as the Gunners looked to build on that platform. Southampton fought back, and Leno was called on to make another fine diving save. The Arsenal needed to respond, and did. Stephens poor back pass put Gunn under pressure, he cleared straight to Iwobi to set up Mkhitaryan for a superb right foot finish inside the near post.
The Arsenal 2-0 Southampton
Kolasinac called for a penalty when Romeu’s hand blocked his shot on target, but on first viewing it was more ball to hand than the other way around. When Xhaka found Lacazette with a superb long ball the striker turned inside Stephens but Bednarek made a desperate last gasp block to keep it down to two.
Some of the football The Arsenal were playing was sumptuous. Back to the days of swift intricate passing moves, predominantly down the left flank where Iwobi was proving to be the fulcrum point. However it was a corner from the right that Lacazette headed towards the far post and drew a wonderful full-length save from Gunn.
Lacazette lifted a great opportunity over the bar from point-blank range when Kolasinac picked him out. When the same two combined again Lacazette’s on-target effort was saved by Gunn. An Iwobi cross was deflected close, but not close enough, to an unmarked Mkhitaryan at the far post.
It’s fun watching the Gunners in this mood. Could we take this form into the second-half?
Southampton made two changes at half-time ringing on Obafemi and the dreaded Austin for Alexander and the hapless Stephens. The Arsenal carried on where they had left off with a wonderful marauding run through the centre by the rampaging Kolasinac.
From nowhere we were almost the authors of our own downfall. Xhaka’s ludicrous cross field pass on the edge of the area fell to Ward-Prowse who drilled his effort mercifully just wide of Leno’s left hand post. It’s not the first time Xhaka has played that suicidal ball and had it picked off. It had better be the last.
Ten minutes into the half Stephan Lichsteiner hobbled off. Laurent Koscielny joined Sokratis in the centre of the defence and Shkodran Mustafi switched to right-back, a role he has filled for Germany. The action was at the other end. Iwobi and Ramsey tore Valery a new one but the cut-back across the face of goal found no willing runners.
A minute later Ramsey was withdrawn to a standing ovation to be replaced by Ozil, also the recipient of a huge cheer. The home support were sending a clear message to the head coach that we need creativity in the side. To be fair he has obviously listened. The Saints were forced into their last change. Half-time substitute Obafemi, whose only contribution had been a nasty late hack at Xhaka’s standing ankle, departed with a recurring hamstring problem to be replaced by Elyounoussi.
In the 74th minute Lacazette escaped the hook when Valery ended Iwobi’s afternoon with a bad challenge. Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang was the third star to come off a very strong bench. Valery was fortunate to escape punishment when he also caught Aubameyang with a high and late challenge. Romeu too was allowed a challenge into the back of Lacazette that was timed with a sundial.
Just five minutes remained when Gunn somehow kept out Aubameyang’s deflected cross after Ozil’s glorious touch had sent the striker clear down the left hand side. At the other end Leno denied both Targett’s excellent strike and the ‘holic pound. I’m happier with the clean sheet than a few quid.
With no goals at Old Trafford at this point we were heading for the top four at the pointed end of the season. Not bad for a club with so many problems apparently. The final whistle blew and was greeted by a very happy home crowd. Bring on Bournemouth.
43 Responses to “Gunners On The Up With Creativity Restored”
First Baby!
you are certainly on your game, holic. you must be feeling better! glad to see it (keep sitting up in bed, right?).
only saw from minute 54, but liked the effort. ozil looked good when he came on. auba too, though that last miss…woof. leno with the nice save from the volley.
onwards, lads.
Nice one H. Who needs lungs to review a game in super quick time?
Not to be churlish about three points, a clean sheet and what you rightly call sumptuous first-half football, ‘Holic, but we didn’t turn enough of that dominance into goals that would have killed the game by half time and plumped up the goal average, which may prove critical come the end of the season.
And Auba still can’t buy a goal.
Top report H. I saw bits of the same game. I’m with Ned that we could/should have added at least a couple more. But the clean sheet is great news, as are 3 points. Next.
I must say, I agree with Ned at 4, but not at 5.
First half I thought we were excellent. Some fast flowing football which was great to watch. We created lots of very good chances but were just not clinical enough. A great advantage and then a fantastic bit of skill resulted in the first goal. The second was also well worked. We should really have turned that early dominance into a hatful of goals.
The second half I thought was laboured in comparison. Lichsteiner going off I actually thought upset the balance a bit. Both he and Kolasinac had been strong at the back and very good going forward. Not something I ever expected to type.
Mkhitaryan and Iwobi were both excellent in the first half. Real live wires.
The changes seemed to upset the rhythm somewhat. I’m guessing that two were changes not anticipated.
3 points and a clean sheet are both very welcome a repeat in midweek with the spuds losing will set up the NLD magnificently.
Very fair report Holic in double quick time. Not bad for a man in an iron lung! I’m just coming back from the match, happy to have won but I share Ned’s frustration that we couldn’t put them to the sword. Goal difference could be vital.
