Hello everyone.
I arrived back in Dublin yesterday morning with the triple-whammy of a three day cumulative hangover, no sleep, and jet-lag. Suffice to say that yesterday was a bit of a struggle. I’m not looking for sympathy, it was all self-inflicted, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
Thanks so much to Andrew A for filling in, and to Tim for cracking out yesterday’s blog – one I would simply not have been able to do had it fallen to me. Just a quick word of thanks too for everyone who came to the event in New York on Saturday to help raise funds for the Arsenal Foundation, and it was great to meet and catch up with so many people over the course of an excellent weekend. Watching the game with all the Arsenal fans in O’Hanlon’s was great fun, even if the result didn’t go our way.
Which leads to me today’s blog. Tim wrote about it well yesterday but with a couple of days distance I’m honestly fascinated by this whole topic. Clearly we made a mess of a 2-0 lead against West Ham, the missed penalty was a pivotal moment, because at 3-1 win I think we win that game. Whether we re-assert ourselves and control things the way we have done for most of this season I can’t say, but I’m convinced we’d have taken all three points.
Whenever that happens, there is going to be introspection because when you go 2-0 up – a lead you’re in because you’ve played really well, let’s not forget – you should win (more often than not anyway). Do you get accused of a lack of bottle if this happens in September as opposed to April though? Where we are in the season is driving the narrative, and because the title is close to being decided it’s that great glass intangible that’s front and centre when anything that isn’t 100% positive happens.
I saw Jamie Carragher said Arsenal were cocky or complacent, but again I just wonder if that analysis is great for the entertainment that Sky provide but that isn’t really what the issue is. He uses their first goal as an example, and the way Thomas Partey tried to make up for an iffy first touch with a flick beyond Declan Rice. Is that cocky, or is that backing yourself to do something you’ve done countless times already this season? There’s a very fine line between cockiness and confidence. Which do you want your players to show?
When it doesn’t go wrong, you don’t want either – you want common sense. Just do the simple thing but then if Captain Hindsight was a football manager, he’d win every trophy. The simple thing for someone like Partey may well be that flick more than the other option which is a pass with the outside of his foot to Gabriel Martinelli. My guess though, is that when Mikel Arteta and his staff analyse what happened there, it won’t be that moment they view as the problem. It’ll be the way Rob Holding took too many touches before playing the first pass to Kieran Tierney.
Five touches of the ball before making a pass is not the way we play. If you’re driving through midfield and dribbling past the opposition, maybe, but to amble towards the edge of the D to play a sideways pass, not so much. And I don’t think that’s complacency or cockiness as much as a technical limitation of a particular player. Which isn’t to put the blame on Holding because Partey gets caught and Gabriel goes to ground when he doesn’t need to, but I’d almost guarantee that the build-up to those mistakes will be analysed more than those moments themselves. Holding was the Arsenal player with the second most touches on Sunday, and while our central defenders are routinely very high when it comes to those stats, that’s not ideal.
I don’t really understand how anyone can have listened to Mikel Arteta at any point in his time as manager, and in particular this season, and thought he’d allow his team to become cocky and/or complacent. At least not in his preparations. The idea that we didn’t talk specifically about throwing a two goal lead away at Anfield in the build-up to this one makes no sense to me. The idea that we didn’t discuss the need to build on a good start if we made one makes no sense to me. There must have been conversations about killing the game if we get to 2-0. How? By scoring again.
Arteta said we made a ‘huge mistake’ by not doing that against West Ham, and obviously it would have been better if we had, but I don’t think the team deliberately just sat off at 2-0 and thought the game was won. To do so would suggest goldfish level memories for all 11 of them, and we’ve seen throughout this season they’re definitely not that. Could we have played better? Sure. Did we collectively decide to switch off at 2-0 – ‘the most dangerous lead in football’ ? – I don’t believe that.
Control is a word we talk about a lot when it comes to football, because it’s so important. When you have it, there is no better place to be. It doesn’t take much to lose it though. A second on the pitch and momentum can swing the other way, often for no good reason. I don’t think it’s down to a lack of bottle, but most of us have played in a football match where it’s gone wrong and it’s so difficult to get it back the other way. I’ve said this before, but the reason control is so prized is because football is so incredibly random, so when you have it you’re diminishing the possibility of a random thing happening.
The fine margins dictate how pundits and fans talk about the games. Arsenal showed huge character and resilience and determination to beat Bournemouth and Aston Villa and Manchester United in last gasp fashion this season. True. To an extent. Was that what the manager’s analysis was internally though? How different would his read of those games had been without the late goals from Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah and the back of Emi Martinez’s head? You can’t bank on extraordinary moments to win you football games, you have to look at what happened before that moment arrived.
And look, I’m here for all of it. I get as frustrated as anyone when we drop points, particularly ones we should be taking at this point of the season, but I’m loath to accuse this team of lacking bottle after what I’ve seen them do throughout this campaign, and I think they’re too well drilled by a manager who demands nothing but 100% concentration and commitment to think they just decided to swagger through a game they’d got to 2-0 in.
Maybe I’m wrong, in which case feel free to let me know in the Arses, but I’ve seen elements of these flaws in other teams plenty of times before – much to my annoyance – and I don’t really see it the same way with this one.
Right, breakfast. Till tomorrow.
