‘A win for discouragement’ (Positives Needs & Hopes) [ARS 2-1 CHE]

 ‘A win for discouragement’

An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective 

Arsenal are in a brand new position for the first time in a few decades. They are hot favorites to win the Premier League.

This brings a different set of emotions. No longer are fans and Arsenal both wondering ‘can they?’

Motivation is tested after you finally win something. How much do you really want to experience that again? It’s different with every player, but if you have a great leader, as we do, then if you want to get on the field, then you must realize that a drop in standards won’t even see you in the squad.

Everybody wants to take your scalp. The coaches know that in this league, it is possible for anybody to beat anybody and so they dream of getting a big victory against the best team.  Nothing that they say will motivate greater than knowing you can beat anybody else because you beat the best.

You also have to deal with the feeling of superiority. How many times in our footballing journey have we said, “we were too complacent today, lads.” Complacency is a natural human reaction and you have to fight it. Premier League players have to fight it , also. It often creeps in after a string of difficult games. You end up playing a lower table team and the players feel a little too relaxed. It also happens during the game when you get two or more goals ahead.

Before this game started, I was concerned that we would give Chelsea an early season lift in belief. A big dose. It’s not necessarily what I thought would happen, but you can only imagine how Chelsea would have felt, with their new coach and new dreams, if they would’ve beaten the champions on their own turf.

Today Arsenal had to walk away having discouraged Chelsea. In the long term this was more important than anything else.

We don’t spend much time wondering what opposing teams and opposing fans feel and think, but with the media‘s help Chelsea would’ve been the new best thing after this game, if they would’ve won.

Now after the game has finished, I still feel more relieved that we discouraged them, than the fact that we won ourselves.

I suppose I’m well-versed in knowing that half of winning the league is discouraging your opponents rather than it just being all about you all the time.

At the beginning of the season, nobody expects brilliance. It’s all about three points. What is extra beautiful is that Chelsea were given the boost of scoring early and still lost. They saw Arsenal purring at times in the game and that doesn’t normally happen until October.

Chelsea and their fans have just gone home having again experienced not beating Arsenal.

Max just sent me this…

That’s a lot of discouragement

POSITIVES:

XG:

We haven’t even conceded 1.0

XG goal in our first three games combined.

Look at the numbers on that chart. The gap after three games is stark even between Arsenal in first and City in second.

Sometimes XG can drive me mad as there is too much focus on it. Too many people using it to sound smart rather than using it at the right time and in the right context.

I don’t know this for a fact, but I feel very strongly that there is a standard at Arsenal that is unmatched anywhere.

The penalty area is our castle. 

The standard has been set that you defend your castle with everything you have. You don’t leave it to somebody else to shoot the arrows, you take responsibility yourself. You are just as proud of your castle as you are of the arrows you shoot at them.

I think you’ll find that this thought is posted and preached frequently at Arsenal Football Club.

1. You don’t let them get into your box.
2. You don’t allow any chances whatsoever and if one happens then there has been a breakdown in the defense of the castle. I’m sure that David Raya would’ve saved that shot from range but Gabriel diving to head it out was like the last and bravest soldier defending the king.

Castle well protected.

Breaking it down even further. So very impressive.

Tzolis:

This was a more important game for him than likely anybody else. He is not yet established and Eze played fairly well when he replaced him against Villa. Actually, I thought that they would switch jobs for this game. He had to show better decision-making and a willingness to be as direct as he was against City and Coventry.

I can’t remember one bad decision that he made and this is his strength. He’s not as eye-catching as those that are considered to be the best in his position, but his technique, two footedness and consistent execution seems to be of the highest level.

In particular, I loved how calm he was under huge pressure. His touch bringing the ball down out of the air was faultless. He yet again set up too high XG chances and I’d say that this is probably the level expected for each game for a winger on top of his game.

Is it just me or does he look like a chef? Just a random thought.

Whilst I’m at it, Man. United’s goalkeeper looks like a bass guitarist who has a day job as a concierge.

Actually, let’s get really silly.… Did Chelsea bring on Pedro Neto’s twin brother to play left back?

