Free
hit time and Arsenal away at The Emirates, an away ground but we have an almost
100% record at and not in a good way. To be honest, we used to get battered
pretty routinely at Highbury as well, but The Emirates has been a whole new
level of pain ever since it was built. Highbury is still the only ground where
I have left a game seriously early – Ian Wright completing a hat-trick to make
it 4-0 in the 58th minute was enough for me back in the dim and distant past.
Most people are going into this game expecting something similar today.

Arsenal this year like last, are the main serious rival to Manchester City
apart from points deductions. The manager, Mikel Arteta has been building
something for a considerable number of years now and is getting pretty close.
There is and always will be something about him though that makes you hope that
he never quite gets there. This season they have started well of course but
have lost their talismanic captain, Martin Ødegaard to injury but other than
him, last year‘s team that ran Manchester City close is still intact. Last
year, David Raya was brought in on loan, which 12 months later has led to us
signing Aaron Ramsdale. For that I guess we should thank Arteta – even if he is
annoying.

When you play teams like Arsenal and you look for weakness, there aren’t really
any as they are of course ridiculously strong in all areas of the pitch, so I
think you have to focus on the areas that are not quite as good as the others.  In Arsenal‘s case, it’s the creativity
through midfield without Odegaard and the area that will ultimately mean that they
don’t finish about Manchester City, which is the attack. The likes of Trossard,
Jesus and Sterling are obviously very good, but they are not exceptional.

Russell Martin has the chance today to get the team to put on a performance
that banishes all the bad vibes of the Bournemouth game. There is zero
expectation around this game, but we do need to put up a spirited performance
and we cannot afford to get absolutely dicked.

The first thing to report about the team news is that we actually have a
striker on the pitch in Ross Stewart.  There
is one unusual name, courtesy of what has become the traditional Russell Martin
curveball, and it’s Ryan Manning who has not played a minute for the first team
this season, neither in the league or the Carabao Cup. I’m guessing that he is
in the team to combat Bukayo Saka down the Arsenal right. KWP has returned in
place of Charlie Taylor, and on the face of it, having a right footed left back
is not the worst thing in the world when Saka wants to come in on his left foot
the whole time. Joe Aribo comes into the team instead of Big Les, which was
entirely predictable given Russell Martin’s comments post-Bournemouth.

Arsenal selection offers a chink of possibility. Raheem Sterling is starting…
I’ve always thought he was shit and that’s a hill I will die on. For me his
pace always masks the fact that he isn’t actually a very good footballer. Also
starting is Gabriel Jesus who has looked very out of form whenever he’s played,
so hopefully we can frustrate and build into the game.

Away we go and it looks like a 4-4-1-1 formation with Matty Fernandes trying to
get forward to support Stewart and Ryan Manning stationed on the left of
midfield.  It’s all Arsenal from the
start as you’d expect and Saints are not helping themselves by playing into the
traps that Arsenal are clearly setting to catch us in possession in our own
half. I count five times in a row that we don’t get out of our half before
losing the ball and from one such turnover in play, Saka drills a cross over
from the right, which is fired back into the mixer, hits Bednarek on the ankle
and luckily bounces clear for Manning to hack it away.

Despite the suicide-ball that we attempt to play, we are restricting Arsenal
and they are not testing Ramsdale at all. Finally, the game stops looking like
a training exercise of attack versus defence and Aribo works the ball out to Dibling
on the right, who teases Calafiore before his cross is headed out by Partey and
KWP takes a swing from the edge of the box which is straight at Raya.

Saints are now finding their men quite well and Ramsdale chips one into the
middle of the park, which Stewart controls and gets absolutely wiped out by
Declan Rice. Stewart is up and then down again and it immediately becomes
apparent that it’s a return to Crock Ness. The most remarkable thing about this
is that the referee Tony Harrington has actually given us a free kick.   It’s a sad sight to see Ross going off again
and you fear the worst as he doesn’t tend to do one-week injuries.  With Ross forlornly sitting on the deck and
being treated, Cameron Archer is coming on which is a bit strange considering
all Stewart has been trying to do is hold the ball up for our midfielders to
join in. Tall Paul must be wondering what he’s got to do to get on the pitch.

