This one won’t live long in the memory but it was a potential banana skin that Arsenal swerved in a professional, if not completely convincing manner. A goal early in the game made it look like we were going to run all over Port Vale but credit to the League One side, they improved massively and made it a really even contest until Leandro Trossard’s late goal sealed Arsenal’s passage into the next round.
The line-up
There was no major shocks in the starting eleven with a debut for Kepa in goal, first start for Norgaard in midfield and a first start of the season for Myles Lewis-Skelly at left back. Saliba was chosen to partnered with Mosquera with Ben White also coming in for some much needed minutes. An exciting midfield pairing of Eze and Nwaneri slotted in behind a frontline of Martinelli, Merino and Saka. Max Dowman was among the substitutes.
First half
Port Vale started strong as you’d expect, with a near record attendance roaring them on. They were flying into tackles and pushing forward aggressively for a good few minutes before Arsenal started to put their foot on the ball. In all honesty Port Vale never laid a glove on Arsenal during their intense period but it certainly made me feel a bit uncomfortable watching it.
Once Arsenal started passing the ball around and putting their stamp on the game, it didn’t take long for them to make the break through a nice passing move ended with a pass across the box which seemed to be aimed at the run of Myles Lewis-Skelly. The left back however, had other ideas and he dummied/flicked the ball behind him into the waiting Eberechi Eze who gratefully accepted the gift and slotted the ball home for his first Arsenal goal. It was a well worked goal and you could see how much it meant to Eze. There was a nice little shift of his body to open it out to put the ball in with his right foot, coming from the left, which made it look very easy but that little shift/drop of the shoulder was class and made the space, leading to a simple task. Sometimes with Eze, it’s just the little things that make him stand out. Some player this lad.
At this point I was thinking about how many we would get and the next 5-10 minutes certainly fed into that thinking but in fairness, we didn’t trouble the goalkeeper again until Merino slipped in Eze again, around 35 minutes, on the inside right channel of the box. The keeper came out and blocked Eze’s effort but it really should have been 2-0 at that point. The lively Ethan Nwaneri was also close to doubling the lead before the Merino chance but that was blocked away for a corner.
Port Vale were loading the box with every opportunity from throw-ins and corners and making life difficult for Arsenal but as with the Port Vale keeper, Kepa never had to make a safe.
Most of the game was being played in midfield with Arsenal being pushed back a bit by Port Vale but seeming to be relatively comfortable at the same time and happy to just knock the ball around.
One of the strange things about the game as a whole was Arsenal’s unwillingness to cross the ball into the box from corners. Nearly all of them went short and some even ended back with Kepa within three or four passes.
As you can probably tell from the review this far, it wasn’t a great game!!
Second half
Not a great long changed in the second half as the patterns of play from the first were carried through to the second. One dangerous pass out from Kepa led to a long distance shot from Devante Cole which sailed over was as close as the home side would come. Mosquera, who was mostly excellent again, also played a risky pass across the edge of his own box which went straight to a Port Vale player but again, it led to nothing.
Port Vale huffed and puffed but their half chances only really came from Arsenal mistakes so Arsenal just had to cut out those individual errors and they would be fine.
As ever, with a single goal advantage, it started to feel nervy towards the end of the game and you felt that Arsenal really needed a second to finish this one off. With the new ‘straight to penalties’ rule, an equaliser really does raise the risk of an upset so it was something that Arsenal had to avoid at all costs.
Arteta stated to ring the changes around 60 minutes with the planned with withdrawal of Bukayo Saka for Max Dowman the first change.
