GoonerKent

Swedish Elegance: Alexander Isak

Like I mentioned in my earlier blogs, I knew Arsenal was going to do me dirty and fall short on transfers as it pertained to strikers, Vlahović off to Juventus, and DCL staying in Everton. Arsenal is probably not going to trigger the release clause to get Alexander Isak but regardless he should be our next realistic target to lead our line going into next season. Isak first came to my attention when he joined Dortmund but failed to make an impression in Germany. Alexander Isak broke out with Real Sociedad in 2019 leading the lines with Oyarzabal and Ødegaard behind him with his performance at the Euros last summer being his breakout moment to the world. His performance against Spain in the Euros was one of the most complete performances I have seen from a forward with a goal-line clearance being the sole deterrent from an otherwise immaculate performance. Isak has 16 and 17 goals in all comps in the last two seasons but the goals only tell a small portion of what makes him so special. Let’s go into what makes Alexander Isak a necessity for Arsenal and why we need to not mess this up and get this done:

SWEDISH ELEGANCE: BALANCE & BODY CONTROL: When watching Alexander Isak, you’ll first notice his physical stature or lack thereof. He doesn’t have that imposing stature like that of a Lukaku or Osimhen when looking at a center forward/striker. He doesn’t have that break-neck pace like that of a prime Gareth Bale. But what he does lack in physical appearance he more than makes up for is his technique and body control. What makes Isak such a beautiful footballer to watch is how he is able to get himself away from defenders and physical confrontations through his technical skills/touches on the ball and his balance. What defenders like to do especially at the highest level is to use their physicality to throw attackers off, with Isak, once you try to get your hands on him, all it takes is one stop-go and he’s past you like the examples below:

Isak finds himself isolated in between 3 Spanish defenders in the Euros.

Arsenal-Burnley Reaction

Just fucking shit, everything in life equals out in the end and we are now getting closer to where we probably should be and that is farther away from Top 4. I hate Burnley matches, cause we play down to their level every single damn time. Burnley never switch anything up against cause they don’t have to. I swear the only reasons why players like Ben Mee and Westwood still have careers are cause of the Arsenal matches.

PRE-MATCH/FIRST HALF – Arteta due to injuries/AFCON/suspensions picked the same squad that performed miserably midweek against Liverpool, but really didn’t have a choice so no issue there. It’s more for when players start coming back into the fold, I have said this so many times but the foursome of ESR, Gabi, Ødegaard and Saka is not good enough for us to get where we want to be. There is not enough athleticism or dynamism between those four to compete for the top spots in the league. Nonetheless, the game started out like every game against Burnley does, and that is us having all the ball and them soaking up all the pressure. Ramsdale was terrible in the few parts he was called upon. Saka was the lone bright spot getting past Erik Pieters a good amount and was our only offensive outlet in the first half.

DCL: Apex Predator

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (“DCL”), my word what an athletic specimen. Arsenal have been loosely linked with the English striker for quite some time now as a replacement for Auba/Laca but with Everton fighting relegation at this point, I find it very hard for them to give up on their talismanic striker up top but let me hurt myself again and dive into what makes DCL such a wanted man in North London. DCL broke into Everton 5 years ago but turned into a star in the 20/21 season. Just header after header, tap-in after tap-in, he turned into one of the league’s lethal strikers last seasons with over 21 goals in all competitions for Everton. The thought of DCL being the our striker up top for Ødegaard, Gabi, Saka and ESR is something I’m desperate for but would mean Arteta would have to switch these things up going forward in how he uses the striker. Future Mikel can worry about that later but we first need to nab this guy up as we inevitably will miss out on Vlahović. Let me go into what we can expect out of DCL if for some miracle he finds himself at the Emirates:

APEX PREDATOR IN THE BOX (Heading): Immediately when you watch DCL up top, the first thing you always notice is his aerial prowess. Standing at 6 ft 2in, what DCL does better than just about every forward in the world may be outside of Lewandowski and Cristiano is time the jumps on his headers to allow himself to meet the ball at the peak of his jump. When a striker is able to master this skill with of course an exceptional amount of athleticism (like if I did this well, it wouldn’t mean jack shit), it doesn’t matter what defender is covering you, if the cross is played in well enough, the striker will get clean contact with the ball. Absolutely nothing a defender can do in these type of situations. DCL scored 16 league goals last season with 7 of them coming from his head, let’s go into some examples of his aerial prowess starting off his goal in the Merseyside Derby:

DCL sees a cross from Digne over on the left and gauges when to time his jump.

