It’s been a tough few days for the Gooner family, any enjoyment we took from seeing our favourites resting, training and growing together in the Dubai sunshine was cruelly cut short with the devastating news of Kai Havertz being ruled out for the rest of the season with a hamstring. What had we done to deserve such bad luck, for anybody else a hamstring means 3 weeks recovery but for Arsenal it’s 3 months!
Fortunately we have a man in charge who doesn’t allow the darkness to fester and after a short few moments of despair Mikel Arteta got to work on the emotional well-being of his players, no time to feel sorry for yourself you have two trophies to fight for – what a man.
Leicester away on paper, given their recent results, looked a nailed on 3 pointer, although no Premier League team rolls over, well maybe Tottenham. But with no physical presence up front it was going to be a tough assignment. Arteta needed to be creative and he was as creative as he could be given his resources.
It was a miserable, miserable day, a heavy drizzle made the pitch slippery and ball control an issue, Leicester stuck 10 men behind the ball leaving the wily Vardy to plough a lonely furrow up front. Nobody can bounce off of a defender and win a cheap free kick like our Jamie even if that burst of pace has deserted him, he’s scored more EPL goals against Arsenal in his career than any other club (11) so the threat was still there in his aging legs.
Ndidi had returned to the Foxes midfield and added a degree of quality and resilience, he’s one the club could look at in the summer, Ayew did what Ayew always does – leaves his foot in, he’s a tough nut and he gave Timber an interesting afternoon.
In general we got what we expected from our defence and midfield, dominated possession and pretty much pinned Leicester into their half. The low block in front of Leicester’s goal reminded me of Marble Arch gyratory on a Saturday afternoon (minus the kamikaze cyclists) room was at a premium and as much as Arsenal tried to tiptoe through the tulips there was just too many blue socked legs in the way.
Leicester created the odd hairy moment, but that’s to be expected when the onus was on Arsenal to go for it, but generally Arsenal kept the back door shut in the 1st 45 even if our creatively output was not going to get you off of your seat. I was pretty much in 1-0 to the Arsenal mode.
The 2nd 45 was a bit more open, maybe Leicester sensed an opportunity to earn a surprise victory with Arsenal labouring up front? Leicester’s best chance came shortly after the hour mark as a low cross flashed across our goal with only a timely Myles Lewis Skelly toe poke preventing a far post tap in for De Cordova-Reid.
Arteta had seen enough and on 69 minutes he took off the ineffective Sterling and sent on Mikel Merino, but honestly was this midfielder going to turn the game in our favour? What had he really done up till now?
MM made a bit of a nuisance of himself in the box and Trossard, the recipient of some nasty ankle ‘taps’ moved out onto the left wing. On the 76th minute Arteta made the crucial substitutions of Califiori for the impressive but tiring Lewis Skelly and Jorginho for the disappointing Partey, Jorginho immediately took control of the midfield and Califiori added some energy and physical presence on the left flank and 5 minutes later we were, or I was, dancing around the front room celebrating.
A smart combination of passing resulted in Nwaneri clipping a diagonal cross from the right edge of the penalty area towards the far post and rising like a salmon to head home was Mikel Merino with twisted neck muscles to direct a powerful header past the helpless Foxes goalkeeper. Cue pandemonium in the away end and the birth of a new, melodic song for our new ‘striker’… Cue pandemonium in my front room with two bemused cats looking at me as if I was having ‘a moment’.
Well I kinds was tbh.
The weight seemed to collectively lift from the team and we moved the ball around sweetly after that, Leicester of course came back at us but the Foxes don’t have the quality they once had and we kept them at arms length despite a few crosses into the box. On the 87th minute the ball found itself at the capable feet of Leo Trossard and with Leicester stretched he had at last the time and space to measure the perfect low cross/pass to Super Mikel Merino racing in on the right side of the goal area who calmly adjusted his stance to left foot a low shot into the net, job done!
At the end the team celebrated but didn’t overdo it, we don’t want to trigger anyone do we?
I can honestly say that this was one of the most satisfying victories of this season for me all things considered, it shows that we’re still in the fight and Liverpool will not have an easy ride to the end of the season.
Nwaneri was man of the match and produced a sparkling performance that’ll excite the fans and give Bakayo food for thought and maybe Bakayo’s future lays elsewhere in this team, that said we certainly won’t need to flog him like a pack horse anymore?
Special mention to Timber who had his hands full and Saliba who was getting his mojo back after Isak and of course the King of Brazil who never fails. MLS was so good they named him twice, Rice I thought had a great game, working like a Trojan, getting into the box, helping out the defence, compensating for an off-form Partey, he never stops running, tackling, passing etc. Sterling was bang average and basically played himself out of the team, you know, you want him to do well but you just can’t keep kidding yourself, he might be a lovely fella who his team mates love but he can’t do it anymore.
Trossard had a couple of control issues when in good positions but he never hides, he always makes himself available and gets routinely kicked into the bargain, he came off on the 87th minute to be replaced by Mr Tesco, always good to see him on the pitch.
Odegaard is still struggling to find his A game ( is he carrying an injury?) but he’ll still give you everything. Califiori made an impressive contribution and he never sulks, a great team player and a thoroughly likeable character. Jorginho brought an air of composure and control to the midfield, maybe he deserves to start the next game?
And so we fight on…