Set Pieces Give Gunners Deserved Derby Triumph
Jan 20th, 2019 by 'holic
The perfect end to the perfect week. A difficult match against a top four rival, and a near perfect performance. Coming in the wake of the debacle at West Ham this was a real tonic. There is but one dark cloud over our heads this morning. The loss of Hector Bellerin, probably for the rest of the season, is a heavy price to pay. He has come back to something like his best this season and he will be a huge miss.
What had gone on before was an absolute pleasure to witness. We reverted to a back four and Laurent Koscielny got the nod ahead of Shkodran Mustafi. That proved a masterstroke as the skipper looked back to his best. Three combative midfielders and a recall for Aaron Ramsey just behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette gave us a platform from which to switch from attack to defence in an entertaining opening.
We should perhaps been ahead as early as the fourth minute when Lacazette found Aubameyang in front of goal, but sadly the Gabon international shanked his flick wide of the far post. In the eighth minute we gave some notice of what was to follow when a well-drilled corner found Sokratis who was just unable to keep his header on target.
In the thirteenth minute another set piece that did not come as a surprise. Torreira found the head of the rampaging Koscielny and he in turn brought a sensational save out of Arrizabalaga (don’t ask, I haven’t a clue either!).
In the fourteenth minute we were ahead. Two identical corners found Lacazette, the first cleared behind for the second which Lacazette controlled, spun round, and launched over the outstretched left hand of Arrizabalaga high into the net. The conversion of what the boys had worked on in training was a joy to experience.
The Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea
Three minutes later Aubameyang dispossessed Azpilicueta and sprinted hard on goal but this time Arrizabalaga was equal to the effort. In this mood The Arsenal are an irresistible force. Chelsea finally responded when Pedro beat the offside trap, chipped Bernd Leno, but watched as the ball passed wide of the far post. Nine minutes before half-time we almost witnessed a thing of beauty. Aubameyang’s overhead kick from a Sead Kolasinac cross was a whisker wide of the far post at the other end.
Three minutes later we had the second goal our performance deserved. Luiz picked up a yellow card for a bad challenge on Ramsey and we had another set piece to exploit. Torreira found Kolasinac, he knocked it down for Sokratis to play into the box, and Koscielny reacted the quickest to shoulder it home.
The Arsenal 2-0 Chelsea
We had a further warning shot across the bows in the final action of the half when Alonso’s header came back into play off the foot of a post. We were deservedly two to the good.
The second-half was more technical and less intense, but perhaps surprisingly while we were ceding large chunks of possession we were creating the better chances with both full-backs threatening on successive breaks.
There was also an emotional return for Olivier Giroud as a substitute for the visitors. His song boomed out around the ground and he acknowledged the gesture both at the time, and at the end of the match. The goodwill was not retained on the pitch. Alonso appeared to gouge Maitland-Niles eyes at a corner but escaped punishment. Barkley was lucky to only get a yellow for another bad challenge on Guendouzi. Then it was over.
With the gap reduced to three points to Chelsea, and four to Tottenham, the fight for third and fourth place is very much on. Let’s hope the likely loss of Bellerin brings a return of the defensive uncertainty that has clouded so many performances in recent weeks. How ironic it should have happened on the day we finally found that cohesiveness and determination we suspected was there, somewhere.
More of the same against Manchester United in the FA Cup please!
84 Responses to “Set Pieces Give Gunners Deserved Derby Triumph”
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Hope Hectors ok. We have no luck with the injuries.
Nice one H.
I only saw the second half, which was clearly not the better watch. I was in a pub and not paying as much attention to the game as I often do- simply because we were winning and looking comfortable. I was not really worried about Chelski scoring. I know they don’t have a striker apart from OG but it has still been so, so long since I watched us play a league game without feeling that we might concede at any moment. I hope indeed that the injury to poor Hector does not stop us playing a back 4 more regularly. I get why we switched the back 5 but it was a surprise at the time and we have rarely seemed comfortable with the formations it enforces higher up the pitch.