We have now gone full training exercise.  Archer is not getting a touch and so Saints aren’t
getting out at all. Saka is the main Arsenal threat, and his cross is deflected
out to Jorginho who flashes a shot narrowly wide.  Arsenal’s physicality is something that we
are struggling to live with and Havertz easily holds off Bednarek to knock the
ball down and Arsenal are away again at the left through Sterling but as usual
Sterling makes every wrong decision possible and his shot is headed away by the
retreating Bednarek. Saka then tees up Thomas Partey on the edge of the box and
he doesn’t wait for an invitation as usual, before firing on in there and Ramsdale
gets down well to save and then Bednarek clears for a corner.

Half-time and so far, so good in that we have kept it relatively tight and
reached this point goalless which everyone would’ve taken before the start of
the game. A lot of been made of the set piece threat the Arsenal pose but we
have survived five or six corners with relatively few alarms. It’s is of
course, a long way to go before we can get in anyway excited about the
possibility of getting a point.

The second half starts with the usual procession towards our goal and Gabriel
Jesus puts one wide from the edge of the box. Saints then start showing intent
as Tyler Dibling takes on the much hyped Calafiori and leaves him for dead,
cutting into the penalty area before his cross flicks off of Gabriel and
Fernandes desperately tries to readjust himself as he flies into the box,
getting a touch and lifting it onto the roof of the net.

55 minutes and Saints try to play out and lose the ball to Sterling but
Fernandes snaps back at him and runs him off the ball. Whilst Sterling is
flapping around on the ground appealing for a free kick, Fernandes turns and sends
Archer away in the inside left channel. His first touch takes the ball out to
the corner of the penalty area but he cuts inside Saliba and drills it across Raya
into the far corner. Fucking hell. What have we done?

After the mental celebrations have calmed down, Arsenal kick-off and we win the
ball back with Fernandes knocking the ball back to Downes, who then telegraphs
a ball out to the left to Manning which is easily intercepted by Saka and
played forward to Havertz, who chops inside THB and smashes it past Ramsdale
and then off the post. Fucks sake.  We
led for three minutes.  Completely
preventable.

Arteta throws on subs now and the Arsenal team gets immeasurably stronger with
the arrival of Trossard, Martinelli and Merino.  The shit pair of Sterling and Gabriel Jesus
have gone off, along with Jorginho. Arsenal are stepping up again now and Partey
tries another unwelcome advance and shot from the edge of the box which is
deflected narrowly wide with Ramsdale diving the other way.

More pressure and Arsenal easily get the ball out to Saka on their right and he
gives Manning twisted blood before crossing to the back post where Martinelli
has half the pitch to himself and volleys in from very close range.  Bollocks…. but we’re off to VAR.

“Hi Stockley Park, Tony Harrington here at Arsenal”
“Who they playing Tony?”
“No idea – some Championship no marks – what have you got?”
“Potential offside on the goal – Martinelli very close”
“Oh I do hope not – remember that Arsenal have had a couple of red cards for booting
the ball away which they’re not happy with”
“OK, according to the etch-a-sketch, Martinelli is onside”
“Great… goal then….?”
“Hang on, got to cover our arses here – Merino is in offside position when he
tries to head it”
“Yeah but he misses it doesn’t he?”
“Yes, but we have to make a subjective call as to whether he impacted the goal
or not”
“Subjective is the key word there then ….”
“Yep – best wait a couple of minutes to make sure the boses know we’ve
exhausted every option of giving the goal”

[ time goes by ]

So lads, a subjective decision and all that….and we all know what that means don’t
we?”
“Yep – fuck the Championship no marks – goal to Arsenal”

Bollocks – how predictable.

Saka is now leading us in a merry dance over that side and he snaps Mannings
ankles before drilling another shot at the near post which Ramsdale beats away.
Manning has had a decent game to be fair but he’s unsurprisingly knackered and
off now to be replaced with Adam Armstrong. 
In a shock development, Matty Fernandes gives way to be replaced by Tall
Paul.

