A quiet first week...

Just a quiet and uneventful first week for the blog then! 

Before I get into things, thank you to all of you who have read and given your feedback on the first post, it means the world to me as you validate my delusional belief that people actually care about what I have to say regarding Arsenal. 

But enough of that warm human stuff - let's get back to the unhinged madness that is a week in the life of an Arsenal fan. 

I mentioned in the last post that the upcoming week would be pivotal to our season. Never did I expect it to go quite like this. 

Wolves (A)

Firstly, we come to the game against Wolves at Molineux. Now, looking at this four days later and post-NLD (haha), to say I have somewhat calmed down is an understatement. Let me first revisit my perfectly rational instant reactionary messages to my various Arsenal group chats (a.k.a. echo chambers of mutual suffering): 

"Embarrassing and, I'm sorry but complete bottlers the lot of them"

"Playing like that against Wolves, clinging on, begging for an equaliser, shocking performances by so many tonight"

I think what was really getting me into such a state was the fact that we seem to have developed a worrying quality going into this final third of the season - mismanagement of games. Even in the derby there was an element of this which threatened our eventual victory (phew) - more on that below. 

In the Wolves game in particular, we seemed to repeat a similar pattern that I have noticed in recent performances (see also the United at home and Brentford away games), where we take a one goal lead and then appear to sit back in fear that if we dare to even look at the opposition's goal then we might concede 10 goals in the blink of an eye and be simultaneously relegated (oh wait, we're not the team in North London who needs to worry about that). This, in turn, leads us to sit back too much and leave ourselves open to a wonder-strike or a single defensive error being punished. As it happens, both of those things occurred after we went 2-0 up, condemning us to the reality that we gave Wolves their tenth point of the season by gameweek 27. 

It's like going to type in the amount you want to donate to a charity really carefully, but that causes you to have a shaky finger which leads to you accidentally pressing the 0 button an extra 5 times after you've entered the amount you actually wanted to donate, but then you also slip off your chair and break your head open and take a dump on the floor. 

I thought Martinelli and Timber were especially poor and, in my eyes, looked absolutely shattered. I have some understanding for the likes of Timber on this issue, as he has been asked to play an excessive amount of minutes once again this season, partly due to the fitness of our other options, but I also think Arteta's inability to trust some of our players in certain games plays a big part in this. My issue here is more with the manager's decision (or lack thereof) to make the required substitutions when it was clear to see that these two players were offering less than the banker in Deal or No Deal when your remaining options are 1p and 50p. 

On the positive side, Arteta seemed to learn his lesson here again, as in the Sp*rs game he did take Timber off for Mosquera which allowed us to continue to nullify any threats coming down that side of the pitch. 

Another issue I had in this game was the fact that we went with that same starting front three of Martinelli, Gyökeres and Madueke which have worked together as well as broccoli and chocolate in previous games. For example, see this stat from Billy Carpenter on Bluesky: 

Once again, Arteta seemed to learned his lesson for the derby as he started Big Vik alongside two more technical wingers in Trossard and Saka. Admittedly I thought Trossard and Martinelli were both pretty poor against Sp*rs, but that's another story that I'm too tired to elaborate on after staying up until 2am lapping up all the post-NLD content. 

Our attack malfunctioning hasn't been an issue that is unique to those three, however, as we saw at home to Liverpool where the same front three that started the derby couldn't so much as tickle a Liverpool team that were rife with absentees. 

When we've played in that timid way of ours in these recent big games, it's been hard not to make comparisons to the likes of Man City heading to Anfield and going for their throats when they were there for the taking. It's like City are the lion that devours the wounded gazelle mercilessly as it strives for the food it desires, whereas Arsenal are the meek little cub that tries to ask the gazelle if it's ok to take a nibble out of its leg whilst keeping a safe social distance away from it just in case the gazelle gets upset and sticks a hoof out, only for the gazelle to karate kick the Arsenal cub in the head. Yes gazelles know karate, David Attenborough eat your heart out. 

All in all, I still think it was a pathetic performance against a team we really had no excuses not to beat, especially after being 2-0 up. It was a damaging blow to our title challenge and, whilst it isn't over yet, it makes it a whole lot more difficult. It's like deciding to do a marathon on one leg because you're some kind of sick freak who can't just run it normally and make it your entire personality like everyone else. 

Sp*rs (A)

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. 

That probably should sum it up but I suppose I should say something on this. I think that is the worst Sp*rs side I've ever seen in my lifetime of watching North London Derbies. They are dreadful, with as much new manager bounce as a bowling ball hitting quicksand. They played right into our hands and allowed some of our lowest-confidence players a chance to really build some back - cheers lads, enjoy your cold, rainy nights in Stoke next season!

But enough about that lot. I think we were the better team from start to finish in this game. It was a great response to the Wolves mishap and fair play to the team for pulling that out of the bag when our title challenge seemed to be in the balance amongst all the external noise. 

It wasn't all straightforward, as it seems we still can't help ourselves and we have to give these teams hope by committing silly errors which allow them to often score against us immediately after we go a goal up. It's hard not to think this is a mentality/nerves/concentration issue, and the manager has got to sort this out quickly if we are to have any chance of putting the run together that we need to secure our first title in 22 years. 

There is some chatter about whether Sp*rs should've had their second equalising goal disallowed, and whilst I agree the contact isn't the strongest and other similar goals have been given to other teams, the fact Kolo Muani had both hands pushing on Gabriel's back makes the defender off balance in a high intensity situation, which provides an unfair advantage to the attacker in my opinion. Also, you can't put our victory down to that one moment, we were by far the better team and could have scored at least another couple of goals in this game. 

I'm also thrilled for Gyökeres and Eze, who both grabbed a brace that will do them a world of good. That's eight goals in Gyökeres' last 12 appearances now and he is really starting to find some form at the right time for us. Let's hope he can keep it going. 

As for Eze, we need to look into whether we can invent some glasses for him to wear every time he plays so that every team looks like they are wearing Sp*rs kits. You couldn't write what has happened there, from the transfer saga to the fact he put 5 past that lot up the road in one season, only to giggle in their faces as they stumble towards the Championship - 

Looking forwards

It's a much needed boost in what is going to clearly be a gruelling title race between us and Man City. I hear a lot of chatter about how City are clearly not the City of old and that they will definitely drop points between now and the end of the season. Whilst that may be true, I think what this week has taught us is that we are likely to do the same. Strap in folks, I hope your hearts can take it. 

Up next is the rarest of things for Arsenal these days - an actual week long recovery period!?! Yes we get more than a couple of days to recharge this time before we go again at home to Chelsea on Sunday. They dropped more points at home to Burnley over the weekend, which saw Wesley Fofana receive a red card that will keep him out of the game. That's a much appreciated help to us as we search for back to back wins in the league since 7 February against Sunderland at home. Fofana is also a great player to not have to come up against, as the League Cup semi-finals showed us that he has a rare condition where he sees Arsenal players as piñatas and his leg becomes the stick to beat them with. Either that or he's a dirty player that's caused more injuries than he has points on his licence (Google it).

Every game is going to be pivotal in this title race, but beating Chelsea would chalk off one of our toughest remaining fixtures in the league this season and really send a message to Man City that we are down but not out. Every game is a cup final and we need to maximise our home advantage in light of six of our remaining four league fixtures being at the Emirates. Plus it would be great to beat those lot for a third consecutive time this season, meaning they will have been unable to beat us in four attempts overall. Post that on your LinkedIn page Liam #opentowork.