One thing that very few who talk or write about football ever do is see the actual reality of a players performance. I suppose it’s the age that we live in. Like I said in the last blog, extremism. Brilliant or rubbish. Take Gabriel Jesus, for example. He wasn’t even close to his best against Southampton. Watch his performance again and you see that there were more than a handful of potential game changing moments that he was involved in, in a positive way. It’s just not what we do though. Brilliant or rubbish, right? There were others, also. Gabriel, Zinchenko and Odegaard. Martin Ødegaard in particular alongside Belgian Leo, rescued a point for us. Even though he waited until the last quarter of the game it cannot be forgotten and yet again when the team needs a goal he is the one that revs his engine loudest. A refusal to lose. We don’t spot it as much as we should because he has a low-key demeanor. Not a chest thumper.
Even though momentum certainly looks heavily in City’s favour every time I look at the Premier League table, I swear I see Arsenal at the top. I swear I have been supporting a team this season that have been largely incredible. I swear I’ve seen Arsenal play Manchester City and be the better team on the last two or three occasions. I’m also pretty sure that I read this quote from Theo Walcott yesterday. “ I’ve played Manchester City and Arsenal over the last few weeks and Arsenal were much better..” The big positive in Arsenal‘s favor and what I would be saying to the players if I was Mikel is that we have a nasty habit of starting fast. Don’t tell me that if we can score first against Manchester City that there will be at least five more players who get the confidence injection. The injection that has an instant impact. If this happens, it will feel like a triple dose as it’s not any other game but it’s the big one. I will also be honest and say that if City score first, I doubt we will win even though we are capable. I think there’s been too much emotion recently for the players to shake that off. I’m just not even close to giving up like some people are though. Think about this…… What happens to the players mentality if we play below mediocre yet somehow win at City? I’d say that they wouldn’t care less about their performance and neither would Arteta. The confidence injection would be huge. That’s possible in football. Then there’s the possibility of us playing really well and winning. What would that do to our mentality? Just don’t forget that these are all possibilities and the pendulum could swing very quickly back in our favour.
NEEDS:
Is it just me or do Arsenal do better when they don’t have a week to prepare for one game? It seems like this pattern has happened before. Maybe too much focus on one thing is making them nervous?
I think Aaron Ramsdale needs to work on his hands. Not the cleanness of his technique, but literally his hands. I don’t know if his wrists are not locked firmly enough or there is an issue with strength in his fingers, but they seem to be loose often when he extends and dives.
I hope not, but I wonder if Vieira has gone from being given a chance that he probably didn’t deserve and thrilled about it, to ruining his Arsenal career. I doubt Vieira will play much in the run in now and then in the summer it looks like we are going to get somebody else for his position anyway. I do wonder if Arteta will see an international player who could break through in his second season as most of them do or a player who is just too flaky and in and out of games when his talent was capable of being dominant. I do wonder if Vieira will be moved on because of his mentality.
I’m still struggling to believe that we will score when low crosses are coming in. Martinelli tore a very good full back apart for most of the game and got to the byline on a handful of occasions, yet never really seemed to have an obvious target. There really is no excuse for this. It takes him a good five seconds to get to this area and in those good few seconds there should be at least one or two players offering a simple tap in opportunity. At the same time, we are weirdly more dangerous from Saka and Martinelli‘s back post whipped crosses. We shouldn’t be because we don’t have a target man or an aggressive midfielder in the air, but this is where we are. The first player that has to be looked at is Gabriel Jesus. He is very good in the air and most certainly could offer more dynamic movement in the 6 yard box and more determination and aggressiveness not just with his back to goal, but when he’s facing it.
HOPES:
This might sound like clutching at straws, but I think there is some value to clarity rearing its head in advance of the trip up north. Often in retrospect, we look back on games and say that our team couldn’t make its mind up if they wanted to attack or defend. A draw at the Etihad would still leave us alive, but with City in their current form it would be too much of a risk. Arteta will go all or nothing now and the players have clarity which could be a brilliant accident.
Romeo Lavia is bloody good. You might’ve known this beforehand also, but that man right there is the archetypal, modern, athletic central midfielder. He seems so unafraid in an area where most players play with safety only in mind. He seems capable of everything too. Quick passing, long passing, quick feet and particularly an outstanding ability to accelerate between the lines. A natural ability to tackle and such impressive confidence. I wonder if Arsenal may look his way if they cannot get Moises Caicedo who I think is being looked at as a left eight. I think Lavia could do this too.
FINAL THOUGHT:
I’m currently on a road trip with my high school soccer team. These boys are naturally hilarious. Last year I took them to an Atlanta United home game at the highly impressive Mercedes-Benz Stadium and they entertained themselves by going to Walmart before the game and buying muscle T-shirts with personal messages to players on the Atlanta United team scribbled on them. They then buy some fluke managed to locate the players coming off the team bus and showed them their T-shirts. Brad Guzan, who you might remember, was most entertained by one of the boys who had a ‘Brad is my Dad’ on his T-shirt.
This year they searched the ladies clothing department in Walmart and bought $10 Summer Dresses to wear to the game tomorrow. We are also going to church before the game tomorrow and I think the plan is for them to either wear their summer dresses underneath their church outfit or get changed in the church restrooms. I’m really not sure what’s going to happen if they walk out of the church looking like this….
I just hope that Arsenal has the same balls on Wednesday as these teenagers do.
If we get arrested and you see our images in the Atlanta Constitution then it’s been nice writing this blog. I think it’s pretty decent and I want to be remembered for my analytical mind rather than allowing 19 teenagers from Tennessee to wear summer dresses to a football match.
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