Lacazette is so good. So so good. That finish is simply not a skill that many professional footballers have in their locker. And the touches beforehand to shift the ball were lovely.
Obviously Laca’s effort was eclipsed soon after. Koscielny. Wow. That finish is simply not a skill that many professional footballers have in their locker. Genius. ?
Well done Arsenal. Top performance and result.
UTA
Cheers H!
Also a shout out to Noosa, who I think predicted 2-0 with Laca to score. Nicely done sir.
I think there is a ‘does not’ missing from the penultimate sentence of your penultimate paragraph, Guv’nor.
@5
Possibly Ned. Either that or H is determined to keep putting his pound on 3-2. ?
Overall an uplifting day. I still don’t understand how the team can go in a week from the abject performance against West Ham to what they produced yesterday.
Still cannot believe how good we were and how my stress levels dropped as the match went on. When does that happen against a top six club.
*i think the second last sentence needs a “doesn’t”
GSD@6: 🙂
Great report and a great day out. Loved the aggressive press, the incredible work rate of the front two (how about Auba’s Clinic on tackling), the calm centre halves, the respect for Giroud. The midfield I thought was particularly effective.
Didn’t like the subs and hated Hector being carried off on a stretcher. The crowd reacted to the fast start and were loud and proud. The song about John Terry’s Mum got an outing.
My favourite thing was that we defended a 2-0 lead. Hallelujah.
Game back on for top four.
I was at the match yesterday, my first game of the season, courtesy as always of my sister-in-law.
Rather a good game for by first time out this season. Bloody cold towards the end, mind.
COYG
This City/Huddersfield game is a bore fest.
Firstly let me say how gutted I am for Hector. As you know I love the guy and hope, probably in vain, he will be back on the pitch before the end of this season.
How can a side which was worse than dire at W. Ham come out a week later and play that pressing game Emery wants them to play and produce a performance to satisfy even their harshest critics. It’s so Arsenal.
We missed a few chances but so did Chelsea in the first half who for the most part passed the ball round beautifully but without a striker had virtually nothing to offer in the final third.
It was heartening to see Kos have his best outing since his comeback and Laca, who has such wonderful control, score a delicious goal, that’s entertainment! Can we please have more of the same on Friday night and at City where I have my next away day.
A pity Roger couldn’t make it an even better weekend. He should have won the match in three straight sets but if you can’t take any of 12 break points you don’t deserve to be in the quarter finals, sad but true.
COYR
Ah, the oddities of life. A good weekend overall but not for Hector or Roger. Sarri not too happy about his weekend either apparently. 🙂
Very good report indeed Holic although I think the save by Kepa ? was actually a header that hit him in the face!
I commented quite a lot last night on my Key observations from a match I really enjoyed.
I think I would merely add that we seem to respond to big league matches at home with our best performances but are more sluggish in the lesser games. It was also clear that Emery outthought Sarri. The double coverage wide on both sides neutered their attacks, Leno had virtually nothing to do despite them having 64% possession. Our diamond in midfield was effective as it enabled Ramsey to drive forward regularly and Kolasinac played better at left back than I feared he might.
We need to look at loan options for a right back I quake at the thought of Lichsteiner or Jenko in some of the games we have to play .
We play United on my birthday and the birthday fairy would not let us lose on such an auspicious day .
Come on Fulham.
You need the points and the Spuds
2 best divers are out.
I’m surprised they bought Babel
but whatever… 1-0 Fulham with
the winner for Calum would round
the weekend off very nicely.
I see Babel is sporting an Arsenal coloured Barnet.
Llorente never looked like missing ! ?
Better than a Barnet colourd Arsenal..
Nice little piece with Terry Neill on the Daily Heil website today. Quite a shock to realise he walked away from football aged just 41
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6611203/Ex-Arsenal-boss-Terry-Neill-career-drama-special-win-Manchester-United.html
Thanks cynic, nice piece. My far off memories of being on the North Bank in those days is that Neill wasn’t deeply loved by the fans, although to be fair, after Brady went, the team wasn’t that great.
Thanks for the link Cynic.