Dibling has now moved infield and picks up a short pass from Downes in the
centre and jinks past a couple of players before letting fly from long-range
and it takes a deflection, beats Raya and hits the outside of the post. Fuck.
It comes the corner from Sugawara and THB flies in, the goalkeeper flaps at it
and it hits Adam Armstrong bounces off the crossbar and over. No doubt if I had
gone in, they would’ve found a way to disallow it.

Time is running out but we’re still in it as Dibling again lines at the retreating
Calafiore before finding Armstrong and Sugawara’s low cross along 6 yard line
is just in front of Tall Paul, who maybe should have gambled.

Saints push forward and lose the ball in midfield and Trossard is suddenly away
and bearing down on goal but before he makes his mind up, Aribo gets back and
pokes the ball away from him and Sugawara tidies up but his first touch is
heavy and he clearly has not seen Saka lurking, who just passes it into the
net.

And so another defeat but at least it wasn’t the humiliation that many of
predicted before the start. The players and the manager restored a bit of pride
today which was desperately needed after the Bournemouth shambles. Seasons are
not defined by away defeats at Arsenal and positives can be taken from today.
More than those later.

With Russell actually deciding to start with a striker today in Ross Stewart, we
survived the first half despite spending the opening twenty giving the ball
away in our half. At one stage I counted five consecutive times where we had
tried to play out and then lost the ball before we got to anywhere near the
halfway line. We kept on doing that after taking the lead and Russell Martin
would call it brave and everyone else would call it dumb. Just for three
minutes after our goal, an unnecessary pass by Flynn Downes was intercepted and
there you have it, 1-1. Not that it really mattered but the third goal was also
down to overplaying at the back with Sugawara deciding not to just clear the
ball and instead taking a heavy touch and presenting the third goal to the
excellent Saka.

In amongst all that we played some decent stuff and our goal was excellent with
Matty Fernandes winning the ball back, driving forward and playing a quick
forward pass to Archer who did the rest. Brilliant goal. With a little bit more
luck we would’ve scored instead of hitting the woodwork twice, unluckily by
Tyler Dibling and inadvertently by Adam Armstrong.

There wasn’t anyone out there who had what you would class as a poor game
though Yuki Sugawara’s defending for the second and third goals leaves a hell
of a lot to be desired. The second goal saw the left winger score without the
right back having any idea where his man was at any point as he had his back to
him whilst ball watching.  There were
some very bright sparks today. Jan Bednarek had an excellent game in the centre
of defence and Joe Aribo showed that he should definitely stay in the team in
the centre of midfield. Tyler Dibling found going difficult to start with but
came to life in the second half and gave experienced Italian international
Calafiori a really tough time down that wing. Cam Archer’s first goal of hopefully many. It was even a good cameo by Tall
Paul his double step over roulette turn thing towards past William Saliba is
going to end up as a social media highlight reel. Amazing skill for such a big
guy. He might get more opportunities now as well with the luckless Ross Stewart
having broken down again.

Arsenal tried to win the game today giving some of their reserve players a game.
Okay, the likes of Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus are experienced
international players but they are not as good as some of the Arsenal players
and this was shown particularly with the introduction of Martinelli in the
second half who ultimately made a massive difference. There is no shame at all
and losing to this Arsenal side and we gave him a good go and with a little bit
more luck with eh second goal and hitting the woodwork twice in a couple of
minutes, we may have got something.

Is the Arsenal second goal offside?  I
can see it both ways in all honesty.  If
you are looking at it through Saints-tinted glasses then Merino goes to heads
it from an offside position, Ramsdale has to cover that possibility and that
clearly affects the time he has to get across to Martinelli’s effort.  I also ask the question as to whether it
would have been disallowed if we’d scored it?

Whilst we can take positives from today despite losing, that’s not an option in
the next game which is Leicester at home. They’ve just picked up their first
win of the season with a 1-0 home win against Bournemouth and we simply have to
beat them next time out, which doesn’t happen for another two weeks.

In the meantime, up the fucking International Break Saints.