Newcastle - on the bus. Not really the Cup team, are we?
What to say… Our good chance for a trophy this season got derailed after Newcastle produced the best possible result at the Emirates.
The Arsenal game itself was actually much better than against Brighton on the weekend. Despite the game every three days and the sickness, Arteta has put out a best available line-up together with a strong bench. Four left backs sitting on the bench, but ready to go and tear up Murphy and Livramento to pieces. Eddie Howe was spared this evening, but at some point the right wing of another team is going to feel a lot of pain.
We have created several good chances: Havertz missed an absolute sitter. There were a couple of headers after set pieces that should have at least hit the target. Arteta spoke about the different Carabao ball in the press-conference. And while it is a laughable excuse, there could be something to it - most of the shots went high and Isak himself almost missed his first goal.
Isak punishes
Alexander Isak was very electric and aggressive in the evening. All the Newcastle threat was going through him. And this where lies the biggest question to Arteta. Why didn’t we pay extra attention to the Swedish fella? Why wasn’t there a man around him all the time? Why did Martin cover him during the free kick and not Timber (our best man-to-man defender)? Why did Gabriel even allow him to turn in the box before the second goal?
That’s the area where we really failed yesterday. Surely, he pushed Odegaard before the first goal and if Martin had fallen, it would probably be checked by VAR and cancelled. However, given how it all unfolded, it was really hard for Odegaard to predict that the bloody ball would unpredictably fly to Isak.
Isak’s finishing that was praised by fans and Arteta himself (not sure if that was the message to the board or Isak personally) was not really that impressive - he almost missed a sitter. However, his all-around game as a striker was something that we really miss in the team. The way Havertz missed his chance really makes me drop a tear or two.
The Martinelli moment on the other hand…
Martinelli conundrum
The moment Gabi was unleashed into space with the ball by Trossard, he produced the most impressive moment of the month. Those speedy counterattacks and open spaces really bring the best out of him. But sadly that’s not how we play most of the time. Even when we drop back trying to defend the lead, Martinelli is the left winger sitting deep, hugging the opponent’s right back.
I will say the truth nobody wants to hear. In the current Liverpool team he would be the second best goalscorer. When Liverpool flies into counter attacks, they first try to find Salah with the long pass. And then when Salah receives the ball, there are 2 or 3 players sprinting into open spaces to assist him. That’s where Martinelli would be flourishing.
But since it’s our player on the contract, Arteta should try to bring the best out of him. When we are sitting deep in our half, we should consider deploying Martinelli with Havertz as our two forwards and launch them into spaces with long passes. Even though it might be an easy way to give away a ball and might be painful for Arteta to watch, it would keep opponents on their toes all the time and could be a way to extend our lead later in the game and not wait until the referee blows for another penalty.
What I’d also say - Trossard looked much better on the right than Martinelli. He’s also left footed with some dribbling abilities and he’s much closer in replicating Saka’s functions than Martinelli. I think we should continue playing him there until Nwaneri is fit.
Modest attacking options
What was also a question to me - why didn’t we bring Sterling for the last 15 minutes? Isn’t his ability to dribble with the ball past players - exactly what’s needed against Newcastle bulky defenders? Wasn’t the speciality to dribble endlessly in the box to get a penalty?
If Arteta doesn't trust him, then we desperately have to look into bringing someone in January.
Transfer business thoughts
To do something really good in January transfer market is hard for a couple of reasons:
Teams don’t really like to give up their best players because they either still have sight of trophies (or qualification into European tournaments) or anticipate the fight for relegation.
There are many limitations on the transfers, e.g. players can’t play for two teams in the Champions League, there are limitations on a number of loans, there might be questions with registration etc.
The price of good players is usually overblown, since the selling club knows the player is being demanded for a reason. And also because they know they won’t probably find a good replacement.
That’s why the best deals happen in summer. Consequently, there’s only a very limited number of reasons, where the transfer business can be successful:
The player has fallen out with the previous coach. While it might not tell you good things about the player’s character, the club would be interested in making a sale while the player still has some value. That’s how we bought Leandro Trossard.
The player is past their prime, not playing much, but can help with their experience and give more rotation options. That’s how we signed Jorginho.
The player is young, needs development and doesn’t have enough gaming time in their current club. This is the way I suggest approaching the problem now.
