The young guns are carrying Arsenal forward. by Konstantin
Well lovely Arsenal people, we secured an excellent 4:1 away win at Leeds. What I really enjoyed was our performance. We played some good football, and it came from the young players again. I have little sympathy for the injury crisis of Leeds. We had a covid outbreak at the start of the season and we got absolutely ripped for our performance, so that’s that.
With all their injury problems, we still fielded a younger side. The youngest in the league this season. It’s a whole different matter whether Arsenal should be so reliant on 20-year-olds to carry us forward, but this game was another example.
We had Laca 1:1 with their keeper early on and he missed it. Then he missed another chance. Even though he brings other players more into the game, he isn’t the answer either. Auba is finished at Arsenal. There’s likely more than him being just late, for the club to go publicly all out on him, but enough has been said there. Eddie is also leaving in the summer, so we definitely need a new striker.
Luckily Martinelli showed how it’s done, by being alert for the first goal and smashing it, then using his pace and composure to add a lovely second. What a breath of fresh air, huh? Easily the most dynamic and energetic player at Arsenal since Sanchez. Then Saka and Smith Rowe again scored with some lovely setups from Odegaard along the way.
It’s the “experienced” faces that worry me. Xhaka with a reckless tackle at the start of the second half again. Laca missing chances 1:1 with the keeper. Partey not really dominating the midfield as we expect. I’d like to see the senior players to be smarter, especially in games where we are winning, and we need to calm the game down.
That said, we will be 4th on Christmas. It’s unbelievable compared to where we were 3 games into the season. Tottenham have like 3 or 4 games in hand, Utd and West Ham also have 1 or 2, but guess what? Games in hand don’t mean points. I’d rather have the points all day long. When do you play those games? In between European football, it’s going to be difficult.
That said, I’m not yet dreaming of champions league football. The games in hand for our rivals are all very winnable, the season is very long and there’s still one more game till we’re even halfway. I just hope we can win against Norwich and Wolves too, because if we’re to dream of the top 4, we need to be consistent. Against these kinds of teams we need to make the most of it.
Today I’m just happy that we won. It sets up for a very nice Christmas, where we’ll be sitting pretty in 4th, and I wish all of you lovely Arsenal people good health and very happy Holidays!
Konstantin