TOOTHLESS DOMINANCE
As I’ve been saying… winning in preseason is the precursor to greatness, and losing means nothing because preseason is just a warm-up for the real thing.
So, don’t react to the GC messages from your Spurs pals who spent the summer bragging about a third-rate trophy and an abysmal league season.
Mini-Brentford had one shot on target and scored it.
Arsenal had one shot on target and didn’t score.
That was the story of our game and, if we’re being very honest out here, that was the story of our worst bits of last season.
We don’t like those mid-to-deep blocks; our attacking play lacks bite, and we had a starting XI intent on showing the world why we’ve been trying to add attackers all summer. That Arsenal outing against Spurs felt like 75 percent of last season. Total dominance and a roll of the dice on the result. The lack of clinicality at this point is laughable. Thomas Frank was being honest when he said Arsenal are one of the best teams on the planet. Well, out of those top tier teams, which we are most certainly one, how many could record one shot on target from 16 attempts? Not many.
Now, putting my professional-thinker-with-a-penchant-for-toxic-propaganda hat on here…
The weather was sweltering.
The boys are rocking serious fitness sessions daily.
Arsenal’s game, more than most, requires a lot of synchronicity to work, so rust is a real thing.
It’s preseason. If you can’t gaff in preseason, what’s the point?
Arsenal need to be ready for the United away game. There are a lot of training sessions between now and then. Players will get fitter, they’ll acclimate to their new teammates, and the system will shape up and meld together like the green and yellow ice sugar paste stuff on a Twister lollipop.
You can’t really get too deep on worrying about things until it gets closer, but fu*k it, this is an opinion blog. What’s a little bit of tension between best friends (yes, I’m talking about you)?
The injuries…
Saka hobbled off, Trossard came off after subbing on, Calafiori wasn’t in the squad, and Kepa is injured. The most consistent failure storyline of the past six seasons has been injuries. That we’re racking them up in preseason, after the dreadful season we had with them last year, is a worry.
Andrea Berta needs to get a handle on why these things have been happening at Arsenal, and he needs to put standards in place that ensure we’re getting the most out of our players without breaking them this season. The solve to last season’s injuries can’t just be “buy more players.”
The system…
Sixteen shots with one on target is a player issue, and we’re adding players that can hit the target. But just to add a little here, the system is painful to watch at times. The football, it would seem, is going to be quite turgid. Apparently the solve for being too emotional a few seasons ago is to play a style of football that is so bland, you can’t get emotional about anything.
I know this is a petty point to make, but I think it makes a difference in the home stadium… unless we’re winning. Arsenal fans didn’t enjoy what they were watching last season, and when things went against us, the atmosphere was dialed down. Arteta spent so much time last season begging the fans to be noisier. Well, it’s a two-way thing, and this season, if he wants people on their feet, he has to play a style that demands it.
Eze, Madueke, Gyokeres need to dial up that excitement. We need to see BANG BANG melded with exceptional wow moments. Not all the time, but that performance yesterday reminded me that we’ve been dining out on attrition football for a while. That’s an emotional point, but it’s laced with tactical. Because we lack explosiveness, risk taking, and individuality, we find ourselves in lean games that should be buried based on our numbers.
Liverpool catch their prey, cover it in a blanket, and sledgehammer it to the face. We trap it under our paws and play with it. Too much easy prey finds escape in the bushes. Can Arteta mastermind a more brutal attack this season? Based on that outing… no. But again, we can’t base a season on one game in preseason.
The errors…
Arsenal had the best defence in the Premier League last season, but the David Raya mishap highlighted what is now a feature of our system. We have an uncanny knack of conceding the inconceivable. Dumb and lucky goals. Raya getting lobbed from distance off one shot on target shows how good we are at defending, but also how vulnerable we are to stupid stupids.
How do you coach these things out of the system? You can’t. They’re not because our players lack talent or concentration. They’re just dumb luck, but at a rate so consistent, you wonder if it’s just our thing.
On the player front, the only two slight worries I have are David Raya, who looked rusty and had his old coach targeting him with crosses over the six-yard box. This is the best keeper in the Premier League. His game is accurate Hollywood passes. It is going to take time for him to sharpen. The other player I have mild concerns over is Myles. It wasn’t really an error, because he was fouled. But overall, I’m not enjoying the dip in his form. There were some bad moments towards the end of last season, and his preseason hasn’t been to his usual standard.
Part of that is what happens in your second season. You’re now a proper player, the hype has died down, and you have a target on your back. Players know what he’s about and they will target him. There’s also a natural drop-off when you’re chasing dreams. Once you reach them, they often don’t taste as good as you had hoped. That can lead to a form depression in focus as you try and reorient your goals. I’m not saying that’s what we’ve been seeing, but there are some signs there.
That’s why I’d love a left back to be brought into the mix before the start of the season to compete with Myles. Calafiori isn’t the guy and he can’t stay fit. Zinchenko will likely end up at Fulham. So there’s a space for some competition to keep Myles sharp. Eighteen-year-olds are going to have ups and downs. We need more cover there, but I suspect it’ll be Timber dropping in.
So… I’ve got that all out of the system. Let’s move on. The next two games are at home. Plenty of time with the coach, in London, getting ready to take the world by storm in two weeks’ time.
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