Johnny Nicholson: tougher tests await impressive Arsenal
QUICK START: Arsenal fans celebrate at full time on Saturday: Picture: Steven Paston/PA Wire.
Obviously Bournemouth wasn't much of a test for the Gunners and harder games await, but even so, they do look like a much better balanced and more complete side this year. Last season they lost their first three games, this year they’ve won them and look unlikely to suffer points losses against the ‘lesser’ clubs and are a much better bet to compete against the best. Their conversion rate is twice as good. What is so impressive is how fluid they are in their transitions. In peak form they play an easy on the eye liquid football. They have width with Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard is starting to look imperious in an advanced midfield role and with Gabriel Jesus scoring and assisting, the front two thirds are working very well. But it’s easy to over-rate any team when the sun is still hot in August. October will be a watershed month with Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester City to play, then Chelsea on November 5th. Those five weeks will help define their season.
Leeds look really fit and very well organised, they are exceptional at pressing the ball and perform well-oiled midfield transitions. They ripped Chelsea apart and wouldn’t let them rest for a second. It was a tactical win for Jesse Marsch who had clearly identified Chelsea’s weaknesses and ruthlessly exploited them. The speed at which they closed down Édouard Mendy every time the ball was played back to him, clearly putting the fear of God into the keeper and into his defenders, was a deliberate game plan which paid off big style. Rodrigo has now scored four, the excellent Jack Harrison has three assists and a goal but it was Tyler Adams in midfield who bossed the game for his team. He was hugely impressive, snapping into every tackle and playing the ball forward all game long. A huge 3 - 0 win for Leeds and one which leaves Chelsea looking like they have a lot of problems and not many solutions.
Why do Spurs throw in a half of lethargic, almost tired-looking football? Against Wolves in the first 45 minutes, they seemed to be wearing lead boots. They did this regularly last season only to come out in the second, presumably having felt Antonio Conte’s wrath as a transformed side. In the second half Tottenham were once again transformed into a dynamic, attacking and dangerous team who played with intensity. They hit the bar with a Harry Kane header, were easily the best side and probably should’ve won by more than Kane’s 250th Spurs goal. Surely if they are going to have a chance of making an impression in the title race, they will need to make sure poor first halves are a rarity rather than, as they have been for some time now, a regular occurrence.
It is one of those current football fashions that infuriate. The principle of keeping possession is fine, but time and again, it achieves the exact opposite. All too often the keeper is simply deferring a pass to his centre back that could be made by himself. The truth is, too few defenders and goalkeepers are good enough with their feet to be successful at this and they give themselves more problems trying to be clever. We’ve seen David De Gea make a hash of it recently but most sides do it and most put themselves in trouble too often. It’s just a fashion and making players play that way when they’e not good enough to do so, is plainly stupid. You’re as well kicking it long and fighting for the second ball, then at least you can’t give the ball away in front of your own goal.
If Bruno Lage wanted his team to demonstrate where they need reinforcement, their game against Tottenham was the perfect illustration. With their new £38 million signing Matheus Nunes already looking at home in midfield, they looked very good in the first half and would’ve been two up if only they had a striker. They’re a fluent side who get to the opposition box and then run out of ideas. They had 20 strikes at the Spurs goal but just three were on target. In the remaining transfer window, super agent Jorge Mendes, who has done so much to provide Portuguese playing staff for the club, needs to find them a forward who can immediately walk into the first team and can finish off all their other good work.
Were Crystal Palace just too good going forward or are Aston Villa defensively weak? A bit of both, probably. Wilf Zaha and Eberechi Eze ran Villa ragged all afternoon. Tyrone Mings, brought back last week after being dropped for the opening game, is a good player but one who is hard to rely on to be mistake-free and the feeling persists that he only returned due to injury to others. They got overrun by Crystal Palace and couldn’t compete with them physically. Anyone hoping that Villa would find a new higher level this season have seen little evidence of improvement and plenty of suggestions that they have declined somewhat. They need strengthening defensively before the end of the transfer window and they need to get Philippe Couthino - a 73rd minute substitute here - to perform at the top of his game. On paper they look better than they do on grass, that must to some extent be laid at the door of their manager and Steven Gerrard will know that.
Nottingham Forest asserted some degree of dominance over the game against Everton. They marked the home side really well and held them in shackles for large stretches of the match. The home side didn’t really put pressure on the Forest goal and when they did, ‘keeper Dean Henderson put in a solid performance, saving well. What a good signing the former Manchester United man is. Forest scored 22 goals in the last 15 minutes of the game last season. That’s a great habit to have developed and in the 81st minute they did it again at the often quiet Goodison Park, with last season’s top scorer Brennan Johnson snaffling a rebound. Gibbs-White was an important introduction. He bought so much energy and seemed to inject Forest with the will to win. They will feel their draw is two points lost.
It was remarkable to see how going a goal behind transformed Everton. The drive they showed after equalising Brennan Johnson’s strike in the 88th minute, gave the Everton faithful what they had been missing all game long. Where was this desire, urgency and passion for the previous 88 minutes? They battered Forest in injury time but didn’t deserve three points. This sort of performance points either to a lack of motivation before falling behind, or more likely, being tactically restricted by how they were set up. Those last four minutes proved they could play direct attacking and dangerous football. Demarai Gray’s goal was excellent long ball football with Jordan Pickford getting the assist. Why doesn’t Frank Lampard ask them to play like that from the start? The problem is that they only came alive when they took the initiative into their own hands when there was nothing left to lose. In other words, Lampard hinders more than he helps.
The Saints remain an enigma capable of being spineless and taking heavy beatings, but also capable of an excellent away win at Leicester courtesy of two Che Adams strikes. While they only enjoyed 39% possession, scoring with two of their three shots on target was enough to put the Foxes to bed for their first away win since February. Just when you think Ralph Hasenhüttl is in danger, his team grab excellent results. Is that enough for the club?
They slipped into the bottom three and if plenty of new blood doesn’t arrive before the end of the transfer window, they look poorly equipped to fight against relegation. They’ve got Jamie Vardy to extend his contract to 2024, but, perhaps that is a sign of their lack of resources. For all Vardy’s talents, he’ll be 38 when the contract expires and you can’t rely on a striker in his mid 30s to lead your attack. With odds shortening on Brendan Rodgers being the first manager to find himself out of a job this season, something needs to be done to inject some new vitality into the club and increasingly, putting a new man in charge looks like the only way to do that.
If there were awards for managerial celebrations Jesse Marsch would surely have won it this week for his leaping, thrusting and bouncing pitchside freakout after Leed’s first goal. A manager wearing tight jeans still seems exotic in English football and they do smack of the divorced dad who is back on the market, but Marsch is an engaging character with a team that has started the season well, have a wonderful work effort and are clearly working hard for their manager.
David Moyes team was booed off at half time, going in a goal down to Brighton and very much second best and while they did a little better in the second half, their opponents are so well organised and play to a well defined style, they were far the superior side, Leandro Trossard particularly excellent. This isn’t because they have better players but because the players they do have are better coached, better assembled and better organised. They are the product of Graham Potter’s managerial talent, just as David Moyes' West Ham are. The Hammers finished Sunday at the bottom of the league, Brighton in the top six. That isn’t a coincidence. West Ham’s next three games are against Aston Villa, Spurs and Chelsea. If he emerges from that run without any points, he’ll likely be sacked.
In the owners sportswashing derby, the human rights abusers drew with warmongering murderers in a great game.
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