By Tony Attwood
We are told that Mikel Arteta was frustrated and angry. Pretty much at one with the crowd then, although he called it “a bad feeling in the tummy”. Although for the Telegraph to translate that into saying “Much was nauseating for Arsenal” was a bit silly. Terrible results happen; they tend not to happen to Champions but they happen to clubs that have hoped to be champions but aren’t, and clubs that face a league match prior to a much bigger cup match. It shouldn’t be like this, but it can be.
Then again, it doesn’t happen to the very biggest of clubs pushing their way through to trophies, but Arsenal, for all the incredible improvement from the death agonies of the last manager’s reign, are not there yet. We all want them to be, but they are not.
Of course the response of some is to call for revolution – or the nearest thing football clubs have in that regard – the sacking of the manager. But to throw away all this progress and bring someone else in, would take us back in time and would lose the progress that has been made. And would the stars of this team wait for a few more years of reworking? I doubt it.
What is true is that my predictions of Arsenal having little difficulty in hanging on to second place have been proven quite wrong in just one game. What is also true is that trying to solve the problem by bringing in new players is not necessarily going to be the way forward. For the players who have been failing of late for Arsenal are not bad players at all; they are good players wilting under the stress.
Of course if Arsenal were to win 2-0 this week, the defeat by Bournemouth would be forgotten. If not, there will be demands for change, and the fact that most such changes don’t work, would as ever, be lost. Never forget how much the journalists love this situation – no need to do any research, just announce that Arsenal have lost it and then go down the pub.
And of course amidst it all we have the fact that Jurrien Timber is probably out for a while, and it looks like Martin Odegaard is struggling with an injury.
So the manager made a gamble with the selection, and it didn’t work. But then if he had not made a gamble, that might not have worked either. Maybe we do need a new psychologist. Or at least a different psychology.
Was there anything good about the day? Well, yes there was in the fact that we got some pictures on TV of Arsenal’s top scorer this season sitting in the stand and (at the start at least) looking ok. That this player hasn’t played for quite a long time tells us quite a bit about the problem.
That player is Havertz of course, with 15 goals this season, and to have lost him and Saka at the same time has been the killer blow. The simple fact is that team has been too unsettled by the changes.
The benefit that PSG has of having already won their title weeks ago, through being about the only team that can win the French League (they are 20 points ahead of their nearest rival) shows the benefit of having a one-team league. We don’t have that in England and that causes difficulty at a moment like this – although I’d still sooner have a competitive league rather than the procession that the French have – or that we had with the ceaseless ManC league titles.
So the media call this a “doom spiral” and Arsenal are now eighth in the last six games table, equal with Bournemouth. We’ve seen this sort of thing before of course – the focus on a cup distracting from winning remaining league games, but it doesn’t make things easier.
But were there any positives? In terms of what happens in the Champions League, it is impossible to say. Rice and Partey looked good I’d say, but elsewhere…. who knows? It depends which psyches turn up in France.
Should the manager be sacked if he doesn’t win the Champions League? No of course not, simply because there is no guarantee that the next person would be any better. It is probably a much better idea to let Arteta continue his evolution of the squad and acknowledge that getting to the semi-finals of the Champions League itself is no mean achievement. But Arsenal could do with removing the executives who ordered that the club should take over the management of banners in the Euro game. That would be a good start.
The Bournemouth result reminds us that there are no certain wins, which is why I discourage the optimistic (or complacent?) forecasts of 3 points and a number of goals before such fixtures.
In a game of fine margins, we were generally the better side, but the longer it stayed only 1-0, the more nervous I felt, (as perhaps did some of the players). It’s not an excuse for the eventually poor performance in the latter stages of the game, but, once again the PGMOL influence could be seen – there is no way that the second goal would have been allowed for rather than against Arsenal. Also, why was Nwaneri penalised for a Bourenemouth player choosing to fall on top of him when an Arsenal corner should have been awarded? Why no yellow cards for the number of Bournemouth fouls (ie those that were not actually ignored by the referee)? Why were Bournemouth players allowed to delay the taking of several Arsenal free-kicks? etc. etc, as always.
Let us hope that the Arsenal can once again stick it to the media and pundits with an unexpected away performance in Paris.
We have lost too many players that are important for the way we play. Havertz is not just for his goals important but for me his is much more important for what he brings in terms of pressing and his physical presence in the box. When you look at Trossard now there in the middel, you now you have little chance of getting in a cross to him and Leandro bossing the defenders and the way Leandro presses is at half the energy of Havertz’.
Despite Kiwior doing a good job there is a big difference between him and Gabriel. Gabriel is more aggressive in the duels and is the focal point in attack when we have corners and free kicks. The partnership between Saliba and Gabriel is phenomenal. And so one can see that Saliba isn’t as comfortable as he is with Gabriel next to him. This has certainly unsettled our strong defensive system.
With all the players we have lost this season it is not realistic to talk about titles.
Because you not only lose the players when they are injured but you also need to take into account that being fit is not the same as reaching the level you produced before the injury. I think Odegaard, Saka, White are good examples of this. You could also add Jesus because just as he was starting to look good again (long after being fit) he got his new injury.