Arsenal 2021: So far

Arsenal Dot Com

January 3: It is exactly these type of performances that gets me so worked up on Arsenal’s season. At times they can put in beautiful combinations of movements and passes and it works so well and pleasing to watch. One of the few games this season that cannot be classified as boring. Because when Arsenal has the ball, you could sense a goal coming.

But the first goal scored by Tierney came out of nowhere. A moment of individual brilliance. Ran down the left wing, went pass the West Brom defender and curled it in with his right foot. The goal also culminated after a build up of 20 passes. Under Mikel Arteta, they have scored 3 goals following a sequence of 20+ passes, more than any other side. Just as I thought another beautiful goal would not come by, Arsenal’s cog clicked where they moved the ball so well, Saka needed to just tap in. ESR with another assist. Arsenal go into half time with a 2 goal lead when it really should have been more.

The snow covered pitch made it difficult for the ball to move around as quickly as it did during the second half. Arsenal were a little sloppy in the 5 minutes after the restart but managed to get a third curtesy of a Laca goal, after ESR had his shot saved by the West Brom keeper. Laca got his second and Arsenal’s final goal after tapping Tierney’s cross in to the back of the net. First time this season in the EPL that Arsenal has scored 4 goals.

My man of the match would have to be Tierney, some say that he should be the next Arsenal captain. Perhaps the snowy conditions were favourable to him. He is Scottish after all and said “a little snow hurts nobody”.

The ironic bit is that this turnaround came after Sam Allardyce (West Brom Manager) said that he considered Arsenal a relegation rival 11 days prior. Arsenal were 4 points above relegation then and after 3 wins in a row(the first time this season), Arsenal are now 12 points clear. Another few performances like these and we can consider talking about Arsenal looking like European contenders again. Having played a game more, they are 6 points behind 4th place, but still lingering in the bottom half of the table in measly 11th.

The influx of youth has played a significant role in the mini resurgence. Arsenal looked solid

defensively and dangerous offensively. It is January, a good time for Arsenal to get rid of

deadwood and negativity, and to bring in some much needed quality. They now take a break from Premier League action to defend their FA Cup as they host Newcastle next week before entertaining Crystal Palace on 14 January.

January 15: A dull 0-0 draw. As soon as the final whistle blew i couldnt help but feel disappointed that we couldnt win. Three wins in a row may have disillusioned me about the prospects of Arsenal climbing higher up in the table perhaps even challenging for Europe. Boy was this performance a stark reminder that our expectations of this team would have to be the minimum, and at the moment its just to go as far away from relegation as possible.

Arsenal looked like going back to their old ways, unable to break a resolute Palace defense. Even with Emile Smith-Rowe, Arsenal lacked something in the final third. Something thats been plaguing them all season. Maybe they should consider taking more long range shots because when the opposition is so dense with their defense, Arsenal cant break them. It showed and in the end Palace looked happy for the point.

And i think the weekend extra time win against Newcastle in the FA Cup showed its toll on the players. The line up changed, no Tierney, Elneny and Pablo Mari in the side. Saka looked a little tired but overall a good starting lineup. But one could question the substitutions, Ceballos, AMN and Laca for Partey, Pepe and Nketiah. It just didnt work out. I thought Partey slowed the passing, because Ceballos was quick to pick out the runners, Pepe looked more functional when Ceballos was still on. Nketiah did.. what Nketiah does best i guess which is pretty much getting fouled and in the end you sort of see how the game was going to end. Thats is Arsenal was never going to score and hope that Palace dont catch them on a break.

But there were some good performances tonight, namely Xhaka, Holding and Luiz. Not great but good and at the moment we need everyone to be performing at least at a "good " level. It's when they dont that you see Arsenal slump into a dark abyss that a team unable to win games. But its Newcastle next, lets hope for a better performance there and see where it takes us. These late games really screw with my sleeping pattern.

January 19: First game post Mesut Ozil and I think we got away with that one. In football, you need a bit of luck. And in the first half, Arsenal just weren’t as lucky. Aubameyang had a shot 2 yards off the goal that hit the post, albeit a weird angle. Another opportunity seems to have struck the wrong strain of hair on David Luiz’s mop head and the ball went wide from a free header. Auba had another shot wide after a brilliant counter attacking move and the game went into half time looking like it would end in another dull goalless draw.

And it seemed like Arsenal would again be unable to score a goal in 90 minutes but a contrast in fortunes in the second half makes way for a different narrative. Arsenal’s goal came from a counter of their own, when Partey lobbed a through ball to Auba on the left wing, and Auba had it all to do a shot past the keeper at his near post with the left foot. Darlow who has been in good form recently should have expected to save that. There were a couple of threats from Andy Carroll, the guy who resembles a cast member of the History Channel’s hot show, Vikings, but Arsenal were able to keep the Newcastle forwards at bay. Then came the second after a combination of passes allowed Smith Rowe to again assist Saka to tap in and Auba later scored the third, also from a tap in. The third goal was checked by VAR for possible out of bounds play, as Cedric dribbled the ball close to the edge of the pitch, but was just centimetres in play. Good fortune that one.

And with that Arsenal has kept 5 consecutive clean sheets in all competitions, with 4 wins in their past 5 league games. One thing I would have done differently from Arteta was not to bring Willian on, instead I would have given Pepe some minutes to help him with his confidence. But we play in the FA Cup during the weekend, uncertain of our opponents until tomorrow morning between Southampton and Shrewsbury. Then its Southampton in the league at St Mary’s on Tuesday so we could be playing them twice in a space of a few days.

Written by Syed