GYÖKERES THE BRUTE
Ok, so that was fun.
Arsenal thrashed Bilbao in a dominant game filled with stories that were really hard not to like.
Gyokeres scored his first Arsenal goal and it was a header…
Madueke came on as a left winger again and looked really good…
Our back four that started contained Timber and Calafiori, plus Saliba and Gabriel, and it was very solid.
Zubimendi is really, really, really good and he controlled the tempo of the game like he’d been with Arsenal for six years.
Our system is being shaped around having a striker that wants to, you know, be a striker… and we have two of them now.
The game wasn’t supposed to be perfect nor did it get close to that. You’re really looking for improved fitness and for your players to show a deeper understanding of the system tweaks. We landed both those things. The goal output was where it should have been, the only slight concern I had is it was quite late in a game we’d dominated and we’d only had eight shots with four on target.
This is kind of what I’ve been alluding to with Arsenal. The same features are present in every game: we dominate, we control spaces, we defend well… but the games still feel like they’re a bad pass away from catastrophe.
This afternoon looked like that, but the good side of it… we made our chances count in a way we don’t normally do. The game finished with six shots on target from 10 shots. Reasonable, but then you see Liverpool had a tighter scoreline but put 17 shots on their goal with 10 on target. That’s what Liverpool do all season long and it’s where we need to get next season if we want to kill off games earlier and make more of our attacking players.
But look, that’s a minor complaint in an afternoon that really felt all about Zubimendi and unlocking Gyokeres at speed. Have you ever seen one of those videos where they release a badger back into the wild and it has no f*cking clue what is going on and it just kind of meanders? That was the energy of Arsenal’s creative players with Gyokeres… they seemed to really struggle with the idea that there would always be a striker creating space for himself in the box or making aggressive runs in behind.
As a fan, I felt that energy… who was this blonde monster bulldozing around the pitch? He found space inside the box earlier but tamely shot at the keeper. He found himself as the cutback guy a number of times. He tried to link play in a clumsy way. But what we really wanted to see was a goal. Zubimendi recycled a corner with a looping ball into the box, the Swede crafted some space for himself and turned his header over the keeper. For a player they said couldn’t head the ball, that was some first effort.
I thought his celebration was funny… he really wasn’t committed to the bit. He was almost a bit embarrassed, like a typecast actor being asked to ‘say the line’ as he queues for a McChicken sandwich. It was a tame Bane is what I’m saying.
Arsenal were clearly working patterns to give the team faster, more direct access to our attackers’ pace. The second goal came shortly after, Martin clipped a first-time ball over the top of the Bilbao high line, Martinelli beat his defenders with his pace, he nicked the ball past the oncoming keeper, and Saka put the ball into the unguarded net. Ugly, but the sort of goal we don’t really see as Arsenal fans because teams build trenches when they play us. The tweaks Arteta is making are focused on more directness and it troubled the Spaniards.
The third goal happened late in the game when Kai had come on. Can we just talk about this man? He picked up an injury, clearly got into the Andrew Huberman podcast and some caveman diet TikTokers… and he’s taken it all to heart with the relentless discipline of a High Performance podcast subscriber. He’s put on muscle mass, worked on his physique, grown a rangy beard that makes him look scary, and he’s… got faster? Saka looped a very unsophisticated ball over the top of the Bilbao defence, Kai beat their whole team for pace, then held off a player trying to move in on his shoulder, and missiled a disguised strike across the keeper. A brilliant goal, the sort we signed Gyokeres for!
That was the performance we needed and the result we sought. I’m struggling to get too carried away with it because we’re simply not going to have too many games this season where teams try and play against us. It’ll be mid and deep blocks we’re dealing with all year and there’s more convincing that needs to be done that Arsenal have solved those issues, especially if we don’t sign Eze.
But… for United. That was a great warm-up. They simply won’t be allowed to put a sufferball lockdown on Arsenal, nor do they have the players to deliver on that. It’ll be a gun fight, and that’s how we want it to be for the opening game of the season.
So what are my key hot takes here? I really like what I saw from Gyokeres. You know he wasn’t my first choice. But what I like is the players trust him and he does look ready for the now. He’s not the typical type of forward you associate with Arsenal. He’s not great in tight space, he’s not a sophisticated linker of play, he’s just a fuking brute who has taken a master’s in creating space to kill teams. I liked the variety of his runs, the way he changed up his patterns of movement, and I think his power might have been underrated by a few of us… he’s f*cking massive. We picked the biggest weapon on the shelf to do a very specific job. In gaming terms, I think we’re overpowered. We picked up a player perfectly suited to an overpowered league. I don’t think we’re going to struggle for goals. His weaknesses are the same as Haaland’s. He’s not going to be deeply involved in complex build-ups and he’ll never be a false nine. Gyokeres is just raw goal-scoring power… and he’s going to open up the rest of our frontline because he is going to occupy players. Good luck trebling up on Saka this season knowing he’s lurking in the box.
Then there’s Zubimendi. A one-touch masterclass from a player who formed a very solid-looking partnership with Declan. The two deep-lying midfielders took it in turns to build from the back. They played a pivot out of possession and took it in turns to be the more advanced player dependent on what was happening in attack. Both have different skill sets, and Zubimendi looks to have some of the Cesc’s about his game. The way he can disguise passes is very 10-ish, and his first-time delivery is exceptional. He was really fun to watch. I didn’t expect his defensive read of the game to be so good, but he’s like a rat up a drainpipe on loose balls, and his positioning is great for interceptions and blocks.
Mosquera also gave me a lot of hope. He came on with a chunk of time to impact. He’s massive, his shoulders are broad, and his game looks expensive. He’s an extremely powerful runner, his passing is up there with Big Gabi and Saliba. He looks more than ready to get meaningful minutes this season. Which is an absolute necessity when you consider how important it will be to have Saliba and Gabriel fit at the action end of next season. We have a viable rotation option now.
I don’t want to get too carried away with Madueke. He’s a good player, we know this, his problems are to do with output. In that sense, I just felt like I was watching the same performance I’ve been watching with Martinelli. That’s why it’s key we don’t get too down on the Brazilian. He’s a good player, we just haven’t seen him move on… but he could move on. The danger is Madueke is the same as Martinelli this season and we have the same output issues. The alt on that is this new faster / direct system will unlock both Martinelli AND Madueke. So, it’s a real roll of the dice, but is Madueke an upgrade on Raheem? Yes. Yes he is.
Was it notable that all of our saleable assets sat on the bench? No Reiss, Zinchenko, Kiwior, or Lokonga. Let’s see what happens there this week. Those four need to exit if we’re going to bring in Eze.
So, a decent preseason, not a great one… but none of it matters now. It’s all about having a week with no injuries and an explosive start to next season. Still can’t get over how bad our early fixtures are again. The ‘random’ fixture generator really does seem to go out of its way to make life difficult for Arsenal. Also, crazy that Premier League ratings dropped last season, and Richard Masters hasn’t come out with a PGMOL reform bill for us to see. They just… got away with a disaster of a year?
Ok, it’s a good day. I’m going to have a beer later. Then get VERY excited for the week ahead.
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