Of Equal Importance [CRY 0-1 ARS] (Positives Needs & Hopes)

Of Equal Importance

An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective 

My life experience has led me to understand that one of the most enjoyable times of a man’s life is when he is part of a band of brothers.
Men need a group of men in their life.
When a man finds this experience he craves for it. I believe it’s God intended. It feels different to any other experience that a man can feel. That you know that you have loyalty around you. That you have people in your life that care for you as much as they do the group. That if something goes south for you that you have soldiers that will step forward. That you have others who know how it feels. That adversity makes many run – but not your band. They step towards your adversity.

If Arsenal don’t win anything more under Arteta, they will still look back at this time in their life as a highlight. They have found their William Wallace and they all believe in and follow him. You see this when there is an injury. Our opponents, all of them, don’t give their coach the same respect. You can see it.
You can see it in our desire to do the ugly part of the game. Although it isn’t an exclusive Arsenal trait that we press and counterpress, we do it for 100 minutes and others don’t get close to that.
For over half of my life I’ve seen teams of boys and men who all agreed that fitness and conditioning is awful for the first week, but as they develop muscle structure, fitness, and the camaraderie, they start to love the ugly work. I can’t speak for the ladies, and it might be the same for them also, but we are seeing a group who are fully convinced and are a band of brothers that will one day be documentary-worthy.
This Arsenal team touches every emotion. Pride, joy, determination and on and on.
Yesterday they made us nervous. An unavoidable emotion in sport. What was different about these nerves were that they weren’t holding hands with fear. A draw was possible, because you don’t always get what you deserve in football, but not inevitable.
Palace were good but still not good enough. Arsenal were the reason why their ‘good’ wasn’t enough.

Arsenal need to know that they can win in these circumstances. When my team wins game after game easily I worry for them. I worry that whether they are a band of brothers or not, that they are not having to use all of the emotions that football provides and I secretly wish that someone puts us in situations of adversity.

In a strange way, all victories are of equal importance.

You need to know that you can be lucky. You need to know that you will dominate and deserving to win. You need to know that you can win when you have to fight and draw blood. You also need to know that you can win when you aren’t good.
All offer three points and in a 9 month season all are equal – and unless you support Barcelona ladies, you will experience all of it.

POSITIVES:

• I watched the game with a City fan and a West Ham fan. We were discussing how Eddie is slowly becoming a conversation. He went from being a good finisher to now having a far more rounded game. The latest edition is individualism. He has spun his marker who is stapled to his back at least twice this season. He dribbles and changes his pace now especially coming from the left as he did against Palace yesterday. I would say that about half of the strikers in the Premier League are conversations in team meetings before games. The other half simply do not have any one quality that creates fear in opponents or the coaching staff. My friends and I all agreed that Eddie is starting to become a conversation due to his individualism.

• It has been about 20 years since I have watched an Arsenal team physically control games. I remember when Arteta became coach that he talked about the need to have players who can physically compete against the “beasts of the Premier League.” He has been supported well and created a team where interestingly enough our right winger is actually one of the strongest players in the entire league.

• Watch what happens when Rice gets the ball in central areas. Odegaard, Nketiah and Martinelli all make runs away from Saka and in behind the defence. They do this to open up the free long ball to Saka who is alone on the right wing. I love how we have recognized that Saka is being double teamed so often, and that there are creative ways to not only get him one on one, but to get him alone. Very smart.

• I’m glad that Arteta was bold enough to change the penalty kick taker. For some reason, Saka often miss-strikes his penalty kicks. I think his technique is off. I think he’s trying to be too deceptive and therefore messing up his own technique.

• Saliba’s tackle wasn’t just well timed. I noticed that both he and Rice both have an intelligent tackling style. They don’t get close to contacting the opponent. They put their tackling foot in the area where the ball is going to be rather than where it is. I hope that makes sense.