It’s odd as Neill was before my time
as a player and I’d nothing against
him as manager at the time but
certainly my Dad and his friends, all
older supporters, didn’t rate him at
all. Unless it was simply managing
the Spuds I’m still not sure what he
did to piss them off. Just as C100
says I suppose.
Rose amusingly booked for cheating.
And possibly the 3rd best Spud
diver is down too.
Fulham didn’t deserve that.
Fucking Totts win with last kick of the match. They have really been lucky this year (just like Liverpool yesterday) and hopefully their injuries to key players and congestion of the fixtures with the return of Champions League will them slide down and if we maintain yesterday’s form till the end of season we may finish in the top four.
Spuds are in huge trouble now I really think third and fourth are up for grabs. Llorente had a mare but Chambers played really well in the DM role .
Re Terry Neill I spoke to Malcolm McDonald once at a book signing. He told me that Neill came into a team talk with a box of soldiers , set them up and told the team they had to flatten the opposition and proceeded to knock the soldiers over . He said most of the team were incredulous the others were pushing themselves . He gave Don Howe all the credit for that teams success
It was a painful kick in the nuts for poor Fulham. Looks like they will get relegated. Ranieri has probably used up all his luck in winning the League with Leicester City three seasons back.
We’re seven points behind Spurs. Still got to play them at Wembley. With 15 games to go it’s four teams for third and fourth.
Autocorrect stymied me @25. It should read ‘pissing’ not ‘pushing’! Obviously it doesn’t like vulgar language! Best stay away from here then ! I agree with Countryman about our chances. We beat Fulham 5-1 there. We have got to be consistent. Our only unwinnable game is at Citeh but we have a decent chance if we defend solidly and our strikers don’t get injured
Cynic
This article clarifies the Mertesacker situation. His job is Head if the Hale End Academy. He has no responsibility for the U18s. I did not know this
Cynic
And it’s here!
http://dailycannon.com/2019/01/sn-and-daily-mail-refuse-to-let-facts-get-in-way-of-arsenal-bashing/
Can’t read it because of an out of date browser (an OS issue) but who cares about facts anyway? Mertesacker out 🙂
Kroenke’s Rams through to the Super Bowl.
And there it is, Stan’s team in the NFL (L.A. Rams) are going to play in the final of the NFL championship game in 2 weeks.
https://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2019012000/2018/POST20/Rams@Saints
& did I say Stan’s NFL team has a head coach who is only 33 years old?
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/18/how-la-rams-sean-mcvay-became-the-youngest-head-coach-in-the-nfl.html
Lacazette, lacazette oh lacazette, he is the best striker we have had after a certain dutch so and so left and boy is he good.
Not to sound a sad note but we were terrific first 20 min, relaxed the next 70, looked more lethargic as the game progressed and in the end chelsea were just poor, extremely poor. Did we make them play poorly? first half yes, second half no.
Kos had his best game from the time he returned, he still looks a pale shadow of the defender he was but is still better than Mustafi. Kola again impressive as the wing back but not so as the full back, Bellerin is a bad one, reports suggesting he is out for 9 months. AMN likely to deputize and it will be tested quite a bit in the upcoming fixtures, united and city in particular. Ozil continues to be frozen out and Dennis Suarez is not the answer even in case he comes.
Spurs continue to ride their luck but you need to hand it to them that they have some really good luck for sure, they may have borrowed a lot of it from pool i believe.
So pleased for the Kroenke’s ( not)
Travelled over to UK for the game and very glad I did. I do hope everybody will calm down now (press, fans, social media) and accept that culture-change takes time and Emery is doing a fantastic job. Quietly asserting himself, chipping away at that soft underbelly and, above all else, struggling with a business that was left in tatters by ten years of mismanagement. We refused to invest in players when we could (for 3 years after the stadium was completely paid for), then massively overspent on rubbish when we realised we’d totally misjudged FFP and the transfer market. But the best thing of all about Emery is he just never makes excuses, even when we ran out of defenders for a month. He’s the right stuff, he’s exactly what was needed and I do hope patience is shown. It’s horrible to hear the crowd baying for blood when a perfectly logical substitution like Laca is made at 70 mins and 2-0 up against a top of the table club. If the player himself understands, why can’t the whole stadium ? To top that, I had an idiot behind me all match going on and on about Ozil.
