Same Arsenal, different players, Ipswich beaten
I think, as League Cup matches go, that was about as stress-free as you’re going to get. Even after each of the Ipswich goals, I never really felt even the slightest concern. yes, we had a rotated squad, and yes, so did Ipswich, but the ‘look and feel’ of this Arsenal side seemed exactly like the first team. I don’t know who was on commentary last night for Sky, but one of the pundits said the same; it doesn’t matter who you are replacing, the identity of this Arsenal team remains the same, and the style of play doesn’t change.
And you have to give credit to the manager on that; each player knows their role and what is expected of them, and their training and drilling from the manager means that they execute his game plan to the letter.
It doesn’t always work perfectly. Heck, we conceded two goals, so Arteta and the team will hardly be ecstatic about that. But what we got last night was evidence that those who are waiting in the wings behind the first XI are able to deliver the kind of performance that means we feel comfortable that the parts of this machine are interchangeable, regardless of what happens with injury and suspension.
Well, almost all of the parts are, and I’ll get the negative bits from last night out of the way first. Viktor Gyokeres. Man, you sucked last night, dude. It was a lifeless performance from a guy who didn’t look involved in the play, made a couple of shoddy passes, was on his heels on the few occasions that the ball went into the box near him, and really didn’t show for any of his teammates. I was thinking at halftime that he’s the sort of player that needs a run of games to look like he’s up to speed, but on last night’s performance you just can’t play him. The difference between him and Havertz is night and day, and I’m sorry, but the gap between the two feels like it is a real worry if Havertz is out for any length of time. Maybe Havertz doesn’t get injured, or maybe if he does, Viktor can find some form with a run of games, but he looks miles off it. I tell you this much now: on the little evidence we’ve had so far, he ain’t getting anywhere near 20+ goals this season.
It’s a shame; it is a worry, but let’s not dwell on it too much, nor on the performance of Eze, who I also think wasn’t as amazing. But we know his talent and technique, so I’m less worried about him and his game time.
That being said, let’s focus on the positives, for which Max Dowman and Marli Salmon were the two biggest ones last night. Max’s first goal – dancing through the Ipswich defence – was a peach. AT 16-year’s-old he has such composure, and his finish looked like that of a 26-year-old, not somebody who got his GCSE (or whatever they call them these days) results in the summer. Likewise with Marli Salmon, who played alongside Gabriel and did not look out of place for a second. He even had a couple of moments where he wriggled out of a tight spot and came away with the ball. Those two kids have very exciting futures at The Arsenal if they continue on this trajectory.
My gut feel is that they might try to give Marli a loan deal in January if we get knocked out of the EFL Cup, because more minutes might be good for him, but for Max, based on his two goals, you have to keep him around. He’s going to be very useful for Mikel Arteta, and those twinkle-toes of his could be dancing their way through Premier League and Champions League teams very soon indeed. Hell, if I’m Tommy Tuchel, I might even have a look at him. Not to start, or even to get on the pitch at such a young age, but just to have him training with the England players will be good for him, and for Tuchel to take a look. The Euros are in two years; he’ll be 18, and at this rate I’ll be stunned if he wasn’t on the plane.
It was a good night not just for the kids, either, as Noni was off the mark with a fine finish, as well as Merino with the best of the lot, but mainly because it went in off the post. You all know how much I love those kinds of finishes. It was a weird one for the stats dorks, because our xG was 0.95 on a four-goal game, but that just shows that the quality of the strikes and the difficulties of the finishes were there on the night; think about how it was the opposite against Napoli – sometimes that’s just how the ball falls to you. And for us, it fell in the right place, for which we duly profited.
I thought we got some tidy performances from Zubimendi at right back, Myles at left back tucking into midfield, as well as Bruno wanting to get on the ball as much as possible. Merino was captain for the evening, and I thought he went about his role effortlessly. There was a few instances where we just glided past players, and he’s come to be known amongst a number of us as the most underrated player in this Arsenal squad. Gabriel shared the game with Konsa, and that was clearly just to manage minutes, whilst Kepa claimed a couple of crosses that will hopefully have helped to fully erase his clanger in the League Cup final. So all in all, it was a very good night in which my heart rate never really got above 90 beats per minute, which is pretty impressive given that I usually can top out at 130 when there’s a particularly stressful game going on. Arsenal progress to the fourth round, for which the draw is at 10.15pm tonight, and I’m hoping for an away game against lesser opponents – if the stadium is big enough, I might just go to it as well.
Right, that’ll do for today, I think. Back tomorrow for some more musings as we count down to a really tough away trip to Brighton.