Arsenal_AM_Episode_12_Stressful Stressful Arsenal

We scored early and didn't kick on gave up chances held the ball at the back and took off players with injuries, it wasn't pretty it wasn't easy but we did what we had to do and picked up the crucial 3 points. 

Eze that was a beauty of a strike come back soon we need more of that! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Good morning. One nil to the arsenal. God, that was uh squeaker than we definitely like, but it is squeaky bump time, so I did say pre-match that I would definitely take one nil. The points are the most important thing, and it's really really important that we put the six-point gap between ourselves and city. So yeah, definitely take it. And moment of magic from Ezra. I'm not gonna suggest that uh the boss was listening when I said that we need to get more shots from outside the area, but clearly he he was on the ball, and um did a great job by sticking it in the net from a difficult angle, but it was a beauty, so get in there. Overall the performance was awkward. I think awkward is the way how I would phrase it. We had a bit of fluency, we had a bit of drive, but we didn't pin them back again. Arsenal are passing the ball around the back quite a lot, and it's quite clearly intentional, and it feels no, I didn't witness the time, but a bit terreneal where you know it was pass the ball around the back, draw draw the opposition on and then go and get them, and from a lot of the jokes that were heard around the time is yeah, that could take half an hour and it was dull, and people had fallen asleep watching it because there's so much writing on the game, we're not falling asleep, but it's certainly not enjoyable, and we're put we're taking on more risk where we are versus what we used to do, which was put the pressure on them in around their their box, and that made our efforts far more enjoyable because their any mistake and it was us in on their goal, whereas now any mistake it's them in on our goal. The starting lineup was pretty much as as I thought it was gonna be. Again, I I had said that perhaps we'd see Max. We didn't, not even from the bench, which was fine. Um, but we were definitely as close to full strength as possible. I think we had a scare early on, um Osula showed showed a great bit of pace, and we were fairly cut open down the middle, and that didn't really happen again, thankfully, but we did give up a number of chances, and but there's a worry there that we're not as tight as we had been, and it strikes me that uh we had that in previous years when we we showed great strength and great control for certain certain games when certain people were missing. And then uh our former number five came back in and we lost control, and I think the control was great for go us going forward. You could give him the ball, he'd turn and start start things moving. But the legs in the middle meant he wasn't dominant. And maybe we're seeing that a little bit with Zub Mindy that he's not dominant when we don't have the ball, and Rice is not as dominant either. I think Rice could be more dominant, but he's more limited in terms of getting the ball. So you know, I'm interested to see the evolution of that in next season. Obviously, we're not evol gonna evolve in the next uh six-seven games that we have left, but I would definitely like to see more control, but you know, Newcastle came with with a plan and with some fairly obvious limitations and gave us a couple of scares again. Usula Wissa had chances, and they failed to take them. We had a couple of chances, and we took them. Well, we took one of them anyway. I suppose part of the fallout of the game today was that Havertz went off and Ezra went off. They no Arteta has said that their muscular niggles and that we'll see about having them on Wednesday. I would probably not take any chances with them on Wednesday. I think if you have to start Yoker and you have to start um Trossart, absolutely do that on Wednesday. I think it's better to give the guys the seven days off to recover, get them right, hopefully don't make have any issues with the away leg in Madrid, and then be in a position come Tuesday week to have Havertz and is a available with the hopefully a six point lead because you know I'm hoping everything do us a favour, but you know, with a lead over city, I think that's the most vital thing, and that would give huge confidence to the team. So our goal from a set piece execution, I'm not sure it counts as a a goal from a corner because of what we did, but we obviously took three three short corners early on, and on the third one as a produced magic that Ezra produces. That he would have a worldly. So thanks Nick Pope and you know, job done. No, the real aspect of my frustration today was the Acar's break in what was it, the 93rd minute. We had a three-on-two, maybe a four on two scenario, and he absolutely messed it up. Um I the more I look at it, the more I look at it still. I just think it's a simple ball. Even I could probably manage to do it in that s situation, but again, we won, so we got away with it. But I think Kai would have got a ball through and we'd have clocked up another bit on the goal difference. I it's really, really I don't think we can give up or not take those guilt ed guilt-edged opportunities that you know we clearly need to take if it does come down to goal difference. Again, I don't think it will, but I would like to have the basis covered. Just looking at some of the stats though today, that we had we created 0.64 XG, and again, you can you can definitely see that Eza's goal would have been a very low XG chance, but we gave up 0.91 and we gave up three shots on target, and we had four of our own, so it wasn't a game where we did the things that we normally do. Newcastle had near 55% overall possession of the ball. And their possession felt a bit more well it was for seemed further away from their goal. We had more touches in the in their box than they had in ours. The only shot that w on target that wasn't saved was Ez. And you know, we just didn't we didn't dominate the game. And Newcastle even came and ran a little bit further than us, not much, you know, talking 0.5 of a kilometre. So both did about the same same sort of distance, but it's unusual for us not to be the team that has covered the most ground. And with no Norgard on the bench, we saw Miles Louis Skelly get a run out in midfield. Don't think he got too into the play, and I do think he sort of drifted towards the left back spot a bit more, or on the left hand side, got exposed by Valtemata um in pace-wise, and I think maybe that might be something that lets him down a little, just that recovery pace, and maybe that's the flaw that we don't see with him because he is quite quick, he is good, but those balls over the top have exposed him all at times, so maybe it is just literally the recovery pace that is a limitation. I do think there's a great player in there, and I would hate to see him leave, so I think it's important for us to maybe get get him playing time. I'm okay with it being next season, um and he just kind of does what he's been doing for this season again. I think getting a champions medal, he'd be like, okay, yeah, I'm good, I've done it with my club, I'm gonna stay here and I'll I'll I'll drive on next season. That would be excellent news for that to happen for him at every level, and you know, let's let's hope we can get there. I think Odegaard showed some great play, he was driving, organising, and I think he's just he is what the captain wants or what the manager wants of a captain on the pitch. He even took a shot today, which I was like I was pleased with. I was also a bit surprised with. I was like, eh, maybe trying to do another, but again, I think he did what he had to do. Again, he's not firing like particularly well, um, but we did get Saka back on for the last uh nine sixteen minutes with all the injury time, and he looked sharp and probably could have had a couple of chances again. I think that York ball to the could have potentially gone to him was a big opportunity, and I think had he got a goal, you know, it could have been the light that sparked the touch paper, but we will never know, thanks Victor. Um but um yeah, it it's pleasing to see he looked sharp, he looked like he had a bit of a sprint on him, and yeah, we could have done done something pretty special, but it wasn't to be. Of course we would, it would have made made our life a bit easier. But I did think there was a defender getting around to cover. But I also think when the keeper is out, that goal scoring opportunity is certainly multiplied when it's the keeper who's there, rather than it being a defender doing that and another defender being covered again. It's nuance, um, but letter of the law, I think Var has it right. In reality, had the keeper gone over, yeah, you'd have fancied a striker like Yorker Christ to be able to shoot from the 30 odd yards out and hit the target, and that's that's a goal, so that's far more of a goal scoring opportunity than just it being a defender and there still being a keeper in play. Fortunately, it didn't matter. We we saw out the result, and it was ner nervy enough, but we got there. I will take four more of those in the league, please, and we'll see how we go. But it's gonna be stressful. We got the result, uh we got a win, and the good news is we don't have to play another league game in April, so we jet we generally play fairly well in May. So over to you, City. I hope you guys suck. Alright, let's uh let's leave it there, and uh we'll chat to you tomorrow.