By Tony Attwood
And so we have to admit two things. One is that there really has been no plan B for what to do in the event of a Saka injury, and the other that Arsemal have not been prepared for a player like Maguire being allowed by the referee to run beserk for a miniute or so, disrupting everything and turning the pitch into chaos.
Martin Ødegaard, had perhaps not experienced anything like it before, and it certainly affected him. That was not a normal Ødegaard penalty.
Should Arsenal be ready for such events; for a long term injury to Saka and a player deliberately running beserk on the pitch disrupting and goading the opposition and being allowed to do so by the referee?
Well, yes I suppose they should. Injuries happen, the opposition have been targetting Saka with kicks in what looks like an organised way for the past 18 months, and there have been chances to sign someone else for this moment when Arsenal are Saka-less. But then, what would X – the player who could come in and take over from Saka – have been doing until now?
The other approach would have been to have been practicing playing without Saka all the way through, although that would have seemed wasteful of time
Saka made his Premier League debut on 1 January 2019, oming on for Alex Iwobi in the 83rd minute. In 2018/19 Saka made one start and came on as a sub three times. The following season he made 29 appearances and scored four goals. By 2020/21 he was making 41 starts and it has been like that ever since.
How does one set up a cover for the situatiion in which he is not available? I am not really sure one can.and that inevitably means when he has gone, as he has for the moment, it is difficult to find a way around the situation.
So after two consecutive defeats to Manchester U everything is now doom and gloom. The fact that before these last two games Arsenal played 12 games, won nine, drew three and lost none, is either forgotten or ignored. The fact that in that run Arsenal score 33 goals is also forgotten or ignored.
Arsenal, we are told, should have devised some way of playing without Saka to be ready for this moment, and one might say well, yes, maybe they should, but it could have taken up valuable training time and perhaps reduced those nine wins and three draws to something less spectacular.
Winning the league always means having some luck – and that usually means luck in two areas. One is with injuries and one is with referees. The latter we can probably forget, but as for the former, yes we had that luck with Saka for all the time in which he wasn;’t injured and was playing an extraordinary number of games. Now we don’t.
Next up we have Tottenham and while before now we might have been saying that this would be a saunter in the park, given their form, the fact is that we now have to note where they actually are in the league and we have to admit that we seem to be having difficulty with these lesser, lower placed teams in the league.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 19 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 47 | 19 | 28 | 46 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 20 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 39 | 18 | 21 | 40 |
| 12 | Tottenham Hotspur | 20 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 42 | 30 | 12 | 24 |
| 13 | Manchester United | 20 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 23 | 28 | -5 | 23 |
Arsenal’s home games have been looking decidedly rocky for a while now, and the fact that we have only won two of the last five home games, and both were by a single goal against clubs in the lower part of the league, shows that Arsenal are in urgent need of a good solid home win.
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Dec 24 | Arsenal v Everton | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 18 Dec 24 | Arsenal v Crystal Palace | W | 3-2 | League Cup |
| 27 Dec 24 | Arsenal v Ipswich Town | W | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 07 Jan 25 | Arsenal v Newcastle Un | L | 0-2 | League Cup |
| 12 Jan 25 | Arsenal v Manchester Un | L | 1-1 | FA Cup |
A win against Tottenham is always doubly delightful but this week it is going to be even more delightful than that.
During most of Arsenal’s games I text message a Brazilian friend who supports Arsenal and a few weeks ago I mentioned to him how the of missing Saka has had an enormous affect on the team but more so on Odegaard who does look for him most of the time to make a pass , this is only now coming to light .
Yesterdays game there are many points to question the referee regrading the game , IMO the referee bottled a decision to second yellow card Martinez after he went through the back of Odegaard , Martinez at that point thought he was in trouble with the look on his face , second point Saliba getting an elbow to the face , completely missed by the referee but acceptable to Alan Shearer who commented “ you’ve got to protect the ball at all cost “ so an elbow to the face is ok . Saliba had to go off the pitch to receive treatment while we defended a corner .
Not going to mention of no VAR
I trurned the sound off so as not to continue to listen to Shearer talking his customary sh…te.