As someone who knows firsthand that nothing is guaranteed in this god-forsaken league, I’ll take the 3 points where I can get them every day of the week and twice on Sunday but lord have mercy have we got away with it today. It wasn’t pretty, but Arsenal scraped by a tough Palace team to pick up a 1-0 win at Selhurst Park. Flashback to when Arsenal opened up last season at Selhurst Park to open the season, it was champagne football from Arteta’s men and today it was nothing close. It wasn’t the worst and there is a sense of overreaction but I will explain why I am so frustrated with today’s wack performance. With it being two games into the season, I’ll take 3 points every single time but willing to trade performances over results this part of the season for sure, all that being said, here were my thoughts on the match:
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:
- Havertz ain’t it as our LCM: After every preseason game and two matches in, it makes no sense why Arteta keeps choosing to shoehorn this Rice-Havertz-Ødegaard midfield. Mikel started Ramsdale, Thomas, White, Saliba, Tomiyasu, Rice, Havertz, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Nketiah and the balance was completely off. Very similar to Forest, it looks way off to how we started last season when this season is supposed to be an improved/enhanced version to how we play. The left triangle of Tomiyasu, Havertz and Martinelli was dreadful and completely forced all our possession down the right flank again. We will see how the team will fare when Zinchenko comes back into the team and we should be able to regain some technical quality down our left. Even when Zinny returns, I swear with Havertz, that man 100% hides from the ball, maybe that is what he is asked to do but it completely renders Martinelli useless if Havertz isn’t linking up with him which is why Martinelli throughout the match found himself drifting to the center just to get a touch on the ball. It’s definitely worrying that Arteta sees our future with this guy cause I don’t see it at all, and will complain about it every week until Arteta figures out we can’t win with this guy.
- Havertz at LCM also means one of Thomas/Gabriel is not in the team and that is when I will lose my shitA: My preferred starting XI goes Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Thomas, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli/Trossard, Gabi Jesus. If you do the math, Arteta ain’t benching Havertz and with Tomiyasu out due to a red card and Timber out for awhile, you can most certainly guarantee Zinchenko will come back in at LB. Cool, which means he will be our inverted fullback in possession which is great, but that means we don’t need Thomas Partey at RB and unless Arteta sees the light and moves Thomas into the midfield with Rice, that most certainly guarantees Thomas will play bench because of Havertz and I will lose my fucking shit. This guy doesn’t link up with Martinelli, doesn’t have the technical midfield presence like a Ødegaard, and if his job is to be that goal scoring threat with his runs into the box, my goodness, we are fucked. Playing a man down in possession for a team that is built to control games is malpractice and suicidal when we face the big teams, like I said hope I’m wrong and maybe Zinchenko will unlock Havertz but it’s looking bleak for my mental health right now cause this shit isn’t good enough. Now for some positives, physically, I like his profile, and when we needed to see that game out after the red card, Havertz was 100% an asset to the squad, but to be see that missing piece in the team, either Arteta is a genius or I’m a fucking idiot, I could very well be an idiot, I just don’t see it at the moment.
- Gabriel and Thomas better be in the squad against Fulham: Gabriel who was one of our best players last season has been hard done by to not have started these past two games. It may have been due to injuries to the squad or tactical preference, but having a left-footed LCB is crucial to our build-up for more extensive passing angles.
- The red card on Tomiyasu is a fucking joke but it would be foolish of me to expect the PL refs to be competent: the time-wasting thing is a point of emphasis within the league and it fucked Arsenal today, no point in me bringing up how it’s rich that all of this time-wasting measures to speed up the game and to ensure that more game time is happening is happening the season after Arsenal got fucked by teams wasting time with the clock. Now to be fair, what Martinelli and Tomiyasu did with the time wasting today was ridiculous and warranted a warning from Coote but to give a yellow there is fucking ridiculous. And then to give Tomiyasu a second yellow for the exact same foul that was done to Saka, fuck me man. The boys did well to see that game out, for the last 20 minutes but it was all so dumb and frustrating we were in that position in the first place.
- Eddie’s Arsenal career can be all wrapped up and summarized into this one game: Eddie is as old-school as it gets as our #9, as he is looking to run-in behind, good with his body positioning, physically supreme, everything you’d want from a #9 if you were mid-table. Trust me, that is a compliment to him. But the reason he isn’t what we need to win this league is the two missed chances he had in the first half. The first chance he got, Arsenal pressed well, and the ball fell nicely to Eddie and he did ever so well to turn Anderson and then shrug off a surging Guehi to slot a left-footed shot past Johnstone but off the post. Gotta gotta have those if you are Eddie. The second chance is an absolute joke from Eddie, in the bad way, where Arsenal built the ball well through a Odegaard-Rice 1-2 which found Eddie 1-on-1 with Johnstone and he tries the flick the ball over the keeper, just imagine a world, where Cristiano, Lewandowski, Benzema etc. tries that fluff bullshit, it’s not fair to Eddie cause he will never be in the class of those players but it’s moreso to demonstrate the levels in this game and where Eddie is lacking when it comes to decision making and decisiveness in front of goal. HOWEVER, in the most important part of the game, Eddie’s pace won us a penalty kick and ultimately the game. I want this to happen for Eddie, for him to be successful at Arsenal, he wasn’t bad today, actually probably one of our better players, just need him a bit more in the most crucial parts of the game.
- Just to further emphasize, hopefully Arteta gets his head out of his ass before the Fulham game: Thomas-Rice-Odegaard is the way forward and the way that is closer to God
- Let’s all laugh at Manchester United and Chelsea too but more at United
PLAYER RATINGS:
Ramsdale – 7/10 – He was good today, we will see what the Raya arrival does to Aaron’s performance throughout the season cause the job is still fully his, but he does have a spanish rod up his ass that will take his job if he isn’t careful
Thomas – 7/10 – whiny Arsenal fans will get mad at the misplaced passes but Thomas was faultless from me today as our inverted RB. He didn’t play as inverted as much as the Forest game but still provided a presence in the middle of the park. Defensively, did his job perfectly as our RB.
Ben White – 6/10 – Did well, didn’t notice him which you could say is a good thing
Saliba – 7/10 – Amazing last-ditch tackle on Ayew but Arsenal fans forgetting it was his touch that got him in that predicament, but he did well to recover, Happy he is back and healthy, our rolls-royce
Tomiyasu – 5/10 – not his fault he’s not Zinchenko, need a bit more from him but got screwed on the red card
Declan Rice- 8/10 – Massive, monstrous. He was everywhere today, winning tackles, driving forward, making things happen, his value was undeniable when we were down to 10 men.
Havertz – 5/10 – See above
Odegaard – 6/10 – Active, scored the pen
Saka – 5/10 – had some trouble with Mitchell on his side, but didn’t take the pen 🙂
Martinelli – 6/10 – Needs Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus back bad
Nketiah – 8/10 – see above, proud of Eddie
Manchester United – 10/10 – love it when they make my weekend
Chelsea – 10/10 – tbf ,I can’t remember the last time they won a game