A quick rebound v City is the medicine we need

Saturday was a frustrating day at Emirates Stadium.

One, the no offside call that allowed Brentford to tie the match was wrong, and today the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has admitted the on-field call, and the VAR review, was a “significant error.” VAR official Lee Mason failed to notice Christian Norgaard had came back from an offside position. Norgaard provided Ivan Toney with the assist. The new chief of England’s officials, Howard Webb, called Arsenal to acknowledge the error. Let’s pray, the two points dropped by this VAR blunder doesn’t come back to bite Arsenal in the arse at the end of the season.

Besides that screw-up, there were more reasons for the Arsenal draw with Brentford than poor officiating. I saw four issues that need to be addressed before Wednesday…

1. The Gunners have now given up three set piece goals in three consecutive matches. What happened? The lads had been so good defending set pieces.
2. Clubs are beginning to double team Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka on the wings. This will continue to be a problem until Mikel Arteta can find a solution.
3. The front line needs a spark. The low block defense teams are using against us has basically stopped our goal production. Only one goal in the last three matches. Leo Trossard could be that spark.
4. There looks to be some tired legs on the squad. This probably isn’t the right time to make wholesale changes to the starting XI, however, switching things up in near future could benefit the club in the long run.

It’s not time to panic, however, the club needs to regroup and recover quickly because Pep Guardiola is coming to town. If City wins on Sunday, they will arrive in north London only three points behind the Gunners.

Mikel Arteta had this to say following the Brentford draw…

“Yes, you want to win as quick as possible, and we wanted to win today. You see how difficult it is for every single team to win consecutive matches and that’s when you look at the table and look at how many points they have (Brentford), it’s for a reason. So, you need to be excellent in everything you do in the matches, and you need certain decisions to go in your favor as well. There are a lot of things. On the schedule? Well first, we’ll train tomorrow, recover, and review the match to see what we can do better and continue to do. Obviously, we’ll review Manchester City and then on Monday we’ll start to look ahead to the game.” [Courtesy of Arsenal.com]

The great Green Bay Packer coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

Yes, we can’t win them all, but the Gunners need to get back on track ASAP. A win v Man City on Wednesday would be just the medicine we all need.

COYG!

Gunner1953