These players finally looked fit to wear the shirt! by Kinstantin Mitov
Well, well, well lovely Arsenal people, what a game football is, hey? If you tell me you weren’t sniffing another 4-6 goals in our net after Luiz got sent off, you are plain lying!
What a lot of people have said last night was put into action. If you give 100% and work hard and things don’t go your way, nobody will complain and boy did the players make us proud.
We could’ve easily dropped our heads and rolled over dead, but we didn’t. We didn’t just sub a forward player for a defender in hope of limiting the damage. We slipped Xhaka into the defense and it actually got better.
What a difference a manager can make hey? From a guy who told the fans to flip off, to being the hero of our defense. I believe in redemption and if I keep seeing performances like that, I will eat my words and enjoy every moment of it!
Not only was he superb, but even Mustafi picked himself up after the horror show and we looked resilient and difficult to break. And then our moment came.
And I will ride the Martinelli hype train all day, because this was sensational. This goal reminded me of Henry and the pace, power and passion shown from that boy has been missing since Alexis was here.
Ten goals already for a teenager, 18 years old, is just impressive. And then, the other teenager behind him Saka was also excellent in the left back position! For me, Kolasinac and Tierney have an uphill battle to push him out.
Then comes Bellerin back from an year long injury and given the armband, then he puts in a captains performance and rescues the point with a left foot curler in the far corner.
You can make a case for every player on the pitch, because the energy, spirit and fight were well up to the standard our badge should demand. This is going away to the Bridge where we’ve had bad memories and grinding out a point with 10 men for most of the game coming back twice!
And sure, this point brings us no closer to the top 4, but it meant something. I felt alive in the game and proud at the end. Probably the best feeling draw I’ve ever had. It bridges the gap between club and fans, because they gave us something and the away end immediately fed from it!
We’re tenth and I felt good nonetheless! That said, we just need improvements in the squad. Our performances remind me of what happened to Liverpool when Klopp arrived (not that I’m making any illusion we’ll rise to their level but)… Their system became better, but the players reached their limit and so better ones were brought in.
A CB pairing of Mustafi and Luiz just begs for trouble and we don’t have one decent CB. First Mustafi makes a huge mistake, than Luiz makes it worse by giving the referee a case to send him off. It was harsh in my view, but surely going down to ten men with a penalty is much worse than just conceding?
You do not expect such childish behavior from a world cup winner and an experienced professional. We also lack goals from midfield in general. Even past the glory days of 15 years ago, we still had players like Fabregas, Hleb, Nasri, Arshavin and Cazorla who could add up to 10 goals from midfield and I don’t see this in Xhaka and Torreira.
Ozil may be working harder, but he is not the solution either. Arteta has definitely risen the spirit and put in a clear message and a structure, but he can only go so far with no support.
Overall we’ve surrendered the lead too many times, our goal difference is still negative, we give away too many red cards and we need immediate reinforcements in midfield and the CB position. The board simply must back Arteta otherwise he’ll find it difficult to turn those draws into wins.
That said, I must admit I was worried with the Arteta appointment, but it’s been so far so good. I think he’s slowly winning over the fans and I believe he’s been a little unlucky too here or there but here’s the thing and I’ve said this before.
Winning a game by playing badly is alright if it’s a one off. If you do not perform on a regular basis reality will catch up with you and results will too. If we keep playing like we do now I feel the results will improve with time as this will be a tough ending to the season.
In order to get back to the top 4, though, we simply must go in the market and show ambition there. That’s all I have for you folks. Have a happy week and don’t forget to mock those Chelsea friends if you have any!
Konstantin