We’ve shown we can entertain, now let’s show we can win things…
Performances and results don’t often follow the same path in football.
Of course, individually and collectively, the results are more important, but the performances set a tone and marker for what might be about to come.
Our performance against Luton Town – having rested almost all of the players I suggested in my last column (hi Mikel, if you’re reading!) – was absolutely satisfactory and the result was perfect.
Wednesday night’s game produced a rather unique second-half, one we haven’t really seen in a home game at the Emirates and since we moved from Highbury. Luton were perfectly happy to escape with a narrow defeat. They did push and probe a little to get back into the game but certainly didn’t over commit and leave themselves exposed. That created a sort of stalemate where our backline were more than happy to pass the ball around at least double the normal amount of time before looking for an out ball.
The scoreline told us ‘job done’ and our opponents were happy too. The Hatters had a number of absentees and were probably looking at escaping with their relatively good goal difference intact – Burnley and Sheffield United are miles behind them in this metric. They also have a must-win game against Bournemouth at the weekend.
Now Mikel Arteta knows that we are in a stage of the season where results and squad management matter more.
Yes it was a disjointed and dull second half, where the atmosphere in the stadium matched what was happening on the pitch – but the positives far outweigh any negatives.
Havertz has to cut out the diving…
I thought Craig Pawson refereed last night’s game perfectly. Including the yellow card given to Kai Havertz for diving. It was Havertz’s eighth booking in the Premier League this season.
A tally that includes one that could have easily been compounded by a sending off against Brentford where he was extremely fortunate to swerve a second yellow, when tumbling in the area towards the end of the game.
The German’s contribution has been immense since finding his feet around November time with the winner at Brentford.
He can’t allow himself to pick up an unnecessary suspension just as the wider squad is returning to full fitness.
Top of the fair-play table with just 45 yellow cards, we are challenging for the league whilst also keeping it clean. It really is an astonishing feat to be this competitive and secure under two yellows per game. Our number 29 is actually responsible for nearly 20% of them.
We have no need to be attached to that kind of thing, especially in situations where there’s no overall advantage to the team – like last night’s dive which was nearer the halfway line than the goal!
Reduced to just 23 minutes off the bench in a game where wholesale changes were made could be a real wake-up call for Eddie Nketiah and his future at the club.
Back on the 28th of October he’d netted a hat-trick against another member of the bottom three, Sheffield United, in a home game.
He only has one goal since taking home that match ball. The opener in the Champions League dead-rubber 1-1 draw at PSV Eindhoven.
Last night’s usage suggests that Mikel Arteta just doesn’t trust Eddie, even in what on paper was our easiest league game of the season.
I personally felt that he could have done a job to alleviate game time on others, but we’ve got to a stage where we just have to trust the boss and any calls he makes.
It also asks a wider question of Nketiah’s supposed strike partner Gabriel Jesus. Last season the duo were responsible for just 15 of our 88 Premier League strikes.
Just 17% of our final tally. This season it’s just 9 of 72. A lowly 12.5%.
While we can take the huge positives that contributions and connected play elsewhere in the team are almost at an optimum, playing without a striker outlet might hurt us in closer matches and Champions League football.
You’d hope that the club will be targeting a new forward or two for summer arrivals.
Nketiah will have to find first-team football elsewhere, whereas Jesus could be relegated to the kind of second-fiddle role he excelled in when playing for Manchester City.
