Football, eh?
Most specifically, The Arsenal, eh?
They put you through everything.
Arsenal went in to last night’s game having battered two teams and been basically knocked out of two cups (I mean, come on, we’re not overcoming a 2-0 home defeat in the North East), piling up chances after chances in those games, with one of the most intense games of the season coming up having done 120 minutes and penalties just three days ago.
Motivation wasn’t the issue. These players were going to be up for it on home soil regardless of what had come before. But form, confidence and a general lack of ability to put the ball in the net of late would have been on their minds. Even if it was just the subconscious mind.
So to go through the battle they went through last night and come out the other end with three points, well, I think every Arsenal fan has to tip their caps this morning.
That felt like a brave performance. In the end.
Arteta had a little shuffle with his line up and gave Sterling a shot in a big game. Trossard replaced Martinelli on the right and I can’t really work out if this was a rotation thing, or a tactical thing. Maybe a bit of both. But with a makeshift Spurs back line not really getting out of their half in the first 20 minutes, you could see why, because Martinelli is the kind of guy who needs a bit of green grass and we had then penned in on the edge of their box for most of the first half.
So of course it was the Scum who went ahead with basically their first effort. And of course it was through a deflected shot, leaving those around me in Block Five also agreeing that nothing is going right for us this season. That may be true for a lot of instances, but quite why Son had so much space on the edge of the ball when it came out from the corner clearance is a little concerning. Football is a margins game and if you leave a stone or two unturned, you’re going to get a nasty surprise. That was ours for the night – going behind to an undeserved goal from a team that had offered nothing up until that point.
And I think we looked a little shakier after that. Not massively so; we still dominated most of the ball and created chances, but not loads. At halftime we’d only had four attempts and just one on target. Yet thankfully there was only one metric that mattered and by halftime we’d turned it around.
Set Piece Again ole ole…
Gabriel won’t get to claim the goal because of the touch off Solanke, but the very fact that two of The Scum’s tallest players took it upon themselves to try and mark him should tell its own story: Big Gabi is an absolute monster in the opposition box. He moves, he darts, he has end product and it doesn’t feel out of place that it was he who brought us level. It was no more than we deserved though. I thought it was a Tottenham performance that offered little other than the slice of fortune they’d used up to get their opening goal. They always score against us, it’s inevitable, but what we have to do is score more.
Step forward Leo Trossard, finally chipping in with some end product after a hiatus from doing so in recent months. With Saka out, Gabriel Jesus done until next season, eyes were on those slightly out-of-sorts attacking players to come up with the goods. Big Gabi did his bit (again), but it was Leo to prove the match winner with a decent strike across Kinsky’s goal. He made a few saves on the night by the end and SofaScore gave him a 7.2 rating, but I thought that was generous, because his kicking was shaky and for that Trossard goal he had a little case of the chocolate wrists I thought.
We don’t care though. We’ll take that all day long.
All. Day. Long.
There was to be no more goals in the match, which we’re all glad for, ultimately. But we should have put the game to bed. Ødegaard had one that he dallied on and was a little weak in the finish, plus he had one that he screwed wide when really the net should have been rippled, but it feels like that profligacy on the night is a footnote on what was ultimately a win, three points and a gap narrowed on Liverpool. We won’t win the league if we keep passing on chances like last night, but no two games are created equal and you cannot underestimate what a performance like that, in a big game, can do for players. I’ve recited this a few times on this blog, but Paul Merson always used to say that you never feel tired when you’re winning games. Hopefully that is the case today because this weekend we have another really tough game against Villa and we simply have to follow up the good vibes from yesterday with a win.
I also want a bit of revenge from their smash and grab from last season.
A couple of individual performances that are worth point out, I reckon, firstly Lewis-Shelly, who looked like a seasoned pro who has been playing that position for ten years. Arteta referenced it, I’ll back it up, but the kid was fantastic. Look out Riccardo, because you ain’t getting your place back at this rate.
Also, Martin Ødegaard looked back to his effervescent self again I thought. It was a proper captains performance and he led the press, gee’d the crowd up when needed, dictated the play. We probably need to have a word about his finishing but that feels like a conversation for another day. Today’s chatter is about Arsenal getting the much needed adrenaline boost, despite the fact that in the second half it felt a lot more nervy than it should have done. Hey, that’s football, I guess.
It’s a good day to be an Arsenal fan. Let’s drink it in peeps.
Back tomorrow to look ahead at Villa. Catch you then.
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