Arteta-ball wasting my time

We still have yet to win in 2022. What a joke. Arsenal doing what they do best and letting me down. No shame in losing to Liverpool, they have more experienced players, proven players, a superior coach and a Portuguese man up top who I wish would come over to the Emirates to play football for a living. But the way we lost, was so frustrating yeah we had a lot of the ball but produced nothing of real value or chances of any note. Just a disappointing display at home for a semifinal cup tie. Also apparently Sadio Mané and Salah didn’t play, like it freaking mattered lol. To be shut out so comprehensively at home with the hype Arsenal have been getting as of late…yikes, but that is the life of an Arsenal fan.

The Serbian RVP?

The Dušan Vlahović blog. If I am being honest, I admire Arsenal’s pursuits of trying to get this Vlahović’s deal over the line this winter transfer window with the Violas but don’t see it happening unfortunately. Fiorentina would probably want nothing more in getting the most value they can out of selling Dušan ASAP. However Vlahović and his team have no rush to get this deal done with 18 months left on his contract and I’d imagine they are weighing up all their options especially with clubs that are also interested in his services that can offer higher wages than Arsenal not to mention European football. This seems like a deal that will hinge on Vlahović’s representatives and the fat fee they can get representing Dušan in this deal.

Dušan’s stat line this season: 17/4 G/A in in 21 apps in Serie A, 3 goals in 3 apps in Coppa Italia.

If for some reason, Arteta works his magic with Vlahović’s team can get this deal done, these are the things we can expect with this Serbian beauty (I also know that he will probably end up at Juventus and none of this will matter but it is important that I have enough self-awareness to realize that, I can’t be hurt) :

WAND OF A LEFT FOOT – (I am going to go into left-footed player stereotpyes and would like it known that Messi is the exception). This might just be me but when I think of successful left-footed players in football, I think of one-legged human beings who only use their right foot for running. When I think of professional left-footed footballers, I think of players who have unreal quality coming from their left and that is only cause God is overcompensating for their lack of usefulness in their right foot. This is also why I go into minor panic attacks when Lucho uses two left-footed center backs in Laporte and Pau Torres for Spain. But that is besides the point, Dušan Vlahović is no exception when it comes to his wand of a left foot. Over his past two seasons with Fiorentina, he’s shown numerous examples of him opening his body to place his shots as well as putting his laces through the ball to generate power. All the above with minimal backlift. This quality of his left foot can be displayed in this final goal of his hat-trick against Benevento last season:

Dušan first starts off fighting off his defender from a long ball from his keeper

Not our problem

(I’d like to start this blog off with a disclaimer that I vehemently disagreed with the North London Derby being postponed tomorrow due to Arsenal being short on players due to COVID-19, injuries, and AFCON.)

With all that being said, I find it hilarious how every other club’s fanbase who have had their games canceled due to COVID-19, injuries, etc. is coming at a club (Arsenal) who are only using the Premier League’s weak stance on the matter for our favor for the first time this season. Oh, the irony. Take Gary Neville who spends a good amount of time spewing wrong takes about football on live television but probably gets paid handsomely so can’t hate, get all riled up and to his credit, get a good amount of football twitter on his side based on the reactions:

Arsenal-Forest Match Reaction

I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself. Arsenal find themselves out of the FA Cup coming off a 1-0 defeat to Championship side Forest. Fucking hell. Still can’t believe we lost to Jack Colback in the year 2022. A dreadful performance from every player outside of Leno. A match where we didn’t place one attempt on target and more importantly a match we never deserved to win. Matches like this are why I have never been fully convinced with Arteta as our manager but regardless, still need to pull matches like this out.

Arsenal-Forest Preview (Lineup predictions)

With our Carabao Cup tie with Liverpool being canceled midweek, we still haven’t had a chance to wipe away the City game from our minds and as well as our disdain for Stuart Atwell. Tomorrow, Arsenal get to start their FA Cup campaign against Championship side Nottingham Forest. Some of you might remember us being eliminated by this side in the 2018 FA Cup in the game that might have ended Per Mertesacker’s career. Forest find themselves in two game skid with their last match being taking place in 2021 so it is fair to expect a decently strong lineup from them.

Time to act like a Big Club

Who would have thought that after stumbling into 8^th place finishes the past two seasons that we would be in the running for Top 4 coming into the second half of this season? With tight fixtures coming up for Arsenal this month in the cups and the league as well as AFCON taking place, reinforcements are needed and I’m pleasantly surprised Mikel expressed as much in his press conference on Friday being open to signing a player(s) for the right price.

With the state of our current roster and contract situations beyond this season, here are the 3 biggest needs to fill in this January transfer window:

Striker: preferably someone that is positioned centrally and scores lots and lots of goals. Just an abundance of goals that comes from his right foot, left foot, and head. So basically 2003 Thierry Henry but that is neither here nor there.