Good morning to all.
“Of course the goals are going to come back soon”, said Gabriel Jesús after the 1-1 draw with Southampton, a game in which Arsenal -and he in particular- did not know how to take advantage of their chances as they would like.
Jesus had two in particular that you would have backed him to write down. Towards the end of the first half, he shot directly at the goalkeeper with an excellent pass from Martin Odegaard, and although it’s not easy at all because of the way the ball lands, I think he’s capable of doing better there. It was then around the hour mark when he worked very well to win the ball back before Odegaard sent it past defenders again with only the goalkeeper to beat. His first touch was not very good, his second touch was worse and Southampton cleared.
I think he would be the first to admit that he should have done better, and while I think he’s been a bit off his prime lately, I don’t worry too much about him. His presence up front still brings a lot to the team, but a striker is judged on goals, so it’s understandable that on a day of tight margins he’s a bit in the spotlight. He continued:
The only thing I can do is keep trying, keep fighting, keep improving. Like I said, I’m here to score goals, I’m here to help the team with goals. I understand that.
So far this season he has 5 Premier League goals from an xG of 6.3, so based on the chances he’s had, he’s only slightly below where he should be. I don’t think that’s a reason to sound the alarm on him, per se, but I get why there’s some focus. He seems like the kind of character who will do nothing but work harder, and while his completion throughout his career would not put him in the ‘best’ strikers’ echelons, I think part of the plan in bringing him to Arsenal was to improve him. . He is still only 25 years old, there is still room for him to develop and hopefully we will see that happen this season. After all, if Mikel Arteta can get Granit Xhaka to score like the main Aaron Ramsey…
Where I think we were missing something on Sunday at Southampton was another outspoken striker, and I’m sure people will think of the transfer market first, but it’s in games like this that I think we’re feeling the absence of Emile Smith Rowe with a lot of intensity. Remember, he scored 11 goals in all competitions last season, our second-highest goalscorer behind Bukayo Saka, and he went through a small period where he was also very effective off the bench.
What Smith Rowe gives you isn’t necessarily a traditional Plan B off the bench, but his qualities are different enough from Gabriel Martinelli, for example, that he gives the opposition something new to think about. With all due respect to Eddie Nketiah, who has worked very hard to develop his game beyond that of a penalty area poacher, he’s still much more effective in that role than when he’s parked on the left. However, the dearth of options due to Smith Rowe’s injury and the inability to add ‘more firepower’ before the end of the latest transfer window means he is the first man the manager turns to when making a change of attack.
As a side note to that: I’ve seen a lot of talk about how we should rotate completely for the game against PSV on Thursday, and leaving out most of the discussion about how sensible that is for what is an important game (because heading group this week means we can get some deep rest before a trip to Chelsea), how can we do that on a practical level? The only feasible way is to call up a handful of kids from the Academy to start with, and I don’t think PSV is the place to do that.
With just a couple of weeks left until the World Cup puts a pause on the season, there’s not much we can do other than manage the minutes of the players we have and be more efficient at games like St Mary’s which, Objectively, we should have won because we had good scoring chances to do so. The disappointment of the draw is due, in part, to the fact that we set very high standards this season, but ultimately, because we all know that two points were lost due to a bad result more than anything else.
Finally for today, speaking of xG, Aston Villa v Arsenal, scheduled for February 18, will see Unai Emery’s new team win 1-0 with an xG of 0.000000000000001 against Arsenal’s 906. As safe as eggs are eggs.
Right, that’s your lot this morning. We’ve got a new episode of The 30 on Patreon, recapping the weekend’s Premier League action. News throughout the day on Arseblog News, and more here tomorrow.
Until then.
