Whether it’s in the abilities of those around you, those you share the same objectives with, or talking about self confidence, trust is essential. Nothing good can be built without it.
Mikel Arteta is learning that in a way no one associated with Arsenal would have preferred. Not long ago, the Spaniard’s young squad was on the front foot in the hunt for the last available Champions League place and was ahead of its competitors. Their closest contenders Tottenham Hotspur looked disjointed after Antonio Conte’s arrival, West Ham United couldn’t cope with the pressure and Manchester United are a whole other story.
But after major setbacks in the form of three straight losses to mid-table sides, Arsenal have lost the advantage they earned through their tremendous form. Arteta first lost to a familiar face, Patrick Vieira’s Palace battering them 3-0 at Selhurst Park. They then hosted Brighton at the Emirates, only to be beaten 2-1. The last blow to their ambitions came when Southampton beat them 1-0 at St. Mary’s, which could have dropped The Gunners to sixth place in the table, although fortunately Manchester United couldn’t capitalise on the opportunity.
Takehiro Tomiyasu, Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney were absent for the majority of those fixtures and the results showed how crucial they are if this Arsenal squad is to play Champions League or any European football at all next season.
But, more worryingly, Arsenal’s biggest problem didn’t seem to be those injuries. Arteta, who like the players didn’t seem to put a foot wrong during Arsenal’s brilliant form, seemed to renounce the system that made the players and, most importantly, the fans believe again, because of these absences.
Yes, Arsenal don’t seem to have a squad strong enough to compete for the aforementioned level of competition, let alone enough players to rotate through a 50-60 match season, which obviously takes a toll on the players’ fitness. Arteta must have thought of that as a major problem, appearing to think that his team couldn’t continue to play the same way they had been playing.
He tried different options to replace the absentees. Albert Sambi Lokonga filled in for Partey most of the time, Nuno Tavares was the obvious replacement for Tierney and Tomiyasu was replaced by Cedric Soares. Even though these mentioned players were not as skilful, physical or in other words good as the injured ones, they are able to play similar roles when instructed. Arteta didn’t appear to think so.
After being left unsatisfied with Nuno Tavares, the Spaniard even tried to play Granit Xhaka as a left-back, which saw Martin Odegaard playing as Lokonga’s partner in front of their defence.
After these disjointed and doubt-casting performances came the Gunners’ postponed London derby fixture. They travelled across town to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea, who had recently saw their Champions League title defence ended by the competition’s eternal winners Real Madrid, failing to protect their 3-0 lead at the Bernabeu. The Blues won the game 3-2 but it wasn’t enough to compensate for their 3-1 loss at Stamford Bridge.
Even though they didn’t progress to the semi-finals, Chelsea’s display at the Bernabeu was a scary sight for all Arsenal supporters. A loss meant they would go under rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the race for the top four, with three less points and finally an equal number of games played.
Arteta made three changes to the side that lost to Southampton, taking out Soares, Sambi Lokonga and Gabriel Martinelli for the services of Rob Holding, Mohamed Elneny and Emile Smith Rowe.
Thomas Tuchel sat out Jorginho, the injured Mateo Kovacic, fatigued Antonio Rudiger and Kai Havertz for Malang Sarr, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, N’Golo Kante and Romelu Lukaku, who grabbed the Man of the Match award in the previous fixture – in total making four changes to the team that beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Wembley to reach the FA Cup Final.
Although it looked like a four-man defensive line, Arsenal’s early play in the game showed that Arteta planned a five-man line.
Arsenal adopted a low block against a Chelsea team packed with attacking force. With clear instructions, Bukayo Saka was tracking Marcos Alonso even into the Gunners’ defensive third, making him play like a right wing-back when defending. Arsenal seemed to form a 5-4-1 while defending.
