Month: December 2020

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Arsenal 1 – 1 Southampton

Theon’s Return to The Iron Islands

Just when I thought the football gods and goddesses couldn’t be any more brutal to us Gooners, guess who returned to the Emirates? Theo Walcott. Just in time for the holidays. The same gent who started his career at Southampton before moving to North London where he scored more than 100 goals over 12 seasons for us. Walcott only scored two goals during the 2019/20 season, so it’s hard to argue with ownership’s decision to move on from him in 2018. But in a cruel twist of fate, Walcott–who had only one goal this season entering today’s match–managed to score the opening goal today with a clinical chip over Leno.

Better (Part III)

Once again, Saka deserves credit for getting forward and making something happen. His dribble drive into the box, which started the move that led to Auba’s goal, would have made fans at the Rucker Summer League proud. And while Auba’s goal unfortunately did not open the offensive floodgates for us today, he must feel like a huge weight has been taken off his back, so hopefully Auba and the team will be a little less tight offensively going into our next match against fifth place Everton on Saturday.

Worser

That’s no typo. It’s a term that my young daughters use from time to time, and I found myself thinking of it at least a couple of times during today’s match. First, when Elneny and Gabriel got tangled up, which allowed Che Adams to regain possession and release Walcott for his goal, I was absolutely shocked to discover that Luiz was nowhere on the pitch. Second, when Gabriel was sent off for his second yellow, it meant that we’d have to play our second match in a row and our third in five a man down. When your team is struggling to score, your teammates simply cannot get themselves dismissed. People are (rightfully) asking questions about whether or not Arteta has lost the locker room, but I’m starting to wonder if the boys have lost all faith/trust in each other. Unfortunately things may be worser for us than they appear.

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Arsenal 0 – 1 Burnley

Born Under A Bad Sign

In the words of Albert King, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, you know, I wouldn’t have no luck at all”. In my desperate plea for a bit of luck last week this was NOT what I had in mind. But alas, unfortunately my wish was cruelly granted when Ashley Westwood’s corner snuck over the head of its intended target and glanced off the back of Auba’s head and into our net. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up.

Mike Dean

Okay, okay, so the notorious referee had nothing to do with Xhaka’s sending off in the 56th minute. But unfortunately–for the second time in four weeks–our goal-allergic boys were forced to play a man down for nearly half a match. For a moment or two after Xhaka’s dismissal, we actually looked more like scoring than Burnley. But if you can’t score with 11 men on the pitch, then the odds are certainly not in your favor when you’re a man down. Strangely enough, in the absence of Westwood’s seeing-eye corner, our defense somehow managed to keep Burnley from capitalizing on their man advantage. And this was not a first this season–When Pépé was sent off in the 51st minute of our match against Leeds a few weeks ago, our boys hung on for a 0-0 draw. Go figure.

Better (Redux)?

On Sunday, not only did we have more possession than the visitors (nearly 65%), but we also outshot them (18-10; the most shots we’ve had in a league match since Week One v. Fulham). More importantly, six of those shots were on goal (also the most we’ve had since Week One). Look, our final balls are not where they should be, so we’re not making it easy for Auba & Co. to get off the schneid, but this was a vast improvement over most of our offensive (no pun intended?) performances this season. And we did it playing a man down for damn near half the match! This is not likely to instill fear in fourth place Southampton (who we play on Wednesday), but it’s something, right? Signed, Delusional

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Tottenham 2 – 0 Arsenal

Better?

Most would agree that we looked the better side before Heung-min Son’s long-range curler hit the back of the net. Bellerin, Saka, and Tierney are to be credited for at least trying to get the ball into the box throughout the match. Willian–who played his first full 90 since Week Four–also looked more dangerous than he has in awhile. That said, many of their final balls were behind their intended targets. Forget quality, our boys are in desperate need of a bit of luck–a deflection, a fortunate bounce of the ball, anything–to rebuild their clearly broken confidence going forward.

After Partey

Other than his being dispossessed by Giovani Lo Celso at one point, I would have argued that Thomas was our best player before he was forced off due to injury. Not only did he do his usual work breaking up play in the middle of the park, but he also tried to get forward either with the ball at his feet or via a searching ball or two ahead to teammates. Perhaps it speaks more to José Mourinho’s tendency to park the bus once his sides have a lead, but who would have thought that we would have kept Spurs scoreless (and no shots on goal in the second half) without Thomas on the pitch? Let’s hope he is truly fit sometime soon, because I still contend that his presence in the midfield is critical for any sustained success that we may have this season.

Title Pretenders

Gooners’ wildest hopes of competing for a Premier League title faded fairly early this season, but I suspect we were not the only faux title-chasers in today’s match. While no one expected a different result today, can Spurs concede this much possession against higher quality, more confident opposition and expect to consistently win? How many times out of ten does Son make that shot? How often does Harry Kane score top-shelf near-left post with his left foot? Does anyone really believe this version of Spurs has more quality than they did during the 2018/19 season, which included nine players who featured in the semis of the 2018 World Cup (i.e., Dele Alli, Toby Alderweireld, Mousa Dembélé, Eric Dier, Kane, Hugo Lloris, Danny Rose, Kieran Trippier, and Jan Vertonghen)? That Spurs side made the Champions League final, but alas, ended up trophy-less across all competitions. What will be telling is how this Spurs side responds when they hit the inevitable rough patch this season and Mourinho starts publicly blaming his players as he is wont to do.