Odegaard:

Pressure changes everything. Martin Odegard’s life changed a couple of years ago when he got married, had a kid and simultaneously had the pressure of trying to lead this team back to the top.

You saw in the summer and we see it now, a player who looks like he’s enjoying himself, dictating games, creating chances and scoring again. I’d imagine that all of this is largely to do with pressure. It’s certainly not experience and it’s certainly not an improved player because what he’s producing has been seen before. I do wonder if that dummy by Kai is something that they’ve worked on because we’ve seen it twice since the Community Shield.

Broadly speaking, here is an interesting discussion… Is Odegaard currently the best player in the Premier League?

Raya:

I know he’s not the talk of the town. I’m sure when I go on social media it will all be about the colour of London. If we were to watch that back, we would notice that he was more busy than in all of the other games this season combined. When you get up early in the morning and watch all the other Premier League games you get a greater appreciation of a player like David Raya.

He is so technically clean. Max and I have a joke when we often watch another team playing and say, “ David Raya would’ve caught that”

I’m not seeing a better goalkeeper in the world right now. I don’t even feel bold in saying that. I think he is clearly the best. He’s the best at commanding his box, especially from crossing situations. He frequently completely nullifies a promising attack with his positioning and handling from crosses. He has the fastest reactions that I think I’ve ever seen.  His match winning save from Estevao’s curler will go under the radar as Arsenal deserved to win but yet again he produces a wild class save.

He might well be the most important player at the club.

Havertz:

Were you surprised when the ball went in the net? Again, Max made the comment that Kai doesn’t normally even try to score from there. Let alone pull it off. I often wonder how he will be seen retrospectively. He is 8.5/10 in almost every area of the game apart from finishing. If he was to improve his finishing then he may go down as one of the best strikers in the modern era. That might sound a little crazy, but the other alternatives don’t have the footballing ability and all around game that he has. If he could compete in the scoring charts with Haaland then his football ability would far exceed that of his City rival.

Well, who would’ve thought this. Totally goes against the narrative.

Konsa

He looked very nervous at the beginning. He was given a tough assignment, essentially man marking Joao Pedro. He settled and started to dominate and I give credit to a player  who can go from looking like the only weak link when everybody else is playing well, to looking at the same level as the others on his debut.

Chance creation:

Breaking down the performance, what was so incredibly encouraging was the different types of chances that we were creating. We are now creating as much from the left as the right. We are more willing to shoot from outside the box. We are being cute with little dinks and cheeky flicks into the box, particularly Odegaard.

We have a lot of players that specialize in 1,2’s. Arsenal do them better than most because they are coached in the specifics. So many coaches spend an inordinate amount of time teaching their youth, collegiate and professional teams to incorporate this into their game as a main strategy. What they don’t realize is that they can be so easily picked off unless the two players involved are close to each other. As soon as the first player passes, then everybody that’s played the game knows that the receiving player will always have a 1,2 as an option. The better defenders follow the passer to stop it from happening and cut it off.

If you are a better coach, you identify that and tell your players not to do 1,2’s unless the players are within 5 yards of each other.

If you do them in close quarters, then you don’t give the defender a chance to react. We are doing this much more around the top of the box and especially on the right side.

In the first half much of the chance creation came from the rotation of Kai, Odegaard, Saka and White. It must be so hard to keep up with as the ball is pinging around so quickly and has far less predictability about it this season.

Calafiori:

There are people (i’m one of them) who rightly have suggested that over the years Arsenal’s weakness has been predictability. We are still a work in progress in that area.

What is so delightful is the introduction of Califiori as the roaming left back.

Last season, he was learning the role and you could see him wandering into central areas. Now that he’s learned when and where to attack and defend, you can see him being given more freedom to go most anywhere. We haven’t fully unleashed this beast as it is rarely said but it’s true, that he is an excellent finisher. We see it in the season highlights and remark that we forgot what a threat he is, but I think that he’s so dangerous in and around the box to the point where he could be an emergency centre forward if needed.

NEEDS:

Arteta’s outfits:

Have we had a game this season where Arteta has worn something different to the opposing coach?

