Raise your hand if you had a bad feeling about today when you saw the snow-covered field in the West Midlands. I definitely did. A cold, slippery and slippery field plays straight into Sam Allardyce’s rugged and dirty football and immediately away from Mikel Arteta’s fast-passing game. With Arsenal coming out of consecutive wins against a team that “should” win, the scenario was set for a disappointment. We almost expect things like that from Arsenal fans.
But not today.
The snow just makes Kieran Tierney more powerful. Without being overwhelmed by the elements, Tierney went into the warm-up field wearing nothing but shorts and a T-shirt. And as if drawing strength from the cold, he opened the scoring for the Gunners in the 23rd minute with a goal that would make Roberto Carlos jealous. He skinned his man last, cut inside, curled him in the farthest corner, with his right foot no less.
Hale End added a second to the Gunners just five minutes later. Bukayo Saka scored a beautiful team goal with the assistance of Emile Smith Rowe. It was a movement of the highest quality. Pure champagne football. Scream for Alexandre Lacazette in the goal also for the hockey assist – he was short and played a deft touch on the ESR path.
Speaking of the French striker, he’s been playing like a possessed lately. He scored Arsenal’s third and fourth goals today, giving him five goals in his last four games for the club. We were ruthless in our criticism of him earlier this season, when he was struggling to score and work in the field, so it is fair to praise him enough now that he seems to have rediscovered his form. His resurgence kind of echoes what Mikel Arteta said: if you get into good areas and get chances, what Lacazette has been doing, the goals will come.
A large part of Lacazette’s goal sequence also comes from how well his game and Emile Smith Rowe’s movement are related. Lacazette’s delay game is one of his strengths. It is not a traditional hold-up game, that is, throwing longer aerial balls at an attacker. It is more your quick and combined game back to goal in tight spaces.
The second goal is a perfect example. Smith Rowe falls deeply to receive the ball and catches Saka, who had checked back. Smith Rowe continues his race on the right. Saka finds Lacazette, who had also checked, and the Frenchman plays for ESR. Saka continues his run and drives to the area, Smith Rowe catches him. Goal.
It’s quite simple, actually. If you run into the box (or just run away from your teammates, usually), good things tend to happen. Emile Smith Rowe makes smart runs, and Arsenal’s attack is reaping the rewards. And it’s not like he’s putting on visors, either. He’s playing very well, to be sure, but all the attack really needed was a better movement to shine the wheels. The setup was ready, but something was missing, and Smith Rowe brought that missing thing.
If I said Arsenal would score four goals, you would probably have bet that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would be among the goals. He was not, unfortunately. But his performance today may have been more comforting than hiding a meaningless goal in an explosion. He looked to the side lately, and today he looked much more like the player he was at restart. His movement was better, he was attacking the posts, taking chances, and he generally seemed to have more energy. Good players manage to escape races in bad shape. Lacazette did, and Aubameyang is a better player than Lacazette. He will also find a way out of this drought period.
In some ways, Arsenal have conceded the most goals away from home in the Premier League. Yes, you read that right. Rob Holding and Pablo Mari were not called to do all of this today, but all you can really ask your defenders to do is help keep opponents off the board. They did that. I think Gabriel will have his starting point back as soon as he clears COVID, but Mari’s recent performances have made that less certain, at least in my mind.
A word of caution: Arsenal played against West Bromwich Albion, the team with the worst goal difference in the league today. We shouldn’t place too much importance on performance; we did it once this year with Fulham.
On the other hand, it is always good to see Arsenal “do what they should do” and put a smaller team on the sword. In fact, they have acquired a bad habit of not doing business against relegation clubs. You can only play against the teams in front of you, and Arsenal have won the last three teams they have faced.
Three wins are consecutive. Arsenal moved up to 11th position with 23 points, just three behind Chelsea and six behind a bunch of clubs that have 29. The table is extremely congested, perhaps even more than last season, which means that the position in the table can change quickly. Next in the PL, the Gunners have Crystal Palace and Newcastle, both in the Emirates, before a series of “tougher” games. Neither of those two games will be an easy win, but they are eminently winable matches. Two more wins and the Gunners are back looking for a place in the Champions League.
But first, Arsenal take the field as the FA Cup starter against Newcastle. I really like being able to call Arsenal “keepers” – they should keep things that way.