After Liverpool. It’s all about the context

The first half disaster which was rescued by the aggressive performance after the break.

Long awaited variety

Right then, despite being without Rice and the team sheet being exactly what everyone expected, the first half actually saw a bit of tactical variability. Finally Arsenal patterns of play were not as predictable.

It all started with a cracking free kick routine that completely fooled Liverpool defence, leaving Saka with a one-on-one against Allison. It’s such a pity he didn’t manage to get a clean shot,  because it was that fresh idea that we've been crying out for from our set pieces. We have been pretty effective from set pieces in the first four months of the season, but the other Prem teams have figured it out and adapted their defensive strategies. As it always goes in these technology races, it was our turn to surprise the opponents (and not do 30 long throws in a single game) - and fair play, we did just that.

Another major moment came when Partey galloped into Liverpool’s box and just robbed their defender in broad daylight to never convert into a proper shot. This episode summed up one of our main headaches - we can do some brilliant hard work to put the opponent under pressure, but too many of our lads (except Saka) don’t have the habit of taking responsibility for finishing the chance. This really feels systematic at this point - there’s not much confidence in front of the goal and the players (Odegaard being a prime example) looking for a sideways pass instead of going for a clinical finish.

What was also a bit of a surprise – and interesting to see – was Trossard popping up all over the midfield, not really sticking to any one position. This made it easier to carry our attacks through the middle, because Liverpool didn’t really know who should follow him. This is well visible if we look at his pass map.

Unfortunately, all the excitement from variability was spoiled by two relatively easy goals from Liverpool. Our defence looked disorganised, which is rare for Arteta’s team. The mental fatigue in the context of a painful elimination is a real thing - it’s hard to pull yourself together after such a difficult experience. The first half developed approximately the way I expected in the preview. We were heading for another motivation kick. My suggestion was to start with a rotated squad and then finish strong with a first eleven. I believe it was easier for the main team to come for a shorter spell and dominate rather than work hard from the first minute.

Impressive rebound

Fair play to Arteta, he managed to overturn this situation, the result and attitude of this squad in the second half. It still could have been done if we started Nwaneri, Calafiori and Zinchenko and unleashed Saka, Martinelli and MLS after the break.

But there you go. We came out like a pack of wolves, creating chance after chance, and Gabi Martinelli’s header got us back in the game. What was also a welcome sight - we’ve finally seen Martinelli roam through the middle. Many fans, including myself, were calling for it since Saka and Jesus’s injury (to rotate with Havertz at least) and it finally paid off. 

He’s got pace, aggression, and doesn’t stop running. His quick, no-nonsense finishing was his main strength when Arsenal was initially rolling him out. He had that intuition where the ball’s going to drop, where the gap is, and he’s much better when he doesn't have to think about all the options to continue the attack. I don’t think Martinelli is suitable for any kind of defence - against a deep block where there’s not enough space to stretch his legs, he would be definitely less efficient.  But against the top sides who fancy a bit of attacking football themselves, Martinelli should be a great option. We’ve been crying out for some proper counter-attacking threat this season. Not to the least, because the likes of Trossard, Merino and Odegaard, who occupy the highest positions out of possession, don’t have the pace to run into spaces. But Martinelli not only has it, it’s his bread and butter, he flourishes in these circumstances. And we haven’t definitely seen enough of him bombing past the last defender.

To be honest, his teammates don’t always spot his runs. This was a glaring example from yesterday. 

Don’t think it’s all on Odegaard, though. Maybe Arteta doesn’t encourage those riskier passes over the top enough, the ones that could easily lead to us losing possession. But that’s exactly the unpredictability we often lack. We often give teams too much time to get back into their shape because we don’t do these over-the-top passes. They expect us to go down the wings where “doubling up” is quite an effective solution. But if we go through the middle from time to time, we will become more dangerous. 

The second goal came through Odegaard’s brilliant shot. It ruined all the suspicions about him carrying a knock and not being able to hit the ball with proper strength. And raised again the question - why haven’t we seen more of that against PSG or Bournemouth? Like the rest of the team, Odegaard came out much more aggressive in the second half and it has immediately transformed into a threat for Allison.

Merino was quickest to react for the equaliser, with Liverpool’s back four just standing there like statues. Can’t take anything away from Merino’s desire, but it was clear that Liverpool were playing in the second gear. Just watch their centre-back’s movement for both our goals. For the first one, no one is really following Martinelli and trying to block him. For the second - no one is running for a rebound. I know, it’s Liverpool’s problem that they took their foot off the gas, but it’s a reminder that they weren’t at full strength and it is going to be harder next year at Anfield.

Having said that, Liverpool has come alive after our red card when they smelled an opportunity to grab a victory. We were under serious pressure and held to the draw due to a couple of misses from their side and a couple of brilliant saves from David Raya. David Raya, who gave another “hospital pass” to Merino  that ultimately led to the red card.

I understand that if we want to consistently play out from the back under pressure, we need to practice it in real matches, and mistakes are part of the learning curve. However, the success of that pass heavily depends on who’s on the receiving end. Partey (or Jorginho) is mostly comfortable with such situations, Rice a bit less. But Merino? I am not sure he’s well equipped to handle that.

