Kevin Whitcher's Arsenal Blog

Nottingham Forest 1 Arsenal 2     Premier League    Tuesday 31st January 2024  7.30pm     What can be said of the first half? At the conclusion, the burning question for me was… I wonder if Bobby Pires brought his boots? Emile Smith Rowe was given a welcome start but Forest’s tactics frustrated all of Arsenal’s attacking players. It’s one thing to have teams visiting the Emirates shutting up shop and content to play for a point. But away?    So much as Arsenal dominated both territory and possession, a tendency to overplay, and a seeming lack of urgency when Forest were caught out of position on their rare forays forward limited the number of chances. When they came they were generally blocked by a red shirt.    In boxing parlance, Forest might have been on the ropes, but Arsenal weren’t actually landing any punches. A lack of willingness to get a shot in immediately when the opportunity arose did not make a convincing argument for the merits of Artetaball.   The Gunners had suffered d

  Arsenal 5 Crystal Palace 0     Premier League    Saturday 20th January 2024  12.30pm     After dropping eleven points from their previous five matches, Arsenal simply needed to take three points after their mid-winter break and Crystal Palace at home proved the perfect game to get things back on track. The form of Roy Hodgson’s team had been even worse than their hosts, so an element of confidence was justified.   Arsenal had not played badly in the two of the three league defeats recently (Fulham the exception), but putting the ball in the net had become a problem area. They worked on their set pieces whilst away on their training camp in Dubai and it paid off handsomely. Their corners all proved dangerous and both first half goals came from two of the four they were awarded. It was good to see Declan Rice take a decent corner for the opener, as with Trossard starting in place of Martinelli, we’ve seen a lot of very poor corners from the Belgian. Gabriel met it wonderfully with all

Arsenal 0 Liverpool 2     FA Cup 3rd Round Sunday 7th January 2024  4.30pm     Arsenal completed a sorry hat-trick of defeats – two of them at home – in an admittedly entertaining FA Cup Third Round tie at the Emirates yesterday. However, entertaining as it was, and as delightful as much of the Gunners’ first half dominance proved, they failed to put the ball in the net, despite numerous chances.   Talk of the need for a clinical finisher at centre forward is not new, but it is definitely louder after the matches since Boxing Day. The question is whether or not investing in one of the required quality will put the club in Financial Fair Play hot water. Ultimately, the situation Arsenal now find themselves in is a legacy of not being in the Champions League for six seasons. Year on year, that meant a significantly reduced income, all the time paying wages at a level that required participation in the competition. The Premier League income is not insignificant, but European income is the