SMASHING THE PALACE
We’re 12 games into the season, and we’ve only conceded three goals. I could talk about the defence here, but instead, I’m going to focus on strategy and what we did in the summer.
Arsenal had two options:
Spend £300m on a few game changers
Spread that money on a deeper squad and take more chances on talent
Mikel Arteta is already getting headaches because we took option two. This is what he had to say:
“One, the emotional part and my attachment with the individual, with the person, and I would love to play all of them. But the second one, obviously, without a question of doubt, I’d rather have this situation than the situation we had in the last few years when, at some point, we were very short in numbers.”
Without doubt, the better option was number two. We’ve taken chances on some players who still have a lot to prove. Gyökeres has the lowest ceiling of all the big-name strikers that were purchased last summer, but we know where his floor has been for the last two seasons, and that floor is on stilts. Madueke has a reputation in the game for attitude issues and a lack of output, but we’ve already seen that he’s very close to being a serious operator. Mosquera cost £15m, probably less, and he could have tanked… but he’s looking very good. It doesn’t seem like we’ve missed at all this summer.
The key pain point we all wanted Arteta suffering from was the pain of having “too many players” headaches, and he certainly has them. That might be a problem at some point, but we’ve already demonstrated beyond doubt that a witch doctor has been pricking voodoo doll hamstrings from afar because no one in the league has racked up injuries like we have.
That said, rotation is the elixir of a good Premier League life, and Crystal Palace presents another chance for Arteta to prove that he has banished the demons of his toxic 2010s views that to be great, you must be a real man and unbreakable. He needs more wokeness in his life, more touchy-feely (maybe not that, actually), the man needs to be at one with the players’ bodies (that doesn’t read well either, does it?). Ok, he needs to resist the temptation to pick his favourites.
So who could he rotate for the Palace game? Tough call, you gotta say. Myles Lewis-Skelly had a great game against Atletico, but the chaos merchant from Italy will be fresh and a great option for Palace. Jurrien Timber has played a lot of games of late — will he get a start finally? Big Gabi is likely going to sit out the game. Mosquera entered the fray for him against Atleti, but it’s also worth noting that Hincapié is now very much available. Too soon, I’d imagine, but a hell of a talent to keep locked up for too long. We’ve also got that left-wing position open to rotation, but would you, after Martinelli put in another blistering performance?
I guess my whole meandering point here is it is very difficult for us, total Arsenal nerds, to get close to a starting 11. If it’s hard for us, it’ll be hard for Glasner. And remember, Glasner’s boys haven’t had a week to prep against us; they were too busy prepping for Larnaca in the Europa League, then getting walloped 1-0 at home. I cannot say it enough… teams like Palace having European football without a European football squad makes it VERY hard to compete with the Arsenals of the world. They don’t have seven clear days to focus solely on soiling a fatigued Arsenal.
Palace have been having a really good season, notably spanking Liverpool into next week three weeks ago. But they haven’t won a game in three, so they’ll be a little nervous. I’d be more worried about this game if it was away. At home, we should really be making it count, especially after the brutal way we dispatched Atletico. Palace are good, but we have a weekend where City play Villa and Liverpool go to Brentford. Those two are upset chances — three points on Sunday are a non-negotiable in my honest opinion.
Arteta, a man who is utterly obsessed with atmosphere, has taken his authoritarian streak to new levels by making sure the club switches off the TVs in the concourses after halftime.
“We want them just to play the game with us, which is very different. In order to do that, you have to be in your seat with a certain behaviour, with a certain body language, and it’s a good test, Sunday at 2pm, how we’re going to turn up after a big Champions League game. If we’re going to go to another step and do something that we didn’t do last year, everybody has to turn up to the stadium with that mindset, so that’s what I want to see.”
This is absolutely peak control freak stuff, but you have to salute it. He wants to win, and if having fans in their seats alters our chances by 0.0000000000000001%, he’s going to have a piece of that. This shouldn’t be controversial, but I bet you ten English pounds there are complaints about this on Sunday. Mostly because it takes so long to get a beer in 20-year-old stadiums. But you are there for the football, not the Asian pilsners or the delicious Guinness. Learn to down pints and go and watch the football.
I’m dry gagging at the thought of downing a Guinness. Horrendous.
Arteta has also been paying attention to the excellent form of Mateta and what to do about it.
“First of all, it’s what they do as a team, their level of organisation. They have very clear intentions of how they want to attack and which moment they use to attack and to hurt opponents. So stopping the source is probably the best way. When you get into certain situations with him, one-v-one, you know that he’s very prolific and he’s been very, very successful, especially recently. So trying to avoid that.”
He really is a bit of a monster. I don’t mean to offend the Gyok Yobbos out there, but if the Swede was going to imitate anyone in the Premier League, he wouldn’t go far wrong if he looked at what Mateta has done. The player isn’t easy on the eye, he’s very powerful, he’s a total nuisance, and if you get him one-v-one, he’s going to savage you.
I would suspect Arteta knows the threat of Adam Wharton to us tomorrow. He’s a very Spanish English player, really easy on the eye, and there are rumours we were interested in him when he was at Blackburn Rovers. He’s their Zubimendi. He sat on the bench for Europa, he is key to how they play, and I’d imagine he knows he’s shop-windowing himself in games like this one, so no doubt he’ll be putting on a fine show. Yeremy Pino has also been impressive this season, as has Ismail Sarr. But the most impressive person in the Palace setup is Glasner. Just top tier. He’s a coach United should have been looking at. He works with whatever tools he has at his disposal, he creates aggressive, well-disciplined teams, and he makes players better. We cannot underestimate Palace.
The key player for Arsenal is Eze. He’ll get the start. How will he react? He’s been good for Arsenal so far. Great? Not seen that yet. But it’s brewing. The jobs he’s been asked to do have been varied, and he’s shown signs he’s going to be lethal once he clicks. Can he click against the team that really birthed him? Declan had trouble against West Ham. Palace fans will melt his heart when they cheer him before the game. Will he cope? I hope so.
Ok, that’s all I got for now. See you in the comments. x
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