Brentford - on the bus. The driver seat

A nervy evening in West London ends with a disappointment.

The pre-match mood was killed with the news about Kai Havertz being sidelined for a month. The effect of this is mostly psychological. After a drab and unsustainable December, Kai was the symbol of breathing the new life into our attack. While he didn’t carry the games by himself, he energized the team around him and made them all click. He was driving our attack.

His absence together with Saka’s injury meant that the number of players who can make a difference in a tight game has shortened. I am aware that Saka has been subpar this season, generally since coming back from his hamstring injury, but even then he managed to influence some results, like the home game against Wolves. Without those two I don’t really know who we can rely on to deliver a blow in the final minutes. We can’t always hope for the set pieces or strikes from our midfield duo; it is the job of the front four to come up with a hero.

We have a deep squad filled with players able to defend as an unit and perform specific functions but on the night we came with a following context:

• Gyokeres and Martinelli are highly dependent on the service they are receiving.

• Jesus has been hot, lukewarm, and cold all the time.

• Odegaard was just coming from injury and even before that he was all figured out.

• Calafiori is also coming back from absence.

• Madueke is an isolated dribbler who doesn’t connect well with the team.

• Eze has been completely anonymous since the infamous halftime sub.

• Havertz, Merino, Saka are practically injured.

We had almost no candidates to take the driver seat. Practically, it was only Trossard that could show up from time to time in the tough moments, although he hasn’t been at it for a while.

In addition to that, Saliba was ruled out on matchday. I generally don’t worry about Saliba being out as our defense is a well-trained unit. I would be comfortable seeing Mosquera with Gabriel in the majority of League games … except Man City and Brentford. Simply because those two teams have Haaland and Thiago - powerful number nines having a great season. Unfortunately, it just had to be Brentford. Mosquera is a great defender, but he’s no Saliba when it comes to wrestling with bulky strikers and Igor Thiago proved this multiple times during the game.

Cold rainy evening in Brentford

As the fans before the screens, the players on the pitch started the game shaky. 7 minutes in, a misunderstanding between Gabriel and Raya shook the whole team’s confidence. It boosted the Brentford team and their crowd to go on a powerful 20-minute run where we were basically stuck in our own half.

Rice was clearing the ball away from the box with no recipients in mind. Raya hared across to the corner of the six-yard box only to attempt to roll the ball directly into the path of an opponent, forcing him to scramble back and pull off a tremendous save following Thiago’s resulting header. This act of ‘heroism’ would not have been necessary had Raya not been so nervous with the initial distribution, yet the entire team seemed to be nervous,

Our first genuinely meaningful counter-attack arose when Madueke and Gyokeres found themselves in a 2-v-1 situation, though a couple of extra defenders were sprinting back to block them. Their execution of the counter resembled two players who had only just met moments before their Sunday League kickabout. Madueke, with the ball at his feet, once again underlined his glaring issues with decision-making by simply refusing to take one promptly. He could have threaded a pass to Gyokeres immediately, or indeed, continued his own run given his unique ability for run forward with the ball, but ultimately, he simply delivered a late, poor pass.

Towards the close of the first half, we gradually began to seize the initiative. Eze remained an anonymous figure, forcing Rice to literally take the game by the scruff of the neck, aided by Zubimendi, Trossard, and Hincapie. The right flank remained quite ‘non-functional’ with Madueke seemingly playing entirely his own game and Timber completely disconnected from the rest of the unit.

The contest was clearly shaping up to be one of those where, if we somehow managed to pinch the three points, it would involve scratching out one goal and then desperately hanging on for dear life to seal the result. The moment the half-time whistle blew, Arteta practically ran back to the changing room, signalling he had ideas he was simply dying to share with the squad.

Eze was hooked up for Odegaard right in half time, just as he was against Villa, which for noe seems like a clear waterline in his Arsenal career. This time however it was completely justified. I blamed Arteta for treating Eze incorrectly and killing all flair he has in the game. However, it’s the middle of February on the calendar, Eze has been constantly featuring in the team for a month, it’s also on him to show up in the game and make an impact in the final third of the pitch. Whatever beef he has with Arteta, he’s part of the Arsenal team, it’s his unique chance to make the mark in his career and become a Premier League champion. With his age and previous career it’s unlikely that he will make another big move and really challenge for the title somewhere else. I don’t see him getting out of his way to contribute to a league title and that is disappointing. I also can’t believe that the player who was delivering against Tottenham and Bayern suddenly can’t find any way to threaten the opponent.

