FRUSTRATION AHEAD
48 hours on from our win against Chelsea and you have to just be honest about it… the 3 points was excellent and we move on.
The Premier League run is going to be really tough. I’ve now accepted that the fairytale run of electric football combined with 7-0 wins is probably not going to happen, and I’m preparing myself mentally for a Grind FC of 9 remaining games.
I spent a bit of time looking at the Brighton situation, and it’s symptomatic of most teams that do quite well in the league, then get pressured by their fans to do more.
Hürzeler had them in 8th last season, one spot outside Europe. Now there are fans calling for his head because they don’t like the football. Does this sound familiar? Of course it does. Every fan thinks their club has the resources to win the Premier League if a few things go right. West Ham are the most recent clear example of ‘careful what you wish for’ after they hounded out David Moyes because he played dull football that had them in Europe winning trophies.
This was a letter Paul Barber, the Brighton CEO, sent to a fan.
Don’t mean to be that guy, but when you see mostly very online Arsenal fan complaining about our season, you should remind them of where we were before Arteta. We are all feeling the nerves right now, but we also have to accept that our nerves are largely based on Arsenal almost never being in a situation this good at this stage of the season. Arteta has set the standards at the club, we do kind of need to be grateful to be top of the league and in all comps.
Hürzeler has probably had a slightly more luxurious situation with Brighton than most mid-table managers. Tony Bloom has invested heavily in the squad. They were one of the top spenders globally a few years ago. I think the problem they’re having is that the scouting Midas touch doesn’t usually last… you have hot streaks, then things can go cold using the exact same methods. Just look at Liverpool right now, the are staffed by some of the very best, and the magic isn’t there off a £450m outlay.
Brighton are in a cold snap right now. Their midfield has welcomed back Pascal Groß from Dortmund. James Milner is still playing regularly. They are having to rely on Danny Welbeck because Tzimas is injured, and their 18-year-old backup, who cost £35m, isn’t getting minutes because he gets eaten alive. Mitoma, everyone's favorite a few seasons ago, is unfit, and only has 2 goals to his name this season.
Then there’s the 32-year-old manager who is having stylistic issues… namely, there’s no style to speak of. This is very much like Spurs going from Ange to Frank. The Brighton fans aren’t seeing great attacking combos like they were under De Zerbi, and they’re also not seeing a really tight unit that is compact and hard to play against. They are smack bang in the middle of average in the Premier League, which you’d argue, is probably quite decent considering their relative size and newness to the league.
So what does this mean for Arsenal? I’m not sure. Brighton are pretty decent at home. They’ve only lost two games to Palace and Villa. Outside that, it’s been 6 wins and 6 draws. There’s a secret sauce in that sea breeze air and I suspect they are going to try their hardest to make us struggle in the final third.
They’ll go man-for-man, which we don’t like.
They’ll defend tightly and frustrate us.
They’ll look for Welbeck over the top.
They’ll probably play for cut-backs on the edge of the area, a tactic that has had decent returns against Arsenal (think Brentford).
So the question becomes - what can Arsenal do to counter this monstrosity?
They have to change up the attack. We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again and being shocked at the outcome.
My preference will always be to not have Gyokeres on the pitch because he is not good against highly technical players that can snuff him out physically. But, we aren’t rife with options at the moment and I worry Declan is going to be out, and that could cause us some problems in midfield, particularly if Kai is chosen to slip in for him (I miss Merino).
Do you play Martinelli against a team that’ll go man-for-man?
Do you take a chance on putting Eze out wide because he is better in tight spaces?
Do you put Kai in as a 9 because he can do all the physical work and unleash the presence of the wide players by giving a central outlet that can move the ball at speed?
The most important thing we can bring to the table is a performance that merits that of a Championship-winning team. We looked rattled against Chelsea, particularly in the second half. I’m not sure that’s sustainable, and I doubt Arteta missed the roughness of the win. The best way to resolve late-game issues is to create enough chances that are finished early on. We signed killers to allow us that grace and they just haven’t been killing. He needs to get them slashing again.
Chemistry in attack is one way to get us over the hump - and that is why so much of our expectations have to lie on Bukayo Saka, because he is our leading man, and he hasn’t really been stepping into that role in the way we’d have hoped. He has to click. We can’t be celebrating him in all the stats nerds’ metrics no one cares about… if he’s not scoring goals and providing assists at a disgusting clip. We’ve spent far too much time this year celebrating off-the-ball movement of our attackers and their defensive contributions… we need goals and we need them tomorrow night.
Final piece… watching this Spurs collapse has been so, so good. I can’t get enough.
They are where they are because they are one of the worst teams in the league. The confidence is shattered and the interim manager, as predicted, has been absolutely horrible so far.
‘We are lacking the quality to score the goal. We are lacking in the middle to run. We are lacking behind to stay there and suffer and not concede the goal. An amazing situation.’
You can imagine Vinai telling all the Spurs staff that the new era, post-Daniel Levy, was going to be about executive stand-off. No more meddling in sporting decisions, empowerment of the experts, and a more specialist-led club.
Well, that mindset only works if you have good people running the show. How have Spurs ended up with someone who is so mediocre the streets don’t even have enough info to have an opinion? How have they let someone in and they’re immediately praising the qualities of Arsenal? How can a man two games in charge look like he wants out more than the players? Why didn’t Vinai bring in Jason Ayto or James Ellis when he knew they were getting sidelined at Arsenal?
I will never fathom how someone who worked at Arsenal and worked with someone like Arteta saw the name Igor Tudor put on their desk to save one of the biggest clubs in the world… and he just signed it off.
I’m actually welling up at my computer, I’m a bit emotional about how beautiful this moment is. Yeah, I’ve seen that they hired an academy coach who spoke publicly about having to basically hold his nose to join Spurs. It’s all such a mess, and it’s happening to a fanbase who collectively decided to celebrate losing to Man City. So it’s deserved.
Ok, that’s me done, see you tomorrow. x
P.S Get this latest Before The Whistle podcast in your ears right this second.