Mikel Arteta, what have you done to this Arsenal team? 20 odd years ago fans of the club the world over were in agony over the style of football Jose Mourinho brought to Chelsea.
How dare he park the bus? How dare he not attack? How dare his Chelsea side bring the dark arts into English football.
You may well argue that Arsenal have more pizzazz to them than Mourinho’s Blues but their performance against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon was full of plenty of dark arts.
Not long ago this Gunners team had a soft underbelly. They were too easy to rough up and push aside. They are anything but that now.
Arsenal came to the Etihad wanting to put their stamp on the game and they duly did that through Riccardo Calafiori’s screamer and Gabriel’s aggressive header.
However, their plans unravelled in an instant when Leandro Trossard received a second yellow card and was sent off for ‘delaying the restart’ having belted the ball away after showing Bernardo Silva to the ground. Not again Arsenal fans were thinking.
Just weeks on from Declan Rice’s controversial red for something similar, they were on the end of more dubious officiating.
Yes, this was more of a red than Rice’s incident against Brighton but Jeremy Doku just moments earlier had gone unpunished for kicking the ball away. Anyway, let’s not get bogged down by the officiating.
As City and Arsenal battled it out to a 2-2 draw, it was a Herculean effort from a team containing just ten players in the second half.
Arteta’s side stood firm, they stood resolute but unfortunately could not hold on in the dying embers as John Stones bundled the ball home. And breathe. What a contest that was.
Still, those in red and white must be praised for their efforts, notably Gabriel.
Gabriel’s performance in numbers
Only a few years ago the Brazilian was noted as a defender who had a mistake in him. True enough. He was rash and capable of a moment of chaos but he has eradicated that from his game and now looks like one of the foremost defenders on the continent. In short, he is among the very elite this game has to offer.
Alongside William Saliba, they are on their way to going down in the history books as one of the best defensive partnerships we’ve seen in Premier League history. They must, of course, win the title first to go down as such.
Gabriel, however, deserves praise right at this very moment. So often the bridesmaid to that man Saliba, he has entered his season with almost something to prove. He has a bruising header of the ball and has shown as such in back-to-back away games.
|
Gabriel vs Man City |
|
|---|---|
|
Minutes played |
90 |
|
Touches |
34 |
|
Accurate passes |
17/21 (81%) |
|
Clearances |
5 |
|
Blocked shots |
3 |
|
Tackles |
2 |
|
Last man tackles |
1 |
|
Ground duels won |
2/4 |
|
Aerial duels won |
2/4 |
|
Stats via Sofascore. |
|
He scored the winner against Spurs and very nearly scored the winner against City, brushing Kyle Walker aside and powering a header into the net from Bukayo Saka’s corner.
Yes, he may have conceded twice and his positioning could have been better for Erling Haaland’s inevitable goal but he was a titan in the second half, making five clearances and winning four duels.
Calafiori, the scorer of the equaliser wasn’t bad either. Making his first start for the Londoners, he scored a brilliant first-half goal and left the game having completed 94% of his passes, the best figure of any Arsenal starter.
That said, another of the backline deserves equal praise, Jurrien Timber.
Timber’s performance in numbers
The Dutchman cruelly missed most of last season having sustained a horrific ACL injury on the opening match of the 2023/24 campaign.
So, to coin an old cliche, he was like a new signing when returning to full fitness in pre-season. How good has he been too? Fielded at left-back in the opening few weeks of 2024/25, he deputised at right-back on Sunday in place of Ben White who did eventually come on in the second half.
It would appear as though White now has a battle on his hands to win back that place as Timber was sublime.
Remarkably, he failed to complete a single pass during the whole match but he stood firm in defence and proved to be a useful asset down the right-hand side too.
As Football.London’s Kaya Kaynak put it, handing the defender an 8/10 rating, he ‘kept Doku quiet for the vast majority of the first half and when Savinho switched to his side in the second period, the Brazilian got no joy’.
Jeremy Doku and Savinho are particularly tricky wingers to deal with but Timber made it look easy, only being dribbled past once, making three tackles and winning four of his seven ground duels according to Sofascore.
He has been brilliant in an inverted left-back role in recent weeks but he may well have just found a home for himself on the right side of defence. He simply has to keep his place for the next league game.
