Arsenal travelled to Norwich led by interim manager, Freddie Ljunberg, looking for a first win in eight matches. Going into the match, there was a level of optimism within the fan base after the news of Unai Emery’s departure on Friday, but you’d have been forgiven to think that Unai Emery was still in charge given the performance of the team, only managing to hold on to a 2-2 draw Vs relegation battling Norwich City.
Let’s look at some key lessons learnt today;
1.Discordant backline still a problem
Should this even be here? This is nothing new anymore, even a person who doesn’t watch football would probably have heard of Arsenal and a poor defense.
However, today’s shambolic defending came in another dimension. Usually, the defenders would commit comical errors and give away cheap goals or switch off to let an opposition attacker in, today’s was quite a mix of both and then some.
Given Arsenal, as expected, attacked ceaselessly higher up the pitch, Norwich counters where to be expected, the manner in which it was to be countered, however, seemed unknown. Arsenal would quickly get bodies back, but that was just about it, the defenders seemed not to have known their responsibilities, repeatedly Mustafi would point to David Luiz trying to justify not going for a tackle, and the reverse.
There was the usual poor awareness and game reading, but today just seemed to add a new leaf to a book which should actually be torn.
2.Excessive Turn Over
If you were counting how many times Arsenal gave the ball away, you’d almost certainly have lost count by the time the match ended. Arsenal made it seem impossible to string 10 passes together, even under minimal pressure, the gave the ball away incessantly.
It’s only testament to this fact that both goals gave from Arsenal giving the ball away rather cheaply. If they must successfully dominate possession and, once again, play the beautiful brand of football they made a name with over the years, they must learn to play through the press and minimize turn overs.
3.Creative Midfield Still A Problem
Coming into this season, it didn’t look like that creative midfield will pose so much of an issue like it did last season. The addition of Dani Ceballos and the usual new season promise of a ‘New Özil’ seemed to have solved, or at least reduce to a minimal amount, the midfield creativity conundrum, but that has certainly not bee the case.
Arsenal, like in just about every other match this season, we’re quite relatively predictable. The only clear creativity plan put in place was to get the ball to those on the wing and put in a hopeful cross.
That, in itself, is a ridiculous tactic given that the primary goal getter in the team, being Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, is yet to score a header in two(2) years here despite scoring over half a century of goals, Lacazette ,also, being the next in line, has scored a few headers but is no Olivier Giroud, he’s diminutive and best with the ball at his feet.
There has been little to no midfield creativity in the team so far, and if we’re to get better results, that has to change.
Whatever the case maybe, this is Freddie’s first game, let’s hope he irons all of this out in the next couple of games.