Arteta’s three-man plan was even more clear when his men had the ball. Gabriel, Holding and Ben White formed a three man line in front of Aaron Ramsdale, while Xhaka attended to his usual duties, providing cover for the left-back and helping with the build-up. Mohamed Elneny was given the role of Partey, roaming in front of those players to offer a passing outlet and Martin Odegaard was seen in his usual positions in Arsenal’s half, dropping to the wide areas to push Saka further on. Eddie Nketiah tried to channel his inner Alexandre Lacazette, who reportedly fell out with Arteta over some issues and gave a controversial interview, mentioning his yearning for Champions League football – the youngster dropped deep to connect the play.
But none of these plans seemed to work because Chelsea were able to match Arsenal’s line man-to-man and, by sending their full-backs higher up the pitch, they were able to control the flanks. Loftus-Cheek’s unexpected activity and work-rate when defending, combined with N’Golo Kante’s presence, meant Arsenal spent the early game unable to get out of their own half and defending deep.
That’s when Arteta started to trust himself and made a bold move to change their structure. Maybe it was planned, maybe it wasn’t, but in either case Pep Guardiola’s apprentice made clear his skills were not to be underestimated.
Pulling Tavares deeper and dropping the three-man line in favour of a four, Arteta made Chelsea’s front three less competent when pressing. The remaining structure nearly stayed the same, but Arsenal were able to suck Chelsea in with their passing, find decent passing outlets, then carry the ball into the opposition’s half.
The tactical changes had their effect, but Chelsea were still on the front foot, although The Blues couldn’t create any significant threat to Arteta’s men other than Mason Mount’s corner kick on the 3rd minute, redirected to goal by Marcos Alonso but blocked by Xhaka.
Against the run of play, Arsenal went ahead, when in the 13th minute the Chelsea defence made a similar mistake to one they made in the first of leg of their Champions League quarter-final match-up with Real Madrid: this time the offender was Andreas Christensen, his weak touch intercepted by Nketiah, who shot past Edouard Mendy to push The Gunners in front.
Chelsea didn’t stay trailing for long though. Just three minutes later Loftus-Cheek intercepted Nketiah’s efforts at linking play and Timo Werner, who in the recent weeks seem like a renewed man, cut inside and shot – the ball ricocheted off Xhaka into Arsenal’s net to equalise. This goal meant that the German had scored the same amount of goals he had managed in the previous six months in just eleven days.
Both teams carved out half chances until, at the 27th minute, Arsenal scored a trademark goal of their own. Xhaka nutmegged Alonso on the edge of his 18-yard box and started a counter-attacking move: Saka was found wide right, cut inside and found Odegaard. The Norwegian set up Smith Rowe, who found the bottom right corner with his signature inside foot finish and become the first Arsenal player under the age of 21 to score double digits in a single Premier League season after Nicolas Anelka.
Arsenal continued to be a victim of their own mistakes when in the 32nd minute White went down after a challenge by Mount, but play didn’t stop. Eventually Mount’s cross found Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta in the box, who finished brilliantly first time and put his team level again, thanks to poor marking from Tavares.
Hale End products continued to bother Chelsea though: Nketiah and especially Smith Rowe produced brilliant individual efforts, just coming short in the finishing department.The London derby’s first half didn’t fail to entertain, coming to an end with two goals a piece.
At the start of the second half, Tuchel took out Christensen, who had reportedly fell out with the club, his contract running out at the end of the season and can’t be renewed due to sanctions of owner Roman Abramovich. There was a feeling that this might be the last appearance of the Danish defender in Chelsea colours, while Thiago Silva was brought in to rally and gather Chelsea’s defensive line.
The Brazilian failed. Chelsea saw their build-up cut short with a passing mistake by their captain, Tavares intercepted and found Nketiah, who turned brilliantly. Thiago Silva’s last ditch tackle caused havoc in Chelsea’s defence and the ball somehow found its way back in front of the Cobham reject. He was able to finish masterfully with his toes, pushing Arsenal back ahead. Nketiah was able to score a Premier League brace for the first time of his young career against the team that released him.
In the 60th minute Tuchel made his second change of the game by taking out Lukaku, who seemed very short of match fitness and inspiration, looking like his time at Chelsea is coming to a bitter end. The £100 million summer signing only managed 22 touches in 60 minutes, before he was subbed out for Kai Havertz.