We are in a desperate need of an electric attacking player that can be creative, explosive and would like to prove themselves. This is a characteristic of a young prospective player and I suggest everyone look in the direction of Real Madrid. They have two prospective players - Arda Güler and Endrick. The former has been getting some gaming time and even starting some games, while the latter spent most of the time on the bench.
They are both very exciting players that did some crazy things for their previous club or country. Of course, they lack maturity and it’s a risky move. But if we loan one of them from Madrid, we could be getting a talented player that needs more gaming time, looking to prove themselves and having the qualities we are short of in the current squad. It’s not going to ruin our summer transfer plans if it doesn’t work out. And if it does, the only downside is that we develop a player for Real for free. I am fine with that, because we need to care foremost about our current season. Trophies are being awarded only once a year and it feels very wrong to postpone addressing the current crisis until next season.
There have been rumours about Arteta keen on signing Nico Williams. I am very concerned about this move. The player has 2 goals and 5 assists in La Liga and Europa League this season. Is there evidence he’s better than Martinelli and worth paying 50 million? Surely we can’t base the decision to spend so much money on two or three good games in Euros this summer.
If not Real Madrid, then we can look at other European teams with bloated squads, namely PSG. The other source of potential players is South America. There are a lot of raw attacking talents out there. It’s a big gamble, but if we are buying someone in the range of 10 million, we won’t be sacrificing any significant purchases in summer. This is the way we bought Martinelli and I don’t see a reason why there couldn’t be another one. We only require exceptional dribbling or finishing skills in a new player. They likely won't be as versatile as current players, so they must possess the key quality we currently lack.
After the defeat to Newcastle I am inclined to think that we might want to swallow a hard pill of overpaying and sign Cunha. He’s a better finisher than what we have. He can produce magical moments. He can produce goals for himself. He has Premier League experience and we can play him in the Champions League this season. Could be worth keeping chances alive in our season. If he actually wants to step up his game and not just get a better contract from Wolves.
Carabuy cup?
Honestly the game went better than Eddie Howe’s wildest and wettest dreams.
They scored 2 goals on the counter attack and conceded nothing.
He managed to give rest to his best attackers Isak and Gordon before the hard period.
They now have a serious goal and home crowd advantage and are clear favorites for the final.
To be honest, it’s hard to imagine us digging out of this hole. Even with our strongest squad that includes Saka I wouldn’t bet on us scoring 2 more goals than Newcastle on St James Park. So far in this season we have scored zero against them in two matches and now we need to score at least two in a single away game. Sounds pretty unlikely to me.
Man United clash
It’s a tough pill to swallow, but I have to admit - even if we sign one player in January, we don’t have a squad to compete in three competitions in spring. PL, CL and FA cup all have final games in May and a decisive period in April. It’s not realistic to expect our modest, depleted with injuries squad to compete in all three. And since we need to go in the Premier League until the end at least to secure TOP-4, if not fight for the title, there are only two cups left to choose from - Champions League and FA cup.
Arsenal plays two games per week for 11 weeks in a row
It’s a no brainer that given our gap with Liverpool, Champions League seems like our second chance to bang the door this year. Even getting into the final would already be the best-ever result this football club has achieved. Whatever haters gonna say, CL final is a serious achievement and a step forward.
However, after the bad defeat against Newcastle we can’t really lose another one in a row at the Emirates. That will bring the mood and belief down before we play Spurs and Villa next week. On the other hand, those games are crucial for our title race, which also now becomes more important given that the League Cup is only floating somewhere in the dreams.
My answer to the FA cup - we rotate and put out mostly experienced players without any significant game load, the ones that are not critical on their position. This means no Odegaard, no Timber, no Partey, no Saliba and Gabriel together.
My line-up would be: Raya - Nichols (or try Calafiori/MLS there), Kiwior, Gabriel, Zinchenko - Jorginho, MLS, Merino - Sterling, Jesus, Trossard. Raheem should still remember how it feels to disappoint United.
If they manage to grab a win, then - perfect, we will use the same approach going forward and hopefully our draw will be more lucky. If not - then will finally be able to have some breather in the middle of February and March. Until then, we are already set to play games every three days. And we need to win most of them, if not all, to stay alive in at least two competitions.
Let me know your view on the FA cup approach in the comments!