- The simple tactic Arsenal and Man C use to defeat the opposition time and again
- Arsenal’s shocking failure on 3 November will live long in the memory
By Tony Attwood
Here’s the league table: where else should we start?
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 13 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 31 | 11 | 20 | 34 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 13 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 39 | 12 | 27 | 32 |
| 3 | Tottenham Hotspur | 13 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 26 | 16 | 10 | 26 |
Chelsea v Arsenal, Sunday at noon. Two teams evenly matched is what we said, but watching this on TV it didn’t look like it at all. Yes it was only one goal between the two sides, but really the whole style and approach of the teams was utterly different.
In fact watching on the TV at my local pub the sides looked worlds apart with Arsenal looking smooth, creative, inventive and in control and Chelsea increasingly desperate as time wore on. And to add to the fun Aubameyang looked, well, not to put too fine a point on it, utterly pointless and useless. He touched the ball eight times in his 64 minutes on the pitch, which is, of course, once every eight minutes. I don’t know what his salary is, but if Chelsea would like to pay me even half of it to touch the ball eight times in 45 minutes, I’d be happy to oblige.
Being a season ticket holder at Arsenal, but living in the Midlands, I feel I do enough travelling to home games without adding to that for the away matches. But equally the BT Sprout subscription rate just to watch a handful of games each year seems a bit over the top.
So it was off to the pub, and on TV in the pub Arsenal looked to be totally dominant and Chelsea increasingly desperate. We had 57% of the possession, 14 goal attempts to their five, and as we predicted they outfouled us 18 to 13. Indeed I hadn’t fully realised just what a nasty team Chelsea has become this season. But on the more positive side, we have learned how to take total control of a game, despite the fouls.
And the fact was, on TV, in the pub, this looked brilliant from an Arsenal point of view. So much better than the Zurich match which I was at just a few days before. And Chelsea looked lost, unable to sort out how to get their way into the game. We were in fact utterly dominant.
So this is now our best-ever start to a Premier League season, and I am sure we’ll have time in the coming days and weeks to contemplate this further, but just consider this – this season compared with the unbeaten season
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal 2022 | 13 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 31 | 11 | 20 | 34 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2013 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 28 | 10 | 18 | 33 |
In Europe, the break for the ludicrous World Cup held in the utterly disgraceful and appalling Qatar, leads to the nomination of “winter champions,” – the team at the top of the league before everything packs up so that Fifa can try to convince us that our views of humanity and decent behaviour should be set aside in favour of… well, I am not sure what. Money making, fanaticism and a total disbelief in human rights, I suppose.
That doesn’t work for me, but what is interesting is that we do have a fairly fixed team, just as we have had in other past seasons of success. And we have clear and set tactics, which had Chelsea chasing around in circles and resorting inevitably into fouling, fouling, and then a bit more fouling.
Plus what was interesting was that Chelsea didn’t manage to do anything in the second half to rectify their obvious failings in the first half. Indeed it was hard to understand why we were not more than one up, but this is not a season of ruing chances that were not taken advantage of. Because what we have here is not just talent but belief. And not just a manager who knows what’s what, but a manager who has a system that the players believe in and which works.
It was a good game. And thanks to the local pub, I could watch the match for the price of a glass of wine.
Actually you mad a mistake about the invincible year on that table,it was 2003 not 2013.
And I can just imagine how wonderful that glass of wine tasted, because that was indeed a wonderful performance.
I see BBC sport are re writing history again:
BBC Sport September 2022:
“Arsenal should have equalised when Gabriel Jesus got the better of Martinez and set up Odegaard but neither the Norwegian, nor Saka as Arsenal continued to press could find the target when well placed to do much better.
David de Gea acrobatically denied Martinelli as well, so Arsenal did have the opportunities to make more of their dominance of possession.
Odegaard and Xhaka were excellent in midfield, and it is clear they have a more consistent goal threat with Jesus in their side”
BBC Sport today:
“The Gunners, without a top-four finish since 2016, have beaten Tottenham and Liverpool at home this season, although they tamely lost 3-1 at Manchester United in September.”
Did they? I mean did they really?
Arsenal 16 shots
Man Utd 10 shots
Arsenal 61% Possession.
Man Utd 39% Possession.