After the change, Reece James and Azpilicueta switched duties. James moved to the flank, while Azpilicueta was handed the right centre-back post. One of the Englishman’s crosses created an opening in the Arsenal box, where Ramsdale, who seemed far from his brilliant form of not so long ago, failed to contain a low drilled ball and spoils were pounced upon by Alonso, but once again the Arsenal defence was able to block and clear their box.
Arteta made his first personnel switch of the game, when, in the 70th minute, he took off Nketiah to the roaring applause of the travelling Arsenal fans, who occasionally managed to out-sing the home support, for the services of Gabriel Martinelli. Just five minutes later, Smith Rowe joined him so Cedric Soares could come on.
Tuchel’s last change came in the form of Hakim Ziyech, who obviously has the magical abilities to break down a solid defence, replacing Alonso.
The game appeared to be slowing down. Both teams were unable to create anything significant until the 82nd minute, where Gabriel surged The Gunners on with a brilliant sixty-yard pass, which found the fresh legs of Soares, who managed to get the better of Sarr and entered the Chelsea box, but somehow he managed to pick out the worst possible pass and the receipient, Nuno Tavares, somehow managed the worst possible shot. Arsenal weren’t able to take this golden opportunity to close out the game.
Three minutes later Chelsea were presented with another chance to stay in the game, when Mount’s horror tackle on Soares was only punished with a yellow card. Darren England was the VAR Official, but he chose not to intervene.
In the 90th minute though, Soares again surged on from the right flank, but it was noticeable enough that Azpilicueta was alone with Saka in the centre. The Spaniard took the easy and stupid route to stop Saka from getting on the end of Cedric’s cross, pulling at the English youngster for a good few seconds before taking him to the ground. The penalty was given without hesitation.
The game seemed to be finished, but one last twist appeared in the tale, when Saka picked up the ball with no hesitation. After his missed penalty in the Euro 2020 Final, nobody was expecting such nerve from the youngster, as there were much more experienced and maybe capable players on the field. But Saka, like he has all season, came through again, sending Mendy the wrong way to seal the win.
After the trashing they endured on the hands of Brentford, The Blues conceded four goals for the second time in a row at Stamford Bridge. The frustration in the side was evident when Azpilicueta confronted a Chelsea fan at the end of the game, looking furious about something that supporter said or did.
The deadly duo of Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka became the first under-21 pairing duo to score double digits in a Premier League season since Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2006/07 season for Manchester United.
Arsenal were able to get back to winning ways, but the victory earned in these circumstances meant much much more than just the three points. ,The derby win at a hostile ground must have restored faith for Arteta’s side and most importantly taught the Spaniard something. They managed their first victory in their nine attempts against last season’s top four.
Nketiah occupied the headlines with his two brilliantly taken goals, equalling the amount of goals Alexandre Lacazette scored in his last 18 games. Arteta’s post match comments on how he had been unfair to him by not giving him more game time and admitting that he was proven wrong by the youngster again was a clear indication that sometimes the most valuable lessons are learned the hard way. Nketiah offered something to this Arsenal side which 31 year-old Lacazette couldn’t: dynamism. He worked hard, chased every ball and stepped up when he was needed the most.
The less heralded performances of Elneny and Holding were also crucial. The Egyptian midfielder recorded a 90% pass completion rate, the most interceptions in the game with four and won three duels, while Holding was colossal at the back, winning 80% of his duels, four clearances and two blocks.
Arsenal have something special with this squad. Last night’s eleven was literally within the regulations to play a game in the PL2 as every single player excluding Elneny, Xhaka and Holding were under the age of 23 at the start of the season. Talismans Saka and Odegaard are pushing this team into the spotlight of Europe’s football, although a slightly harder run-in compared to Tottenham’s means the North London Derby on May 12th seems to be the decider of who is going to get Champions League football next season.
You can follow Görkem on Twitter.
If you enjoy these posts, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a one-off donation. For just €2.99, you can get access to premium videos and training sessions.
No responses yet