It was a funny game in many ways. Saints had the bulk of possession until we scored and continued to threaten until we scored again whereupon we played some lovely attacking football. In the second half we kept fluffing our lines in attack but looked better when Mesut came on. Despite bidding the game Leno had to make three terrific saves and although Sokratis was particularly solid and Mkhitaryan had the best game Izvestia seen him have we weren’t as fluent consistently as I would have liked.
I saw a very dismayed Lacazette grimace when the substitution was announced. Although he stayed on the harm wa done. Iwobi has an excellent first half but faded and hobbled off to be replaced by Auba.
Three important points but two six-pointers to come after Bournemouth that we need st least four points from
No Russian infiltration of my comments. Izvestia should be I’ve and bidding should be bossing . I plead clemency as I was going through a tunnel !
Fine report Guvnor.
I thought we attacked well first half
but were a bit careless at the back.
Then we reversed that 2nd half.
On we go, in better heart than of late
I hope.
Thanks all. That first half certainly raised the spirits. Long may we approach those levels in the crucial coming weeks.
Jorginho is useless, misses his first penalty, a very weak one.
Luiz has a history of missing penalties. Chelsea goalie refused to be subbed and they paid the penalty. City win their first trophy of the year.
Even a fit, healthy guy would have struggled to get that report in the quick time you did, Holic. Hope you make a complete recovery fast.
We haven’t played the sort of scintillating football as we did in the first half. Almost everyone played well but we were also lucky that we didn’t concede first. If we had, the story could have been very different. We are fourth and have a good chance of finishing in that position if we win at least one of the two six pointers against spuds and manure.
Very sorry that Ramsey will at the end of the season. His energy and experience will be very difficult to replace.
Didn’t see the game so I enjoyed the report all the more for that. Even Steve seems happy so it can’t have been all bad 🙂 I’m sure he’s thinking we could have done with more width though.
Get better, old timer!
Who will be out of the door at Chelsea first, Arrizabalaga or Sarri?
Eleven games left;12 for Chelsea, who will be level with us on points if they win their game in hand.
As KSN says, fourth is there for the holding. We have two ‘top six’ games left (the NLD and Man U at home). Man U and Chelsea have three. Man U also host Man City and Chelsea and Chelsea has to go to Liverpool and Manu U as well as play Spurs at home. So plenty of opportunities for them to drop points. As well as beating the neighbours (because that is just what one does), it is critical to at the minimum split the points with Manu U. We have also got to go to Wolves, Everton and Watford, all potential banana skins.
The run-ins:
Arsenal
Bournemouth (H)
Spurs (A)
Man U (H)
Wolves (A) DTBC
Newcastle (H)
Everton (A)
Watford (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Leicester (A)
Brighton (H)
Burnley (A)
Chelsea
Spurs (H)
Fulham (A)
Wolves (H)
Everton (A)
Brighton (H) DTBC
Cardiff (A)
West Ham (H)
Liverpool (A)
Burnley (H)
Man U (A)
Watford (H)
Leicester (A)
Man U
Crystal Palace (A)
Southampton (H)
Arsenal (A)
Watford (H)
Wolves (A)
West Ham (H)
Everton (A)
Man City (H)
Chelsea (H)
Huddersfield (A)
Cardiff (H)
Critical to our chances of top 4 Ned,are to markedly improve our away form,which has been dire recently to put it mildly.
After we play Newcastle at home on 1st of April, 5 of our last 7 games will be away from the Ems.
We cannot fit the Wolves away game in until last midweek of April or first one in May,depending on our continued involvement in EL.
We do have a good record away at Everton,but Watford are always a problem given they love kicking the shit out of us,Leicester will be under new management and playing for contracts next season,and i would hate to go to Burnley on the final day needing the 3pts.
That leaves Wolves,who gave us a hard time at the Ems,and have really surprised a lot of teams this season,so that won’t be easy either.
So we will have to do it the hard way.
A bonus is Utd are still in the FA Cup and is the only chance of silverware,and Chelsea like us are still in the EL.
So all 3 have more than one thing to focus on.
Clive’s comments are very pertinent. Although we are not playing top 6 sides most of our away games are against teams who are running into form like Newcastle, Burnley, Wolves and Watford. I think we are up against it to qualify for the top 4 but the fact that it is a possibility ( Europa League aside) is good as we enter March. An improvement on last season .
We do need to keep key players fit, especially central defenders and our marquee players. Aside from this I’m still not understanding Emery. What was the point of the Suarez signing? He warmed the bench today and gets ten minutes at the end of some games ( to negligible effect so far) . I would be astonished if we activate the option to buy him. We have far greater priorities even if against the odds we did qualify for the CL and got a lot more wonga.
TTG
I think with Suarez,the conundrum is he has hardly played any football atall this season at Barca,and i think the support staff are working hard behind the scenes in training,getting him up to the required physical level to be of use to us in the run in.
We still have an awful lot of football to play,and i would expect him to have more involvement as we roll into March.
Depending on how the Bournemouth game pans out,we may see him with some game time,but whether he is up to speed to feature against Spurs and Utd is another matter,but the Rennes games could be a time to see what he can do.
