Kevin Whitcher's Arsenal Blog

Leicester City 0 Arsenal 2   Premier League   Saturday 30th October 2021 12.30pm    Sometimes, you can over-complicate football tactics in an effort to outwit the opposition. Although as a failsafe, keeping it simple and relying on the talent and attitude of the players can pay dividends as the last three Arsenal performances have shown. All those games saw two goal margins of victory and the concession of a single goal. Mikel Arteta is now playing a clearly defined 4-4-2 formation when the opposition have possession, and it feels like the players have a far clearer idea of their roles now. Simplicity can be a thing of beauty. Equally key is the good form being shown by the likes of Aaron Ramsdale and Alex Lacazette, the latter now playing as more of a number 10 when Arsenal have the ball and causing havoc with his link play. Many a Gooner expressed before this match that they’d be content with a point, but Arsenal played some excellent football to establish a two goal margin and then

Arsenal 2 Leeds United 0   League Cup 4th Round   Tuesday 26th October 2021 7.45pm     I spoke to a Leeds fan on Monday who was of the view that the visitors last night would play a fairly inexperienced team for this League Cup tie, with the visit to Norwich next weekend far more important. It wasn’t the case in the end, and this made for a decent match-up in which Leeds were the better team in the opening 45 minutes. Mikel Arteta uses the competition to give a run out to his squad members that are not seeing much in the way of game time, more so this season because of the lack of European games, so the line-up did not feature too many surprises. One was the inclusion of Ben White alongside Rob Holding with Calum Chambers available, and one hopes the apparent bug that meant White’s removal after 55 minutes will not keep him out of contention at the weekend, when a visit to Leicester looms. Emile Smith Rowe also started, but aside from that, it was very much the back-up boys. So we had

  Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 1     Premier League     Friday 22nd October 2021   8pm    So what was the difference from Monday evening’s poor display at home to Palace? In short, greater balance in midfield and the playing of Alex Lacazette from the off, whose play asked more questions of the opposition than we saw during the time he was on the sidelines four evenings earlier. Additionally, Nuno Tavares had a positive impact, Kieran Tierney having seen his form decline recently, almost certainly down to playing on with the injured ankle that has now been declared by the club.   The greater balance – and Arteta has to now field two deeper central defenders after the attempts to play Partey there on his own quite obviously failed – allowed the likes of Emile Smith Rowe to contribute more. There is a feeling that the latter and Odegaard cannot play in the same eleven. I’m not so sure about that, but what does not work is playing that pair to form a midfield triangle with Partey deep.   The Nor

  Arsenal 2 Crystal Palace 2     Premier League     Monday 18th October 2021   8pm     There were wild celebrations when Alex Lacazette (Arsenal’s most spirited performer on the night) struck the ball home at the death of this game, but, like any draw salvaged from a match that needed to be won, it felt like a pyrrhic victory.   Arsenal have been outplayed by Brentford and Brighton already this season, and at home against Palace, Patrick Vieira’s side were allowed long spells of domination, and controlled far too much of the game. The players available to the managers of the three sides mentioned are not as good as Arsenal’s by a long way. But they have coaches that are getting the best out of them. We are a couple of months short of two years since Mikel Arteta took over at London Colney after the Unai Emery era ended badly. That was allowed to drag on too long, as it became clear the more experienced Spaniard was not able to get a tune out of the resources at his disposal. The same i

Brighton 0 Arsenal 0    Premier League    Saturday 2nd October 2021    Brighton have turned out to be something of a bogey team for Arsenal since their promotion to the Premier League in 2017, beating Arsenal three times in eight matches, an indication of the Gunners’ decline, but also – given two of those wins came in the previous two seasons, a signifier of the abilities of Graham Potter as a manager to get the best out of a group of players. A little spice was added to this fixture by the transfer of Ben White from the Seagulls’ backline.   For Arsenal the game was hugely significant in terms of their season. Momentum has slowly been built with a relatively consistent selection in the Premier League, starting with the introduction of Tomiyasu, and the pairing of White and Gabriel at centre back. Add to that Aaron Ramsdale being promoted above Bernd Leno and the Gunners seemed like a bit of a tougher nut to crack than the soft-centred version that was seen in the opening trio of Prem