Apologies for the hiatus Gooners. Finally getting back to the blog, which hopefully coincides with a good run of form moving forward.
It was a positive weekend for Arsenal thanks to a dominant, yet narrow victory over Leicester City at the King Power. Leicester have looked really poor over the course of the season, but have had a number of positive moments along the way. Given their lack of investment into the team, this isn’t exactly a surprise. They are blessed with a ton of quality attacking talent, but at the back they are severely lacking. When news came out that James Maddison wouldn’t be fit and a number of their better players were on the bench, it seemed like a match we should win emphatically. Despite the 1-0 scoreline, that’s exactly what they did.
Arsenal had nearly all of the possession throughout the match. Deep into the second half they had it at 75%, but ended up finishing at 66%. Leicester’s xG was reported as 0.01, which is supposedly the lowest in the history of the statistic being officially tracked. For all of Arsenal’s possession, we didn’t create the quality chances we should have. Trossard had the ball in the net after a beautiful finish, but the goal was understandably ruled out as Ben White had held their keeper’s arm when he went to punch. I’ve seen frustration at the call, but I think it’s hard to argue that it wasn’t correct. Understandable about the goal Aston Villa scored against us when Ramsdale was being held, but that doesn’t mean they should get this one wrong too. On the flipside, we were then denied one of the most stonewall penalties you’ll ever see when Saka was rugby tackled in the box. Logic? None.
Trossard was again the man to unlock the defense, as he made a beautiful nutmegged pass to play in Martinelli down the left wing. He finished with immense focus and composure, for which his reward was a boot to the knee. While it was a vitally important goal, it was a terrifying moment for our title hopes seeing our young Brazilian down clutching his leg. Luckily he was able to continue on and seems to be alright.
We held on for the victory, which is ultimately what matters most. I’m still a bit disappointed we didn’t win more emphatically on the scoreline, as I think it was a great opportunity to assert ourselves as protagonists in this title race. A win 1-0 away isn’t bad, but then you saw City get out to a 3-0 halftime lead (which was ultimately a 4-1 win) against Bournemouth it shows that they want to attack the title in every way possible. Again, the points are what matter most, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little underwhelmed.
In terms of positives from the match, I was impressed again with Jorginho’s performance. He has settled into Arteta’s Arsenal so seamlessly and looks to be a shrewd piece of business. We deserved one of those from Chelsea after the number of times they got one over on us in the transfer market. The same can be said of Trossard, who had such a significant impact in the match between his goal that was sadly ruled out and the assist for Martinelli’s winner. I’m not saying Mudryk is going to be a failure, but there’s been more than enough evidence that even under Arteta he wouldn’t have had the same immediate effect Trossard has had. His ability to hit the ground running due to his experience, specifically in the Premier League, has been immense. As an extra bonus, we were able to give Eddie a bit of a rest after so many weeks in a row of playing the full 90. It’s been clear he’s starting to run out of gas, which you really can’t blame the kid for. He’s been asked to go above and beyond, which he has done better than most of us expected. With that said, a brief rest thanks to Trossard plus Jesus being back in training are going to be really positive for both Nketiah and the team as a whole.
One negative on the day that I’ll point out are the team’s apparent dearth of finishing ability recently. Between Leicester’s lack of quality and our clear domination on the day, we should be scoring more than just the one goal. A win is a win, but as I said earlier, we need to make some better decisions in the final third and be more clinical. Just like the City game showed, the best team’s will punish you when you slip up. We need to step up our game and do the same. The other negative I’ll point out is the state of the left 8 role with Granit Xhaka. I’ll preface what I’m about to write by saying Granit Xhaka’s resurgence has been amazing to see. His ability and willingness to adapt his game to Arteta’s system has been immense and I couldn’t be happier for him. With that said, it’s clear that he’s the position we most need to upgrade in the summer. At moments it almost seemed like Leicester wanted Xhaka on the ball, as he is the least dangerous of our weapons. He’s a bit slow moving the ball, he’s not going to dribble past anybody, he’s fairly one footed and we all know he’s not the most fleet of foot. We should absolutely keep Xhaka at the club, as he’s quality and a massive leader in the dressing room. That last part will be that much more important, as it seems another leader in Rob Holding is almost certain to go this summer. With Champions League football next season we’ll need a deeper squad of significant quality players. He fits that 110%, but we need a player who is more able to play that box-to-box role in a two-footed manner, who can carry the ball effectively and threaten the other team’s defense the way our other attacking players do. Personally, I think ESR is absolutely perfect for this role in the long-term. He’s got to stay fit to even be considered though. In the meantime, it’s clear Arteta is seriously considering Fabio Vieira there. Xhaka used to never come off, whereas now Vieira is coming on for him with relative frequency when we’re looking for a bit more attacking prowess. Xhaka has a serious role to play the rest of the way and in Arsenal’s future, but as we continue to progress we’ll need to be willing to make upgrades. One to watch.
That’s it for today. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for all the latest updates. COYG!
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