Reckoning on last month’s matches
After a disastrously ill-prepared start to the season, Arsenal embarked on an unbeaten run with a mix of good, bad and ugly performances and some character. After last month’s more positive review, Arsenal Audit looked ahead to a difficult, and historically troublesome, November. It was suggested that two points against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United wouldn’t be the end of the world, but defeat in either match would. Four or even six points would suggest that, to the more experienced and deeper squad, stronger spine and more modern pressing tactics, Arsenal have also finally acquired some of the mental strength Monsieur Wenger believed they had. With the UEFA Champions League Group ‘decider’ following, we would know a lot more about Arsenal’s pretensions for the season. As usual, Part One revisits the matches to tidy up loose ends and flag up some prevailing themes for further analysis in Part Two (both were submitted for publication before the FC Basel match).
Ludogorets 2–3 Arsenal
The Champions League Group ‘decider’ was dependent on Arsenal winning the away tie at Ludogorets, but with both full-backs, Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott and Lucas Perez all injured, the tricky decisions over team selection ahead of the North London derby had narrowed. Despite the 6–0 home win, Arsenal Audit had cautioned about taking the tie lightly. Arsenal even surpassed the terrible start at PSG and were two down in 15 minutes and heading for yet another woeful Champions League defeat against much lesser opposition. However, so far this season, Arsenal have been more resolute in character after they go behind. Francis Coquelin and Granit Xhaka were the ‘2’ and the latter slotted in Mesut Özil’s goal-line cross from just behind the penalty spot five minutes after Arsenal conceded the second. Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud both started for the first time this season and combined to bring Arsenal level just before half time. The former, forced to operate on the right wing he prefers not to play on, put in an excellent cross, which was finished off with a trademark bullet header. Less happily, with Alexis Sanchez shunted back to the left, the pair seemed to slow Arsenal’s new-found pressing dynamism and offensive cut and thrust, and to return Arsenal to the dourer sideways movement of last season. Nevertheless, energised by a rare start, the Frenchman uncharacteristically raced back to just beyond the penalty circle to dispossess the opposition two minutes before the end. Mohamed Elneny sent Mesut Ozil clear with a rare piece of game-changing creativity, a long ball over the top, and the languid World Cup winner scored his second successive Arsenal Goal of the Month winner with a goal certainly to write home about.
Arsenal 1–1 Tottenham Hotspur
Francis Coquelin and Granit Xhaka were retained as the ‘2’ and, with the recent injuries clearing up (Santi Cazorla excepted) Monsieur Wenger reverted to his otherwise then preferred first XI. Four days earlier, their local rivals had toiled to a Champions League defeat at, for a high-press team, a particularly energy-sapping Wembley. Yet, remarkably, their demanding young manager chose the North London derby to suddenly introduce 3-5-2. It was unforeseeable and Arsenal started slowly and chased shadows for the first quarter, and an unpressed Tottenham flooded through. Their centre-back - Kevin Wimmer - helped with an own goal and even an Arsenal legend and top-rank pundit, who lives in an ordinary London house, protested the goal should have been disallowed. However, according to the rules of the game, which trouble very few pundits despite a career in the game, it was rightly awarded. The only Arsenal player to challenge Wimmer was Laurent Koscielny, who was level and onside. The two players who were in offside positions, Alexis and Mustafi, didn’t challenge him and didn’t affect his ability to play the ball. After a rusty Harry Kane’s penalty shortly after the resumption, following an uncharacteristically clumsy and unnecessary challenge from Laurent Koscielny, Tottenham regained the ascendency. Once 65 minutes were up, Monsieur Wenger went for broke and made three substitutions within five minutes. Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud joined the fray, to little effect. Enjoying one of his better periods for Arsenal since the optimistic days of his signing, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s body language didn’t betray what was probably his worst 20 minutes ever in an Arsenal shirt.
With the rise of Tottenham under Pochettino and increasing importance in terms of the top end of the League table/Champions League qualification, the North London derby seems to have become increasingly tepid. Nevertheless, Monsieur Wenger has yet to get the better of his young rival in the Premier League.