Hard not to mention Dowman as he looked the part once again. Not as many flying runs at the fullback this time around, this was more of a midfield performance in a sense. He drifted inside a lot and even found himself in the inside left channel at times, as he tried to help Arsenal find the breakthrough. Best moment of his cameo was his first time through fall into the path of fellow substitute Viktor Gyokeres, that set him through on goal. The big Swede should really have finished the game off but waited too long and a Port Vale defender got back to block his goal bound effort. It Gyokeres’ defence, the ball took a while to sit down for him, but take nothing away from the pass and inparticular, the quick thinking and timing of it. We’ve seen Gyokeres make countless runs like that in the first few matches of his Arsenal career, not to be found or sometimes even seen. The 15 year old knew exactly where he was and how to find him. We’ve mostly seen Dowman as a flying right winger since pre-season but this game was a reminder that he’s actually more of a number 10 and has played a lot of football their in his youth football career.
The Arsenal fans, who were in good voice all evening, were heard singing ‘school in the morning, he’s going to school, in the morning’ which made me chuckle. Probably fairly accurate assessment as well!!! Mad times.
Arsenal did manage to seal the three points on 86 minutes when a searching ball from the bar from William Saliba found Leandro Trossard through on goal. Trossard took a touch to bring it down before coming inside from the left channel and firing a firm right footed shot in the bottom left corner. It was a great touch and finish from the substitute and an even better finish. Not many players in our team can do that and make it look so simple. For the purposes of balance, I’ll have to admit that it looks a bit offside but no football wrecking VAR in the League Cup at this stage so the goal stood. It would have been close and in my book, if it’s that close, it should be a goal anyway.
That was the last action of note and Arsenal sailed into the fourth round after a hard fought victory. No fireworks but a decent enough performance to get the job done and in the cup, that’s all that really matters. Brighton up next!
Three key takeaways
Ethan Nwaneri is really coming on well
After some brilliant goals in his first full season last year, you kind of expect the youngster to score in pretty much every game or at least have a brilliant shot at some stage but Nwaneri brings so much more than that. Replacing Martin Odegaard is no mean feat and although Nwaneri does play a different game to the Norweigan in a lot of ways, he replaces him brilliantly as that link between midfield and attack. Always offering for the ball, probing away with his runs and passes, always trying to create. This was a really mature performance from the 18 year old and that’s the point, with Dowman coming in and stealing the headlines as a 15 year old, you forget how young 18 is!! Especially given the responsibility that he’s given in this team, to conduct, create and find openings. A few years ago if someone would have said that Arteta would start an 18 year old in the number 10 position and play him all game in an Arsenal game that they needed to win, no one would have believed them. Arsenal fans were calling for Nwaneri to get more minutes two years ago and it seemed like Arteta was never going to trust him. Fast forward two years on….he certainly trusts him now.
The gap between the Premier League and Leage One is nowhere near as big as it used to be
When that first goal went in, I feared for Port Vale a bit. I thought we might really embarrass them at that stage but they weathered the storm to a point. I’m not saying Arsenal were really banging on the door for the second goal but I thought we would have had a second and probably a third before half time after the early opener. What came next really surprised me as Port Vale kept us at arms length for the most part and we didn’t test their goalkeeper in any sustained way for the rest of the game. We rotated heavily from the weekend but that team we put out was a strong Premier League team and one that I thought would have blown a League One side out of the water with relative ease. It seems as though I completely underestimated the strength of the English football pyramid as Port Vale did their fans and their league proud with their performance.
Trossard is definitely better from the bench
Sorry Leo, but it’s definitely true. It was admittedly a very tough game against City at the weekend, where Trossard started, but we had an awful lot of the ball and I don’t remember Trossard doing a great deal with it during his time on the pitch. He seems to be a player of moments at this stage in his career and I honestly don’t see anything wrong with that. He impacts games in a massive way when he steps off the bench, regularly sealing games (or even winning them) for us. On the flip side, when he starts, his fortunes are somewhat mixed so if I was Trossard, I wouldn’t be too glum at the thought of being Arsenal’s secret weapon from the bench. If we go on to have an amazing season and bring home some serious silverware, he’ll go down in history for playing his part and be loved by Arsenal fans for years. Doesn’t seem to bad to me.