This game further highlighted that Merino doesn’t have enough pace and enough movement sharpness for a Premier League midfielder. That’s why he didn’t manage to come out of the situation (that Raya has put him into) clean. That’s why he looked better as a makeshift number nine than as a left-sided midfielder. Up front, a lack of pace means fewer chances, but that can be compensated for with deadly finishing. But in midfield, a lack of pace often leaves the team exposed and makes you a prime target for the opposition press. Mikel Merino is a top bloke, I love his attitude, I love his behaviour, but I don’t think he can be a regular starter for us in the big games. Against bottom half teams who sit deep (how are you doing there, Man United?) - he might be an option. But if when we sign a new striker, I wonder how big a role Merino can play in a proper title challenge.

The Ethan rant

Even before the red card, when we were the better side and could have walked away from Anfield with all three points, Trossard was hooked off for Tierney. And this is something I can’t either understand or let go.

Why wasn’t Nwaneri thrown on at that point? If Arteta decided to settle for a draw and that was the explanation for that defensive switch then we could have subbed in Nwaneri for Saka. If this was a sub triggered by Trossard’s injury, then we could have shifted Martinelli to the left wing, put Ethan on the right, and had Saka roaming through the middle – he was doing it anyway.

Below are Ethan’s appearances this season. The orange rows are where both Saka and Martinelli were unavailable, so Arteta hasn’t really had any other option. The rows with the red border are where only Saka was out. His game time has severely shrunk since one month already

Arteta said about Ethan on the press conference:

He's played probably more than anybody expected, for sure. And in the last few games, because of the games and the context, we decided not to play him that much. It can change very quickly.

I don’t know what’s the reason for Nwaneri getting so few minutes, but none of the explanations wash with me. There are insinuations that Ethan has some disciplinary problem. Judging by his interviews he’s an extremely shy character, so I don’t believe he’s showing some cocky attitude to Arteta. He doesn't look like a young outlaw Nicklas Bendtner (sorry, Lord, for even mentioning your name in this context). If he’d stepped out of line, Arteta could have dropped him for a game to make a point, but he’s not been getting enough game time since Saka got back to full fitness.

Some say he’s already featured more than we expected in this season. So what? Expectations don't matter, when it comes to real output. Myles also played much more than expected, while Calafiori and Zinchenko - much less. That was dictated by the reality of the performances. And the reality with Ethan is that at this age, after scoring against Girona, Brighton and City, he deserved to be playing regularly - 15-20 minutes on average (sometimes starting, sometimes on the bench, sometimes coming on for the last quarter of an hour) and he’s not getting what he deserves.

My feeling is that Arteta doesn't have the patience to develop the youngster properly.  If a youngster doesn’t do exactly what Arteta wants, he is downgraded to a benchwarmer. The argument of Myles playing regularly doesn’t cut it for me. Myles is just from another planet when it comes to mentality, where he and Lamine Yamal were neighbours. He became our best player in his position after just ten first-team games - that’s simply insane from such a young player and it’s definitely an exception rather than the rule for an 18-year old. Most of them are inconsistent, they will make mistakes on the pitch and it’s part of their development. But very few have the obvious talent that Ethan possesses. And that talent needs to be honed with regular game time.

Everybody is already excited about Max Dowman’s talent. But I am sure Dowman is watching Arteta’s treatment of Nwaneri. He might become rightfully concerned that when he joins our first team, he will just sit behind Odegaard and get his chance only in case of an injury. He might not be convinced whether signing a pro contract with Arsenal is the best for his career. Saka and Martinelli got into the squad, because senior players were not really endorsed by Arteta - Pepe was bad and Auba had a fall-out with the manager. So the context of Ethan's situation is the closest to echo Dowman's projected plans.

The golden fifteen

The general feeling with Arteta is he continues relying on his preferred pool of 15 outfield players to deliver him the result. Add to the starting line-up yesterday Rice, Havertz, Timber, Calafiori, Gabriel (instead of Kiwior, who got here by chance) and half of Jorginho and you would have these 15. The rest feature only against clearly inferior opponents, in case of an injury or for a very short time in the game. 

Arteta talks in different interviews about the player availability and that he needs a bigger squad to rely on, but still he uses these 15 players. Ethan was part of this pool, but fell out of it after Saka’s return. Zinchenko was part of this pool last year, but fell out of it with the emergence of Lewis-Skelly. Arteta could rely on him in our best league run of 89 points, but suddenly can’t do it anymore. Kiwior was also not part of this pool, but got into it after Gabriel’s injury and hasn’t been half bad.

To make it clear, I am not complaining about these issues, because I search for any reason to dig at the manager. I am complaining, because these issues are and will be affecting our success in the long-term. I don’t care a lot about Raya’s passing, because it could be improved or tweaked easily. I don’t care much about our players being disorganised in the first half, because this is an exception, rather than the rule for this Arsenal team.

However, we are not going to win any titles, even if we buy Gyokeres, Isak, Lionel Messi or Lord Bendtner, but Arteta still will use only his golden fifteen. This year there were two games per week for seven weeks in a row in December and January and there’s no reason that the calendar would be less dense next year. You can’t go through this period without long-term injuries and decent results if you don’t rotate constantly, leaving on the bench every single player. You can’t go through this period if you rely only on 15 players. 

Final words

The 2-2 draw against Liverpool with the strongest team available is now looking quite good, because of the context in which it was achieved. Given that we were two goals down, made a comeback and held it being one man down, it can be used to turn around the narrative and inspire the team for the next season. This season has the last challenge in front of us against Newcastle, but will be the topic of the next one.

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