Good morning from a quite windy Dublin.
We’re almost at the end of another Premier League round, and as it stands we’re in 6th place on 17 points. A win for Everton over Wolves tonight would take them above us on goal difference, but it still feels like a good place to be. If you’d offered it to people after the first three games, I think they’d have bitten your hand off for it.
We’re three points off the top four, and while I know there are going to be some ups and downs, some bumps on the road, this is the territory we need to be in, and territory we need to stay in. As I wrote yesterday, I found Mikel Arteta post-game comments about the need to be humble very positive – not just because that’s exactly the mindset we need, but also it reinforces much of what he’s said previously.
I think it’s been perfectly reasonable to have doubts about him, but from the start, the one thing I’ve found encouraging is that he’s always seemed to see the problems. He knew he was coming into a club in strange shape after the departures of Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery, with a squad that needed to be rebuilt, and which experienced more executive level disruption than anyone really expected. You can’t fix anything if you can’t see what needs to be fixed.
The big question was, could he do the repair job and get the team functioning at the same time? It’s fair to say that has been a challenge for him, but it certainly looks like we’re going in the right direction. The seven match unbeaten run in the Premier League is his second best spell of form during his time in charge. We had seven games unbeaten last season between the win over Chelsea on December 26th and the end of January; and his first campaign the team went eight unbeaten not long after he took over; so if we can match that, and even improve on it, that would be a positive.
Next up is Watford, taking nothing for granted but that’s a game we have to be targetting three points from given our recent form, before we play Liverpool at Anfield after the Interlull, a much more daunting prospect. However, as Brighton showed at the weekend, they’re not infallible, we just need to play well and do what we can to prevent them from playing as well as they can. For now though, I think we can enjoy where we are and how we’ve got here, hopeful that the changes we’ve made since that opening day have played a major part.
That’s a key aspect too. We’ve brought in a new goalkeeper who has been superb; a new right back; we’ve put together a new central defensive partnership, and there’s a new central midfield partnership too. When you add increasingly consistent contributions from our forward players, it’s a nice cocktail. I think there’s more to it than that, the attitude and the application has been really good, but it’s hard not to look at those things as foundational. Let’s hope we can keep building.
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Elsewhere there’s talk that there might be managerial change down the road after Sp*rs (top of the table after three games Champions, lest we forget), suffered defeat to Man Utd at home. I think this would be a real shame. Poor old Nuno Espirito Santo, with his lovely beard that makes him look like Bad Santo, clearly needs more to implement his ideas there. It’s great to see Harry Kane ambling around on the wings trying to beat men with his no pace, looking to cross it in for the centre-forward who …. oh …
… as I said, I think he needs more games to perfect this. I’ve run the numbers through a super-computer, and it reckons 378 fixtures would be sufficient. It’s a touch on the measly side, but I guess it would be a good starting point.
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Meanwhile, Arsenal Women are into the FA Cup final after goals from Beth Mead, Kim Little and Leah Williamson gave them a 3-0 win over Brighton. They’ll face Chelsea in the final on December 5th, just a few days before a Champions League game against Barcelona – which is taking place at the Emirates, so if you fancy going, tickets are on sale now. Hopefully they’ve got a trophy to parade before that game, but either way the support would be hugely welcomed, I’m sure.
Here are Tim’s post-match thoughts on the game, and going forward we’re looking to do more video content around the Women’s team, so make sure you’re following @arseblognews and get subscribed to the YouTube channel.
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Right, that’s just about that. Of course, James and I will be recording the Arsecast Extra for you later this morning. Keep an eye out for the call for questions on Twitter @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re on Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
Podcast should be out at lunchtime or thereabouts, so until then, take it easy.
