Fulham - on the bus. No, no, no, no… Not Gabriel!

What could have been a fantastic evening after the international break was spoiled by a massive loss right before the Champions League quarterfinal.

An evening of two opposite emotions

All the focus on the game was about the return of the one and only Bukayo after a long-term injury and, boy, that exceeded all expectations! Be honest, you’ve shed a tear when you saw his name on the team sheet, or at least when you saw him walking to our bench in a long Arsenal training jacket.

Unfortunately, the festival was spoiled by one of the most devastating losses, already in the 7th minute. Gabriel limped off the pitch, holding his hamstring. I can’t imagine a bigger blow than this before the Madrid game. We know the level and quality of attackers that Madrid has to offer. We also know that we have to be at our best to even have a chance of going past them. With the lack of strikers, our only strong trait was a solid defensive line. And while I still carry a hope inside, most likely Gabriel will be out at least for the home fixture. Who would bully Mbappe the first time he loses the ball?

I don’t think Kiwior’s criticism that prevails among the fans is fair. Mainly because his performances were judged based on appearances in a very raw shape. Kiwior plays only when one of our defenders is injured. He is never rotated just for the sake of keeping him fit. Consequently, he always enters the pitch without real match practice and, expectedly, he doesn’t look at the top of his game. Where would he get the confidence and experience from to compete at the highest level?

That said, Kiwior doesn't have the required level of defensive skills and, more importantly, mentality to stop the best attackers in the world. He lost a couple of duels to Muniz from Fulham, how would he look against the best in Europe? In our current squad, we have only four defenders ready to stop the Real Madrid attack and they all started yesterday against Fulham.

One other candidate was Ben White, who already was not sharp after his return and managed to get a knee injury on top of that. I can believe that White can make himself fit for next Tuesday, but he is still not at the same level of fitness to compete against Real. I could envision Timber taking a CB position and holding Mbappe together with Saliba. But then Vinicius would just destroy either White or Partey on the right. That’s all if Timber, who also had knee problems yesterday, remains fit. But at least here I can believe that the injury is short-term.

Our slim hopes just got much slimmer…

Where is rotation, Mikel?

Although it’s been already noticed by many that Arteta requires our CB partnership to play every game when they are fit. And it’s just a matter of time when their body will not be able to handle the load. Saliba missed a couple of games in January with a muscular injury, now it’s Gabriel’s time. We have Calafiori and Kiwior in the squad who are supposed to play LCB. Why did none of them start in March to give Gabriel a breather?

Ok, you can say that Gabriel's injury was bad luck and he had a good break (despite two 15-hour flights to Brazil). And that the manager shouldn’t be blamed for that. Well, we have another proof of Arteta not learning the main lesson of the season about player load management.

Myles Lewis-Skelly has played two international games for the first time in his career, but Arteta leaves him on the pitch for 96 minutes. At the same time, we have Tierney and Zinchenko on the bench, two professional left backs, who, by the way, were relatively decent in all their recent appearances.

If you can't trust your left backs from the bench to perform well, when you are 2-0 up in the home game, then you'll never properly rotate your squad. There would rarely be a better situation in the season than there was yesterday at the 75th minute.

Arteta is still playing his best eleven on every position and resisting to accept that he needs to share the load, despite the potential drop of quality in the performance. Apart from that, it gives belief and confidence to players on the bench if they need to be called upon, just as it happened to Kiwior yesterday. I can guarantee that all the players sitting on the bench aren’t happy to spend all 90 minutes there. I am sure they are not understanding why at 2-0 they can’t get minutes, given that we haven’t used all our subs.

Attack finally clicking

Let’s go to positives now - all our main attackers happen to be on an upward trajectory!

I was very happy to see Nwaneri and Martinelli starting on the sides, while Trossard was benched. The Belgian looks deeply unmotivated to play in the team after the club didn’t offer him a new contract. I don’t think we would see another good performance from him in the Premier League. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if he does a "one last dance" against Real. In the end, it’s his individual achievements as well - he’s never been to the Champions League semifinal, as most of the team haven't.

Ethan, however, showed again that he’s a very prospective talent. The first goal, although deflected, happened after a pinpoint precise pass from Nwaneri right into Merino’s feet. Obviously, he’s still a bit raw and needs more experience playing against the opposition of such quality, playing against 5 defenders, when one of them is concentrated specifically on not letting him run. Fulham weren’t even hiding their intentions, starting with a 5-4-1 formation. I wished he stayed a bit longer, but today was the BIG RETURN time.

Bukayo Saka, as expected, wasn’t tearing up his wing. He wasn’t terrorizing defenders time after time. He was a bit cautious, just as he should be after such a difficult injury. But to score in the first 15 minutes he entered the pitch - that’s almost a dream scenario! It’s not Henry against Leeds fairy tale levels yet, but it’s getting close. And, just as I mentioned in the preview, it energized everyone else around. Martinelli started flying, Odegaard started cutting down the Fulham defense with intelligent passes. The most beautiful part of the evening happened when Bukayo ran to hug his physiotherapist on the bench - what a man! Makes all of us proud that he wears an Arsenal shirt.

