I Wasn’t There When Willian Scored

Arsenal 3 West Bromwich Albion 1  
Premier League  
Sunday 9th May 7pm  

Even with Arsenal playing last Thursday night, it was no huge surprise to see the team achieve – for the first time in seven matches – an actual home win. It condemned West Brom to relegation, a phenomenon all too familiar to the West Midlands club, although a more unusual one for their manager Sam Allardyce. His style of football has gradually become less effective over the years and no longer cuts it in 2021, especially with officiating a lot tighter on over-physical play, not that the threat of a yellow card prevented Mohammed Elneny getting a cut lip due to a quite deliberate elbow from Robson-Kanu.

It was no surprise to see six changes from Thursday evening’s starting eleven, with Martinelli as the centre forward and a return to a more familiar formation with Ceballos partnering Elneny in midfield. Bukayo Saka was moved to left back, although the vast majority of Arsenal’s most dangerous moves originated from him overlapping in attack. After a sluggish start, in which West Brom might have scored a couple of times, the home side attacks started to flourish. The opening goal came on the half hour mark when Ceballos and Willian combined to set up Saka for another incision into the opposition penalty area behind their defence. This one found Emile Smith Rowe running into the area to volley the cross home convincingly. One of three excellent goals we were to see from the Gunners in an all-but-meaningless game. 

Of course, one has to take the quality of the opposition into account here. Before yesterday’s fixture, West Brom had conceded 65 goals in 34 matches. Nonetheless, Pepe’s strike six minutes later was a thing of beauty, even if he should never have been allowed that much space to get his shot into the top corner. 

There’s not a huge amount to relay about what followed. The Baggies made things a little more interesting by pulling one back after Pereira made a long run unchallenged run with the ball from his own half and finished coolly. Not great defending from Arsenal on that one, but it was the kind of day they could get away with it. In the 90^th minute, Willian struck a free-kick in the style we used to see often enough when he wore a Chelsea shirt, finally breaking his scoring duck for his new club. That it took so long is good reason for the number of questions that have been asked all season about the value of bringing him to the Emirates, and the general wisdom of operating so closely with the player’s agent Kia Joorabchian. Willian has two more years at the club, and one suspects the only way he will depart, given his wages, is another free transfer. After the Brazilian’s general lack of contribution this season, I don’t think too many would mourn if he was moved on this summer, although his stock has unquestionably fallen in the game due to his lack of end product. He’s not being paid anywhere near Mesut Ozil’s wages, but the free transfer will mean he’s being paid plenty enough. So a final payday in either the States or China would seem the only realistic options.

Chelsea away on Wednesday evening will be a more interesting proposition as a contest. Arteta will believe he still has something to play for. Mathematically, European qualification is still possible, although it would need both Spurs and Everton to lose a couple of games each. The noises coming out of the club indicate that Arteta will be given another transfer window and next season to turn things around. Sure, he inherited a mess, but certain of his decisions on and off the field indicate that his tactical intelligence and player judgment are not up to the level to turn around the club. If he does remain, one suspects a similar conclusion to his tenure that we saw with Unai Emery. A lost dressing room and a wasted season. Arteta does have his believers, and if he does remain, I hope their faith is justified and that I am wrong. It has been pointed out to me that Alex Ferguson had a very mediocre start at Old Trafford. That is fair comment on one level, although his achievements before at Aberdeen indicated he was worth giving time. We can’t say how much responsibility Arteta had for Manchester City’s success between 2016 and 2019, just that they seem to be doing okay without him.

With no fans in the stadium, there is less pressure to make changes – fan protests are currently focused on the owner (albeit lesser in number yesterday – the point was made before the Everton match and now it will be either financial factors or government policy changes on the running and ownership of clubs that persuade Stan Kroenke to sell up). On the financial front though, the club may be forced to abandon Arteta to ensure a decent number of season ticket renewals – especially in the middle tier – before the end of May, when they will need to find a big chunk of cash to pay off loans. Assuming the announcement of a superstar signing is totally unrealistic, they might have to announce a new head coach that would get people buzzing again. We won’t have to wait long to find out.

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