How are we all feeling today Gooners? I must admit, I’m still really struggling from the weekend’s gut punch which has left me wondering the last time an Arsenal result hit me this hard. In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think a defeat is terminal in terms of our aspirations this season. I think it was more the manor of the defeat that makes this such a painful one and also what makes it quite worrying.
The pain of late goals
In terms of similar feelings after a defeat, I’m thinking of maybe the cup final against Birmingham, going way, way back to the FA Cup semi final defeat in 1999 to Manchester United or one of the two trouncings that we’ve had at Old Trafford during my lifetime. They were all extremely painful at the time and I still can’t really bring myself to watch them back now and I think this Villa game may join that elite group of truly awful memories. (Edit – if anyone can think of any others, please let me know in the comments section below and we can share our pain together. Misery loves company)
I think what I probably need now is for a family member or friend to tell me, that it’s just a game! That always fixes everything!!!! 😊
Last kick of the game is a new one for me and it’s not something that I care to repeat any time soon. However, I do worry that this team has this in their locker, with late goals now conceded at Anfield, The Stadium of Light and now Villa Park.
When trying to rationalise this whole debacle I’ve tried to remind myself that we’ve done this to many other teams before (I think we’ve done it to Villa a couple of times actually – seem to remember a late Henry winner at Highbury and a Nicklas Bendtner goal at The Emirates), Bournemouth being a particular favourite of mine as I was lucky enough to be in attendance with my Son. To be honest, that didn’t really help my mood too much as when I look back at our late, late winners, very few are against so-called ‘big teams’ or even rival teams in close proximity to us in the table. It’s usually against the bottom half of the Premier League, where our pressure finally tells late on and we manage to get over the line.
It may have been written in anger, but I stick by what I put in my Player Ratings blog post – big teams should not lose games in this manner.
Again, I can think of an example (although only one comes to mind to be fair) where this has happened to another team. In the final game prior to the ridiculous Qatar World Cup break, Manchester City got caught out by Brentford on the break, deep into stoppage time, which allowed us to go 5 points clear at the top of the table.
Finding that example did make me feel a TINY bit better. Still, that Manchester City team was all conquering and didn’t have anywhere near as much to prove as we did and could therefore be forgiven for being slightly complacent when going for the winner. That’s another important detail – City got caught when pushing to win the game whereas, against Villa we were hanging on for the most part! Also, this Arsenal team is very much built on a strong defensive mindset and has even been criticised as such for having a ‘don’t lose’ mindset rather than going for the win.
Whichever way you look at it, that late goal should never have happened and now we have to deal with the fallout.
Concern moving forward
Attention now turns to how Arsenal will react to this massive setback. Manchester City are now 2 points behind and the result at Villa Park has now dragged Villa into this ‘title race’ now as they are only a further point behind City. The next slip-up could cost us top spot!
The Club Brugge game, where rotation seemed to be the order of the day, has now become very important, as we need to get back to winning ways as soon as possible. We also need to prove that late goals are not going to define our season. We absolutely cannot let that happen. Of all the ways to lose a title, I’m not sure I’ve the emotional capacity to losing any more points in added time. I think that might actually finish me off!! Sunderland away was bad enough, Aston Villa was intolerable…NO MORE LATE GOALS! I’m not having the tiredness issue either. Villa had the same amount of rest that we had and looked much the fresher team in the closing stages.
Not just the defence
Despite the late collapse and the injuries we have at centre half, my concerns with this team are not limited to the defence. I thought the attacking substitutions were pretty pathetic (Trossard aside) and were really shown up by the impact made by the players stepping off the Villa bench. Ex-Arsenal man Donyell Malen was a real pain in the a*** when he came on and we all know what Emi Buendia did, so let’s look at what some of our substitutions brought to the game shall we? Viktor Gyokeres failed to hold up the ball on pretty much every occasion that it came to him and made one successful pass in a 45 minute appearance. How many times did we say last year, ‘if Arsenal had a really striker, someone would have been there to tap that one in’ or words to that affect?!? Countless times!! So we went out and bought ourselves the top scorer in European football, fizzed a beautiful ball across the edge of the penalty area in stoppage time of a top of the table class and our striker was nowhere to be seen!!!!! I’ve seen quotes attributed to Gyokeres where he is speaking about our need to create more chances and how that will improve our fortunes. I hope he was joking, because Declan Rice produced something out of pretty much nothing and it was the sharp end where the team was found lacking!
From that same cross, Noni Madueke prodded harmlessly into the side netting when he ought to have done better and generally flattered to deceive in his time on the pitch. One of the main selling points of brining in Madueke was that we could bring him in when Saka was tired/rested and the drop off wouldn’t be as noticeable. It was pretty noticeable on Saturday lunchtime! Madueke’s dribbling proved predictable and ultimately fruitless and the genuine concerns that most Arsenal fans had when we were first linked with the then-Chelsea winger, mainly that Madueke is very dangerous and threatening player with no end product, came into the spotlight once again. I’ve not been impressed since his return from injury so I’m really hoping that it’s just rust and that his form will soon pick up.
From the players who started the game, Eberechi Eze was absolutely woeful in another concerning performance from the left and Mikel Merino played what was likely his worst game in an Arsenal shirt, before being withdrawn at half time.
So taking all of the above into account, it’s no wonder that we struggled to impose ourselves on the Villa defence and consequently carried so little threat. When it comes to these sort of games, the whole team needs to pull together and basically, for me, the attack really let down the rest of the team.
The fallout
So the result of the weekend games means that Arsenal’s 7 point leave has been drastically cut, they now have a multi-title winning team just two points behind them, a young pretender in Aston Villa, galvanised by a morale boosting late win, one point further adrift, an attack that all of a sudden looks very toothless and a world class central defence without it’s two world class central defenders (and their understudy) and just like that, the so-called cake walk to their first title in over 20 years all of a sudden looks anything but certain. Concerning times indeed!
Reasons to be cheerful
Despite all of the above, it’s not all doom and gloom! As previously stated, Arsenal still sit top of the best league in world football, top of the Champions League table as well and on the verge of being the first team to qualify for the knockout stages. We’re also in the quarter-finals of the League Cup and with William Saliba nearing full fitness and Gabriel and Kai Havertz not far behind, the squad will hopefully resemble near full strength soon. Arsenal can also look back on the previous 15 fixtures and note that they have travelled to Old Trafford, Anfield, Stamford Bridge, Villa Park and St James’ Park (4 of the top 6 from last season) and know that those games are now behind us for another season. Our title rivals also seem to be less impressive as in previous years (one team in particular!) with weakness there for all to see and most of them with tough fixtures on the horizon. On top of all that, there is still the growing sense among Arsenal fans that this team is only just getting started and is really yet to hit third gear yet and gel in consistent way in an attacking sense.
So what matters now is what Arsenal do next. Club Brugge on Wednesday – let’s remind the rest of Europe why we sit top of the pile and then follow that up with a really strong performance at home to Wolves and try and build some momentum again. All is not lost. The real fight begins now…