• Yet again our defenders look like the first ones over the top of the trenches. So brave, so determined and very much in control. Saliba is maturing into the world’s best central defender rather quickly. Ben White is so incredibly reliable. Gabriel put on his away day hero cape that he wore last season and didn’t pout that he’d been left out. If Tomi is given a run of games he will return to being one of the hardest defenders to beat in the league. Partey is doing two jobs, much as he did last season. Because most teams now have the most dangerous players on the wing, Partey needs to be applauded for his adaptation.

• Rice is getting better and better. He was the dominant midfielder in this game against other very good midfielders. On both sides of the ball also. Particularly love how he is the new kid on the block and you can see how much he appreciates being part of this special group. He is a difficult player to describe as he has almost every quality, but for me, I think the best description is that he is a serious footballer.

• I love how Saka is running behind more. Those that have read my work for a few years will have noted that I have talked about the need for this way too often. Not only is he running behind but he is being deceptive in his movement to get there also. White is so aware of him and the relationship is fully connected. Of course Gareth Southgate is yet to figure this out.

• I really like the inswinging corners even though they haven’t lead to a goal yet. It’s all about the delivery. If Saka and Martinelli can keep the quality high then the law of averages will mean that one of our players will get there first. That’s all it needs really.

• We better not shout it too loudly but the quick free kick that led to the goal is not a one off. It’s the third time that I can remember seeing it since the start of pre-season. It is clearly a plan to look disinterested and have the player closest to the defender who is marking the runner get blocked off much like a basketball pick.

NEEDS:

• Is it worth talking about the standard of refereeing? I don’t think I’m a whiner, but not only is the standard so below average but there are so many stupid rules. One of the most influential moments in a football match is if somebody gets sent off. Almost every bit as important as a goal and equally as important as a potential penalty kick. They review straight red cards but not two yellow cards? The result is exactly the same. As you likely saw yourself, the wrong player was booked for Tomiyasu‘s first yellow card as Havertz had the ball for over 20 seconds and then gave it to Tomi who had it for eight seconds. The second yellow card caught me out as Ayew was quite a clever cheat/good actor. Only VAR revealed that Tomi didn’t pull his jersey and that Ayew tried his luck because Saliba was about to dispossess him. But hey-ho, let’s focus on Arteta standing 1 yard outside his technical area and protect the soft 4th official because he hasn’t yet been taught bad words and he might cry if we tell him that his mate in the middle is rubbish.

• I do think that our targets in the penalty area are either getting there too early or need to make a second run. They are too static and so even though having Havertz consistently in the penalty area, he is being ineffective as his staticness, as well as others, is asking for nothing less than perfection in the delivery. Perhaps the cross could come in earlier too.

HOPES:

• Arsenal will hopefully stay amongst the elite. If we do then we will see that the signings will be game changers. After a deep and solid squad is fully formed it will be players with magic dust that will be sought after. Eze has had this dust sprinkled over him. There were so many games in this league that are tight and you need a player that is adventurous and unafraid to lose possession by taking risks. On top of that, his acceleration is elite as is his dribbling.

• Palace have always been a middle table team because they’ve always had one or two with the stardust. I was also impressed by Guehi. There have been rumors all summer and I wonder if we will go for him in the next 10 days. Really not sure why Michael Olise stayed also. Another with the dust.

FINAL THOUGHT:

Thank you to the many who have sent me messages about my podcast that I did last season. I do endeavor to get back to it. It’s just simply a time issue. I’m trying to replicate my football team by being a solid allrounder and spending time with my family as family is the best of all gifts.

I think that the Fulham game will bring back the happiness of watching us dominate with our Ukrainian inverted left back. I think we would all like to see a different type of victory to add to the first two, which are again equally important. A nice 5–0 would be quite lovely.

I predict Declan Rice‘s first Arsenal goal on Saturday.

Mike McDonald

Former Highbury regular. Moved to TN, USA in ’99. Married with 3 kids. Coached in UK and US for 27 years.
Mike McDonald Soccer Academy in Morristown TN, Olympic Development coach, Regional Premier League Champion.