“It is very pleasing [to go top of
the table]. We were in a crisis at the start of the season and nine games later
no one would have predicted that because we relied on our spirit, our
togetherness and our desire to do well. It worked so let’s continue with these continue
with these ingredients.”- Arsene Wenger.
Of course the Manchester Derby ended 0-0 so technically we’re
now second on goal difference, but well you get the manager’s point. Two goals
in 100 seconds from Olivier Giroud and a first goal of the season (actually a
first since January) for Laurent Koscielny were enough to see off a dogged
Everton side 2-1 at the Emirates. Arsenal have gotten into this delightful
habit of scoring goals in bursts, three goals in 14 first half minutes against
Manchester United, then three goals in 12 second half minutes against Watford,
then two goals in 16 minutes against Bayern Munich, and two goals in 100
seconds against Everton yesterday. Lovely! Arsenal have won four league games
in a row now, and haven’t failed to score in a game since the 2-0 reverse at
Stamford Bridge, a run stretching seven games now.
THE LINE-UP:
The starting XI featured three changes from the side that
took on Bayern Munich midweek, two of them enforced-Gabriel came in for an ill
Per Mertesacker, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain took his place on the right of
midfield in place of Aaron Ramsey, out for four weeks with a hamstring strain.
The third change, surprisingly given the norm in recent weeks, saw Giroud start
his first league game since our game against Liverpool in August. Four of
Giroud’s last five goals for Arsenal have come off the bench, but his inclusion
in the starting XI perhaps has a lot more to do with Giroud’s contribution to
our play when he came on against Bayern, where his ball retention and hold-up
play allowed Cazorla and Ozil to get up the pitch quicker, giving us
territorial advantage over the opponent. Or maybe Arsene Wenger just felt that
Theo needed a rest as well.
THE SET-UP:
After a game against a Pep Guardiola side in which we
“enjoyed” a mere 27% possession of the football, the game against Everton was
always going to be more about what we can do with the ball than what we can do
without it. As I opined in my preview, Roberto Martinez and Everton have seen a
slight shift in their football philosophy, favouring a more direct style of
play to suit Romelu Lukaku, and we ended up with 57% of play. We still needed
to be at our best defensively however, and we were brilliant at breaking up
Everton’s play particularly in the first half. Perhaps the whole team as a
defensive unit was switched on after having to put a shift in against Bayern,
because Arsenal made a season-high 31 interceptions against Everton- we had
averaged just 19 interceptions per game before this game.
In keeping with this theme, we had 73 ball recoveries in this
game, which is 13 more than our season average of 60 per game. While against
Bayern Cazorla and Ozil were joint top of the pile with nine ball recoveries,
we had Koscielny, Coquelin and Sanchez all on 12 ball recoveries, and Cazorla
behind the trio with ten. Koscielny and Monreal did brilliantly intercepting
those passes into Lukaku and Deulofeu on the right, and it’s no surprise then
that the duo combined for five tackles, nine interceptions and 17 ball
recoveries, helping to turn over possession whenever Everton attempted forays
into our half. One typically dangerous aspect of Gerard Deulofeu’s play is in
his crossing- he was at the peak of his powers when Everton beat Southampton
3-0 and in their 3-2 win at Southampton- but he was only 1/10 on crosses on
Saturday, with Monreal blocking three of those crosses.
Our work on the ball was breath-taking at times, and at this
point I must pay homage to Santi Cazorla. 102 touches of the ball, 75 of 81
passes completed, 93% passing accuracy, 28/33 in the attacking third (85%), 8/9
on long balls (89%), 5/5 on set-pieces, 4/4 on take-ons, three chances created
and one assist. Fantastic. Mesut Ozil was also excellent, 89% passing accuracy,
88% in the final third (30/34), five chances created and one exceptional cross
for Giroud to head home for the opening goal. He nearly scored as well, hitting
the post late on with a placed effort from just outside the box. Ozil and
Cazorla are now second and third on chances created in the league, with 35 and
31 chances created respectively and Ozil is now top of the league in terms of
assists with seven. I saw a stat on Twitter, that Ozil now averages an assist
every 2.71 games, which is the best assists per game ratio ever recorded in
Premier League history. Top stuff.
THE GOALS:
One of Arsenal’s patient passing moves ended up with Bellerin
finding Ozil on the right, and the German floated in a lovely cross that just
tempted Everton ‘keeper Tim Howard off his line enough for Giroud to head the
ball over Howard and into an empty net. Giroud, despite not starting a league game
since August, now has five goals to his name and six in all competitions.
“We have a different profile with
Theo, and he was doing well at the beginning of the season. I try to bring what
I know to the team so I’m pleased with the header.”- Olivier Giroud.
We didn’t have to wait long for the second, and the Frenchman
was again involved, tackling John Stones as Everton attempted to play the ball
from the back straight from the restart. Sanchez recovered possession before
being tripped by Seamus Coleman for a free-kick. Cazorla stepped up and whipped
in a great cross with such pace on it that Koscielny headed it virtually on the
line into the back of the net for 2-0. Tim Howard was perhaps culpable for the
second as well, but anyway.
We should have scored more, Ozil and Giroud hit the woodwork,
and Flamini headed the ball straight at Tim Howard when either side of the ‘keeper
and it would have been 3-1.
A word on their goal:
“The thing is, when we are attacking
we need to finish the action with a shot, not get counter-attacked. We know
that they play well on the counter-attack. They break well and we were aware of
that, but their goal was a bit lucky because of the deflection.”- Olivier Giroud.
It warms my heart to see that some work had gone into
studying the opposition, something which Arsene Wenger has been accused of not
doing in the past. It was the first goal we conceded after three consecutive
clean sheets and 334 minutes of play, so that hurt to see it go in like that. I
loved the moment right at the end when Everton broke from their own half,
Lukaku had the ball in our penalty area and Gabriel put in a goal-saving,
match-winning tackle and he then got up and was pumping his fists in the air
wildly, just to show you how much the three points meant to the team.
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH:
Has to be Olivier Giroud for me. Six attempts, two on target,
one off the crossbar, and one well-taken goal to take his tally to six for the
season. His ball retention and control was sublime, and he was 28/33 on passes,
which is the highest passing accuracy I’ve seen from Giroud in a really long
time (85%). His really played on his strengths, and his aerial prowess in
particular, going 3/5 on headed duels and it was also great to see how Koscielny,
Gabriel and Giroud set themselves up whenever we had a set-piece, one standing
behind another hence making it difficult to mark them, and we ended up creating
three chances from corners alone. And the stat that will surprise you most of
all, Giroud was our top tackler with 4/6 successful tackles. Not a bad way to
stake your claim for a first-team slot I dare say.
Right, we go again against Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital
One Cup on Tuesday. Till then.
*Quotes and images from Arsenal Media*
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