Manchester United 1–1 Arsenal
In another fixture that seems to have lost most of its old bite, almost all of Arsenal’s entire outfield team produced their worst 90 minutes in an Arsenal shirt this season. Granit Xhaka, having been one of the better players in the derby and kept his cool well, was dropped in favour of Mohamed Elneny and, even more bizarrely, Aaron Ramsey was bodged over to the left wing. Monsieur Wenger explained, “I knew it would be a bit more of a physical battle so I chose players who have experience and fight … That’s why my selection was because of that.”
Xhaka 24 years old. Ex-FC Basel and Borussia Monchengladbach. 48 Caps for Switzerland including featuring in the last World Cup and Euros. In the Premier League this season - 668 minutes, 50 duels won, 8 aerial duels won, 76 recoveries, 23 tackles won, 11 clearances, 22 interceptions, 557 passes at 88.7% accuracy, 3 chances created, 1 assist.
Elneny also 24. Ex-El Mokawloon & FC Basel. 40 Caps for Egypt. In the Premier League this season - 449 minutes, 22 duels won, 3 aerial duels won, 29 recoveries, 10 tackles won, 3 clearances, 6 interceptions, 409 passes at 92.7% accuracy, 6 chances created, 1 goal.
Having embraced analytics, Monsieur Wenger clearly discarded them in choosing Elneny over Xhaka. Simply perverse. A busy player popular with many fans, Elneny’s Ray Wilkinsesque lack of decisive creativity alongside the enforcer Francis Coquelin also offered little going forward. Defensively, Ramsey left a struggling Nacho Monreal once again exposed and wing-back Antonia Valencia took full advantage. Mesut Ozil operated way too deep to have any impact. Alexis Sanchez’s two strappings and performance suggested he was anything but his personally-claimed 100% recovered from international duty. Theo Walcott’s only contribution was to diligently protect Carl Jenkinson from a repeat of his suffering during his last visit in Arsenal colours. (Remarkably, £4m a year pundit Thierry Henry had forgotten the 2–8 and his sending off). A dire collective offensive output, including particularly poor set-pieces, ensued, which even suffered by comparison with some of last season’s worst performances. Sky Sports Gary Neville called Arsenal “pathetic”. Yet, remarkably, Monsieur Wenger waited until the 73rd minute for the first substitution and Plan B. Olivier Giroud, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Xhaka replaced Elneny, Jenkinson and Coquelin. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Giroud combined superbly to score Arsenal’s first Premier League goal against a side managed by Mourinho since May 2007 (Gilberto). Olivier Giroud gained a personally unwanted record of having scored more Premier League goals as a substitute than any other Arsenal player. And the 2-3 reverse at the same ground last February remained Arsenal’s only away League defeat in 2016.
Arsenal’s resilience in avoiding defeat continued. But the Portuguese King Joffrey and Old Trafford Premier League double hoodoo seemed to affect both Monsieur Wenger’s team selections and the players’ minds, and another chance to make a statement was lost.
Arsenal 2–2 Paris Saint Germain
The unsuccessful Coq-Elneny ‘2’ was replaced with yet another roll of the ‘2’ dice; to the stalwart Francis Coquelin was now added the less than defensively disciplined Aaron Ramsey. The lethargy so evident in the previous two big matches continued. Three season-defining big matches. Three poor starts. The pressing and offensive movement that had characterised Arsenal’s better performances this season, came care of PSG. Edinson Cavani’s power, pace and movement left him with the freedom of the Emirates Stadium (once again, his finishing failed to match). Arsenal’s new pressing game didn’t appear until late in the first half and the move that led to the equaliser, another Olivier Giroud goal, rewarded him for his super-sub feats with a start. The penalty came from contact, albeit minimal, and as players so often do, Alexis made the most of it. The perpetrator, Krychowiak, tellingly, didn’t complain.
