Right-o, we were electric against a poor Nottm Forest side and scored 5 against them at Emirates.
A 5th-minute brilliant header from Gabriel Martinelli made sure we go into the second half with one goal lead. It’s in the second half when Reiss Nelson decided to wreck havoc by scoring couple of goals, first one on a rebound and second one from a Jesus’s cross to the near post. It wasn’t long before one of those Partey’s rockets landed in the nets. That goal was an art in itself, shot from outside the box, bending around 2 defenders and leaving no chance for Henderson. It was an assist from Nelson.
Fifth one came from the captain himself, who scored from a pass from Jesus.
Couple of things to notice here
First, Nelson delivered 2 goals and 1 assist and he was good enough to fill in for Saka who was substituted after an injury. Anyone who is complaining that we do not have enough choice than to play Saka and Martinelli week in and week out (and burning them to the ground in the process) is wrong.
Nelson against Liverpool? No, you would most certainly want your best right winger in Saka to play. However, it shouldn’t even be a debate against the likes of Forest and Villa. Same goes for Eddie for Jesus. I understand you don’t wanna make lot of changes and disrupt the team chemistry but giving a break to one or two players who needs it is not a bad idea.
Second, Gabriel Jesus – although not on the scoresheet – is an immense part of the team. He is unselfish and a player everyone would hate to play against. He had 2 assists and the third one didn’t count because Nelson scored on a rebound. The only thing to worry about was his lack of clinical finishing. He could have easily ended the day with a hattrick but that extra 1 sec of delay took away his chance of being on scoresheet. I think it’s the confidence, and once couple of them lands in the nets, he will be fine.
What is your expectation?
We are on top of the table. Liverpool is struggling, Spu*s can kiss my arse if they think they are challenging for title, Chelsea and Man United are dropping points and will keep doing it.
Is it too early to say we are in direct competition with Manchester City for the title?
Nope! Almost 1/3rd of the season is over. We have a 2 points lead of City. We have a team that is high in confidence and fighting for everything. All we need is to win games which we should win and try to grab as many points as possible from the top 6. With a bit of luck, and hoping City bottles some of their games, this could one of those seasons.
Let me remind you again if you say I am deluded. We are talking about the biggest club in the world, lead by a manager in his 3rd year after spending a quarter of a billion to get his own playing XI. We are leading after 12 games and we have played against Liverpool, Spu*s and United already.
Europa is proving a bit challenging for the manager in terms of rotation and managing the no. of games, but we have enough firepower to go through the initial stages of Europa while keeping our first XI fresh for the league. If manager decided against it, thinking 70 games a season is comfortably OK for a player, then it’s on him. I’m not going to dial down my expectation because of it.
Wrapping Up
Apologies for missing out this week, it was a festive week here in my place and the work has been busy as ever.
I hope you are enjoying the best of our football.
Don’t worry Ambarish my MC club always say ‘Family first’ which includes work and family needs. It’s the first rule of the club.
I’ll repost my post game post to get this post started.
We we hoped for a better 2nd half and we got it from a team that the Arsenal ladies or our U23s would have beaten. Jekyll and Hyde performances for home beating L’pool and losing 5:0 to us.
Still, the footballing gods have been kind to us this weekend with other results where we have our 2 point lead over City for another week at least.
Watching the match with Junior we felt our intensity didn’t have to be as high as in previous games because of the way Forest surrendered to 5 goals that could have been 8. A lucky break in a run of previously hard fought games.
The Saka injury seemed to be inevitable with the amount of punishment he takes each game along with Jesus. To be honest I hope it’s niggly enough to keep him out of the WC for purely selfish Arsenal reasons. The lad is young he will have many more WCs to play in.
As I expect there to be many on LG will be riding the hot tamale train of Arteta’s greatness. The band aid got ripped off and we ran amok through Forest at every turn.
The question I ask myself is whether the win is a papering over the cracks of the more serious issues because of the fragility of our squad in terms of size, quality from the bench, perma crocs & our midfield? Has Arteta resolved the issue of out fitness levels? We’ll know more from the Chav’s game where Potter is a worthy adversary and know’s us well.
The high note was Nelson. I was so happy for the lad who I felt was a little too cocky when he broke out into there first team. Then I felt his attitude wasn’t right and he had things in his head he needed to understand. Gone have the corn rows to a simple hair style and a more direct pace in his play as well as some good technical ability.
I hope Nelson gets more time ahead of Eddie, as he did was Eddie is supposed to do and score goals (plural). Nothing against Eddie, he just hasn’t performed and seems to have some temperament issues no doubt borne out of frustration of his lack of scoring form. Nothing worse for a ST is a goal drought. Maybe Jesus can help Eddie get his head straight and be as productive off the ball as Jesus.
All in all a win to be happy with and out still being top. Happy days to be a Gooner!