Wonderful beyond belief: a staggeringly brilliant performance from Arsenal

 

 

• 100 years since Chapman joined Arsenal: 10, Why Knighton had to go (contains a full index to this ongoing series so you can catch up from the start if you wish).
• Erling Haaland threatened with imprisonment, and a publicity stunt

By Tony Attwood

Well was that not wonderful beyond belief.  And a special thank you to those who wrote in last night.  I watched the game in a pub the market town of Rothwell (population 8000) and was the only person in the pub watching the game (the interest was such I had to ask the barman to tune the TV into TNT).  My shouts got curious looks, but in this part of the country, it is always felt dangerous to approach someone shouting at a TV. so I was left alone.

So, previously here we have talked about the awful run of fixtures both home and away, and the terrible run of injuries, and how they were both coming to an end at the same time, and wow that was indeed the right line to take.

Just look at the bench: Neto, Setford, Tierney, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Lewis-Skelly, Merino, Jorginho, Sterling, Nwaneri, Trossard, Jesus… there is some talent in there as well as some solid replacements.

I must admit though I am often loathe to believe our own predictions – in this case that with the injuries gone and the growth in belief this team could leap this far forward.  But really I ought to believe what I predict a bit more often.

For, if this group of players can stay fit and avoid the insane tackles which still reside within the depth of the Premier League, I think we are on the march, although as the table shows other clubs could win their game in hand and we could sink back down into the play off zone.

 

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	InterMilan	5	4	1	0	7	0	+7	13
2	Barcelona	5	4	0	1	18	5	+13	12
3	Liverpool	4	4	0	0	10	1	+9	12
4	Atalanta	5	3	2	0	11	1	+10	11
5	Bayer Leverkusen	5	3	1	1	11	5	+6	10
6	Mondaco	4	3	1	0	10	4	+6	10
7	Arsenal	5	3	1	1	8	2	+6	10
8	Sporting Lisbon	5	3	1	1	10	7	+3	10
9	Brest	5	3	1	1	9	6	+3	10
10	Borussia Dpormund	4	3	0	1	13	6	+7	9
11	Bayern Munich	5	3	0	2	12	7	+5	9
12	Aston Villa	4	3	0	1	6	1	+5	9

.

Clubs one to eight go forward to the next round, while clubs nine to 24 go into the playoffs (not as I wrongly put it before) and 25 to 36 drop out.   At present then Liverpool and Arsenal could go forward, while Aston Villa and ManC (who are in 15th) would go into the play offs.

And despite last night’s goal fest Arsenal are still the lowest-scoring team in the top eight.   But I would sooner have our position than a lot of others, not least because that is eight goals in the last two games.  And as Arteta said, “I don’t think they have lost a game here in 18 months.”

In term of injuries where virtually all season the list has been running on and on and on we are now down to two men out.  True they are both long term injuries with no notion of a return date – Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White, and that situation of just not knowing how long its going to be can be a terrible strain (I know from personal experience this year – and in my case it hasn’t stopped me doing my job), but for Arsenal, it is now just two players.

Anb on the other side of things the talent that we had on the bench was fantastic.   And here’s another point that isn’t making all the reports this morning: the statistics beyond the fact that Arsenal scored five.

For Arsenal scored five with only 46% possession.  Arsenal also had only one yellow card each (but I bet PGMO were no watching.)  As the Guardian said Arsenal “are back to their old selves and making swift passage to the knockout stage look significantly more realistic.”

We might also add that in the last two matches Sporting scored ten goals, and that was since the relatively easy task for dispatching Manchester City 4-1 in the fourth round of matches.  In fact in their previous four games, they had scored four, five or six goals each time.  In their last four away matches in the Champions League Arsenal had scored none.

And once again we have to urge Arsenal to get onto the cloning company to complete the duplication of Martin Ødegaard because without him, this team is a lot less.

In August 2021 Arsenal paid Real Madrid €35M for Ødegaard which is less than we paid for Nicolas Pepe, Alexandre Lacazette, Gabriel Jesus, Riccardo Calafiori, Shkodran Mustafi, Jurrien Timber etc etc.  Not to say those were / are all poor players, but it does put into context what a sensational deal that was for Ødegaard. 

And the point here is that because Sporting realised that Ødegaard was the key to everything they lost focus on the rest of the team.   And that is before we get onto talking about Thomas Partey,  Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice etc as individuals.

As Arteta has said, Arsenal are less effective when seeking to “manage” or “see out” a game rather than continuing to attack (which is how the opposition scored).  But then Arsenal are not the only team that has that problem – and it is a problem that is solvable, unlike the problems facing ManC it seems.  For below ManC there are six teams with a game in hand – obviously being played tonight. Each and every one of those teams will go above  ManC if they win.   Those teams are LOSC, Celtic, Dinamo Zagreb, Real Madrid, Benfic and Club Brugge.  ManC going out of the competition still seems unlikely but the play offs look likely as their deestination.