Watched the 1st half again today
without the hazy alcohol goggles.
We pressed better and kept the
ball better than in the previous
few games. To me that was due
to moving to the back 4 and having
an extra attacking player to pass
to and also to press.
We mostly defended well apart
from a brief patch around the Pedro
chance where we played 2 very iffy
giveaway passes in our own half.
I hope the loss of Hector doesn’t
cause UE to revert to 3 CBs’
Mislintat’s departure is confirmed
https://www.arsenal.com/news/thank-you-sven
Mislintat departure now confirmed. Leaving on February 8. So what does that mean? He was a “moneyball” type recruiter trying to find good value based on stats. I suppose the opposite to that is a “galactico” approach, but we don’t have the type of owner to back that.
So, quo vadis, as they are now doubt asking in the pubs and cafes of North London right now?
Nice stuff H
Well Saturday was rather fun. As Delia said above, how we can play like we did against West Ham and then turn in a performance like that will always amaze me. An interesting stat On MOTD said that as a team we ran further and covered more ground than any Arsenal team had ever done before. The teamwork and effort were certainly noticeable.
I don’t think there were any weak links on Saturday. For the first time since I don’t know when, we actually looked solid at the back. Kos and Sokratis are defenitely our strongest pairing. Kolo was strong and Hector looked great until his really unfortunate injury. I hope there is some good news but like many, I’m far from hopeful.
The team spirit was massively in evidence when you think that two of the best tackles all game were put in by Lacazette and Aubameyang
I also thought Guendouzi was outstanding. What a future he has in front of him. I just hope it is with us.
The on field heroics are somewhat tempered with the announcement that Sven is off in a few weeks. I have no idea why. Off the field we seem totally rudderless and it borders on embarrassing at times. There seems to be little to no idea and it just ends in chaos. I mean, even Baldrick had a plan????
SteveT@41: According to the BBC’s David Ornstein, who appears well sourced in such matters, Sven felt he was being marginalised post-Gazidis and hadn’t been given the promotion to Technical Director he had been expecting.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46886457
Ruptured ACL for Bellerin 🙁
We lose Héctor for the rest of the season. Awful news for him and for us. Ideally a benevolent owner would release funds to enable us to cover the problem. Then there’s Silent Stan.
Interesting that Monchi who has a stellar reputation in Europe and worked with Emery at Sevilla has been linked by Ornstein with the TD job
Finally watched the goals but still haven’t seen the game. Laser guided Laca launch and a fookin’ magnificent Koscielny shoulder. Just when I thought they had shown us everything in their arsenal they come up with something just a bit different. Enough to make Sarri sorry. Or to move to India and wear a …
All eyes for Giroud spotting on the tube?
On the verge of being banished from driving and racking up violations at an accelerating rate of speed:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-46953432
Maybe he is playing for a transfer to Monaco where he can tap in a few for Thierry while practicing for the Monte Carlo grand prix? ???
Better t’were done quickly with the
Sven situation. If he and UE don’t
agree on players then it would be
very risky to continue.
A real sickener for us and Hector
🙁
Of the available options I think
UE will try Licht first with AMN to
cover sometimes as Licht doesn’t
seem up to two games a week.
Deary me, OG is a naughty boy.
I’m surprised he could get to 60
on the North Circular – traffic must
have improved since I last drove
round it.
I wonder if Barcelona signing
Prince Boateng on loan pushes
our deal for Denis Suarez forward.
Not really like for like but he is an
attacker so maybe it does
Awful news concerning the suspected loss of Emiliano Sala , the new Cardiff striker , who was in a light aircraft that disappeared last night. News like that underlines the need for perspective in how we react to mere football incidents.