Odegaard trottled on the pitch with completely new energy. He was popping right, left and center and we finally started to create something that could look like a goal from a two-mile distance. He even took a shot from the edge of the box - the shot scared crows on the stadium’s roof, but it was another step in the right direction.

Noni Madueke continued to play ‘his own game,’ so Arteta was prepared to get Saka ready on the touchline. I was deeply concerned about a premature appearance for Bukayo, who, according to those ‘in the know,’ was a doubt right up until the matchday. I certainly did not want Arteta to gamble by throwing him into the mix just to salvage this one result—with 13 matches still remaining, a single result is simply not worth the risk of a month-long setback, precisely the sort we are now enduring with Kai. That said, I also understood Arteta would turn to him eventually, as he was quite literally our last potential game-changer.

While I was pondering these very thoughts, Hincapie delivered a peach of a cross and Madueke … actually scored a headed goal, winning an aerial duel in the process! That moment simply ‘blew my mind away.’ Noni is such an odd fella, and it seems he is truly at his best when he has to employ zero thought, merely following his base instinct. Be that as it may, it was a timely and important goal.

My immediate reaction was: leave him on for more, let him ride the wave of confidence! But Arteta stuck to the plan and brought on Saka. My initial thinking on this decision was that Arteta simply distrusts Madueke’s defensive contribution and was anticipating a period of desperate defence to protect a fragile lead. As the rest of the match demonstrated, Saka was completely not ready to feature, and the decision to introduce him was utterly reckless on the manager’s part. It is particularly baffling given that both Martinelli and Jesus were available on the bench and possess perfectly decent experience operating on the right flank.

Just before the sub we had another chance where after interception high up the pitch Odegaard had multiple ways to continue his attack.

He chose Rice, who instead of shooting, tried to find the Swede, who had already lost momentum by this time and got his shot blocked. In the end Odegaard found Rice with a good pass. Whilst he could have released Gyokeres earlier, as is clear from the image above, his decision was certainly ‘not to be sniffed at,’ as he perfectly set up Rice in a position where Declan could, and indeed should, have finished the chance all by himself, especially given his near-identical position against Bournemouth back in January.

The interesting thing about the Brentford fixture was my sense that we were finally matched, or perhaps even superseded in the Premier League context when it came to set-piece battles. During every corner and throw-in, they were clearly preparing some clever routine, which consistently caused unsettling feelings and outright havoc within our penalty area. Two minutes after Saka’s introduction, a Brentford defender—a chap who looked taller than Peter Crouch—used Gabriel’s shoulders to perform what can only be described as a ‘pool deck exit’ and found Lewis-Potter, who subsequently headed home the equaliser.

Odegaard conceded the duel in our box and remained lying on the turf. He limped off the pitch, but returned a couple of moments later. Following that mistake, he seemed to completely ‘dissolve’ on the pitch. Below, you will find his pass map across the two equal halves of the second 45, essentially before and after the opposition’s leveller.

Odegaard passes, first 23' on the left, second 23' on the right - Opta

And whatever the actual reason may be, it is, simply put, an absolute mess of a situation. If Odegaard had picked up an injury, why the hell did he remain on the pitch thereafter? Particularly since we had Jesus sat on the bench, a player who is, let’s be honest, far more suited to the ‘free spirit’ number 10 role (the one Havertz has occupied recently) than he is to a traditional #9 position. If Odegaard was not injured, then how on earth does our captain go completely ‘anonymous’ for 25 minutes following a lost duel inside our own penalty area? Try to spin this any which way you like, you simply will not arrive at a satisfactory conclusion.

It was not Arsenal, but rather Brentford who was closer to the win. Mosquera was losing duels to Thiago and only some miracle last-second tackles and blocks prevented them from scoring second. Gabz and Declan were throwing their bodies and legs in our box - the players who usually elevate their level of commitment in the crunch moments.

The game appeared destined for a draw, when, out of nowhere, Gyokeres suddenly pulled out a truly impressive pass, slicing the Brentford defence to ribbons. Timber was the one bearing down 1-v-1 against the keeper. Since he was the primary target for two back-tracking defenders, he squared the ball to a completely free Martinelli inside the box… who proceeded to execute a finish that can only be described as ‘dumb’.

