Saviour
Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Just when the game seemed to have settled into a calm pattern of Arsenal keeping Burnley at arm’s length whilst 1-0 up, Granit Xhaka and Jonathan Dross injected a little variety into the proceedings. The inevitable rollercoaster followed, but, mercifully, we managed to come out on top, if only just. Let’s start at the beginning, though.
An unchanged side
I predicted one change, Bellerin for Gabriel, but even that didn’t transpire. However I don’t think we can have any complaints – everyone did their bit and did it well (barring a certain midfielder I’ll get to below). Gabriel, as a matter of fact, looked quite impressive in a position still mostly unfamiliar for him.
Everyone else did what was expected of him, more-or-less. Alexis was a bit too wasteful for my liking, while his non-existent link-up with Giroud remains a worry, but on the bright side, the Chilean did score a massively important goal at a crucial time. Also, I thought Ramsey upped his game, adding efficiency in his passing and overall decision-making. Fewer flicks, more end product and hair back to normal. Keep that up, Aaron.
Granit Xhaka
He was extremely useful right up to getting sent off. When Dross whipped out the red card I was stunned: the foul didn’t look that bad even without the benefit of replays. I thought Dross was consulting the lino on whether he should give a yellow or just call a foul.
The replays did little to convince me Dross was right, so I’ll be calling him that from here on out. Xhaka’s lunge was stupid and unnecessary, however it wasn’t remotely as dangerous as Defour made it look like. Worth noting it’s the second time Dross sends off Xhaka.
Foolish challenge
That does leave us without the Swiss for four games, as I don’t think we’ll be appealing that, particularly as Wenger has warned the player to control his game. He’ll miss games against Watford, Southampton, Hull and Chelsea. While I’m hopeful we can still get the results against the former three in Xhaka’s absence, Conte’s Chelsea is another thing entirely. The Coquelin – Ramsey pivot hasn’t proved to be functional and an unsettled midfield is something Chelsea are more than capable of exploiting.
This is the part where I once again bemoan Wilshere’s absence. All it took was Cazorla’s injury and Xhaka’s suspension and wham! We are out of options. Having Elneny wouldn’t have made a big difference in my opinion, as he doesn’t seem a player as capable of dictating play as any of Jack, Granit or Santi. We don’t even have Calum Chambers, who at one point did quite well alongside Aaron Ramsey.
I’ll just pray to the heavens the Coquelin – Ramsey pivot keeps us afloat, but the harsh reality is that I don’t think we can win a battle at Stamford Bridge with it, and we need to do just that to have a chance of a title.
Alexis Sanchez shows nerves of steel
The jubilation of us getting a late penalty quickly turned to dread as it dawned on me we had neither Santi Cazorla, nor Olivier Giroud on the pitch. Xhaka was sent off, Ozil subbed (not like they are good penalty takers anyway), so we were left with a choice of Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez. In theory we also had Danny Welbeck, but I just don’t remember him taking any penalties and it would have been unfair to entrust a player just back from injury such a task.
Nerves of steel
At first it looked like Ramsey was ready to take it, but then Alexis shooed him away and I had to suppress an urge of not looking. Sanchez never scored a pen for us and the two I remember his trying were quite horrendous misses too. However before my jangling nerves reached breaking point, Alexis ran up to the ball and dinked it over Heaton’s legs, right down the middle.
Now, that is a remarkable feat. It was calmness personified and whilst Alexis’ overall contribution left something to be desired, he got us the winning goal under a lot of pressure. He deserves all the praise for that.
The last word
This nerve-wracking win elevated us to second in the table, which is a nice place to be in after two consecutive losses in December and that 3-3 draw vs Bournemouth. Chelsea has beaten Hull to stay eight points ahead, but there’s nothing we can do about that. Conte’s men face Liverpool at Anfield next, before hosting us, so let’s hope come 14:30 on February 4th we are just two or three points behind. It’s not impossible. I am not sure what impact this importnat win has had on the Premier League betting but this weekend will have shortened Arsenal’s odds in the among the chasing pack.
I’ll sign off at that. Have a good week and I’ll be back on here to preview our cup visit to St. Mary’s. Oh and by the way well done to Mustafi
First goal
Take care all and thanks for reading.
Russian Gooner. No, it’s not always cold in my home country 🙂
A staunch Arsenal supporter since 2004. Started writing about the Gunners in 2013.
Currently in London to get a degree in journalism.
Great match summary there Alex. However, you calling him “Johnathan Dross” is simply not enough to describe his diabolically poor refereeing performance in the 2nd half. I’ll highlight 3 incidents.
Dean Marney should have been sent off for his “tackle” on Ozil that left the German flying through the air – it also looked to me like a professional foul as Marney looked like the last man. Ozil was clean through and, according to the rules of the game, a professional foul is an automatic red card. Marney injuring himself was a bonus but he still should have seen red, as his challenge was much more dangerous than the red card that was given to Xhaka.
Also, Ben Mee’s boot to Koscielny’s face for the penalty at the end of the match. That was a high boot, which qualifies as overly dangerous play and is also an automatic red card. The penalty was not enough for me. Too many teams seem to get away with dirty play vs. Arsenal (looking firmly at Preston here too after their dirty tactics in the Cup a few weeks back) and escape punishment and suspensions due to biased refs. It is disgusting and incidents like this should be under review by the Premier League regardless of if the referee has taken action on the pitch or not to stamp out this sort of play and to also try to break referee bias, which was obvious from Moss in this match.
The third incident where Moss was possibly the most useless was when Ashley Barnes, a real hatchet man from what I have seen of him, was lying down in our box and then sat up and kicked Koscielny in the hip with his shin and dragged his studs down Gabriel’s leg. As far as I am concerned, if a player is down, he should NOT be interfering with play. Not sure exactly where the rules stand here on punishment but Barnes was NOT in possession of the ball at all in that incident, it was simply deliberate fouling on Barnes’ part and went unpunished by the useless referee. Arsene Wenger should lodge a complaint about this – many dirty players seem to escape suspensions for nonsense like this because managers have little recourse against biased refs. PGMOL need to sort out this nonsense from their refs.