Premier League - Matchday 9 - Arsenal v Aston Villa - October 22, 2021

Can we just collectively stop with the long potshots, FFS

 

I absolutely love how we've thrown the word "patience" out of our dictionary today. One of the best halves of footy we've played all season.

 

Why are our players allergic to through balls into the box? If the defense gets it, it's the same result as every one of our long shots.

 

This team looks a lot better with Lacazette in for Odegaard.

 

We can only hope that Arteta gets some positive reinforcement from the way we played this half. E.g. high collective pressing is a good thing, which we could/should do more of.

 

Sambi heard you and earned a corner.

 

Bro, that's a yellow card? FOH

 

Really liking Ramsdale's quick throws out today too

 

I told you guys .. Arsenal are coming back !!

 

We're gonna get a PK??? By VAR

Edit: YES!!!!

 

That's a pen

 

It's not a penalty and we deserve a bad call in our favor for once.

 

"He gets the ball" Lol shut up loser

 

Wow, odd deal. VAR awards a PK to Arsenal after the halftime whistle

 

Emi's succeeding at winding up Laca

 

VAR is dumb and inconsistent, but I like it much better when it favors Arsenal.

 

Looked a clear penalty to me

 

Auba's shot is saved, but he puts away the rebound. How was time not up after the first shot? Whatevs; 2-0

 

Tbh pretty satisfying to bury Emi lol

 

VAR giving us a penalty (which I think isn't a penalty), Emi saving it, and Auba scoring the rebound is brave new world territory.

 

HT 2-0. Woohoo! And Phew!!!

That last-minute drama allows me to rewrite my HT summary, at least the line that said "the only fault I can find is we only scored once"

Here's the bit that I saved...

Finally we get the stats we've been waiting for:

 

Saka on the right and Laca in/Odegaard and Pepe out are the difference makers for having a functional attack. And Villa look toothless otherwise.

 

It was a pretty great save by Emi and then just as good awareness by Auba to follow his shot and convert the rebound.

 

Yeah but that's probably not the only story. I suspect there was a fair bit of discussion and coaching leading up to our game. We played collectively at another level in the first half, regardless of which players were in the XI

 

Yeah but this formation and the players in it are a massive difference. Usually our players in attack are so far apart from each other--no connectivity in the middle of the park, which forces the awful horseshoe style of play. Laca is coming very close to our midfielders to help them have short options to overload defenders and dislodge them from their block. His forward runs off this work help build momentum centrally. Saka on the right is just so much better at buildup than Pepe, which I think more than makes up for the reduction in end-product. If we did this tactical change but kept Odegaard/Pepe in the squad I don't think it would work.