But if he is still warming the bench come April,then i cannot see the point of the loan.
By the by,
Another good league win for the under 18’s, 3 – 1 away at Southampton,looks like that Title will be determined by our home game with the Spuds at the end of April.
Under the radar dash into CL territory as the bombs drop on all sides. How long can we hold the line?
I have a feeling Bournemouth will test our back line much more than Southampton ever could, unfortunately.
Handy if Burnley are safe or down
– either would do – by the last game.
Sides with nothing to play for are
generally easier at the end of the
season.
AMN back for the Bournemouth
game would be handy too.
AMN back would be great as he provides pace on our right flank but surprisingly Lichsteiner has had two great games back to back against Bate and Saints (till he was subbed). I had completely written off Lichsteiner but he has surprised me. AMN is one for the future and a run of fixtures till the end of the season (Bellerin will probably feature only in the next season) will help his development greatly.
Bellerin’s knee looks scary.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6724995/Hec
Well played Holic, in the same circumstances I think I would have sent in a sick note.
Of late the social side of supporting the Gunners has kept me going but yesterday there were two delightful moves in the first half , neither of which resulted in a goal, which had me on my feet. It was a reminder of what football is all about as far as I’m concerned, it had me smiling again.
Yes we got away with the real chance Southampton had in the first minutes and Leno was forced into making some really good saves. We should have scored another 3 or 4 more goals from the chances we had and how Laca missed his easy chance that he put over the bar is bewildering .
It was one of the good days at the Ems, an entertaining first half with plenty of good football. I suspect we sat back after the interval to reserve energy for Wednesday which allowed Southampton to have more of the ball but for once we held out with the second clean sheet in a week, amazing.
Coupled with the win and the lovely weather , I walked to and from the Ems and made the 17.04 train home. Arsenal more of the same on Wednesday, please.
COYR
Xhaka( one horror pass) and Kolasinac were excellent for us yesterday, we wont have easy games in the premier league and not us for sure considering our defense, so although saints did give us a fight first half, second half apart from one shot leno saved, they hardly threatened.
Mkhi had a decent game but tends to complicate easy passes, Torreira efficient and the rest played their part, ozil was class, auba wasteful but then we cant be harsh all the time, especially not when we have won the game.
Bournemouth home midweek and overall we have 5 home games including United, if we get 15/15 and then realistically get 6/18 in our away games, we will be at 74 points, enough for 4th?? time shall tell.
It would be really crappy to only
get 6 out of 18 points in the
remaining away games but then we
are below Wolves and Watford on
away form this season.
Next away game would be a good
time to start putting that right.
Too many pictures of Bellerin’s knee for my taste. At least there weren’t any pictures of his pony tail though.
Had we been able to pair Koscielny and Sokratis consistently I think our defensive performances would be much better this season. Leno is an excellent shot- stopper and good with the ball at his feet. I suspect Mustafi might back a better right back than any of the other candidates and Kolasinac is a fine attacker if average defender.
As Holic suggested in his preview on Saturday we above all need to ensure that we have a creator in the midfield and wherever possible play Auba and Lacazette
Sokratis and Kos was a point I made a few weeks back. I do think we look a lot stronger with those two at the heart of the defence.
Is Mustafi the new Gus Ceaser? Discuss.
Clive & TTG@17-19: Good points all. We have some difficult games, without doubt, and especially on the road.
VP@26. The last time 74 points was good enough for fourth was in 2015/16, the season Leicester won the league. Indeed, 74 points would have got you second that season.
Last season, 74 points would have got you fifth, and two seasons back it would have only got you sixth.
I see the Manager down the road from us has been charged by the FA with improper conduct,after his full facial with Mike Dean at Burnley on Saturday.
Should be at least 3 matches in the grandstand for him,including our match on Saturday.
What i find laughable is the rather muted reaction from the Press in regards to this.
If that had been Arsene,the vitriol and over the top reporting both in print, on Television and social media, would have been wall to wall for days.
according to the arsenal pravda, one abou diary has hung up his boots. i will forever hate the name “dan smith.”
good luck, abou, in your future. when you were on, you could be magic. thanks for all of it.
@32
Yes, not much about Poch’s meltdown.
Is it Poch’s essential blandness or that
Spuds long-term mediocrity means
they are simply meaningless to most
football fans? The truth probably lies
somewhere in the middle as usual.
AW mattered, the winless Poch does
not, and it’s the Spuds so who cares.
Sad to hear of Diaby hanging up his boots. He deserves a statue for kicking John Terry in the face.
What about a John Terry weeble that
Abou could kick in the face anytime
the urge took him?
OM – Brilliant!
That’s a bit harsh Osaka Matt
Anyway I am a weeble already
We’ve a harsher word for you
than weeble where I come from
Terry. Now, on yer bike, this bar
is for er… decent folk.
Cheers H!
@17 Goonersince54
“..and i would hate to go to Burnley….”
PERIOD. ITS A MASSIVE FUCKING SHIT HOLE.
Esso
That’s not fair.
It’s a very small shithole! ?
Holic,
You have mail !
Thank you TTG. You are a star. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>