Where's Willo?

Last Saturday Arsenal clawed their way to victory over West Ham to maintain their 100% start to the new Premier League season. The first game at The Emirates ended 2-1 with an 85th minute winner from substitute Eddie Nketiah in a game which left a lot to be desired.

Arsenal’s struggles began with Tierney being withdrawn from the team during the warm ups with the Scotsman aggravating a minor groin injury. As a result Sead Kolasinac was called in to fill the left centre back role – highlighting both Kolasinac’s failings as a player in Arsenal’s system, and Tierney’s value. With the 3-4-3 Tierney often pushes out to a left back role during the build up where he can use his passing and movement to help advance Arsenal up the pitch. Kolasinac simply can’t replicate what Tierney does which resulted in Arsenal building through Gabriel, Holding, Xhaka and Ceballos, allowing West Ham to effectively press those players knowing that Kolasinac didn’t need much attention. Not only did Kolasinac limit Arsenal’s ability to progress the ball, but he also showed his defensive weakness through West Ham’s goal. Kolasinac, and Xhaka, both continued to back off as Bowen ran towards them with the Bosnian also failing to block the cross which followed, leading to Antonio’s goal. Whilst others were at fault, it’s hard to see Tierney allowing as much space in the same situation and the goal likely would have been prevented. Kolasinac has been a useful player during his time at Arsenal and it’s hard to complain with a free signing, but it’s clear his time at the club is coming to an end.

Despite Arsenal’s lack of creativity on the night, the two goals were both the product of well worked, incisive play. The first coming from Xhaka playing a line breaking pass through to Saka (with his right foot!) before the youngster turned and played a similar pass through to Aubameyang who delivered a superb chipped cross onto the head of Lacazette who powerfully headed home from close range. The second came from a prolonged one-two between Ceballos and Saka with the latter playing a similar through ball as he did for the first goal before Ceballos squared for Nketiah to tap home.

1-0 Lacazette

2-1 Nketiah

(Credit: Arsenal)

One situation at Arsenal which is becoming increasingly concerning is that of William Saliba. The young French defender has yet to make an appearance so far this season, and was only deemed good enough for the bench in a 2-0 victory over Leicester City in the Carabao Cup 3rd round. For someone who cost upwards of £30 million with the potential to be the next big centre back in Europe, it’s puzzling that he hasn’t featured. Arteta has hinted that Saliba needs time to adapt which is always the case when a young player moves to the Premier League but given the financial outlay and the early fixtures, it’s hard to see that as a reason for him missing out completely. It is understandable that a 19 year old may not be trusted in the Premier League but surely he should be given a chance in the cup, how else is he going to learn? Even if he does make a mistake, the rest of the team should be trusted to help him out and get him through. The most acceptable scenario would be that he is not fully up to the conditioning that Arteta would like and despite being fit for pre-season, he hasn’t played a professional game since March and had been struggling with a metatarsal fracture during last season. Whilst this is plausible, it’s still surprising that Saliba wasn’t even given 45 minutes against Leicester City, especially with Rob Holding starting every game so far this season and looking likely to do so again on Monday night. Either way it’s a concerning development but one which will hopefully be cleared up in the near future.

(Credit: Stuart MacFarlane)

Next up Arsenal face the champions at Anfield at 8:00pm on Monday night. Despite beating them twice since lockdown, it’s hard to see Arsenal coming out triumphant again. Liverpool weren’t at their best on either occasion and whilst this is a game the Gunners will relish, the addition of Thiago and the desire to retain the Premier League title will likely be too much.

Prediction: Liverpool 3 – 1 Arsenal

Adam Perry - 25/09/2020