Yes, we were beaten, but those statistics hardly suggest tamely. Even the BBC’s own report doesn’t suggest that.
Still, we can’t have a BBC report without at least one dig at us, can we?
Ive supported Arsenal for a shade over 60 years in that time Ive seen the Fairs Cup win in 1970 and the magnificent double team of 1971 . I think instead of naming all the great years weve had I would like to mention the great and unified support we’re getting and experiencing in the last couple of seasons .Back in the day we had the vocal support on the Northbank and over on the Clock End and in between aside from the schoolboys enclosure we had the polite applause rippling down from the East and West stands. But now we have a phenomenon its 57,000 supporters all giving their two penn’orth of backing . Im saying that whatever happens I want this undivided support to go on and on its worth its weight in future trophies.Whats not to love about our team and our supporters ?
NORTH LONDON FOREVER
well the times they are a’changin’…
Sp*rs losing, Manure losing, Chelsea losing, Newcastle is a top 3, Arsenal winning and on top.
The only thing not changing is the deadwood journalists permanent, persistent, fetishistic, obsessive need to go negative on a positive. Not forgetting that *hole Keys who just cannot stop himself going after Mr Arteta and Arsenal. Game after game after game.
Does anyone know where that level of hatred, because this is what it is IMHO, comes from ?
@ Nitram
Yep, I saw the word “tamely” and nearly vomited.
Interestingly, I have yet to meet a Man U fan that thinks we didn’t deserve to win that game (which is extraordinary in itself given their normal blinkered attitude).. But the BBC sports department wasn’t relocated to Salford for no reason!
I was angry at first but quickly realised it’s simply the normal BBC bias and inability to even try an appear neutral…..
“Arsenal beat Chelsea, are Gunners now the real deal” is the headline on the BBC football website.
The opening line of their offering is, “First Arsenal brushed aside Tottenham. Then overcame Liverpool. And now the Gunners will spend another few days at the top of the Premier League table after another statement win over Chelsea.”
SERIOUSLY FFS?! we’ll spend, “another few days” at the top of the….table!! How much more offensive can these people get? We’ve been top of the league more than any other team this season……but hey, let’s use semantics to ridicule Arsenal. And people wonder why Arsenal fans think the media are anti-Arsenal……..
Don’t get get all caught up in it , It’s what they want . It’s the reason that Talk rubbish employed Durham , he slagged us off and people took the bait and their swithboard glowed red. Rise above it and enjoy the ride .
Saka 3 bookings , people booked for fouling him 1. Says a lot about our refereeing standards .
Les Martin – I agree with you totally about the support. I moved from the north bank to a front row seat in the east upper some years back (a reward for the work I did on the statues project) and so have moved away from the noise and vibrant debate, but can peer down on both the north bank and the clock end and see what’s going on, and I have never seen either end so vibrant.
I love the fact that a group of blackshirted supporters have taken over the front rows behind the clock end goal, and the extra noise and enthusiasm in the north bank is really great.
I always sing “North London Forever” and slowly a number of people up in the east are starting to join in too.
Thanks for your comment, and of course for reading Untold.
And I would add one other point generally – during the unbeaten season we were told week after week that “of course they will get beaten some time, and then we’ll see how long they take to recover.”
That is how it always is.
I’m writing a piece for Monday which compares just how we are doing with Arsenal and other top clubs in previous years. It’s rather encouraging in terms of the figures revealed.
WOO HOO , HOOOO ! Well done guys .
I believe that we can let out our bated breath . Finally.
While City are still the yardstick by which we ought to be measuring ourselves, I think we are ready to move on and above .
We have achieved quite a bit , but there remains some more to go before we get into the memorable league !
Up the Gunners !
Had a goal not resulted from Saka’s corner woud Oliver have awarded a penalty for Cucurella cuddling Xhaka? I think we know the answer to that.
Mick
My issue is more with VAR.
Now I concede VAR did its job at Leeds, but let’s be clear about this, we didn’t get any favours. All the decisions were correctly judged.
But it seems since then we’ve been paying the price, even in Europe.
A blatant shirt pull at Southampton. No penalty. A blatant shirt pull against Zurich. No penalty, to name but 2.
So no, I doubt very much if Oliver would have given anything, and I certainly don’t believe VAR would have intervened.
Alas we will be paying for that Leeds match for a while yet.