Man City - on the bus. Stay f*cking humble!
The summary of yesterday’s victory is: We are the top dogs now! We are officially the better team than City. It was not because of their temporary loss of form. When the team is in a rough patch, it usually brings out their best in a big game. But that was not the case yesterday; we were a much better team yesterday. I wrote in the preview of this game that it was a monumental challenge, and Arsenal stood up to it.
There was a shaky moment when they equalized, and actually the 40 minutes preceding the goal were quite worrying. But as soon as our team went on the attack again, they took their fortune back into their own hands. What's actually funny about this is that Arteta is quite conservative. But when the team is confident and pushes the opponent, that's when they are at their best, that's when they create great chances, that’s when they score goals, it’s when the defenders pull rabbits out of their hats and block the most dangerous strikers.
That's what we did in the first 15 minutes and were rewarded with one goal; that's what we did in the last 35 minutes and were rewarded with four more goals. In the time in between, City was gradually building confidence, they started to create a threat, they started to shoot on target. Raya’s saves were unbelievable, and they kept us in the game. There are so many games where we were trying to defend the lead and failed to do so, and so many games when we actually went all out, mostly happening in front of our crowd, and grabbed the result by the neck.
The Kai debate
Let’s get another negative out of the system now. Yesterday's game still confirms that we are screaming for a striker who can score two goals in the first half from our hard-pressing work.
Why else would we do this work if not to convert it into easy chances for a striker? Let's be fair here - the chances we had were not because of Akanji’s mistake. There were two players pressing hard: Trossard, who deflected his pass, and Rice, who was ready to pick up the ball and find a striker right away. The same about the second chance. City did not just give away the ball (like Foden did before Partey’s goal) - it was a result of coordinated teamwork. And that's why we need a striker who can convert these chances.
Kai’s assist to Odegaard was also not the best - the ball was jumping, and when it jumps, the shot becomes harder. Thankfully, Martin was much more composed on the day, and he just put it in the net. When Havertz scored, his goal was brilliant. There are no two opinions about it. But it happened when City was already down, when the game was going in our favor, and the moment was not decisive anymore. The current Premier League race is now Liverpool’s to lose. They are six points ahead and have one game in hand. There are only 15 matches left, out of which seven are relatively easy for them - home games against the bottom-half teams, so we're not really looking into that territory. Which means in reality there are only 7-8 games where they can lose points, and we need them to lose 11+ points because we'll probably not win all the remaining games.
So I'm looking at our Champions League chances, and in the Champions League, when you get to the quarterfinal and the further stages, you need a striker who will take these decisive moments and deliver goals. Because that's how it unfolded last year - we got eliminated by Bayern Munich, and if we can recollect - there were Saka and Trossard converting the chances on home turf in the decisive moments. We couldn't find an opportunity in the away game: mostly because of the home crowd, but also because they were prepared to close up our most dangerous players.
Which means that we need both Havertz as well as a new striker who can take on decisive moments. I'm still coming back to thinking about Toney. I think this could have actually been a pretty good combination. Kai would have started in the majority of the games, but in more critical situations, we could bring on Toney, who doesn't give a shit about anyone else. He could score against any opponent, and that's what we're lacking now. I sincerely hope that we can pull something today. Realistically just because Villa has signed three attackers while losing only one, it makes some sense that they might let Watkins go. They loaned two players with an option to buy in the summer when they will know more about their finances. If they can afford those players - they buy them; if not - then they have to find somebody cheaper.
On the left, there’s Kai’s stats - 15 goals out of which 5 changed the result of the game. On the right is Watkins’s stats - 11 goals out of which 10 changed the result of the game. There’s a noticeable difference, isn’t there?
Mental monsters
Now let’s go back to our massive performances. First of them is Thomas Partey. Again, an immense performance - he didn't play much on Wednesday. His passing was very good today and, to be fair, his goal was the most important in the game. It was right when City players felt the game was getting back to them. And, yes, his goal was deflected, but you don't score goals if you don't take chances, if you don't launch power-ball shots on target. Partey was there to bring us back into the leading position. I now think that extending his contract for one year would be a very smart move. Even if we can get 25 to 30 good games from him in the season, it still would pay off. He’s a very strong player who can contribute a lot. I know there are talks about Zubimendi, but he is much less powerful physically and I am not sure how fast he will integrate into the Premier League. It would be very good to have somebody who can take over the reins if needed. Even if it's a big salary, we will not find a better player for the transfer fee plus salary than Partey for a year.
