Make no mistake, we absolutely dominated Leicester but it just goes to show that there are no easy fixtures in the Premier League.
Before the game against Leicester City on Saturday afternoon, I believe anyone of an Arsenal affiliation would have been expecting us to utterly walk over the newly promoted side with a comfortable scoreline to show for it.
45 minutes in and we were on the right track for doing just that with goals from the lively Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard giving us a comfortable 2-0 lead heading into the half time break. The first goal will come as a huge relief to Martinelli given he squandered a very good chance minutes earlier to put us into the lead, he took his goal expertly though from an assist by Jurrien Timber.
He then turned provider for Trossard right before half time, with the Belgian slotting home our second of the game to give us a much deserved lead which our constant pressure on the Leicester backline fully deserved.
Everyone including the Leicester support would have thought the game was done after the first half (I did!), however the Foxes were given hope just a minute after the interval, in what was one of their very few attacks in the game. At that point Saliba fouled Jamie Vardy deep into our own half with the yellow card shown to our Frenchman being not the only punishment for the foul, because what resulted from the subsequent freekick was a goal from James Justin headed into the back of the net via a kind deflection from Kai Havertz.
Arsenal would have still fancied their chances of smashing them given it was more of a fluke goal more than anything else, but we were reminded a little later why this League can be so unforgiving, a goal from Justin again drawing things level. This time again Raya could not do anything about it because it was an absolute banger, Trossard could have done better with tracking back, however it was still a quality strike.
From a game which most us thought would be a comfortable kickabout turned into scrappy win at the end, when Trossard forced an own goal off Wilfred Ndidi in the 93rd minute of stoppage time.
We added our fourth a few minutes later from a counter attack through Kai Havertz. Make no mistake we dominated them from start to finish even though we only managed to win it torwards the latter stages of the match. Just to get a glimpse of our dominance through the stats, we registered a whopping 36 shots with 16 being on target while also having 17 corners to Leicester’s none in the game, also add to the fact that we were always reactive in winning the ball back when we lost it throughout the game, then you can easily see why we were so dominant in the game.
We still left if late for a win though which will tell us that you cannot underestimate the opposition no matter the run or form their on, today was another reminder that we’ll have to earn the right to be called title contenders even though we’ve shown at the home of the reigning champions that we are more than capable. Just looking back to last season where we lost back to back games against weaker opposition(West Ham and Fulham), a loss or even a draw against the Foxes today might have the same consequences that those two losses had on title hopes at the end of the season.
There are so many positives to take away from this game and one pretty minor one is that we cannot forget that three points are NOT a given in the Premier League. I know they are pretty much aware of this but it’s importance cannot be overemphasized still.
Very happy with the win though and let me know you all, What are your thoughts on the dramatic win?!
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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The match showed that we missed Odegaard’s skills and experience in the right-sided AM position
Havertz still hasn’t been familiar with the role yet, so Arteta had better assign Nwaneri there while Odegaard and Zinchenko are still unfit
GAI, we were 2-0 up (at half time) without Odergaard. Cruising and in total control. We scored 4 goals and missed loads of chances and opportunities. Pray, why does that suggest we “missed Odergaard”. I want Odergaard back ASAP but yesterday’s game had nothing to do with Odergaards absence at all. He would not have stopped the two goal goung in that made it smelly. He isn’t superman.
Typing Odergaard once could be a typo, 4 times in a row… not so much.
It’s Odegaard. There’s no r in the middle.
I’m not sure Havertz is playing the Odegaard role though. We are playing a different system in his absence.
While Odegaard is missed,I don’t think his absence was the reason the game happened as it did. We seem to forget that we’ve had games like this even with Odegaard in the team.
Two examples come to mind.Villa away and Westham at home last year December.
We dominated both games,creating multiple chances and having the most shots yet lost both. The difference between those two games and this is that we were able to take our chances to secure the win.
Exactly.
They often show us playing 442 with trossard and havertz up front, and that sort of makes sense. They both drift into midfield and pop up in lots of different positions. It’s really hard to tie down. Rice was often quite wide on the left when we had the ball while calafiori was very central a lot of the time, which was interesting. I wonder what their average positions look e like.
Their manager said that Arsenal were lucky, is he blind.
We could have won by 16 goals, it was an unbelievable
landslide that they defended well with their goalkeeper.
Could not fault Raya for their two fortunate goals.
Nwaneri looks very sharp and shows no fear. Great potential.
Partey looks tired.
Cannot wait for the next match. If we keep up with the attempts, it only a matter of time before some team takes a hammering from us.
Again thumbs up Onyango and Reggie. It’s a positive sign of Arsenal’s maturity and character that we can have these moments and not collapse. I guess it’s called making your own luck.
We are likely to be faced with a deep defence set up with many sides who visit the Emirates, but when we have a 2 goal lead we need to be more disciplined and avoid being caught on the counter attack. Our ability to defend in midfield is not as efficient as it was last season.This may partly be due to the absence of Odegaard who’s energy and industry is being missed as much as his creativity.It may also be due to the fact that Rice is not quite the dominating force he was last season which is not surprising given his hectic playing schedule and lack of a decent break.I think the arrival of Merino will help us to defend more effectively and I expect Califiori to improve in one on one situations as he adjusts to the frenetic pace of the Premier League.All in all , given our injury problems, I think we have done very well to remain unbeaten thus far and while we have not been entirely convincing I am pretty sure we will get our act together as the season unfolds.One positive feature of the Leicester game was an improved performance from Martinelli, while Timber once again showed what a class act he is.