While Saka’s goal was a great moment, in reality the majority of the credit goes to Martinelli. He was relentlessly running and created most of the big chances among Arsenal players. If we have any chance of passing Madrid, it’s going to be energized Gabi on the left and not fading Trossard. If he can get a goal, maybe on the weekend at Goodison, we might finally see the good old delivering Martinelli.

Unraveling the Merino mystery

Mikel Merino exited another game with a goal. It’s very impressive how he continues scoring goals and getting chances every game despite playing out of position and being quiet for most of them. In the current Arsenal squad, he is a synonym of efficiency. I was watching him all evening, trying to understand him as a player. And the conclusion finally clicked for me.

Merino has all-around strong qualities of a footballer. He has a decent shot technique, he can score a header, he can hold a ball, he wins aerial duels, he sees the field and teammates pretty well, he can continue an attack properly. His only problem is that he’s a bit slow. He has a slow pace and his body movements are also not at the Saka/Martinelli/Nwaneri speed.

And that’s the main impediment in the Premier League. The reason why he gets so few chances in the game is that defenders outpace him constantly. But when he’s left alone, he mostly delivers, because of the qualities mentioned before. He also can’t make use of the available space, because he’s being caught up by the opponent midfielders or defenders. It might not be visible in La Liga and international competitions (which are particularly slow paced), but it’s visible in the PL. For a rotation player, it’s still a good option, but he can’t be our main guy. Unless he learns to use his body, like Giroud or Rooney, so that he can hold a ball (and nobody can take it away from him) while the teammates start their runs.

Cracking 5-4-1 again

Marco Silva deployed against us an uncomfortable 5-4-1 shape that most of the teams used against us before in the Premier League to stop our attacking flow. They deploy 5 defenders to pay extra attention to our wingers and crowd up the space in front of them with 4 midfielders - Man United, Everton, West Ham all used this setup.

Average positions of the players yesterday show the clear defensive pattern.

Yesterday we were struggling again in the first half to crack this set up. I tried to understand why it was happening, and my main conclusion is that nobody on our team can receive the ball between the lines and continue the attack. This is something David Silva and later Gundogan were doing pretty well at Man City. This is something Firmino was so good at at Klopp’s Liverpool. They could receive the ball under pressure and either turn or find a teammate with a cutting pass.

We don’t have a player who can do this well. Rice tries to do it all the time, but he doesn't have the technique to hold the ball. Same with Merino. Maybe Myles can start doing it at some point, but he’s a rare guest in our midfield so far.

The hope I have is that Bukayo Saka might have the needed qualities. If Ethan continues to progress on the right and play on the wing, then maybe Saka can occupy the #10 position and Odegaard is shifted to left 8. In the end, we have to sacrifice defensive qualities to open up such teams. If they can afford to deploy one more defender, why can’t we do the opposite move?

The only other option we have (that is probably Arteta’s plan A) is when we finally sign our big striker, our new mix of Thierry Henry, Lewandowski and Peter Crouch, we can shift Havertz back to left 8 with the main goal of doing magic between the lines. I don’t think it worked last time we tried this and I am not sure it will work well now. I think for this role we need a great technician, someone who’s very skilled with the ball at their feet and can protect the ball with their body. This is a much more accurate description of Saka, rather than Havertz.

Next stop Goodison Park

My view on this game is that I don’t care about the result. We need to take it exclusively as preparation for the Real Madrid game. I couldn't care less about the result. We could lose 0-3, and I wouldn't bat an eyelid, as long as no one gets injured. The Premier League title is a pipe dream, but the Champions League semi-final? There's a glimmer of hope, and that's got to be the priority. 

So, what does that mean for the team sheet? Play only if there's a specific need. Kiwior needs to get more practice? Then he should start. Saka needs to find his rhythm?  He's welcome for 30-40 minutes. Nwaneri needs to get more experience against a tough side? 50-60 minutes for him before subbing in Saka makes a lot of sense. But what doesn’t make sense is to roll out our first choice eleven again. 

We need to see all our regular benchwarmers on the pitch - Trossard, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Tierney, Sterling. And the likes of MLS, Partey, Merino and one of Rice/Odegaard should get the rest. I personally would put Sterling, Trossard, Nwaneri (subbed to Saka in the second half) up top, Zinchenko and Jorginho in midfield and Tierney at LB. For Kieran, the tough athletic clash against Everton is just what the doctor has prescribed. If Timber's a doubt and White's not ready, then let’s see Nicholls at RB and not Partey, who will have a very important role to play against Madrid. And of course the instructions to Saliba to take it easy.

Do I believe we'll see a strong rotation? I certainly don’t until I see it with my own eyes.  But a fan can dream, right?

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