What does today’s victory mean for Arsenal?

 

By Tony Attwood

• How journalists don’t have a clue what it is like to be a supporter

And so Arsenal sail through as Tottenham go out, which seems about right.  Meanwhile, the media turns en masse on Martinelli.   There’s a lot of talk about Thomas Frank being in charge of Tottenham by the end of the season.   And we know from looking at recent history what happens when Tottenham change their manager, because we have seen it so often. Over and over again, in fact. They get worse.   But they never learn not to listen to the media.  Ah well.  So yes another change, please.

And to this we can add the fact that when the media turn on Martinelli he goes out and scores a hat trick.   In fact, I think we could have some more of that.    Some managers would drop a player who was savaged by the media en masse, but Arteta knows what the media is all about.    And he knows how to play them.

Plus, of course, we have the usual range of tittle-tattle in relation to possible Arsenal transfers.   We don’t get overexcited about this obviously, because we know that 97% of rumoured transfers never happen.   So Arsenal are talking with Paris Saint-Germain over  Bradley Barcola, Marc Guehi and Tino Livramento.  Maybe.  But as likely as not it is either a cover for a transfer happening somewhere else, or it is a journalistic invention.   

Three out of three suggestions – unlikely, two of three, hmmm, one of three, maybe, but with the way the club is currently going, do Arsenal need more and more players?  Indeed, can we fit them all in the side?

After all the debate, the actual team that Arsenal put out was Arrizabalaga, White,  Nørgaard, Gabriel Magalhães, Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri, Meirno, Eze, Madueke, Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli.  A pretty straightforward team, and I was delighted to see Martinelli playing.  Don’t let the media dictate the team!

But the media are starting  to turn on the  Arsenal management – obviously not because of their league position – you can’t say too much when a club is top of the league – but this  is their habit.  Now they are attacking what they see as the mangaer’s “manic energy” which they claim “can’t have done his players any favours.”   So Arsenal are top of the league and winning and winning, but using the wrong managerial tactics!

Besides the used subs today to see out the victory were Martin Odegaard (69′) Jurrien Timber (69′), Kai Havertz (69′), Marli Salmon (76′) Martin Zubimendi (82′).

The point about this game is that the non-regular first team players looked good, and one might even say sharp, and that is what we want, given the way the oppositions are lining up against Arsenal, and the lack of protection we see given to Arsenal players from some referees.

So we have the issue of who plays at centre-forward with Havertz being ready to join in the fun.   It can also mean, however, that if Arsenal get to the one-hour mark in a game without being well in the lead they can change the centre forward, just at the moment when the opposition defence is starting to tire.

And while this is happening Manchester United fan group seeks to oust ‘incompetent clown’ Jim Ratcliffe – yes another managerial change for a rival.  Each one helps Arsenal.

So what does this mean for Arsenal?    Basically, it means that the number of injured players is going down, in a club where the manager appears to be excellent at picking a team for each occasion, and the media’s batterings don’t seem to affect him.

Now we turn to the next game, which is Chelsea – away, of course because we are in a long run of away games – this in the league cup semi final.    Chelsea will feel buoyant having won 1-5 away to Charlton.

This might sound dramatic, but Charlton have only won one game in their last dozen matches, so maybe that result doesn’t really tell us too much.  What’s more, we might also notice that, leaving aside the demolition of Charlton, Chelsea have not won any of their previous five games before the FA Cup match this weekend.

What’s more, we might also note that Chelsea’s three matches in the League Cup this season have been against Lincoln City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Cardiff City, none of which really count as major protagonists in this season’s competitions.  Although we must admit that Cardiff City are top of League One, which might suggest they have something about them – and in fact didn’t really want to disrupt their promotion chances by getting kicked about a bit by Chelsea.

Of course, we’ll be dealing with all this in the coming days, but for now, we can be happy that Arsenal are still winning even after going a goal down.   The draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup takes place tomorrow.