match report – player ratings – arteta reaction – Video
Arsenal return to the top of the Premier League after an extraordinary victory yesterday at Villa Park.
The first half, aside from Bukayo Saka’s fantastic goal, was, let’s face it, a bag of crap. We conceded early, and while you have to give credit to Ollie Watkins for a fine finish, losing the ball high upfield and seeing it in the back of our net a few seconds later indicates something went wrong.
Not as bad as the second goal which I suspect will be under serious review in the coach’s video sessions this week. From back to front, Villa played through us like a hot knife through butter. Not a single Arsenal player has won a duel, and we know how upset Mikel Arteta gets when that happens. We haven’t conceded like this in a long time, to be fair, but it was an unpleasant reminder of times gone by.
It was clear there was a bit of a midweek hangover, informed also by the results from Brentford and Everton. That funk we found ourselves in just got a lot funkier. Then again, it was a draw to be angrier about: the performance or the fact that Bukayo Saka was kicked around the field with impunity. For him to end up with a yellow card on a day when his boot literally dug into his ankle for a nasty challenge is absurd.
Half time came, 2-1 Villa. We had been slow, unadventurous, passive, horseshoe. All the things you don’t want us to be, and I’ll be honest and admit that I wasn’t sure we had the ability to change the game. However, the words must have been said at halftime. The Arsenal players were sent out early having received some pick instructions from the manager, and we were better off.
Saka had an early chance. Eddie hit the top of the bar with a headbutt. Saka received an ankle treatment from her. And just after the hour mark we were level. Villa completely ignored Oleksandr Zinchenko who, having seen some of his shots of late, kinda understand, but the left-back picked the ball up outside the box and drilled his first Arsenal goal into the bottom corner to make it 2- 2. I had gotten frustrated in the first half, this was a very timely contribution.
Unai Emery began to get nervous. He removed Coutinho. Eddie then missed a great chance after a brilliant pass from Odegaard, clipping it too high past Emi Martinez and the crossbar. Emery made another couple of changes. He wanted fresh legs for what he knew was coming. When you’re Unai Emery, you should easily recognize the pattern of a game that seemed to be going your way before the pressure begins to mount in the opposite direction.
Gabriel Martinelli replaced Leandro Trossard. Martínez, who had been at each goal kick for an age, took longer and longer.
“One million. Two thousand. Three thousand… ⏩⏩⏩ twenty-seven thousand”, and so on. The referee never said a word. There is no longer the six second rule. He would hold him, hold him, hold him, and then kick him. We traded, we went up that end, and it would happen again.
Then came an extraordinary last twenty minutes or so. Eddie stole from Konsa and played a pass into Odegaard’s path. The Arsenal captain, on a day like this, with the chance to get ahead and really tip the game in our favour. That magical left foot whose influence was throughout that second half in almost everything good we did. Couldn’t miss.
He did.
“Madre Mia!” exclaimed the Spanish commentator.
https://arseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ode.mp3
As? Holy Cow. Probably not. That felt like the defining moment. The great opportunity to continue and win the game. Arteta made two changes. Emery made two more substitutions, topping his starting XI with two more guys who could run a bit. Gabriel made a brilliant entry into our box. An excellent take and run from Leon Bailey saw him drive into the box, forcing an excellent save from Ramsdale, who pushed the ball against the bar before we cleared it.
Then, Gabriel finished off an Odegaard free kick with a header. Time was progressing. Martinez wasted as much as was humanly possible. Finally, the referee had to do something. Sure, it’s a bit like watching one of your kids kick a hole in the wall for an hour before telling them to stop, but it was something. The former Arsenal goalkeeper received his yellow card and then continued to waste time.
We had a corner, Villa broke and Ramsdale had to make another save. Fabio Vieira was the last defender. Arsenal pushed and pushed, but also a bit exposed. Villa had the ball, we recovered it, Martinelli made a pass into Jorginho’s trajectory that reached the edge of the D. The Italian international hit the first half. If the precision was a bit off, the shot control was immaculate. He hit the bar…then came down and hit the back of Martinez’s head and into the back of the net.
3-2! Waste of time, friend. Amazing scenes. There’s nothing like watching a player involved in completely understandable bullshit end up with bullshit in his own house. All over the house. Poop bricks. It turns into an own goal, which feels good under the circumstances, but fair play to Jorginho, and how much did he love it?
It wasn’t over though. The 6 minutes of added time, which could have been double, gave Villa the chance to equalize. There’s nothing quite like the fear of a corner kick in the depths of stoppage time when you’re holding on to an advantage. Arteta’s face at that moment:
Martinez went up for him. We cleared, the ball fell to Vieira who made a great pass into Martinelli’s path that made it 4-2 without the Villa goalkeeper in sight. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player celebrate an assist before the pass he gave to the scorer has reached his feet, and coupled with Martinelli’s celebration before he even put the ball in the net, it was glorious. . Football, damn it, and all that.
Arteta’s face 41 seconds later.
As the final whistle blew, Unai Emery in his brown waistcoat made his way to the dressing room as Arsenal players and fans celebrated. How ridiculous is this game. I’ve been around the block a few times, but the way you can be transported from despair to delight by 11 men kicking a football around is still a blast.
Later, Arteta said:
I think we showed a lot of resilience, character and quality. The context of the game was complicated, with the performance we had against City and without getting anything. Then to have to come here less than 72 hours later and find ourselves down 1-0 after five minutes.
At the break we said that we had to raise our individual level, that we had to look at each other in the face and that we had to do a lot more if we wanted to go out and win this game. We tweaked one or two things and then we had a very strong performance and we probably should have won it sooner than we did.
In the context of our season and the past few weeks, this is really a great win. Not only did it give us the three much-needed points, it’s the kind of win that can give a real lift to a team that, if not completely down, has been missing something in recent weeks. I agree with Arteta that they showed character and quality, the second half was much, much better than the first, and when you’re in a title race sometimes you have to find a way to win under extraordinary circumstances and we did.
It won’t make everything perfect, it’s still reasonable to care a little about certain people, but in the morning after such an incredible win, it feels rude to delve into that today. We have all week, on the blog and in the podcasts, to talk about other aspects of it.
For now, get on with your Sunday by imagining the feel of that ball hitting the back of Martinez’s head and going into the goal. What a nice sound it must have made. Enjoy the fact that City have taken points away from Nottingham Forest. What seemed like a really bad week for us ended up being pretty decent in the end.
Now, I’m going to make breakfast, I could hold the bacon before I even put it under the grill.
Have a good time folks, and don’t forget to join James and me for a Good Morning tomorrow.