The next mental monster is Myles Lewis-Skelly. This guy’s mentality is just astonishing. When I'm talking about Havertz - that’s what I see lacking. Although he's a left-back, he just takes the ball, he drives into the box and shoots on target. And again, that's where the flowers come, when you take chances. And his celebration... Oh my God, that is just legendary. It basically says “That's who the f*ck I am, blondie”. He has a huge amount of character doing this. What I also found quite impressive: in the first half Haaland started drifting slightly to the right side. So, if his teammates play a good cross, he can avoid fighting with Gabriel and he would jump over Lewis-Skelly to score. And there was a moment where Myles just pushed him out of the way and protected the ball. Doing it against one of the largest and toughest strikers in the Premier League is just astonishing. We finally solved our left-back issues; we have Calafiori, we have MLS - that position is finally looking quite well.
The other player I also wanted to mention is Gabriel. I think he's our most important defender, our most valuable defender. I know there are a lot of Saliba fans out there and he has a lot of potential. However, I believe that the most rare quality in the top players is mentality. There are a lot of technically gifted players, a lot of physically able players, but there are very few who can rise to the occasion and pull a 10 out of 10 performance on one of the biggest nights of the season. I didn't see Gabriel losing a single duel to Haaland, I didn't see him making a single mistake, he laughed in humble face after the goal, he even asked him to bring back the boot, which De Bruyne actually picked up. I think that's where he is better than Saliba, who lost the duel to Haaland before the goal. Saliba was trying to block him using his body, instead of fighting for the ball.
All our defense lines are very solid mentally. Timber looked very composed as well, he had a yellow card in the back of his mind and he did not give the referee any opportunity to send him off and he was still joining the attacks when possible.
Attacking reserves
I don't want to say anything bad about the strikers, because all of them were working hard and trying to do what they could. Martinelli was sprinting back and forth, Trossard was doing his dribbling magic and confusing or sometimes embarrassing City defenders left and right. They were all good yesterday, but I again come back to the striker topic. We would benefit so much from someone who can make use of the fast counterattacks, who can just take the ball and go past defenders, who is able to execute the counterattack step by step perfectly. That's where Watkins would be very useful.
Since we're talking about the striker, we cannot avoid talking about Ethan again. I was banging the table around the 75th minute that Arteta should bring him on just to feel the atmosphere, feel the massive game. The game was already won by then, so he just actually played without any pressure. Nwaneri went on for 10, 15 minutes at most and produced a piece of magic again. No matter the opponents, his goals are very good. Those are not just touches to put the ball into the empty net. Most of them are powerful shots on target. The goal yesterday was very beneficial for him personally. He's going to get better, and he was coming on in tough situations earlier in the season. Today he came on against tough opponents and left his mark already. I think he should definitely start against Newcastle in the midweek.
The Newcastle game actually became very interesting. I am not as optimistic about it as I was after the first leg. Now I can believe that we can go and give a fight in that stadium. Especially if we manage to score one in the first half, I don't see any reasons why we wouldn’t score two more than the opponent. It would be very nice to have a new striker. I'm not worried about the physical load on players, we have a long break coming afterward. Obviously they will be mentally exhausted after the City destruction, but at the same time the confidence should be on a very high level, which would be very important at St James' Park.
I know that Eddie Howe will probably set the team up in a deep block, while trying to launch Isak, Gordon and Murphy into counterattacks, but we have a good chance of scoring as well. I know there could be some rotation, but I'm not actually sure who could come in. We should probably start Nwaneri instead of Trossard. If we're searching for a goal, Trossard would be a good option for the last thirty minutes. Merino could also come on for the last maybe 20 minutes to just occupy their box and the large defenders. This could open up spaces for the likes of Nwaneri and Trossard to have a crack from the edge of the box. It doesn't make too much sense to talk about the starting line-up. It will be mostly the same, with potentially Nwaneri and Calafiori coming in and I’m not even sure about those two. I can see the logic of leaving Ethan on the bench and unleashing him against tired defenders.
I think we need to finish this one with the manager. I'm very grateful for the victory yesterday, I think Arteta has done a very good job setting up the team. He needs to be more attacking-minded generally, we should be approaching any opponent bravely going forward and hopefully he can learn from this performance our strengths: when we press the opponent and not let them breathe, we actually look much more threatening.
See you guys after the Newcastle game and hopefully we can plan our League Cup final! COYG!