Beginning of the End?
Arsenal 4, Leeds 2.
The Emirates hosted a six goal thriller, seeing unlikely goals from Aubameyang as he bagged his first Premier League hat-trick as well as Bellerin scoring for the first time since Chelsea away last season. Quite worryingly at the time, we saw a towering Struijk score his first goal for Leeds in the form of a powerful header followed by some poor defending as a bloodied Helder Costa scored another some moments after conceding.
The game carried some hype as social media fed on Leeds’ Alioski alleged comments about “looking forward to… his mate Pepe”, alluding to his sending off in the two clubs’ last meeting in January. The pair never did meet as Pepe was left on the bench, only briefly coming into contact as the Macedonian was substituted in the second half.
Many fans, both neutral and Arsenal were conscious of the threat Leeds possess, as well as the relatively positive form they came into the game in, as we saw Leeds ease past Crystal Palace earlier in the week. Additionally, considering the way the last meeting went, the match was contested to be a hard-fought close match but also an exciting match which would host non-stop end-to-end attacking football.
A point of discussion before the game was who to rest — of course, with a big game against Benfica looming for Thursday and considering our already wretched injury list, some fans felt as though we had to sacrifice points in today’s match so as to fare better on Thursday. But I personally felt Arteta did well in his line-up as he chose to rest the on form players in Pepe, Lacazette and Holding, whilst still selecting a strong enough lineup to do the job, and that they did.
The front four of Aubameyang, Emile Smith Rowe, Odegaard and star boy Saka proved a menace in the first half with the Gunners relentlessly attacking the Leeds goal with a number of incisive passes, dazzling dribbles and three super strikes, one from the spot, as we comfortably went into half-time three goals up.
That first half performance was especially reminiscent of Wengerball which has characterised our identity in terms of our playing style, with a number of beautiful combination passes and cut-throat runs slicing the opposition defence open and was a joy to watch. I can’t help but compare our current style to the dull, Mourinho-esque style of football Arteta employed last season as we sat behind the ball for the best part of 90 minutes, hoping to salvage something from a counter attack.
And hence the title — is this the beginning of the end? Are we fully past the negative Arsenal we’ve been seeing for the last year or so as we’ve come away with big results against Chelsea and Southampton as well as good performances in part against the likes of Wolves and Leeds. ESR and Odegaard seem to provide a solution to the lack of creativity we suffered at the start of the season, as well as Saka and Pepe looking a dangerous wing pairing now. Combining Aubameyang and Lacazette’s improved form and the fact Arsenal have the best defensive record after Manchester City, could we see Arsenal’s performance take a turn for the better from now?
Of course, we are from the finished article — there is a clear of quality defensively, evidenced by the loss against Aston Villa, lack of quality offensively/creatively as well as some depth issues. However, in terms of an identity and footballing philosophy are we on the up?
That being said, we’ve only executed our new found style against a poor Chelsea, a poor Wolves (and didn’t even win), a Leeds side known to leak goals and the same can be said for Southampton.
The point is, the following games will prove crucial. Not only to our season, not only to Arteta’s career at Arsenal but to the identity of Arsenal. Should Arsenal come out of the next run of games with success, the board would be sure to support Arteta, support his vision and supplement him with new players and bring in the quality and consequently bring back the success, namely Champions League football that Arsenal fans have been so long deprived of.
