By Tony Attwood
Yes it was fun; fun to see just how we know how to deal with a team with far fewer resources than we are privileged to have, but none the less beat a team that needs to be beaten.
Fun because, although there are many some season ticket holders choose not to come to games like this, and who it seems were unable to sell their tickets to others who are willing, there are still many more of us who will turn up and enjoy the show.
Obviously there are large numbers who won’t turn up, and of course that is their choice, their personal circumstances, and what else they had in mind.
Of course there will be people who use a match like this to say, “Emery needs to do this,” or “If Emery doesn’t sort this out in January by buying XYZ we are in trouble.” They are a bit like people who ask me why I leave so early in the afternoon to drive from the Midlands to London. Simplistic answers (like the fact that the M1 is likely to be at a standstill and my main alternative route is blocked by one of the biggest road building projects I have ever seen) tell us something, but not everything. It is good to see it for oneself. (Although not good to be proven right on the M1 – 30 minutes sitting still with no indication why or how long we will be there is surely unacceptable for a modern industrial society – but that’s what we had. No accident, just that it happened).
But there was a reward for what those of us who went there got was a Lucas Torreira playing just in front of the back four. And he looks so good. OK against a much lower quality side than ours, but games like this are important to get him into the system and get to know those around him.
His positioning and his ability to manipulate the game around him are quite something, and with the levels of skills he’s got he’ll certainly be doing this in every PL game he is fit to play in. And yes indeed the two goals from the opposition came after he had come off the pitch. If you were not there, and have chosen not to pay the exorbitant demands of BT Sprout for TV coverage try and find an extended highlights of the game somewhere and watch him.
Of course the cameras will look out for Aubameyang (his opening goal certainly seemed to do him the world of good) and Torreira together. What a combination this is going to be.
Anyway, we also got a good look at and Lichtsteiner, another chance to see what Danny Welbeck can offer and whether Iwobi is growing into the forward Mr Wenger firmly believed he would become. Certainly the figures look good: one goal and three assists in three games this season.
And of course in a game like this it is always going to be the attack we focus on, but I think special mention should be made of Elneny who was 100% on the move throughout the game, delivering the sort of break-up play and getting the ball forward which is exactly what we need him for. He might well be kept out of the team by others, but I really hope he gets enough games to encourage him to stay with the club.
Here’s the line up
Leno
Lichtsteiner, Holding, Sokratis, Monreal;
Torreria (Guenzouzi 57), Elneny
Welbeck, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi (Smith-Rowe 70); Aubameyang (Ozil 57).
Left on the beach: Martinez, Bellerin, Lacazette, Nketiah.
And a word about Eddie. He seems to be in that difficult position of too good for the under 21s when we saw them at Coventry, but not good enough for a match like this. Once again I do hope he can be fully managed and encourage to stay.
So that is one defeat in 13 home games in the Europa/Uefa – not a particularly important stat, but one of those things that crops up. Along with the fact that our six games in all competitions in 2018-19 have seen a total of 25 goals scored in total – which tends to make for rather enjoyable viewing most of the time.
Oh yes and here is another one: Aubameyang has got nine goals and three assists in 10 games at the Emirates.
Elsewhere the chatter before the game and at half time was about Tottenham’s ground, how long it will be before it is open and what the real problem is. Some of the stories are quite extraordinary: time alone will tell, but if they are even 10% right it is going to be a story and a half. But surely, no one could have been that silly could they?
And of course we have to have a jolly headline. How about this one: “Strain of Lloris’s arrest ‘maybe created injury’, claims Pochettino.” Yep, these law breakers who go round endangering the lives of innocent people have it tough.
Having dealt a blow to Vorskla yesterday night at the Ems in the Europa, the thoughts now among us the Gooners have shifted away from the match to our home game against Everton on Sunday in the PL.
Yes, we’ve had our fun yesterday night watching Arsenal at the Ems or on the TV overcome the resistant of Vorskla in the game against Arsenal. Which the Gunners squarely dealt with but lost some colours in the process of their handing the resistant of Vorskla against them at the later stages of the match which becomes a concern to the Arsenal faithful.
Keeping clean sheet in games by Arsenal has now become a topical discussion issue among us the Gooners since Arsenal have recovered from the 2 games back to back loss they suffered in the PL at the beginning of the season. But start a 4 game winning run afterwards in all competitions.
This winning run I believe will extend to 5 on Sunday at the Ems when the Gunners host the Toffees in the PL and beat them soundly and at the same time and will keep a clean sheet in the match for the first time this season to pacify the Arsenal clean sheet keepers that includes myself.
pochettino . glad Spurs have got him. Poor mans mourihno. all the wingeing and negativity ,without any trophies. wouldn’t waste my waste on him.
At some point Andrew is likely to publish another article on the match appointments for GameDay 6.
I ran across an article from Feb 2018 on possible bias in the EPL.
http://harvardsportsanalysis.org/2018/02/are-referees-biased-against-certain-teams-in-the-english-premier-league/
The author seems to be well capable of looking at this problem. Using what appears to be reasonable tools and approach, he concludes that there is no apparent bias using match betting statistics from Bet365. I would think it highly likely that the match betting statistics take into account bias by officials, if there is any present.