Kevin Whitcher's Arsenal Blog

  Benfica v Arsenal Europa League Round of 32   2nd  Leg Thursday 25th February 2021, 7.55pm local time (Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Athens) Given the respective team selections for the first leg of this tie and last Sunday’s Premier League outing at home to Manchester City, there was never any doubt that Mikel Arteta would select his strongest possible side for the return leg against Benfica. Kieran Tierney was the only change from a week ago in Rome. The irony of Arsenal playing their home leg in Olympiacos’ stadium after the events of last season was huge. After being eliminated by the Greek side at the same stage of the competition 12 months ago, and Mikel Arteta contracting COVID-19 – most likely from the Olympiacos president… well, let’s say it's been a year to remember since, mostly for reasons no-one would have wanted, although even if it was behind closed doors, another FA Cup triumph was something to savour. Let’s go off on a tangent for a paragraph or tw...

Arsenal 0 Manchester City 1 Premier League Sunday 21st  February 2021   4.30pm Five changes made by Mikel Arteta would have surprised nobody after the strength of last Thursday’s selection against Benfica, and there might have been more. After all, given the two teams’ respective league positions, City’s extra day of rest from midweek, and Arsenal’s current priorities, this game was effectively a free hit as far as the Gunners were concerned – nothing expected really, as reflected by the long odds on a home win before kick off, which were soon to lengthen even further. Some would have been very pleased to see a centre back pairing of Holding and Mari, and everyone would have been delighted to see Kieran Tierney declared as fit to start. A midfield of Xhaka and Elneny suggested that Arsenal would likely play on the counter attack. The early goal was a shocker as Raheem Sterling should not have been able to get a free header by Rob Holding, although questions about Tierney’s bac...

Benfica 1 Arsenal 1 Europa League Round of 32 1st Leg Thursday 18th February 2021, 9pm local time (Stadio Olimpico, Rome) In a normal season, a first leg away match against Benfica, in front of their own support, a 1-1 draw would look like a reasonable result. An away goal, home advantage to follow, not playing a poor team by any stretch of the imagination. However, the feeling after last night’s game in neutral territory was of a missed opportunity. Arsenal dominated, created far better chances, but failed to settle the tie against a Benfica side that were only really good in terms of their defensive organization. Their goal was certainly a little fortuitous with a technical handball against Smith Rowe that showed why so many players choose to put their arms behind their backs when trying to block anything in the penalty area. There was a time when intent to stop or divert the passage of the ball was punished by a spot kick. How times have changed. Mind you, it does work out sometimes...

Arsenal 4 Leeds United 2 Premier League Saturday 14th February 2021 4.30pm There were some interesting changes to the starting eleven against Leeds after the two defeats in the West Midlands that did for any momentum built up since Christmas in the Premier League. Culprits for the Wolves defeat – Luiz and Leno – returned, at the expense of Rob Holding and loanee Mathew Ryan. We wait until the next two matches to see if Holding was merely rested or has fallen below the two club’s two Brazilian centre backs in the pecking order. There was no shortage of cover on the bench – with he, Mari and Chambers in reserve should Luiz or Gabriel get crocked… or indeed sent off. Dani Ceballos replaced the injured Thomas Partey, whilst Lacazette and Pepe were both dropped to accommodate the return of Aubameyang and the first start of Martin Odegaard – the latter in the same line-up as Emile Smith Rowe. We were informed that Leeds had a wretched record in London under Bielsa, and going further back, fo...

Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 0 Premier League Saturday 6th February 2021 12.30pm The game at Villa Park was settled within the first two minutes due to Cedric’s casual lay-off pass to Gabriel, who did not anticipate having to run onto the ball and saw it taken away from him by Traore, who found Olly Watkins in the centre. His deflected shot off Rob Holding beat debutant keeper Mathew Ryan, who tried to stop it but was blameless. That turned out to be game over. After a pretty decent run since Christmas, recent matches have seen Arsenal gift goals to the opposition, and have their numbers on the pitch reduced, due to some poor decision-making.   Perhaps at this stage, an overview is required. This from a mate of mine, Tel, this morning: “15 games to go and we have already lost 10 games... we only lost 10 games all of last season... we are scoring just over a goal a game this season, last season it was 1.5 a game... we're losing a game every 2.3 games, on that basis we are going to lose ano...

Wolves 2 Arsenal 1 Premier League Tuesday 2nd February 2021 6pm What can you say? Enjoying relative domination in the West Midlands rain, Arsenal – who should have been more than a goal up - switched off in first half injury time, ending up with the scores level and a man down at the interval. An uphill task became nigh on impossible when they contrived to get themselves reduced to nine men during the 45 minutes that followed. And all down to lunacy and a familiar failure to intelligently assess a situation. Arsenal did start very well, with Saka imperious in all aspects except managing to get on the scoresheet (although VAR denied one of his attempts), and eventually their superiority telling through a cracking goal from Pepe, who can be an awkward opponent with his ability for the unpredictable. In flashes you can see why the club were tempted to splash the cash on him – his YouTube highlights reel is probably mindblowing.   Still, it was all for nowt. David Luiz has shown signs ...

Arsenal 0 Manchester United 0 Premier League Saturday 30th January 2021 5.30pm It was the kind of game that showed how fine margins in football can be. It could as easily have been a 1-0 win to Arsenal as a 1-0 defeat, and you can bet that many of the reactions would have been disproportionate in either the case. From ‘we can win the League now’ to ‘sack Arteta’. In reality, it was an evenly contested, open game between two sides who were both sloppy and creative in turns, enjoying some very presentable chances to score, and came agonizingly close enough times to make a very open game a far more entertaining spectacle than the result suggests. And we have seen some instantly forgettable matches between the two sides down the years, alongside the memorable epics. Mikel Arteta is seeking genuine squad depth in his attempts to improve Arsenal, and he was tested on Saturday evening with the absences of Tierney, Saka and Aubameyang. I’ll take a guess and say the Arsenal captain landed in th...