Jamie Carragher called Arsenal’s attack ‘average’
On Monday Night Football this week, Jamie Carragher took aim at Arsenal‘s misfiring attackers. It seems unlikely Mikel Arteta would have used that segment as a motivational tool – thanks to Amazon’s cameras, we know that he turns to lightbulbs rather than ex-Liverpool defenders for his sources of inspiration.
But perhaps it did fire Arsenal’s forwards up. Carragher suggested the dwindling returns of Arsenal’s front line could prevent them from overhauling Manchester City in the title race. A graphic flashed up on the big screen that showed each of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus are scoring fewer goals per minute in this season’s Premier League compared to last season.
“It’s not the same fluidity, the same pace, energy and creating chances – you can see that. The reason I don’t think they are as fluent, I think individually the attacking players have been average this season whereas they were on absolute fire last season,” Carragher said, cue a first-half onslaught against Lens in which all four players plus the regularly ridiculued Kai Havertz were on the scoresheet.
You can imagine Thierry Henry, Micah Richards and the rest of the CBS gang poking fun at their colleague’s expense as the goals rained in at the Emirates.
Arsenal’s attackers certainly looked inspired to prove a point. When Martinelli added a fourth before the half-hour mark, it brought to mind The Last Dance, the lockdown documentary hit charting the Chicago Bulls’ golden period, and the famous soundbite of its protagonist Michael Jordan: “And I took that personally.”
A 15-minute blitz had Arsenal 4-0 up by the 28th minute: a rejuvenated Havertz put them in front with Jesus, Saka and Martinelli swiftly adding their names to the scoresheet, the latter with the pick of the bunch with a bending, swirling effort. Odegaard was the kid left out of the party until Takehiro Tomiyasu bounded over to offer him an olive branch, a slice of birthday cake and a looping cross to lash into the bottom corner.
It ended 6-0, Arsenal’s biggest victory of the campaign.
Carragher’s argument was that Arsenal are winning too many games by a single goal and that the fine margins will eventually work against them. The Gunners have dished out 4-0 and 5-0 beatings but five of their nine league victories have come by a single goal and their second and third goals in a 3-1 win over Manchester United were scored in the 95th and 98th minutes.
By comparison, Arsenal won 11 of their opening 13 league games of 2022-23, recording wins by two or more goals on six occasions and by a single goal on the other five. The differences are minimal but Arsenal have won 55 per cent of their league matches this term by just one goal, compared to 45 per cent at the same stage last season. The theory goes that the room for error is slimmer when you’re winning more games narrowly than not.
Goals haven’t been a major issue for Arsenal so far considering they lead the table, although they have scored fewer than Manchester City, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Liverpool and Brighton. But their defensive record is so good that only City have a superior goal difference. Arsenal might have rode their luck at times at the back, but they are a difficult unit to break down.
The fear for the rest of the Premier League is how far Arsenal can go if they are able to replicate the ruthlessness they displayed against Lens in domestic matches. Carragher would be within his rights to point out that the concept of defending appeared to be an alien one to Lens’ discombobulated backline, but Arsenal played with such a swagger that any side would have found them difficult to stop.
It was the first time that Arteta had been able to select all six of Declan Rice, Havertz, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli and Jesus in his starting line-up. Based on reputation, that is probably Arsenal’s best front six and Arteta will be extremely encouraged at how they dovetailed together so effectively.
There was no shortage of positives. This was the night that Havertz had been waiting for, a performance that showed he can belong in this team. Jesus looked fit, sharp and the centrepoint of the attack. Martinelli’s unerring finish should give him the confidence to add to his single Premier League goal.
“We have different options in relation to the opponent and today we were very attacking as we played with Alex [Zinchenko] in the backline as well,” Arteta said afterwards. “We wanted to approach the game to win it and be very dominant from the beginning. I think we achieved that.”
He added: “I think we shared six different scorers, no [Jorginho scored the sixth]? So that’s great that the team has this capacity. Kai again scored two goals in two games. It’s really good for the confidence of the players.”
The thrashing of Lens offered a glimpse as to what Arsenal can be: unstoppable in attack and impenetrable at the back. For large parts of this season, only the latter has applied. This is the blueprint that Arsenal can use to plot out their title bid. And prove the likes of Carragher wrong.
Source link
