Chelsea - on the bus. Real Madrid? No way!

Arsenal has secured a narrow victory over Chelsea and has all but secured the Champions League place for next season.

However, it was a very uninspiring victory. The home game against Chelsea was the last big test before the quarterfinal clash against Real Madrid and in my opinion Arteta’s team failed this test. We were nowhere near the level we need to be to compete with the best on the continent.

The Chelsea team was dead from an attacking perspective and not very robust defensively but we couldn’t capitalize on that. The only goal came from Magic Mik Merino who delivered a pretty difficult volley into the Chelsea’s net.

So where’s the creativity?

My general impression is that half of our attacking unit was dead on its feet - the only two bright spots were Rice and Martinelli.

Rice (the new #6 we bought!) was our most threatening player on the pitch. He ran from defense to attack and back. He tried to be on the end of the crosses in both boxes. I wonder how many kilometers he covered compared to the team average. He was the only bright spot that gives a little bit of hope going forward. It’s a pity he’s gonna put in two more shifts for England.

Gabi, with his first start after the injury, was full of energy and has penetrated Chelsea’s wing time after time. He was the one to put the cross for Merino and create the best chance of the whole second half. He was giving troubles to Cucurella who has been known for his ability to reduce Saka’s threat to bare minimum. The problem with Martinelli is the final action - he doesn't have the confidence to bang it in the net. The interesting thing is that we saw how efficient he is when he’s in form. However, he lost confidence in the middle of last season and since then struggles to find it back. He also doesn’t demonstrate full awareness of teammates’ positions on the pitch and sometimes is a bit too late with his passes. But at least he was there to threaten Chelsea.

Trossard on the other hand is getting worse every week. He was not bad for about 30 minutes and then disappeared from the pitch as soon as Chelsea overtook the initiative. He was so bad that Rice was basically offering more threat from the left side than him. He was so bad in the second half that when Rice made a 40-meter sprint across the pitch, Trossard, while being in almost a static position, couldn’t deliver him a proper pass in the box for a shot. Seriously, your teammate is running all around the pitch and you can’t give him a single good pass? Why did Arteta keep him on the pitch for 90 minutes? What was he waiting for? I would much rather see Kieran Tierney run up and down that wing. At least I know he will fight for every ball and is guaranteed to deliver a couple of good crosses into the box.

Odegaard again had a bang average game. We already got used to the fact that he can’t disturb the goalkeeper with his shots properly, but his passing has also deteriorated closer to the end of the game. There were two instances in the second half where he first overshot and then undershot his pass for a potential 1:1 chance. Those delicate passes were Odegaard’s bread and butter. But now he’s good for around 30 (1st half) + 15 minutes (2nd half). I would really liked to see Zinchenko having a 20-minute shift in the end of the game at #10.

I don’t know how to judge Merino. On one hand, he remained silent most of the game. On the other hand he scored a goal and was on the end of our most dangerous chance. And he hit the ball properly! Most of our team in their current shape would shoot the ball somewhere closer to the North Stand. If that’s what he gives the team - I take it, definitely better than Trossard! He also helps us a lot in defensive work

What are our problems?

To sum up, against the out-of-form Chelsea we barely scored a single goal. And now we are up to 3 goals in the last 4 premier league games. It can't be put on the missing striker. The creativity in the team simply doesn't work. The team is dead on their feet! Today we had a really good, intensive thirty minutes and that's it! In the second half Chelsea gave a lot of opportunities, they lost the ball four or five times in their half and we failed to capitalize on each and every of them. All the interceptions ended up in misplaced passes or losses of the ball from our side. Against United we had a very intensive 40 minutes, but then the attacking creativity also faded away.

I think Arteta doesn't manage the player's fitness properly. Even Nwaneri, who didn't play against PSV and appeared only for 15 minutes, looked pretty exhausted. It shouldn't happen for a player who was just electric in the December-February stretch, who could dribble past two and deliver a powerful shot. Unfortunately it looks like the muscle injuries didn't teach him a lesson of preserving the overloaded players. Currently we have a very thin attacking offering and none of them look fresh, except Martinelli who didn’t train with them majority of the time. It’s crazy that our freshest player is the one who came back from an injury. And it says a lot about fitness (mis)management in the regular team.

Last year we won 5-0 against a similar Chelsea team, who, by the way, had in-form Palmer in the squad. That team would win by at least 3 goals today. I think that the Arsenal team has severely degraded this season and I don’t think Saka coming back from a 3-month injury is going to save us.

Too negative a response after the victory?

To be clear, for the TOP-4 it’s a brilliant result. We could end up in second place three seasons in a row. But is it really exciting after the last season when we were in the title race until the last gameweek? 

The only way that we can’t claim a degradation since 23/24 is if we go in the Champions League semifinal. That’s why the feelings I have are not about the score itself, it's about the acceptance that Arsenal's creativity level is on the low level and it doesn't look like we have a chance against Madrid. 

Our defence was brilliant, by the way. Timber looks like one of the best man-to-man defenders. I can easily imagine how he closes up Vinicius completely, but unfortunately Real has at least three top attacking talents. Gabriel showed his leadership and passion again. Myles has reached the level when he is the only player who can make me feel really safe for the left wing.

However, it’s not enough for the two legs of CL quarterfinal. It could be enough to protect the two-goal lead for one half. But somebody needs to deliver this lead. It’s delusional to expect that Saka, who has been out for 3.5 months, will be the one to solve our attacking problems. He might create a single moment of brilliance, but that’s never going to be enough. We need to be prepared to constantly threaten them. If they sit on our half, they have too much individual quality to convert it into the lead.

For now it’s the international break time and all we have can - is to hope that every of our goods comes back undamaged!

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