Kevin Whitcher
Firstly, a quick word of thanks to Huawei who treated my good self, my son and various Arsenal and tech bloggers to hospitality for this match. Tomorrow, I should be posting a video my boy made on the evening with the Huawei Ascend P7 Arsenal Edition handset to enhance their brand awareness, which is obviously the point of this exercise. There will be some photos on a dedicated gallery page too. That’s today’s plug over, without any pretense of subtlety, so now down to the business of why we are here.
I compared the starting elevens to those that played for the two clubs last weekend. Southampton made five changes. Arsenal made ten. The consequence, in terms of the match, was that it was fairly even except that, for this observer, the visitors created the more dangerous chances. They could have won by more.
I had a feeling that Southampton would indeed field a side closer to their best eleven and as a consequence, exploit Arsenal’s lack of resources at the back, and probably win. The Gunners certainly had quality options going forward, but overall, did not look too much like a team on paper. Diaby and Wilshere as the defensive screen is not going to offer much protection to the centre backs (including Isaac Hayden making his second only start), and the need to play Coquelin at left back was indicative of the lack of defensive options available. If Arsenal were going to win this, it would be by outscoring the opposition.
In reality, there was not too much blame that could have been laid at the defenders for the two goals that Southampton scored. Rosicky was culpable for the first one with a thoughtless lunge at the ball, given the location, to concede the penalty, whilst the second goal was unstoppable, although some might feel the scorer Clyne might have been closed down. Jack Wilshere made a judgment call and doubtless regretted it, but it was a screamer of a shot.
Where Arsenal were ultimately let down was the inability of their attacking players to create gilt edged chances. A good number of quality names on the teamsheet, but Southampton’s organization and workrate have not been lost with the departure of Pocchetino and a number of high profile players. Arsenal’s forwards and midfielders lacked both sharpness (Rosicky, Diaby, Campbell and Podolski) and enough understanding to create more than a couple of solid chances. There were too many attempts at threading the ball through the eye of a needle and they didn’t come off. Impotence and frustration resulted, with the introductions of Cazorla, the Ox and as a last throw of the dice Chuba Akpom for a defender not making any difference.
Was it any great surprise? Should the manager have done anything different? In this instance, I will honestly state that greater defensive depth in the squad would have made no difference in this match, although I would accept if there were a couple of genuine holding midfielders in the squad, then playing one of them might have seen less fluency from Southampton. But it was going forward where the problems were most evident. However, the manager has to give these players game time. With so many injuries, he could be accused of recklessness if he played more first teamers. It could of course be suggested that some different tactics might have been utilized to outfox the Southampton back-line, but with the personnel available, I am not convinced Arsenal really have much of a plan B, aside from throwing Akpom on a lot earlier and trying a 4-4-2.
The League Cup has, for many seasons, been an exercise in keeping back up players involved, or giving experience to youngsters. When a side approaches it in this manner, more often than not, their progress will be halted at some point. Arsenal had enough quality in their eleven to win a home tie against Southampton on paper, some big names. But big names do not make a team. Ronald Koeman’s side won last night because they were more of a team. It is the reason that they are currently lying second in the table. They are no minnows.
Arsène gambled, and lost. But he won’t have lost too much sleep over it.
I am now on Twitter@KevinWhitcher01.
The new issue of The Gooner will be on sale outside the stadium for Saturday’s game v Spurs. It can be bought online here.
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Further Reading
A sequel to Arsènal – The Making of a Modern Superclub and entitled Arsène and Arsenal The Quest to Rediscover Past Glories has been written by myself and co-author Alex Fynn. It takes up the story of the club from the last update of the previous book, and can be bought online here. Use the promo code ‘Gooner’ to get 10% off the publisher’s price of £8.99.
