Arsenal 2-2 Aston Villa: We needed the bench

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

Late drama over the disallowed goal aside, this is a game that Arsenal should not have lost have won yesterday, but the dropped points go a long way to hammer home a problem we’ve all recognised of late: we need reinforcements as a matter of urgency.

It was going well, despite the fact we went into this one without William Saliba whose hamstring is a worry for Mikel Arteta. Jurrien Timber moved to centre-half with Thomas Partey at right-back. We needed David Raya to make a good save at one point but I think we were easily the better team in the first half.

The left-side with Myles Lewis-Skelly, Mikel Merino and Leandro Trossard worked well, and when the Spaniard sent Trossard behind with a smart ball, Gabriel Martinelli was there to just about get the ball over the line. It didn’t look definitively over from where I was sitting but the referee’s watch buzzed and it was 1-0. It’s probably a goalkeeping mistake too, Emi Martinez won’t be pleased with himself and probably had time to ponder it throughout the afternoon when he was allowed take absolutely ages with every goal kick he took.

10 minutes into the second half, it was Trossard again down the left who created the second for Kai Havertz. Smart movement and a decent cross, the German was on hand to finish from close range. Again, it went in off Martinez, but that felt like exactly what Havertz needed after a difficult time of late, and it should have been the platform to go on and take all three points.

But if you let you standards slip defensively, you get punished in the Premier League. Mikel Arteta was probably right to say Lucas Digne put in a very dangerous cross, but I think Partey could have done more to close him down. Youri Tielemans got there ahead of Merino to make it 2-1. Villa had wind in their sails, they hit the post, and then it was level. Partey loses Watkins when he absolutely shouldn’t. People can say he’s not a natural right back and that’s fine, but he’s a 31 year old with years of experience – he should know better and he should do better. Watkins wasn’t gonna miss, and it was 2-2.

In the ground you could see Declan Rice having a real go at Partey, it carried on for quite a bit, and afterwards Arteta said of the equaliser:

The second one is not at the standards we require. Defending the way we did especially with one of the goals as well, it cannot be part of our game if we want to be at the highest level in this country.

Here’s where I think our current issues come into play. Football is a mad game, it can be topsy-turvy. You’re in control, then all of a sudden you’re level. This stuff happens, but it’s how you react and how you’re able to react. I thought the players we had on the pitch really did give it a go, but you can see that some of them are absolutely running on fumes at the moment, and the closer we got to the 90 minutes the more that was evident.

I think the crowd tried to respond too, but underlying all this was a sense that we had nothing to call on from the bench. No way to freshen things up. No way to change the dynamic of the game. Everyone could see that our best chance of winning it was with the players who started, but an understanding that we’d have an even better chance of winning it if we had some players to throw on and really give Villa something to think about.

With about 8 minutes to go, Arteta had to try something, but unfortunately that something was a player who once again provided nothing. The Raheem Sterling thing is a bust, it’s almost sad to see a player look so far from the level required, but we can all see it. If we wondered why his chances have been so limited during his loan spell, it’s because the manager probably understood this from what he’s seen on the training ground all along.

And when that’s all you have to offer from your 8 outfield substitutes, you’re in trouble really. Still, there were chances. Merino hit the post, Martinez saved the follow up from Trossard, and of course the ball did hit the back of the net when Merino’s shot deflected in off Havertz but it was ruled out after VAR decided it had hit his hand on the way through. There’s one angle where it’s not at all convincing, but another where it looks much more so, and any handball – accidental or otherwise – that results in the ball going in is going to be disallowed.

Afterwards, Arteta’s comments backing his players were understandable, he’s got little to work with and he doesn’t want to knock their confidence, but on a day when Liverpool’s bench got them a late win, his answer when asked about that spoke volumes:

There are moments obviously, they managed to do that. I mean, the subs made the impact and they [Liverpool] managed to change the game. And on our side, it was the opposite. When you look at the bench, probably you say I think we are very short.

‘Probably’, more like definitely. 100%. As I said, we didn’t have that extra energy, that extra quality in the final 20 minutes that could have helped us find the winner. We came pretty close, and I think the players deserve credit for that after what has been a gruelling week, but unless we do something about this we’re likely to see more tight games not go the way we want.

For all that focus on attacking reinforcement though, I don’t think we lose that game if William Saliba plays. Or if we have Ben White or Takehiro Tomiyasu fit. Obviously the manager thinks the best solution to our right-back issue is to move Thomas Partey there, but the results when he’s deployed there speak for themselves. Just one win this season when he’s started in that position, and of course it’s important to say that’s not down to one player, but there’s enough evidence there to suggest it’s a hindrance.

Yesterday, I think I’d have preferred to play Declan Rice at centre-half, kept Timber on the right, and you can use Partey in midfield if you want to. It’s still just one player ‘out of position’, but Rice has played there enough in his career for it not to feel as unnatural to him as full-back seems to be to Partey at times. He also had the option of Jakub Kiwior to play at centre-half, but I can sort of understand why he didn’t really go for that.

Ultimately though, this was a game Arsenal had in their hands and let slip. After the Liverpool result it felt particularly acute at the final whistle. There was an air of disappointment and resignation. I don’t think it was just about Liverpool opening up the gap either. Everyone can see we’re short on game-changers, match-winners (or however you want to frame that), but also beset with injuries which really don’t help. Then you have to overplay some people which leads to fatigue, lapses in concentration, possibly more injuries, and it feels like we’re in a kind of vicious circle.

And yet we’re second. And it’s not over till the fat lady sings, but she’s warming up those vocal cords, and unless Arsenal find a way to augment this squad this month, she’ll be belting out a tune none of us want to hear.

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