I can’t reiterate enough how pointless and boring international breaks are.
Nothing kills the mood, the momentum or the magic quite like two weeks of aimless friendlies with precious little consequence or meaning. International football has become a void we all stare into for long periods without really knowing why.
So, instead of void-gazing for too long, I am going to use the opportunity to carry out a quick review of Arsenal’s Premier League season so far, with the obvious caveat that it is still painfully early in the campaign and so much is still yet to transpire.
But hey, I can only work with what I’ve got!
The broad conclusion is this: it’s gone pretty well.
From seven games played, we have five wins and have scored 15 goals. We have two draws on our record and no losses. So far in this campaign, we have conceded six goals and currently sit in third place behind Manchester City and Liverpool. So far, so good.
If we have any cause for complaint as fans it’s not even with the players or the manager, it’s with our own misfortune. The two matches in which we’ve dropped points have both been matches in which we’ve been reduced to 10 men for, frankly, farcical reasons.
Only two players have been sent off for ‘delaying the restart’ this season – both of them Arsenal players and, in both cases, in situations where the Gunners were ahead of their opponent. As so many have already pointed out, no other team has yet suffered at the hands of this absurd new directive and, it won’t have escaped your notice, that it is a rule that already seems to have been quietly consigned to the dustbin.
Quite where we would be had we not fallen foul of incompetent, inconsistent officiating is anybody’s guess but we have a strong case that we would have won seven from seven this season. We were certainly in a position in both games for that to have been the case.
Leaving aside our officiating woes, I think you have to be satisfied with how the squad is performing. We have found a mean streak this season, perhaps even greater than last season. We are miserly in defence and scrap for every ball. We are cynical, we are streetwise and we are not afraid to adapt our game for our opponent, sometimes even several times in a game.
Just take the Manchester City game. We played good attacking football up until the dismissal, after which we adapted to a more parsimonious style of play. It wasn’t pretty by any means but it was demonstrative of how well adapted we are to every scenario.
It’s clear we are smarter this season. Perhaps more so than we’ve ever been and it has paid dividends, particularly in the bigger, arguably more difficult games. City and Spurs barely had a sniff.
If there is anywhere you might argue we are short, it is in a genuine, stone-cold killer up front. Take nothing away from Kai Havertz, he has been outstanding this season, but I still feel like a longer-term, dedicated option is required – an out-and-out goalscorer. In all likelihood, that is something we will have to wait until next summer to address, however.
But in almost every other position on the pitch, we’ve been about as good as we could be, and that’s even allowing for the quite substantial number of injuries with which we have had to contend. If the manager is looking at an area he can improve, it would, I imagine, be in the defensive discipline at the Emirates.
Much like last season, we have shown a tendency to be much looser at home than away and that has resulted in the type of cheap giveaways (think Leicester and Southampton) we wouldn’t really see on our travels.
In terms of fixtures played, we certainly haven’t had it easy in this campaign. Trips to Spurs, Aston Villa and Manchester City represent an enormous challenge so early on. To have emerged from those with seven points (which might easily have been nine) is testament to our excellence.
There are no easy games in the Premier League these days but, as starts go, ours has been about as testing as it could have been.
After the international break, our next five fixtures see us travel to Bournemouth, host Shakhtar and Liverpool, travel to Preston North End and them head to the north east for an away day at Newcastle. A mixed bag by any measure.
All things considered, we have started this season about as well as had hoped. We’re unbeaten and we’re at the right end of the table. We have shown ourselves to be motivated, we have seen glimpses of a real determination to go one better this season, and the personnel we have available have been fantastic to a man.
We can’t ask for much more than that.
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