A schooling at the Emirates as Arsenal lay down a marker
The pundits said 3-0. The fans said 3-0. On the Same Old Arsenal, I said 3-0. In yesterday’s blog, I reiterated and said 3-0. But all of that is talk. You still have to go out there on the pitch and do it. And yesterday, against the EFL Champions, Arsenal did just that.
Back in the 90s, there was a programme called Hangin’ with Mr Cooper that I used to watch as a kid. Loved it. There was one episode in which the main character, Mr Cooper, got a chance to play at the top level of the NBA, and there’s a bit in it in which Charles Barkley dunks and knocks over Mr Cooper and drops the line:
That’s what Arsenal did to Coventry yesterday, because it was pretty much a schooling that happened on the Emirates turf last night. From minute one until the end, Arsenal were in complete control, and Frank Lampard’s lads must have known they were in for a long night the second that Kai Havertz swept home the first goal on 15 minutes. It was a silky finish in which, having rewatched it a few times, I’m still wondering how it went in, because it seemed so effortless to sweep the ball in from around the penalty spot. But I guess that’s what the best players do – they make the difficult seem easy – and last night Arsenal did exactly what was required with them.
There is, it has to be true, an element of “yeah but what about the opposition” yesterday. We all have to admit that. But if you need to lay down a marker, you do it with whatever is in front of you, and I thought Arsenal did that with aplomb against a Coventry side who were all too happy to oblige. I saw a stat doing the rounds that Coventry were the first side in god knows when to have an opening season game in which they didn’t have a touch in the opposition box. Maybe it is just the calibre of opposition, but that sort of stat is very familiar to us by now; Arsenal make it very difficult to create chances against their defence.
But the attack was purring too last night. I thought Tzolis was excellent throughout, and I really hope that in him we have found ourselves the bargain of the summer, like Liverpool did when Salah rocked up all those years ago. Imagine if he can continue his pre-season and last night’s form throughout the season…we’ll all be chanting “Vini Jr who??”!! He had a couple of shots, he was impressive all game, plus afterwards he was compared to Alexis Sanchez to Arteta, who clearly was pleased, but keeping grounded, repeating what he’s said previously about how Tzolis has been so impressive in his actions when it comes to being within 30 metres of the goal. Loved it.
I’m hoping he is credited with the assist for Saka’s goal, as he deserved that, but let’s also give some flowers to Ben White for his assist on Martin Odegaard’s mis-hit third on 49 minutes. Four years ago this was a staple of what we were feeding on as Arsenal fans: Saka on the ball, Ben White overlap, cut back, GOAL! It was rolling back the years and a little like how I mentioned in pre-season, it’s kind of nice that we’re seeing Ben White strut his stuff on the turf, because when he limped off with an injury at The London Stadium, many (including me) wondered if we’d ever see him in an Arsenal shirt again. He’s answered that in the way that all of us have loved, and personally, I hope he stays fit and stays in the team for at least the next couple of months. We all know Jurrien will eventually take his place, but it’s nice seeing Ben show us just what he offers to this Arsenal team.
This Arsenal team, who, with almost an entire half left yesterday, were essentially in a set of training drills. It’s the perfect way to kick off a new season and, whilst there will be tougher days to come for sure, it showed that they are up for this title defence.
Also, let’s have a word about open-play goals, eh? Rival fans will be choking down their Frosties this morning, because there will be nothing about that performance they can pick holes in, and it is delicious.
It was a one-sided affair in all manner of speaking. I’ve just looked at the stats:
- 19 attempts on target ot their four
- 65% possession to their 35%
- 590 passes to their 343
- 93% passing accuracy to their 79%
I could go on and on, but you get the picture, because this was domination.
On the 13th of August five years ago, we had a Friday night game in which we lost away at Brentford, and Carragher and Neville were dancing on the touchline with the home fans. I was on a stag do in Edinburgh that weekend, and it made the weekend a little bit of a drag, as I constantly found myself thinking about the game, whilst watching as all the other big sides went about their business and won over the course of the weekend. Not so this time around. Now we can all just watch our rivals play out their games, safe in the knowledge we’ve got three points tucked under our arms, have seen Arsenal look good, scored open-play goals and delivered on our part of the weekend’s action. It was delicious.
There’s now over a week until we play again, which will be away to Villa, in which new signing Ezri Konsa will find himself back on an old stomping ground. That’ll be interesting for sure. But for now, from me in sunny Portugal, I hope you have a great day, and I will see you all tomorrow.
