Match report – – – Video
Step right up folks, and strap yourself in for another dose of Arsenal drama. Nobody does it like us. Nobody does it more than us, and nobody does it better than us. If there’s an easy way to do something, we’ll find a different way. A harder way, a more challenging way, but we will find a way. Never a dull moment at the Emirates for Mickey and his Boys!
What can you say? This had the hallmarks of the most routine win you could ever want. At home, against a newly promoted side. You’re 2-0 up at the break having dominated the first half, and then midway into the second period it’s 2-2 and you’re wondering how we got here. Then you remember it’s Arsenal and we addicted to drama. Or farce. Take your pick.
The game started well, Gabriel Martinelli shot over with his left foot and that worried me because that lad needed a goal. Thankfully it came not long after, Jurrien Timber providing the ball across, Martinelli applying the finish. Not the most powerful you’ll ever see, but he just needed one to go in, so for 1-0 that was very nice.
We had 13 attempts on goal in the first half (a nice warm-up for the second), and the lead was doubled just before the break when Martinelli found Leandro Trossard in some space in the box, and the Belgian’s finish was as clinical as you’d expect from him in that position. Some breathing room I don’t think anyone could argue we didn’t deserve.
Even though he’s now nearly 70 and looking more like Harold Steptoe than a Premier League player, Jamie Vardy still caused us a little problem. He ran in front of Saliba, tripped himself up in the process, and Leicester got a free kick (and a booking for Big Willy). Canny old fox (Fox). From the resulting free kick Kai Havertz just dropped a bit too deep, James Justin’s header deflected off him and in. At first it just looked like David Raya had made a mistake, we should know better, the deflection did him.
We responded with 8 shots between their goal and their second. Their keeper, Mads Hermansen, started to make saves. He too was just warming up. I don’t know there was much we could do about the finish for the second, hats off to Justin for the quality of the strike, but I suspect when he looks back at the game, Arteta will have something to say about how easy it was for the cross to come in from the right hand side. So, it’s 2-2 just under half an hour to play. LOADS of time.
We had another 15 attempts on goal between then and the final whistle. There were so many chances. Gabriel had a header saved and Calafiori’s follow-up was saved too. Trossard was through but Hermansen responded. He saved brilliantly at point-blank range from Havertz. There was one from a Calafiori header which will be up there with the saves of the season. The Leicester keeper was like a video game protagonist who had taken all the power-ups in his pouch. It reminded me of a game years ago at Highbury when Edwin van der Sar single-handedly kept Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry and others at bay.
We had corners but didn’t make the most of the them. Arteta brought Sterling on, who didn’t really have much impact, but Ethan Nwaneri did when he was brought on for Thomas Partey. His first action was to take the ball, drive into a shooting position and bring out yet another save from Hermansen. I think the Nwaneri/Partey change is one which could/should have happened 15 minutes earlier, and I’m certain if a similar situation arises again (which it almost certainly will because we are Arsenal after all), the manager will feel a lot more confident about doing exactly that.
We kept going. Saka produced a fantastic cross for Havertz, but he headed over. Leicester players went down with cramp. The keeper needed treatment. All you could do is say ‘Fair enough’, because that’s what we did last weekend. It does fully explain the 7 minutes of added time though, despite Steve Cooper’s response to that on the sideline. We were quite deep into it when the goal arrived.
Our 17th corner of the day was delivered to the back post, Trossard was there to put it back into the mixer, it hit a defender’s leg, went through the keeper’s legs and that was 3-2. Officially it has gone down as a Wilfred Ndidi own goal, but morally it’s Trossard’s. There was even time for another. Gabriel Jesus did his best to minimise an Arsenal break where he had two men outside him for an easy tap-in. He took a shot when he should have made a pass, but Havertz was there to bundle it home with his goolies. Welcome to Bratwurst autumn? 4-2. Blimey.
Was it cruel on Leicester? Possibly. But who cares?! Arsenal kept going, kept plugging away and crucially kept believing. This isn’t our first injury time rodeo. Like many of you I’d prefer a nice calm day, but we have to accept who we are, and just deal with it. For all the talk of organisation and discipline and tactics and game-management, there’s just part of our DNA which is utterly and irredeemably chaotic. What we now have is the quality and ability to deal with it when it manifests itself.
By any measure we battered Leicester. 36 shots from which their keeper made 13 saves. We had xG of almost 5, apparently our highest ever in the Premier League. And yet football is so weird and random, we almost dropped two points. And this would have been a big drop. Like a 10 ton comedy ACME roadrunner type weight on our own foot (4 months out with shattered metatarsals). Still, we did enough, we had enough, and taking all three points was crucial on a day when City drew and when Liverpool won again.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:
I am really pleased with the performance the way we played, the chances we created, how we dominated the game and after 2-0 the result should have been much bigger. But this is the Premier League, the quality of the opponent, the quality of Leicester, they scored two goals and I’m even happier how we dealt with that situation afterwards. It was emotionally superb, in control, very clear in what we have to do, how consistent we have to be to attack the spaces and continue to do a lot of the things we were already doing, I think we fully deserved to win the game.
He will analyse things more fully in time, of course, and look to correct the things that weren’t quite right, but he can do so with the comfort of victory. Without going into too much more detail, I just wanted to point out the contributions of both full-backs, who I thought were outstanding and so important to what we produced in an attacking sense. Considering they’re both new to the team (even if Timber is not necessarily new to the club), it was a really encouraging aspect to our performance.
So, all in all, a day out to remember for those who were there.
I was supposed to be there. Unfortunately, on Friday night Archer, our elder German Shepherd, had a bit of a turn. The most difficult conversation any dog owner can have had to take place, so obviously I wasn’t going to travel. When you have a dog, or any pet, you make a commitment to them from start to finish, right to the end, so that’s how Saturday morning and early afternoon went for us.
It’s never easy despite how much you rationalise it and try and compartmentalise it. Intellectually you understand it. It’s part of the deal you make when you bring a puppy home, that one day you’re going to have to deal with their departure, but it doesn’t stop your heart breaking when the time comes.
We had over 12 incredible years with Archer. From this little guy:
To this handsome beast:
A dog lifetime of love and fun and happiness and treasured memories isn’t obscured by the pain of their exit, far from it, but at the moment it feels acute. There’s a big gap in our hearts and our house, but I like to think those two late goals were his last contribution to my life as he made his way elsewhere.
Thanks for everything big guy, we love you. ❤️
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Stand by for an early Arsecast Extra this morning. We’ve put out the call for questions on Threads @gunnerblog and @arseblog with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
Pod should be out mid-morning. For now, have a good one, and give your dog a special hug today, they deserve it.
