Oh what a looooooooooong, ruuuuuuude, interruption that was. We can now FINALLY, try and rid ourselves of the stench of that agonising defeat we suffered, at the hands of Brighton.
So long international break, and I’m glad to see the back of you!
The Arsenal host Leeds United at The Emirates Stadium, and the Arsenal faithful will be expecting nothing less than 3 points.
The Arsenal faithful will be demanding, bouncebackability.
Leeds are on the back of a 0-0 draw, at home with Crystal Palace… but they have been playing well so far this season… so I’m expecting them to give us a game.
Let’s get straight into the team sheet.
The starting line-up was Raya in goal, Calafiori at left-back, Gabriel and Konsa, central… and Benny Blanco at right-back.
Myles Lewis-Skelly, and Declan Rice, in central midfield… and just in front of them, was Madueke on the left… replacing the injured Tzolis… Odegaard was in the No.10 role, and Bukayo Saka on the right.
Kai Havertz started up front.
I would’ve liked to of seen Eze start on the left, and I would’ve liked to see Gyokeres start up front, as he had an excellent international break… scoring four goals for his country, and showed an all-round sharpness, in his general play. He seems to of rediscovered his confidence… and the Arsenal faithful, are hoping for him to transfer this form to the Premier League.
The Arsenal started the game, like they had a point to prove… and said point is, we’re the champions, we’re here to stay, and the previous result was merely a minor hiccup.
That quickly turned into… Yes, we have a point to prove, but we have absolutely no idea how to prove it.
We struggled to keep the ball, and couldn’t breach Leeds’ back five. The oh so familiar story of the defensive low block, made us revert back to passing side-to-side, and backwards.
When we took a break from doing THAT, we squandered possession.
Leeds looked like the better team, and they had more shots on our goal, and looked sharper, and hungrier.
We had one decent chance, which was a header from Kai Havertz, but it was straight at the keeper.
The first half finished 0-0, we were woeful, and the less said about that first half, the better.
Yes, we had fourteen players away on international duty, playing for their respective countries, but that’s no excuse. This is part, and parcel of being a big team, and having great players.
It goes with the territory… and it was imperative that we showed…BOUNCEBACKABILITY!!
We started the second half terribly, and everything we did on, and off the ball, began to look like a self-sabotage exercise… and conceding a sloppy goal, felt inevitable.
Unfortunately, I was right.
In the 55th minute, James Justin made it 1-0 to Leeds, after The Arsenal as a collective, forgot how to defend.
I expected an immediate response, as even though we hadn’t been playing well, we’re still the champions, and we still had quality players all over the pitch.
In the 62nd minute, the response came.
Noni Madueke picked up the ball on the left, floated in a deep cross, which was headed back across goal by Benny Blanco… into the path of Calafiori, and he cleverly hit his shot into the ground, which made it more difficult for their keeper to save. An equaliser!! We had FINALLY awakened, from our football slumber. 1-1 the scoreline.
In the 63rd minute, The Arsenal made changes.
Guimaraes, Gyokeres, and Timber… replaced Lewis-Skelly, Havertz, and Benny Blanco.
I felt these substitutions should’ve been made earlier, but what do I know?!
The substitutions changed the game, and we started to look more like ourselves.
Movement returned, we were passing with more positivity, and purpose… and Leeds were now on the backfoot.
I could juuuusssst about see an Arsenal winner, on the football horizon… as I looked on through my rose-tinted glasses.
In the 70th minute, my prayers were answered.
Odegaard slid the ball through to Declan Rice, who flicked the ball into Bruno Guimaraes on the edge of the box… and he drilled the ball low, and accurately, past the Leeds keeper. It was a wonderful goal! 2-1 to The Arsenal!!
Oh, by the way… that’s two more goals from open play. ALL of the 18 goals we’ve scored this season, have been from OPEN PLAY… and NOBODY in the mainstream media, is talking about it! Whenever we scored a set-piece goal last season, EVERYONE and their dog, spoke about it… tried to diminish our achievements, and even suggested that we should have an Asterix on our title win, because we scored from set-pieces! (HAHAHAHA!)
These pathetic, pompous, petulant, preposterous, pretentious people… need to highlight our open play goals, with the same vim, that they did our set-piece goals.
Aaaaanywhoooo, I digress…
The Gunners managed to see the game out, and despite not playing well for the first 60 minutes of the game, we collected all 3 points… and THAT’S what champions do! Find a way to win, when not at your sparkling best.
BOUNCEBACKABILITY, at it’s finest!! Well done Arsenal.
As the season progresses though, we’re going to need A LOT more from our attacking players.
I was a little harsh on Noni Madueke, in my post-match video. After I re-watched the match, my view changed.
Madueke was our most dangerous attacker. He constantly put balls into the box, and was involved in all our promising, attacking moves. Noni wasn’t great, but he was effective.
The same cannot be said for Saka, on the right.
It was another below par performance, by his own high standards.
He wasn’t beating his man, and there was no end product in his play. He looked laboured, and leggy, like he was still feeling the injury that kept him out for the majority of last season.
As I’ve said previously, I think Arteta needs to seriously consider playing Saka in a more central role, as he’s lost that explosive pace, that previously aided him in his wing play.
I’m confident he’ll rediscover the type of form that enabled him to carry The Arsenal on his back, when he was the youngest player in the team… but I’m not confident, said form will come from playing on the right-wing.
Kai Havertz offered absolutely nothing up front, and didn’t even look fully fit.
Every single attacking player, needs to play better going forward… or we’ll struggle this season.
Again though, we DID get all 3 points, and we move onto the next game… which is a Champions League match against Lille, at the Emirates… and we have to show Lille, that we have a Lille something for them.
Do you think Saka will rediscover his form on the right wing?
Should Gyokeres start the next game?
Are you concerned about Eze’s current form?
Let me know in the comments, as usual… and thanks for reading. COYG!!
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