What the hell was that, Gabi?! You could have taken a shot with a single touch, with the keeper still some distance away. You could have faked a swing and forced the goalkeeper to commit and sweep you off your feet. You could even have simply skipped past him, much like Havertz did in the Chelsea game. You could have moved one step away from the goal only to find the far corner afterwards. Instead, you opted for the most predictable course of action and were, quite predictably, thwarted by Kelleher.

There is a common conception, often touted by the pundits, that Champions inevitably find a way to secure the win in the most difficult of matches. This particular opportunity was our distinct chance to win, and we simply failed to take it. This, tragically, brings us back to the central problem I articulated before the game. We have an abundance of perfectly functioning ‘car parts’ and they are all capable of operating together as a cohesive unit; we even have a ‘service team’ waiting patiently on the sidelines, ready to change a ‘blown tyre’ whenever necessary. But we are desperately short of players who are ready to seize the ‘driver’s seat’ and steer this assembled vehicle across the finish line.

We have now effectively placed ourselves in a ‘no-point-loss’ situation for the next five league fixtures, a run which includes the NLD away and the Chelsea clash at home.

Let’s not harbour any illusions about the matter—City will, almost certainly, sweep up maximum points from their next five outings before they come to Stamford Bridge. Following their successful fight-back against Liverpool to claim all three points, they received another immense ‘injection of confidence’ that they will simply not surrender. Anyone holding out hope for an upset against Newcastle or Leeds is simply ‘kidding themselves.’ The only fixture City might possibly drop points in is away to Chelsea. And we, my friends, are now well into the ‘no-error zone,’ as we absolutely must maintain a four-point cushion when we rock up at the Etihad Stadium. Even if we perform better than in previous campaigns, even if we are demonstrably superior on the day, with their individual quality, games of that magnitude can still be snatched away from the better team.

And if (A MASSIVE IF!!) we somehow manage to squander our six-month lead after the Etihad fixture, we will simply be unable to recover from the psychological fallout. I simply cannot fathom the sheer wave of frustration that would engulf this squad. To avoid that catastrophe, we absolutely must arrive there with a four-point buffer, which I genuinely believe would significantly improve our chances of victory. To achieve that, however, we desperately need to figure out what player are going to take the ‘driver’s seat’ for the upcoming month whilst Havertz is sidelined. I personally struggle to nominate a candidate beyond our midfield pairing, but it is entirely unsustainable to depend on them perpetually stepping up as our goal-scoring heroes.

Wigan? What Wigan?

Our next outing is the Wigan match, and frankly, I could not care less about the result, so long as we avoid any further injuries. The wider fanbase loves to prattle on about the ‘quadruple,’ but that is completely delusional. We haven’t lifted a single piece of silverware in six long years! Historically, even Premier League sides who held 10+ point leads by February still failed to achieve a ‘quadruple’ triumph. Talking about such things is, therefore, laughably naive.

The fans are, naturally, permitted to dream, but when the masses begin peddling such extreme opinions across the digital space, it quickly becomes dangerous. The players are acutely aware of the narratives circulating from the terraces and online—just look at Gyokeres mocking the ‘hair flicks’ celebration after a goal. The current media landscape seizes upon any extreme viewpoint and blows it up to inadequate proportions, meaning the players will become conscious of the ‘quadruple’ narrative and may, regrettably, lose focus on the most important task (i.e., the Premier League title).

The FA Cup is, quite clearly, the least important competition we face this year (given our presence in the Carabao Cup Final already) and it absolutely must be treated as such. The only scenario in which we should turn our attention to fielding a strong XI in the FA Cup is if we suffer a shock elimination in the first Champions League play-off round. But if the run extends deep into April, we genuinely do not need another competitive fixture to concern ourselves with, particularly if we draw a seeded, tough opponent.

The only thing I truly care about is ensuring that Gabriel, Timber, Rice, Zubimendi, and Saka are rested entirely (and excluded from the match-day squad). Ideally, I would not start a single soul from our regular starting XI if they are earmarked to face Wolves. Beyond that, I hold no preference. If I were to nominate one, it would be for a couple of the younger lads, such as Salmon or Andre Annous, to be granted another golden opportunity to ‘leave their mark’.

Because the only thing that truly matters is that we bounce back and deliver a convincing performance in the League next Wednesday!