Post-match thoughts v Arsenal

Written by kirsikka

AI rang the changes with the biggest surprise being Christie on the bench. It looked like a gamble, but maybe the thought process was rather than dropping off in the final thirty minutes when we might be under intense pressure, we could actually up our levels in the witching (half) hour. A roll of the dice but sometimes you need to do that to get a result in these matches, and it was also a big show of faith in Scott.

As an aside, Adams was finally fit again and claimed a place on the bench. He didn’t appear, but at least we know he is available and can expect to see him soon.

What the Dickens happened? Well, it was a tale of two sittings: BC – before card and AD – after dismissal.

You may not believe this but I promise you in my notes after about five minutes I wrote:

Is there a more irritating or, frankly, crap chant in modern football than the Saliba one? It’s genuinely terrible on every level.

Thank you to whichever $deity was listening to my forlorn plea to silence it.

Now, let’s talk BC.

It was mostly cagey stuff from both sides without too much being created. However, rather than criticising the Fancy Dans for not doing their part let’s instead respect the work of the Relentless Ronnies for their constant harassing and haranguing, forcing errors and keeping Arsenal at arm’s length for the most part.

Sure, they had more of the ball but it was a pretty evenly matched contest.

Look, the recent incarnation of Arsenal has been so much about Odegaard and Saka so let’s not lose sight of the fact they were both missing. However, they still have world-class players all over the pitch meaning it took incredible discipline and effort to keep them out.

In the end that constant pestering paid off as rather than bring the ball down and lay it off, Trossard decided to to play a first-time ball back but got it all wrong, with Evanilson having a clear run on goal.

I’d already written after an earlier challenge:

Pundit after a bad Partey challenge “Well that’s a yellow card. Oh no, just a talking to. He’s a lucky boy”. It’s what we expect from the two-tier reffing system against these teams but I’m surprised any surprise was expressed since we see it every time we play them.

Only tonight was different. A man who has consistently made outrageous decisions against us since he came to this country, Jared Gillet who was on VAR, decided to change the narrative. He called the ref over the monitor and a red was given. To be honest, it was a red but it was the kind of red we would never normally get against any of the Sky Six.

And that switching of roles then became the narrative of the night. It was a bit like a Hollywood body swap movie, only instead of Freaky Friday it was Surreal Saturday.

Thereafter we even started to win the soft free kicks in a way that has never happened before against a Sky Six team.

I hope their fans are absolutely spitting feathers over it as that’s normally what we have to deal with in these matches against that group of clubs. Every. Single. Time. Until tonight.

Given how many times rank and biased refereeing has destroyed my mood, I hope it has ruined their weekend. And note, it wasn’t even that bad, just slightly titled in our favour rather than some of the opposition kit-wearing performances we’ve had to deal with before.

Anyway, on to AD, and our ascension up the table.

I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when the player Arteta sacrificed was our bête noire, Raheem Sterling. Of all the people to keep on the pitch when needing to score on the break against AFCB, it’s him. Above almost any other player in world football. I applauded him off the pitch with glee.

Meanwhile, the balance of play had totally switched. I’m not sure if we were Lindsay Lohan in Jamie Lee Curtis’s body or the other way around but it was a joy to see them pinned back in their own area and desperately searching for anything to fall for them on the break.

Another fun lesson for the Arsenal fans to enjoy. This is how most other teams have to watch most matches against the financially dominant ones. I hope they hated it.

It was actually an interesting challenge for us since we aren’t really a team set up to dominate the ball and pick the lock of a tight defence. And, at the same time, committing more men forward would leave them more space to work in when they do get it, and their players are still top quality. It’s was a hard balancing act, but I have to say it was one we juggled perfectly.

He showed some good skills but Semenyo had an off night when it came to shooting. Missed chances he would normally do much better with and also made bad choices around crossing at times. Still, you could see they had been briefed about him since, as soon as he got the ball near the area, they were doubling up on him. Sometimes that’s the role a player needs to play – the decoy to leave more space for others.

For a while we were wasting opportunities without really testing the keeper much or letting good crosses from Dango go begging. I was starting to feel a touch of fear in my stomach about Arsenal and their vaunted set-piece scoring prowess coming into play in the last ten minutes.

However, guess what you might find in an old-fashioned arsenal? A petard. And tonight they were to be hoisted by it. Which is kind of appropriate since it also blew the doors off their defensive fortifications.

A fantastic set piece straight from the training ground was perfectly executed with a brilliant lay off from Kluivert and a finish so ruthlessly perfect it could only come from a prodigious midfield goal scorer. A Lampard type. Take a bow Ryan Christie.

The penalty also came from that aforementioned relentless chasing, this time Evanilson seizing on another mistake that was forced and leaving the keeper with no option but to bring him down. It seems Kluivert now has the spot kick duties and he calmly slotted home.