Every time it happens, I noticed that Arteta’s version is nicer. I bet it’s the quality of cotton. Steamed that little bit longer and significantly more crisp. Xabi Alonso did his best to match Mikel but looked like he had been dumpster diving in the Lost and Found box. His black and black outfit was oversized and not straight out of the Armani packaging like Mikel’s.

Mikel did say that every detail matters, right?

Odegaard and Saka:

The last 15 minutes, Arsenal stopped winning their duels. These two were the major culprits and probably why Saka was taken off. I understand that your best players need to be careful going into physical challenges. They need to pick and choose. What is  inexcusable though is not making any effort whatsoever. You can jump for a header with no intention of actually winning the header but of making it difficult for your opponent. That is satisfactory for those two.. Chelsea went ahead because Odegaard didn’t even compete for the aerial ball.

The 90’s:

Actually, were shell suits from the 80s? I’m all for retro gear. I’ve got a lot of it. There are some things that need to be brought back. There are some things that should stay as an embarrassing memory. For me, shell suits are one of them. But only do they look like you are trying to be 14 years old, but they make that very annoying swishing sound when you walk. I remember many times trying to sneak out of the house in the shell suit and getting caught because of the swishing coming from my groinal zone.

Ref:

This was the easiest yellow card to give. Miles from the ball and stopping a counter attack.

Palmer should’ve been sent off when he got his yellow card.

The PGMOL can change their name to ProRef or do whatever the heck they want but we’re not stupid. If you can’t get easy decisions correct like this when you have video help and headsets to communicate with each other, then we will continue to think that your crap.

HOPES

Napoli:

On Friday night, I was in bed thinking about the Napoli game. Thinking about what team I would pick. I often do this.

This is what I came up with.

Arteta does have a habit of starting as strong as he can in the first game of a competition, but here’s the thing….. is this team actually weaker? It’s different and with different strengths and weaknesses, but it can beat Napoli away.

We are all experiencing the same emotion and making the same comments after each game. Our bench is as strong as the players on the field.

I really hope that this team is at least similar to what Arteta does. It’m not a master tactician coming up with a game plan, but simply resting players  when you have the opportunity.

There are a few things that may bring the title back to the Emirates again in May 2027. Less injuries might be top of the list, but rotation would be close.

They are linked as we know.

Absolutely no excuse whatsoever to not rotate when you’ve got players like Bruno and Eze not even getting on the field.

If we aren’t winning, then bring on what would be the strongest bench in Champions League history.

Ramsdale:

I think most Arsenal fans were a little concerned when we replaced Ramsdale. I think that was a fair emotion. He was very lovable, as well as being a very good goalkeeper. I suppose we didn’t know any better as we hadn’t had a better goalkeeper prior. We now see the difference but boy oh boy, his career has just plummeted. I have a friend who is a Southampton fan. He tells me that he is fourth choice goalkeeper.

I was hoping that we would sign him this summer as back up, but I’d have to assume that something is going on in his head and performance for a goalkeeper in their prime to drop off that far.

TWEETS and THOUGHTS:

How does Berta know Joao Pedro? I wonder…

A great description.

I’d not noticed this myself. Quite lovely to be able to shut the media up any time you can.

Only elite teams have players that do this. Pulling it off is not easy because your timing has to be perfect. Califiori obviously has a higher IQ and knows when to move defenders out of peoples way.

Makes me happy.

This is obviously intentional. Players often feel slighted when they are substituted. In the modern game, it can often be a compliment which it is in this case.

I remember thinking this at the time!

I think a lot of people are thinking this.

Shame.

FINAL THOUGHT:

Four away games in a row now. It’s lovely to be able to breathe after three straight wins.

I don’t like much about Troy Deeney, but I did just hear him say The Arsenal are a machine. Just finding ways to win.

All of that started in the second minute, Troy. No panic. No negativity. Just a positive mind and a very positive reaction.

Sometimes it’s not bad to go a goal down. As a coach, you get to see your team in one of the toughest positions in their football experience. We know they’re all good when the sun is shining, but Arsenal have a team that seem to have a refusal to lose.

Finally, I hate getting up because my son wants to watch Manchester United play. I told him on this occasion I would watch. If anyone knows Ainsley Maitland-Niles, please tell him thank you.

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