Kevin Whitcher's Arsenal Blog

  Arsenal 2 Fulham 2    Premier League    Saturday 26th August 2023 3pm    Much as Arsenal shot themselves in the foot at the start of this match, at 2-1 up, with Fulham down to ten men and seven minutes of normal time left, they threw away two points by allowing their opponents to equalise. It could have been worse, but Ramsdale made a late save to at least salvage a point for his side.    Last season, defence was certainly not the team’s strongpoint. Not necessarily because there are poor defenders in the squad, but because of the tactics the team employ. Hence when Bukayo Saka played a misplaced pass back to… well, one assumes Ben White was the intended recipient, the team were in no position to cover the attempt on goal that followed. High up the pitch, the presumed safety net of a sweeper keeper didn’t work. Ramsdale backtracked furiously, but without a challenge, Pereira picked his spot. It’s apparently the third time the side have conceded a goal in the opening minute in the las

Crystal Palace 0 Arsenal 1  Premier League Monday 21st August 2023 8pm     Last season, Manchester City visited Selhurst Park and won 1-0 with a late penalty. Yesterday evening, Arsenal also won with a spot kick, although having taken the lead, ended up with a backs to the wall performance with ten men. To credibly challenge for the title, this was the kind of match – away against a mid-table team – that Arsenal had to win. What really felt significant, alongside the three points, was the spirit shown by Arteta’s players. Before the match it felt like a must win game – for the simple reason that to have any chance of winning the title, the club really can’t afford to drop many points to teams outside of the top six. After the nature of the match, the way that victory was achieved was highly encouraging for another title challenge.    The manager picked the same team as against Forest with the exception of the injured Timber being replaced by Tomiyasu. Gabriel remained on the bench to a

Arsenal 2 Nottingham Forest 1    Premier League    Saturday 12th August 2023   1pm     Although problems were expected with the new system whereby tickets were on a smartphone rather than a card, nobody could have anticipated the chaos that resulted in a 30 minute delay to the kick-off time. The turnstile readers were not functioning properly leading to huge numbers outside with a real danger of people getting crushed. Eventually, the decision was taken to open the gates and allow people in with just a quick flash of their ticket to a steward. This was a necessary intervention – one imagines on police instruction – with far less danger of a Hillsborough type scenario given people were in allocated seats as opposed to running to the nearest block entrance en masse.  Nonetheless the crush outside, especially on the narrow confines behind the East Stand, was unpleasant and potentially very dangerous. Something went very, very wrong with Arsenal’s turnstile tech – if it were working there

  Arsenal 1 Manchester City 1 (4-1 on penalties)    Community Shield, Wembley Stadium     Sunday 6th August 2023  4pm       Arsenal went toe to toe with the team that won the treble last season and were worthy of the draw they achieved at the end of 90 plus minutes. Then they took better penalties in the shoot-out to win the Community Shield – a pre-season trophy they have made a bit of a habit of winning when presented with the opportunity to take part. Since its move back to Wembley in 2007, they’ve taken part in five such matches and lifted the shield on every occasion, albeit courtesy of a penalty shoot-out on the last three occasions.    The big interest before the game was the idea that Mikel Arteta would pick the players he was likely to start in next weekend’s opening Premier League game against Nottingham Forest. Jurien Timber has been fielded at left back before during the pre-season, and was selected ahead of Kieran Tierney, meaning Ben White in his now accustomed right back