The first defeat for Mikel and The Gunners in the 23/24 season comes away to last years Ligue 1 runners up Lens. It was hardly a shock as Arsenal played poorly. The better footballing side on the night won! The Art of Analysis breakdown is here:
The Lineup:
Much of the talk about the starting lineup will be the lack of rotation and the subsequent injury to Saka. Mikel chose to field a strong side, showing full respect to Lens and their achievements from last season.
As thing stand Sky Sports reporter Gary Cotterill on Bukayo Saka: “The feeling around here, and not at all official, is that Saka may not be too bad. Perhaps a muscle strain or maybe a precaution.”. Hopefully that is the case as we all know with the injuries we have on the wings we are struggling for options. Man City are our next opponents and even Pep Guardiola knows a Saka at 60% is still better than any other option we have at RW, he will be starting that game.
Trossard started having come back from injury was a solid choice, a shame he was completely shut out of the game. The effectiveness of that left side was low to say the least last night.
Ben White also being given a well-earned rest was welcomed by some and questioned by others, a classic from Arsenal and Football Twitter as a whole! But Tomiyasu is in my eyes an excellent option across the whole of the back line. However, it was not his day. Nor was it David Rayas day.
Wayward passing, and individual errors cost Arsenal. Once again when Arsenal are not playing well they are not out of the game. But the true killer blow for Arsenal this season seems to always come from within. It is our own errors that often seem to be gifting the oppositions goals. And in this case, the win!
Arteta Takes Responsibility:
In the post match conference Mikel was straight to the point. Mikel Arteta on the individual errors against RC Lens:
“We want to stop everything and produce as many big possibilities as possible for the team, but they are part of it. Errors happen in football constantly, every three or four seconds there is an error even from the opponent, and we have to adapt to that.
“I think today that the situation where we had most control, especially after the first goal and there we started to dominate, we had two big chances to score before them, and then the game turned around in that situation when they played around us, and we defended in the box really poorly.
“That’s what happens – big teams punish you and we didn’t punish them in the way that we punished PSV, and that was the difference in the game.”
First step is always understanding what went wrong. I’m glad Mikel acknowledged this. He expects better as do the Arsenal fans. Now the dilemma is for him to resolve. The team selection itself and the second step is correcting it in training. Let’s hope we’ve got a fit enough XI to do this. I have no doubt this will be a game that will keep him up at night a game with the errors he can see and needs to resolve.
The third step is to apply it on our next game. A shame that it’s Man City!
A Ray of Hope:
No I’m not making a star wars analogy here. Simply that we had 1 start in the starting XI who showed his metal and character throughout the entire game.
Let me put it this way. Declan Rice:
Won 4 dribbles: the most of the match
Pass completion and passes 113 times: most of the match
Accurate passes 104: most of the match
Highest interceptions at 3: most of the match
He truly led this team in the midfield. A real general in the middle. For the whole 90+ minutes he featured he was the one player who could really hold his head high. Even in loosing the match he won the MOTM.
Conclusion:
Lessons need to be learned! It cannot happen again. Worst for Arsenal is who we face next. We are the makers of our own downfall here. Mikel must take hold, he has already accepted responsibility and show accountability. Next is to learn from the lessons and create answers to avoid further individual errors in training!
The only way to truly show we have grown and learned from this. Is to win. A win against city would be more than just a statement it would be enough to take us to the top.
This was still a disappointing showing from Arsenal. It cannot happen again.
Written by Reekesh Somaroo