How are we feeling this morning Gooners? That was a really painful one last night. It’s very much a story of what could have been and what ifs and I think that’s always what makes bad results that bit harder to swallow.
At half time a draw was looking pretty good, as we were way off it in the first half. If we’d had gone on to get an equaliser and draw that game, I think I’d still be disappointed, but I would have chalked it down to one of those days and call it a point gained from a difficult away trip with a ton of injuries.
The fact that we came back and played some of the best football I’ve seen us play this season in the second half and really dig in, from an attacking perspective, and take the lead, only to throw it away so cheaply is absolutely infuriating.
What if…
This is the worst bit. What if? What if we’d managed to hang on to our lead? The media would have been gushing over us again. Spirit of champions, they really dug in, what character etc.
We’d also be 9 points clear of our nearest rivals which would put us in an amazing position going into the international break and really put Liverpool and City under pressure. We’d have gone away to the international break with knowing that we were firmly in the box seat with Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke, Martin Odegaard, Viktor Gyokeres, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus to return.
Don’t get me wrong, we’re still in a really good position. How good will depend on the result at the Etihad on Sunday, but I’d still make us title favourites at this point, with arguably a big chunk of our best players due to return and yet to really impact the team in a meaningful way. That said, I still have my doubts about whether or not we can hold off those two if we go through a bad period, knowing how much pressure is on us this season. I was not going to get carried away, but I think if we’d won that game yesterday, I would have truly believed this was our year. It just would have put us in such an amazing position.
What caused the late collapse – what could we have done better?
I waited for Mikel Arteta’s post match press conference to gain some kind of understanding of what I’d just seen and I think what I was really hoping to see was him admit that we weren’t good enough and really go after the players for what we’d just seen. On reflection, that was never likely to happen, as Arteta rarely breaks ranks in public and just went on about how disappointing it all was, which was a bit of an understatement to be honest. I really just wanted to hear either Arteta, or one of the players, to come out and say that was unacceptable and really poor from our side. If nothing else, just to shift the narrative a little bit from how amazing Sunderland are for a moment and to just look at the game for what is was, two points thrown away by a team’s inability to defend simple balls into the box.
From what I could read it seemed like a very short press conference, with Arteta likely to be in no mood to chat after what had just happened, so there wasn’t any questions on substitutions (or the lack of), which I thought might have come up. At the time I understood why Arteta was reluctant to change too much as it was a very intense game in which it might have been hard for any substitute to adjust to the pace of the game. However, in hindsight, would a few more proactive changes have helped us close out the game? Did the introduction of Mosquera make us too negative?
I’ve seen some people blame our lack of options in attack as the reason for our inability to hold out, which I initially dismissed as that should have no impact on our capability to defend our box. After giving it much thought, I do actually think this is a really good point. We had absolutely no out ball in the closing stages, to help us stretch the pitch. What difference would a Gabriel Martinelli or Viktor Gyokeres have made on proceedings, if introduced late on? Probably quite significant, as we could have played the ball into the corner for them to run onto, which would have helped run down the clock. In that case, maybe this was really one game too far, with our injury situation the way it is at the moment. We just lacked the options to really close out the game effectively and ultimately that is what has cost us the perfect end to an amazing round of games since the last international break.
Media nonsense
As always, one of the worse things about dropping points in this way, is the inevitable media nonsense that is spewed into the world out and stupid headlines and conclusions that come with it. Apparently Sunderland played an absolute masterclass against us and the result had nothing to do with our inability to defend a couple of simple pumps into our box. They moved the advertising boards to stop our long throw-ins (which at time of writing have yielded approximately zero goals for Arsenal this season) and that was one of the key reasons why we didn’t take all three points. Yes, clearly I’m a still bitter about yesterday’s result and not in the mood to be gracious about the Sunderland performance yet I still believe that the final result was more about Arsenal’s inability to defend simple long balls into the box than anything else. They can put their advertising boards wherever they want, it wouldn’t have stopped Leandro Trossard’s absolutely piledriver of a goal.
Apparently Granit Xhaka was immense. I saw very little of him between 45-75 minutes as Arsenal ran riot and completely took the game away from Sunderland. I’m sure he played well, but it was far from the masterclass that has been report, as Arsenal ran over them for large periods. Dan Ballard on the other hand, had a massive influence on proceedings. Scored one, made another, crucial block at the end of the game, yet Granit Xhaka made the headlines. Dan Ballard wasn’t talked about as much pre-match so it didn’t fit the media narrative as much so although he got his plaudits on Sky Sports, I’ve seen a lot more about Xhaka in the wider media, which is laughable really.
Reasons to be positive?
Despite the crushing blow of that late equaliser, the is still plenty of reasons to be positive right now. Firstly, we are still top of the league! 7 points clear at the time of writing actually! I would have bitten your hand off to be in this sort of position at the start of the international break, so it’s time we take a step back and look at this in a wider perspective. On the whole, things are going well for us right now. Top of the league, some really tough games already out of the way and it looks like we’re starting to click going forward.
Might be an unpopular opinion this one, but I think the clean sheet record being over and done with is not the worst thing either. The longer that went on, the more confidence it would give us, yes, of course. On the flip side, I think that would come with more pressure as well and we just need to go about our business over the next few tougher games, without creating too many headlines. I think Calafiori said it best, in his post-match interview, let’s not worry about the records, let’s just try to let in as few goals as possible regardless! Also, the longer that run went on, the harder it would hit us when we finally let a goal in. I remember the unbeaten run of 2002/03 that was ended by a flukey goal from Wayne Rooney and the effect that had on the team afterwards (4 straight losses, if I’m not mistaken). We don’t need to be built up anymore than we already are, we know what we can do and the rest of the league know it as well. (we also don’t have to worry about the run potentially being ended by that lot from down the road as well!! Could you imagine?!?!)
Finally, we have up to 6 (SIX!) players due to return after the international break, or around that time, and we’re not talking about squad players who will play 3 or 4 games a year here. We’re talking about 3 strikers, 2 flying wingers, our captain/playmaker, and a partridge in a pear tree! These players will make a massive impact on our team and hopefully our results, as the season progresses. The cavalry is coming guys. The cavalry is coming.