Hello gooners. The game against Crystal Palace has been played and we drew. The draw was not what we expected but we didn’t lose either. While we reflect on why we still can’t win an away game (one win in our last ten) let us reflect on my observations from the game.
We are still a one half team: Against Crystal Palace, we began the game with so much intensity and it won’t have been out of place we had ended the first half scoring as much as three goals. We created plenty scoring opportunities but we couldn’t utilize them.
In the first half, Pepe had some good chances to bury the game; Arsenal had some good scoring chances but we didn’t make use of these chances. It has been a reoccurring thing for us this season and we need to work on that and start playing like a team that can last the whole 90 minutes. Does this have to do with fitness or what? But whatever the problem may be, we need to get it fixed fast.
We can’t still win an away game: Is winning an away game in the Premiership this difficult or we just don’t have the mental motivation to win a game away? Teams smaller than us have beaten Crystal Palace at home and we can’t! I know it is still early days for Arteta but we need to find a way to start beating all these smaller teams at home. In all honesty, we need to just find a way to beat teams away and gather points from them, if we want to end the season in the top four. If this is a case for the psychologists, then we need them to start working on the psyche of the players in Arsenal.
David Luiz should be made vice captain: Yes, I know this may not sound well with a whole lot of us but I found funny seeing Lacazette wearing the captain’s band after Aubameyang was sent off. Laca right now does not need the extra distraction of wearing the band; he needs to work on building his goal scoring confidence. Xhaka may not be captain or vice for now and even in the future, so the next best option to me is making Luiz the captain.
Our defenders are starting to play well: With an iota of confidence, I can say that our defenders are beginning to play better than how they used to play. Yes, we conceded a goal against Crystal Palace but if Luiz had not tried blocking the shot from Ayew, maybe Leno would have caught the ball and maybe we may have ended the game as victors. However the game ended, it does not change the fact that Sokatris, Niles and Luiz have improved their game. We hope to see more improvement from them.
We need to sign a midfielder this January: With the injury to Lucas Torreira, we have no choice than to sign at least one defensive midfielder who can do a good job for us till Lucas gets back. We can’t keep getting injured and our fitness team needs to do something to make our players stronger for the premiership. In the meantime, we need to find a short term or long term substitute for the injured Lucas.
That is all I can say for now Gooners. What do you have to say about our match against Crystal Palace? We are Arsenal and we are proud.
Sylvester Kwentua