Immediately the second half started, Arsenal’s contre-presser was back. Was it the half-time team talk? Why wait? Where was the game management again? The substitutions were left until after Arsenal’s luck ran out on the 77th minute and Alex Iwobi was substituted after his own-goal which cancelled out PSG’s earlier. The final substitution came at 81 minutes with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain at a new-found position for him, replacing a struggling Carl Jenkinson at right-back. Aaron Ramsey, however, trumps his four positions, having been tried in all the midfield five, unfortunately, again this season, to very little effect. Arsenal’s better performances have been notable for his absence ….
Arsenal 3–1 Bournemouth
To the inevitable goal-keeping change, Monsieur Wenger made six out-field searching for the missing November spark. Xhaka and Elneny formed yet another ‘2’. Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud were benched in favour of pace and movement, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replacing Alex Iwobi, who had faded of late. The changes soon paid off and Arsenal created a chance within 90 seconds, whereas in the previous two Premier League matches that was all they managed in 90 minutes. This time Alexis was fit, and despite a spirited performance by Bournemouth, his whirlwind performance and two goals saw Arsenal to victory, sandwiching a close-range header from Theo Walcott. Giroud and Ramsey had to make do with 15 minutes, although that was enough for the super-sub to set up Alexis’s second.
The biggest shock, given Carl Jenkinson’s struggles, had been the very welcome return from a year of exile and injury of Mathieu Debuchy. His sad struggles with injury continued and Gabriel Armando de Abreu was forced into the right-back position after just 12 minutes. Not for the first time, Monsieur Wenger has a December right-back crisis on his hands. Gabriel coped adequately but looks an even more unnatural fit than Johan Danon Djourou-Gbadjere and even more uncomfortable on the ball. Let us hope Gabriel’s confidence and career do not suffer like Djourou’s did.
Arsenal 0–2 Southampton
A persistent theme of past Arsenal Audits was the poor prioritisation of competitions and, above all, throwing the FA Cup with unnecessary rotation in search of a Champions League win that never remotely looked likely to happen. Simon Rose’s excellent Online Gooner article made a good case for - as some notable major rivals have - taking the competition more seriously. Whether winning the competition would make Arsenal any more likely to win the Premier League title under Monsieur Wenger is another matter – certainly, the two recent FA Cup wins have not.
Southampton made eight changes themselves, but to very much greater effect, and thoroughly deserved their place in the semi-final. Arsenal were devoid of movement for most of the match and woeful. Jeff Reine Adelaide, often out-muscled, could be excused as a young player out of his depth. Carl Jenkinson was a player shorn of confidence in the knowledge that, apart from his family, the vast amount of watching fellow Arsenal supporters don’t think he’s good enough. And Lucas Perez was rusty upon his first match returning from injury and starved of good service. But Captain Kieran Gibbs, Francis Coquelin, an ill but still trusted Mohamed Elneny, Alex Iwobi and Aaron Ramsey are hardly strangers to Arsenal’s first team and all have designs on a regular starting place. Alex Iwobi, in fairness, was the pick of a bad bunch. Aaron Ramsey was given a second opportunity this season to shine in his preferred No. 10 position and remind us of his one good season in an Arsenal shirt and Euro 2016 form for Wales. Again, he did nothing to press his claims. Instead, we were treated to his full repertoire of misplaced shots, misplaced passes, runs up blind alleys, sideways passes, backwards passes. And, not least, Ramsey’s star turn - his much-loved hamster move as he confidently and purposefully wheels backwards in a full circle with the ball, ensuring any forward momentum is totally lost.
In Part Two, tomorrow, Arsenal Audit looks at why Arsenal weren’t able to deliver the statement of intent they had hoped and examines the problem of the ‘2’ without Santi Cazorla, game management and substitutions, and the November problem. After the usual look at the British core, we finish with some thoughts on Arsenal’s prospects ahead.
Sources:
On offside and the own goal:
https://www.premierleague.com/news/137357
Old Trafford team selection:
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20161119/wenger-explains-his-team-selection
Player stats:
http://www.arsenal.com/fixtures/first-team/stats-centre?type=player-stats
