Sambi Lokonga hit the nail on the head with his post-match tweet, “The bounce we needed!!!” Arsenal rebounded from their thrashing at Liverpool with an interesting performance on Saturday at the Emirates by defeating Newcastle United 2-0.
The game was controlled by the Gunners as they held 66% of the possession, producing 24 shots and 6 on target. Again, Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White and Gabriel defended the back line well, while Takehiro Tomiyasu and Nuno Taveras ran their socks off providing both offensive help and defensive cover. Lokonga had a solid performance while bouncing back nicely for his disastrous outing at Anfield. Smith Rowe was his usual active self, while Martin Odegaard showed why he needs to stay in the number 9 position. On the other hand, Pierre-Emerick Aubamyeang was often absent in the game, but did manage to miss a golden opportunity to put Arsenal ahead in the first half.
At the end of the day, it was the magical touches of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Mertinelli that provided the Arsenal fireworks. Martinelli converted a “worldly” just fresh off the bench, once again showing his brilliance in front of goal.
Again, one glaring weakness for the Gunners was their inability to avoid sloppy and misdirected passes. We all love the dramatic flick or long ball, however, sometimes one or two more passes might get the job done easier and more effectively. I’m just saying as an outsider looking in, but at this stage of our development, we just aren’t mature enough to impress with the ball like a Manchester City. Those left with the likes of Ramsey, Ozil and Wilshere.
Things will now get even more interesting. Arsenal travel to Old Trafford on Thursday to face the Red Devils and their new interim manager Ralf Rangnick. Man U struggled v Chelsea on Sunday, as Ronaldo spent most of the game in the dugout, however, I suspect that won’t be the case on Thursday. Aaron Ramsdale has said he cherishes an opportunity to face CR7, so he’ll probably get his wish in just dew days times.
Arsenal remains in 5th place in the Premier League, however, the Gunners still have a -2 goal differential. As we have said many times, this number needs to change, and change quickly. 15 league goals after 13 league games is really a pathetic statistic. Maybe it’s time for a refresher on the front line. Aubameyang is again in a scoring drought. He’s even missing the easy ones. Maybe a rest would do him and the team some good.
Along those lines, Arsenal needs to find a striker in January. A striker along the lines of Olivier Giroud, who can hold up the ball, and then compete inside the box against big defenders like Virgil van Dijk.
Until then, December shapes up like this: Manchester United (A), Everton (A), Southampton (H), West Ham United (H), Leeds United (A), Sunderland (H), Norwich City (A) and Wolves (H). Daunting? Yes, but the big clubs need to rise to the task. The points are there, so the Gunners need to focus, continue to play good defense, and hope the goals will follow,
Again, congratulations to Arteta and his lads for a job well done on Sarturday v Newcastle United! On to Old Trafford!
Cheers.
Gunner1953
The Gunners played to a 1-1 draw v Manchester United in Sunday’s Premier League.
On Sunday, Arsenal Women lost a heartbreaking quarterfinal match in the Women’s FA Cup by a final score of 1-0 to Liverpool.
Fabrizio Romano is reporting Arsenal is close to signing Andrea Berta from Atletico Madrid as the club’s new sporting director replacing Edu Gaspar.
In what phase are the Gunners currently playing in Mikel Arteta’s plan laid out when he began his career managing Arsenal, “Phase 4 to 5 establishing yourself at the highest level in the champions League. Consistently performing with a lot of unity and being very close to touching big trophies.”
We could have had Tammy Abraham for $47m, a player who loves arsenal.
But alas once again arsenal let a young player slip through. We knew Auba was getting on, we knew there was no new contract for laca, or Nketiah. Edu has to leave. Perhaps that’s what Arteta was hinting at this week when he said it would be good for Wenger to have a position at arsenal, Wenger as new Director of Football and with a budget to compete with other clubs.
Peter, you can’t be serious out here trying to paint that transfer window as a failure and cry “Edu out”. Signed 6, repeat 6, first-team players, sold or loaned ten senior players, extended KT, ESR, and Okonkwo(1st senior contract), not to mention a bunch of academy moves. Last year they’d have had Kolasinac covering for KT, now we don’t know if Nuno (just 8m) or KT should be starting. Ramsdale (30m), Sambi (15m), and Tomi (19.8m) all look like massive bargains. They did try to sell Laca/sign Abraham, things aren’t perfect, but not getting that done does not undo all the turnover that was skillfully managed.