Standout performance for me on the night was Senesi. He was here, he was there, he was bloody everywhere. But, like the Scarlett Pimpernel, they never caught him. Except when he wanted them to so he could get one of those soft free kicks I mentioned.

If I was to be critical about anything on the night its that it’s another match with lot of efforts on goal but the keeper only had one save to make from open play, and that came from his own error.

The other was Kepa nearly gifting them a goal with a horrible pass out straight out to an Arsenal player. He redeemed himself with the save but I remain unconvinced about his distribution, which is surely one of the main reasons he’s here.

Enough of that, though. Yes, they had ten men but don’t forget we matched then when it was 11v11 and then slowly but surely turned up the heat until finally that frog was boiled.

A night to savour. Watching the despairing moan from Raya after he played an aimless ball over the head of his player to give us a throw in during injury time was delectable.

Three points, and however many men they had on the pitch nobody can say we didn’t deserve it.

Selected Players Watch

— Kerkez —
Relentless performance up and down the pitch, with enough stamina to keep it going for the whole match. In fairness, he looked a little scared of Sterling at the start but never backed down. Really growing into things this season.

— Senesi —
An obdurate and solid rock when we were under pressure early and then pushing forward and taking part in attacks when we had the numerical advantage. Outstanding.

— Dango —
Pretty anonymous first half but came to life after the break. Was suddenly causing them all sorts of problems and repeatedly getting dangerous crosses in only to be taken off just when he was taking the game by the scruff of the neck. I genuinely don’t know what to make of that.

— Christie —
He scored the goal when we really needed one. May also be what he needed because let’s not take anything away from the quality of the finish. Compare his composure with the normally reliable shooting from Semenyo out there tonight. The first of many for the season?

AI and Tactics Watch

I found the line up a really interesting decision. Many will say it was only because of the internationals but my feeling is, as I opened with, AI wanted us to finish strongly and so kept Christie in reserve. It worked a treat. Scott prodded and probed without quite creating anything but still had one of his better performances and then Ryan came on to at sixty minutes to deliver the coup de grâce.

You have to acknowledge a well-executed tactical plan like that.

The swapping of sides for Dango and Semenyo didn’t work, and they both look much improved when they switched back. I remain unsure about taking Dango just at the time he had started to destroy their full back.

Yes, I know two of the other subs combined for the goal ten minutes later but I don’t think Sini ever gave them a hard time in the same way Dango was. Maybe it should have been two subs, with Sini kept back until later? All hindsight of course, but that fifteen minutes after half time from Dango was everything you want from a winger.

Quibbles though, and we shouldn’t get too stuck on them after a night in which AI has absolutely had his opposite number on toast. They may have been missing some big names but they had more than enough quality and money on the pitch to still get the job done. But Arteta had no answer to the questions AI was asking.

Will I enjoy it if Arsenal now miss out on the title by three points or fewer? To be honest, I don’t care that much but I wouldn’t mind screaming in the face of Ben White right now.

We don’t have all the points we deserve but, on the balance of our play and how well we have matched most teams, I think this may be our amongst our strongest runs in the PL.

Same again next time? I’d be more than happy to watch “Surreal Saturday 2” against Villa.

Your say…

DangerousDave

A really joyous occasion to be a Cherry, we were well in it even at eleven against eleven and it’s worth noting that this lot held Man City to a draw on their own patch with ten men for over a half of football.

My overriding thought other than the feeling of elation, was to ponder whether a game involving us has ever had so many elements to it that went totally against the status quo.

• A VAR decision going our way, not only that, but a highly debatable one too. I personally don’t think that was a red and would be fuming had it gone against us.

• Not only that, but a game against an elite side where it genuinely felt as though the official may have been ruling ever so slightly in our favour throughout. Not outrageously so, but I can’t remember us winning so many 50/50 calls against an elite club before.

• Our non-scoring midfielder banging in an absolute peach of a goal. The way he controlled that with his instep was a thing of beauty.

• A team who are renowned for being the most defensively organised and focused unit around, looking incredibly susceptible throughout the game. Against a team that often makes silly defensive errors that prove costly, looking like a perfectly drilled defensive side and not giving their opponent a sniff.

Sandman2

Impressed with that performance today. As noted above, even when 11 v 11 for 30 mins they didn’t get a look-in. Red card was the correct decision and we really took it to them after that. Man City struggled to get past a 10-man Arsenal recently, but if Semenyo had his shooting boots on today we would have been comfortably ahead. Good to see Scott put in a really good first half, I think he can give our team something a bit different if AI can find a way to fit him in. Stop the press… AFCB have scored from a corner routine! Its about time and great to see that prolific marksman Christie step up and score a peach from a well-worked routine. No doubt the news reports will all be about dodgy ref decisions and poor old Arsenal. Personally, I couldn’t care less and it’s so good to finally get some decisions go in our favour… plus they were correct. – To join the conversation, click here.