Tapera
This appeared in London today suggesting Mr. Kroenke is very unpopular in Missouri and economical with the truth .Or put another way he is a liar https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal/arsenal-fans-warned-stan-kroenke-should-not-be-trusted-why-owner-is-still-reviled-on-streets-of-st-a4045641.html
Having lived in Baltimore as well as both northern and Southern California, I can confirm that these NFL no loyalty owners are highly unpopular in many parts of the country, not least the Colts, Raiders and Rams owners who fucked over the loyal fans of Baltimore, Oakland, St. Louis and Los Angeles. Enough to have turned this former follower of that league away forever many years ago. Too disgusting for words.
News item: Bournemouth sign Welsh international defender for 12 million from Brentford. Were Arsenal not looking; not interested; not able to match the offer; or simply not at the races?
Bt8
We aren’t able to pay cash for new signings because we are stymied by PL rules on the salary cap. So even if Rafael Varane became available for £12 million we wouldn’t sign him. Even if Stan would lend us the Money ?
Interesting, what you say m’lud. Will Man City also abide by the PL rules on the salary cap I wonder or did they surpass it years ago?
I’d be seriously considering giving Ozil a free transfer, just to get rid of his stupid wage.
He’s not a £40m+ player because nobody will pay that, with him on that wage, or anything like that.
Plus his age is against him.
That really is a spectacular bit of fuck uppery by the board.
£18m a year wages.
£18m.
He has roughly 30 months left on his deal at £1.4m a month. £42m in wages we could save by giving him a free.
Do it. Do it yesterday.
Bt8
Citeh are apparently fighting alleged infringements of FFP rules ( not the ones hamstringing us, they are Premier League rules). It is rumoured that UEFA are threatening Citeh with exclusion from next year’s Champions League- for them a much bigger penalty than a fine given the Sheikh’s fortune.
Cynic,
If we give Ozil a free he will still be entitled to the wages under his contract unless we can find a club to take them over. Otherwise I think we would have taken that option. Our best (only!) option is to find a deal with a team for a price below his value ( say £15-20 million) and we subsidise his wages eg , we pay £150k a week. That would save us about £30 million in wages and give us a decent capital sum. But there doesn’t appear to be a long queue for his services and any potential buyer has us by the short and curlies. Ozil will probably get a signing-on fee too!
I smell a rank red herring when it comes to the salary cap. The Premier League ties clubs’ increases in their player wage bills to the league’s TV revenue distribution, a sensible move on the League’s part as a precaution against that particular golden goose becoming a bit tarnished. However, clubs are free to raise their wage bills to their heart’s content provided they do it out of increases in their “own revenue”, which includes profits on transfers, commercial sponsorship, match-day income and UEFA competition money. So the salary cap is not much of a salary cap for any club that does not want it to be.
Forget VAR. Two New Orleans Saints fans have gone to court to get the NFL to overturn the result of the NFC championship game that sent Kroenke’s Rams to the Super Bowl because, they claim, the referees made a couple of mistakes that cost the Saints the game.
If that ever caught on in the Premiership, the lawyers would make out like bandits.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-football-nfl-lawsuit-idUSKCN1PG2J3
ned, lawyers always make out like bandits (apologies to any lawyers on here).
salary caps, FFP, Ozil’s swag and
bandit lawyers. I am thankful we’ve
got an FACup tie.
I suppose the FA Cup is our 3rd
priority now we’ve kept our Top 4
chances alive. But still it’s Manure
and I want to win so…..
Cech for Leno, Licht for Hector,
and the rest the same as the
Chav game for me. Then we can
shuffle 2 or 3 for Cardiff.
Re: St. Louis’ pending lawsuit against Stan Kroenke, I believe any fair jury would find against Kroenke for misleading city officials about the relocation process as they spent millions developing plans for a new stadium project aimed at keeping the Rams in the city. Why would Kroenke invest any money in Arsenal when he will need to dish out to the multitudinous populations he has deceived.
bt8b@62: It has gone a bit quiet in the lawsuit over the Rams’ relocation. An attempt by the Rams to get it settled to arbitration seems to be somewhere between the Missouri Court of Appeals and the state’s Supreme Court. There are some suggestions that it will be settled out of court before it gets to trial not because of anything about the merits of the case but because the NFL and its member clubs are co-defendants with Kroenke’s Rams and pre-trial discovery might make public a vast number of documents and communications that the league and its other clubs would not want read in public.
