On the bus after Southampton. Captain Saka takes result in his hands
The home game vs Southampton is a must win for a title contender. If you don't win this one you can't complain on City being two points ahead in May and us being unlucky. Moreover, you can look at this game where you could acquire the decisive goal differ
The home game vs Southampton (as vs Leicester) is a must win for a title contender. If you don't win this one you can't complain on City being two points ahead in May and us being unlucky. Moreover, you can look at this game where you could acquire the decisive goal difference that could matter in the end.
The starting line-up demonstrated quite a good rotation habit. We need to involve more people and the game today was the perfect occasion. It was not the one I expected to see though,.We were struggling to open opponent's defence through the centre and Jesus with Sterling were not going to address that. But Nwaneri could, he was the one sliding through opponents on every occasion we saw him this year. Well, if not right away, I was really expecting to see him for the final third.
Same Leicester patterns
The first half Arsenal started very strongly, Southampton was pushed into their own box. The cherry on top was when Saka put his body between the ball and the defender and made him fly away. That was so aesthetically pleasing! In general, was again going through the wings, with Bukayo being the centre of attention. That led to Southampton allocating player to double up and in rare occasions even triple up on Saka with third player closing the channel to cut the ball back. They could only allow it because we have no threat coming from centre, especially apparent due to missing Trossard and Nwaneri in addition to Odegaard.
Below is the pass map clearly show the gap in the centre of the pitch
The one performance that did stand out on the day was again Gabi Jesus. He just doesn't fit into the team's play anymore. He's too much into his head, he isn't confident and he missed a couple of chances to quickly cut Southampton defence with a pass. This means two things. First, some psychologist should work with him to stop overthinking his actions. Second, he should be coming from the bench when we are already ahead.
Many fans in Threads were not happy with Partey playing at right back (that was caused by accumulated injuries), but in my opinion he looked quite confident and he didn't leave too much space in behind. No overlapping runs, but is he really good at those?
It was reassuring that Southampton didn't have any chances until the half time. But, wait a moment, didn't it already happen a week ago?
Ve-e-ery same Leicester patterns
Right after the break Southampton scored a goal. And not from a losing position, like Leicester - the audacity of promoted teams is outrageous! Sterling was fouled, the referee decided to ignore that, quick pass behind our defence line, and a strong shot in the corner. David Raya has a brilliant reaction and he's great claiming the crosses, but he's not tall. There's no way around it and the shots in the corner he sometimes just can't reach. I think the opponents are gradually learning that and we will see more of this "Henry-style" shots in the bottom corner. Dibbing almost scored a similar one after a small deflection. There was one more episode where Armstrong was just holding Raya during the cross and stopped our goalkeeper from kicking out the ball properly. The commentators were "wondering" whether this would be considered a foul. Just outrageous - Goalkeeper was simply held with the opponent's arms!
As I was about to call for a triple-attacking sub, King Kai delivered a beauty after a great interception and, very important, timely pass by Saka to leave most of defenders behind the ball. The stress levels went from very high to manageable. Arteta prepared a triple change close to the one I asked for, just Merino instead of Nwaneri. But why not Nwaneri? This is the question that was going through my mind through the rest of the game.
Merino totally missed the tempo of the game - he misplaced passes, he was caught in possession, his decision making was just too slow. And it's not a surprise or criticism - it's his first appearance in heated part of Premier League game. In contrast, Nwaneri was well integrated in the team flow whenever he appeared. And those were not easy moments: ending phase of a NLD, 2-2 against Leicester. I don't buy the "experience" argument. Ethan has shown that he has enough character and skill to handle a tough moment.
I understand that Merino needs also time to integrate, but not when we need to score goals and it's not too much time left. 2-0 vs PSG, that was great time. Actually, exact when we were 3-1 up, Merino started to click: quicker passes, great long ball to Martinelli, because the pressure was off.
Back to the positives
Martinelli is back baby! He's back for real. His goal after just a delicious cross from Saka has solidified the confidence. And again, Merino was in an offside, several centimetres close to give reason for referees to disallow the goal.
And Bukayo, what a player! Real fucking leader and captain on the pitch! Basically created the victory today. Timely pass to Kai, brilliant assist to Gabi and the strong cannon to secure the victory. None of these attempts (full of doubts) to select the best position to shoot that Trossard and Jesus and Gabi were guilty off. Just slammed the ball into the net. We are truly lucky to have him!
As for the rest of the players: Calafiori is a guaranteed entertainment, he will pull off some eyewaterung skills here and there and won't be super solid in the back. Rice this season is a great player, but not top of the world like he was last year. His shots are off, although he scored so easily in the League Cup. Not sure if he's just exhausted after Euros. Havertz is as always inspiring. Yes he sometimes misses chances, but he's guaranteed to create more of them, get into positions and have a great moments mixed with not so successful ones. And what was particularly inspiring - when on 94th minute he was fighting with three different Southampton players to keep the ball with the team, even when the score was 3-1. What a character!
So far we have +4 goal difference from two home games vs promoted teams. Not sure we'll get more chances to increase our goal difference in the rest of the season. Let's hope we will be up by points when May comes. Now a well-timed international break to give recovery time for our injured players!