On the bus after Etihad. Monstrous performance after another stupid referee decision
It's hard to write a post after such game that makes you completely emotionally exhausted. Arsenal has pulled the monster of second half, almost securing a first Etihad win with a 10-man squad. There was only a small minute separating Arsenal team from a
It's hard to write a post after such game that makes you completely emotionally exhausted. Arsenal has pulled the monster of second half, almost securing a first Etihad win with a 10-man squad. There was only a small minute separating Arsenal team from a win. But let's go from the beginning.
Arteta has made one interesting change in the starting line-up: Calafiori instead of Timber. Personally I was up for it - I was really impressed with Calafiori on Thursday, while White definitely didn't have the best game:
The game started with Rodri crying inside first 5 seconds when Havertz stumbled into him trying to run forward. The proper demonstration of "winning mentality" he talked so much about in the recent months. Man City, as in every game against us, started very actively, trying to get an early lead. Specifically Guardiola targeted our left side - apparently betting on Calafiori not being ready for pressure. First 25 minutes are usually the toughest time on Etihad. And it brought results this time - Savinho went past Calafiori easily, Gabriel and Saliba left a highway-wide corridor for Haaland who didn't need a second invitation to continue his scoring streak. Quite an immature mistake to leave exactly this player extra space, considering his conversion rate.
It started to look quite tough for Arsenal to get a good result. But then Thomas Partey made the contribution of the season - somehow using some Ghanian witchcraft he broke Rodri. I so hoped for him to get replaced - I immediately knew that it would be a breaking point of the game and it took only a couple to receive the confirmation. Partey spotted the free space behind Walker's back, who was very very busy giving commands to the teammates, and launched the Martinelli-rocket there, who cut back to Calafiori - and OH MY GOD RICCARDO!!! There is some classy way to claim your stake in the team. What was particularly warming is when 100-pound Italian ran to the bench to jump on a twice-smaller Arteta to celebrate. I love to see this dynamics between the player and the coach.
I also demand seeing Calafiori now in all the games where we need to attack and open up the deep block! His aura is just opening up the tunnel through the opponent's defence. Also, it might sound mean, but I'd like to believe that Rodri's injury is a karma for simulating the injury in the first seconds of the game. Walker also went complaining about him being held too long for the captain talk. Well it's not anybody other's fault, Kyle, that you are the captain today!
The game on Etihad was up for grabs at that moment. They lost Rodri with their confidence and now they lost their lead. After 8 minutes of active response for the goal, Man City rolled back to their own half and Arsenal started getting some chances. First corner after a perfect delivery by Saka, found Gabriel with an open header after such an impressive run. The goal went just 40 centimetres above the bar. It felt so close to taking the lead. Who knew that only 5 minutes later, Saka would replicate his majestic curve and Gabriel will replicate his majestic run, leaving cocky Walker (who went to personally cover Gabriel instead of Doku) behind. 2-1 baby!
Both of our defenders paid off for their earlier mistake with an interest rate. I was so happy to see Walker be humiliated like this after all the cockiness we have seen in the last years including today's game. I was very excited before the second half and was pretty sure we are going for a win ... until the referee decided to make the display again. It's not a secret anymore that they want the game to be about themselves. Trossard received a second yellow on the last second of the first half for kicking the ball after the whistle. While Leo could have been more careful, the average human reaction for an external signal, whether sound or light is 1.5-2 seconds. It is a proven documented fact. So it is only logical, that players can't stop like robots after the whistle. They continue to fight, like they always do in such a heated game. It was pure desire to punish Arsenal again for a similar action. It was even more subtle than with Rice, since the ball was not even on the ground.
The red card meant one thing - Arsenal will stand their ground until the last breath trying to defend their lead. It was best summarised in a post from @gunnerblog:
Arsenal has setup in a 6-3-0 formation, after White replaced Saka and Martinelli dropped deep. All the space was blocked, apart from the edge of the box, where uncovered City players had an opportunity to shoot. There were a couple of fires in Arsenal box, but luckily we now have a firefighter named Raya!
What I was concerned about - that Pep will rearrange the player to have their best shooters on the edge of the box, especially when Foden came on the pitch instead of Doku. I thought that we need to shift to 5-3-1 instead 6-3-0, with Martinelli up top to try and cause some damage on rare counterattacks, as well as block the central part from shots. It didn't happen, but the defensive shape continued to work against City. It was very hard for Gabi to make these 50 meter runs time after time right from defence line and he started to look exhausted. Luckily we had another Gabi to come instead and just brilliantly cancel Bernardo time after time - that was a top display. It's also worth mentioning Havertz who has some unstoppable source of energy, which almost ended up in him scoring another goal on the 96th minute after a rare City mistake in defence. Who knew that he would better kick ball to the corner..
When the unimaginable dream was about to come true, as it happened in the best film scripts, in the very last episode of the game, the team had lost a bit of concentration leaving Kovacic completely alone around the penalty spot and around a couple of deflection the ball have entered the net. While this is still an extremely good result, I felt so gutted - the victory was so close. It was also interesting that Pep couldn't find a key to open up. I expected him to move all his central defenders to the box, while leaving Foden, Bernardo and Gundogan behind for long-range shots, but that didn't happen.
In the grand scheme of things - the performance was monstrous, everybody worked on the pitch until the last breath, including Partey, who proved his doubters wrong by showing amazing composure during the second half. While we could have grabbed the top spot, this is still a great statement for every opponent in Premier League, that we are not going to let go of the title run. It's also a statement that we can defend against any Premier League team if we want to. This team f*cking deserves a title and we should get to it!
Also f*ck off PGMOL, Man City, Haaland and Pep!