Spirited Arsenal give reasons for optimism in defeat

Arsenal 1 Manchester City 2
Premier League
Saturday 1st January 2022 12.30pm

The return to the team of Takehiro Tomiyasu meant that Arsenal were at full strength on the pitch for this early New Year’s Day kick off, in spite of the dugout being shorn of the Covid positive Mikel Arteta. Such was the spirit and belief in the performance of his team, it's difficult to think his presence would have made any difference, and he was certainly deciding on which subs would be used and for who from his living room, communicating with the dugout remotely.

Arsenal put in a storming first half, at times dominating Manchester City, effectively playing them at their own high pressing game, and doing it better, perhaps aided a little by City playing three times in a week, to Arsenal’s two, after seeing their match against Wolves called off. It was Thomas Partey’s final game before disappearing off to the AFCON tournament to play for Ghana, and wouldn’t you know it, it was the best display we have seen from him so far in an Arsenal shirt.

There were star performances all over the pitch though – certainly in the opening half. Arsenal went into the interval with a deserved lead due to a well-worked goal after half an hour from Saka, benefiting from intelligent positional play from Lacazette and a simple, accurate pass from Kieran Tierney.

In honesty though, the Gunners might have had a bigger lead. A move which saw Odegaard denied a penalty might not have come to that if he had taken a less heavy touch. All the same, Edison seemed to kick the Norwegian’s foot rather than the ball, upending him. Sad to say, the VAR official on duty today was Jared Gillett, an Australian who should have been removed from Premier League duties after his shocker of a VAR decision during Unai Emery’s final weeks when, at 2-2, he denied a late Arsenal winner from a corner against Crystal Palace for what turned out to be a non-existent foul by Calum Chambers. Whenever I see Gillett’s name anywhere near an Arsenal game, my heart sinks. Think Mike Riley with an Antipodean accent. This proved to be the case when, unlike the Odegaard incident, he instructed referee Stuart Atwell - who had a bit of a shocker himself - to view an incident between Granit Xhaka and Bernardo Silva later in the game.

Saka’s goal came after that incident, and the consistent overlaps of Tierney made me reflect to past times, and what a striker such as Alan ‘Smudger’ Smith would have made of his supply. But the game has of course changed, and traditional target men are gradually becoming a thing of the memory in the top flight, as the formations of both sides demonstrated. 

I felt during half-time that the home side would not be able to keep the level of intensity up, for purely physical reasons, and that if the game were to be won, an element of resilience would have to come to the fore in the second half. What I didn't account for was a lack of intelligence. So let’s look at the penalty incident. Regardless of the referee not buying Silva’s dive, the rulebook says that a shirt pull is a foul. So if Xhaka was a young defender, he could be accused of naivety for pulling the shirt of an opponent going past him inside the box, in the days of VAR. But Xhaka isn’t young, so this was pure stupidity, not naivety. Yes, the officiating lacked consistency, but there is no getting away from the fact that if Xhaka had not pulled the City player’s shirt, a penalty would likely not have been awarded, due to the nature Silva’s collapse.

Gabriel was booked for dissent after the penalty, the referee’s view of him probably not helped by his attempt to scuff up the penalty spot after the post VAR check decision. So, a cheap yellow card. Given a centre back will often need to take a yellow in this kind of game, it’s best not to sacrifice one needlessly. The scuffing made zero difference to Mahrez’s spot kick anyway, as the Algerian demonstrated how penalties should be taken, in the event that the unmissed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was watching at home, in a rare moment of synchronicity with the Arsenal manager.

What followed soon after determined the end result. A near own goal by City was cleared off the line by Ake, and people, Martinelli has to do better with what was as good as an open goal. It was a miss that not only the Brazilian will have sleepless nights about, I am still sitting here hoping to wake up and feel relief that this was a nightmare myself. Because that just had to go in. We might as well have been on the Copacabana as what followed was City’s Brazilian keeper making a quick clearance to his attacking Brazilian team-mate, who was blocked off by our own Brazilian centre-back. Welcome to the Premier League.

I don’t think Gabriel even had time to think about the fact he was on a yellow card. The block was instinctive and probably necessary. He got the inevitable booking that saw him dismissed, the real crime being the cheapness of the first card. Ah well, up the ten men. 

I had no hope that Arsenal could hang on for over 30 minutes against a side of City’s quality, and I was so nearly proved wrong. There were some thoughtless moments amongst the determination. Little things like sub Smith Rowe being ignored by his colleagues when wanting to play a short corner with the thought to eat the clock a bit with some passing football, rather than play a percentage cross into the area. Well as they played, there were other moments when decisions were not the best, meaning the best team did not win this game. Early in the second half what should have been a simple ball by Lacazette to Martinelli gave the latter too much to do and a very promising move broke down. Martinelli himself really should have passed at least twice when he went for a shot, with team-mates waiting in front of the goal. He’s been in form lately, and to keep Smith Rowe out of the team is laudable, but he has to play for the team a little more sometimes and use greater intelligence, rather than go for personal glory every time.

But of course this is a young team, and lessons cost points. Xhaka has no excuse – it’s too late for him to change his ways, but Gabriel has time. Martinelli is a genuine pup. 

So even though I have picked out moments where Arsenal could have done things differently to get a result, what cannot be denied is that the performance they gave against City was so much better than many we have seen against this opposition in recent seasons, that they did outplay them as long as it was 11 v 11, and that they have something to build on. What is key now is that they bounce back. As luck would have it, we have to wait a fortnight until they return to Premier League action, and play three cup ties before that – which will see real mix and match selections. The hope is that they do not lose the groove of recent performances and that the defeat does not knock the stuffing out of them. This is where Mikel Arteta can earn his stripes, by ensuring his team get back to winning ways. If they play like this at the Lane in the north London derby on January 16th, they have every chance of taking three points. Progress in the cups beforehand will do no harm for morale, although of course Liverpool will be a tough nut to crack, especially with the deciding semi-final leg at Anfield. 

Just time to slip in a post-match thought from the good Doktor Schneide -
As Professor Whitty hopefully won’t say: ‘More positives than negatives’

Yes, the defeat was cruel, the officiating questionable, the chances to put the game to bed passed up. But play like that for the remaining matches this season, and a top four place is nailed on. So let’s hope for more of the same between now and the end of May. Let this not have been a purple patch. And if the players can develop a little cool-headedness to blend with the passion, we can have real optimism that the slow inexorable decline we have seen over many seasons can finally be reversed, and that Arsenal can become competitive again. 

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