Reports have us failing to loan
Bailly, James R., and Denis S
Can’t honestly say i’m bothered
about any of them.
OM
Understand your suggested changes but the thought of Lichsteiner versus Martial fills me with dread! I’d go with AMN and apart from bringing in Cech would go for the same line-up as started on Saturday night. Torreira may be due a rest against Cardiff
I’m with TTG on AMN, not Lichtsteiner replacing Hector at right back.
All, given Hector’s injury at the weekend I am postponing the piece on Shad Forsythe and Darren Burgess. I can do without the smartarse comments it will attract. United preview tomorrow night.
Come on Burton!
I feel your pain Guv’nor@67. Be that as it may, it ‘s likely that the smartarse comments your article would have attracted will simply appear elsewhere… and you risk the wrath of the purveyors of such smartarsery.
I write as one who knows about such things 🙂
COYG
If this article on haggis is incomplete or incorrect in any way I expect our Scottish contingent will fill us in.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190123-why-scotland-loves-haggis
???????????????????????
Whoops. I guess haggis is not a fish at all.
Happy haggis eating and Burns night to all celebrants
Ned, TTG
AMN or Licht is a tough call and I
wouldn’t argue with either.
Mostly, I hope we stay with the back
4 and leaving Mus on the bench.
Kos can get a rest for the Cardiff
game. We must attack them as
they’re as poor defensively as we
are.
Just to support TTG @51.
//www.thenation.com/article/rams-stan-kroenke-patriots-super-bowl/
Stan is no good.
Seems Giroud is finally unable to
dodge the Higuaín bullet, but at
Chelsea instead of us. And Vieira
has quickly unloaded Balotelli at
Nice. I was surprised to read
Balotelli is still only 28.
The club has released its accounts today ( very quietly). We made an increased profit before tax of £70 million but this was largely due to £120 m of player sales and tge one-off sale of a property in Holloway Road. Wages increased significantly by about £25m I think.
No mention of a dividend!
Here is the release on the accounts hidden away on the website !
https://www.arsenal.com/news/financial-results-201718
Re: Arsenal balance sheet terminology “rationalisation of the first-team aquad” during 2018 with the sales of Walcott, Giroud, Oxlade, etc.
Leads me to conclude that the process we were engaged in prior to last year was the irrationalisation of the first-team squad. Finally we have a confession in writing.
Henry sacked by Monaco.
Titi’s not Tigana.
Quick picking over the bones of the financials for 2017-18 as published:
Revenue down by £34.6 million, mainly due to playing Europa League rather than CL. Fourth place really was a trophy.
£17.2 million in exceptionals for the change of manager, so let’s guess that AW’s payout was £12.5 million-15 million of that, not unreasonable for 20 years before the mast.
Some expensive transfers starting to be written down, which helped offset the hefty increase in net transfer fees (ie profit) to $122.3 million from the ‘rationalization’ of the 1st team squad.
But those net player sales were the difference between an overall profit and loss. If they had been anywhere south of £50 million, the club would have made an operating loss.
12% increase in the players wage bill to £223.3 million, so that is not all Ozil and helps explain why Ramsey’s contract offer was yanked when it was.
Net cash turned positive. Which is positive.
Pretax margin comes out at around 18% against 10.5% last year, which is OK but by no means great, and probably no where near the club would want it. And without the player sales it would have been around minus 13%.
Bottom line: unless we can flog around a net £50 million worth of players a year, and/or trim the wage bill, we can’t be self-sustaining on Europa League football.
I hope the Swiss Ramble can give the detailed financials a good going over.
TH14 will be replaced by the man he replaced, Leonardo Jardim. Things go round in funny circles in football.
Swiss Ramble
How the hell he knows all that money stuff and nobody else does?
that’s what i want to know
Spurs lose on pens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4uivPpzCGo
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>