P*as poor 2nd Half! | Arsenal 0-2 Aston Villa Tactical Analysis

If you can't win, don't lose the game of football. A few moments later. Unfortunately, Leon Bailey, Oli Watkins and Aston Villa, and our former manager Una Emre, had different ideas. Congratulations to Aston Villa as they beat Arsenal two goals to nil and put a dent in our title aspirations. Brother, what's that? What's that, brother? Now, credit to Aston Villa. You know, at the end of the day, they played against a team that had no defeats this year in the Premier League. Going into the game, they've got three points and a big boost for their own Champions League qualification ambitions. They called the villains for a reason and they ruined my birthday weekend. You cannot concede goals like that and expect to take anything today. I don't care how you want to spin it, who you want to blame. For me, with the first goal, there's a culmination of errors. From Zinchenko to Martinelli to Declan Rice, Gabriel and Saliba to David Reyes positioning, to Martinelli not following the runner, to the whole passage of play, which, you know, led to this when we failed to deal with the corner. We're all in this together and I blame everybody, if I'm completely honest. But let's get into it and carry on and dissect exactly how this happened. Like this, the first goal was very frustrating. You know, I am by no means, you know, absolving anybody of any defensive deficiencies. I'm just not a fan of playing the blame game. You know, many, many people will question why is Zinchenko on that right-hand side? Me, myself. But if you remember, you know, the biggest problem for our team, you know, for me is we have not cleared our lines properly. We've dealt with the first phase relatively OK from the corner. We haven't cleared our lines properly. And Aston Villa just wanted it more than us, really. That's why you found Zinchenko on the right-hand side. Now, several people have gone to sleep. Zinchenko's playing people on side. He's also gone to sleep. When that ball's gone in behind, I don't think I have answers necessarily done well enough. I would not blame Raya, but I think Raya's positioning is off in that moment. I think Saliba and Gabriel haven't controlled the situation. And where you look at Declan Rice, there are two Aston Villa players there. So the ball's come into the box. Martinelli, could you, you know, be aware of Leon Bailey, Gabriel, Saliba, Declan Rice and Martinelli? Could there have been more communication so that we could pick up runners? Martinelli, could you follow Bailey there? Because again, that space that he's going to hit is vital. And essentially, the ball's come in. Everybody's unaware. The yard man's made the run. He's pulled it in the back of the net. So it was a culmination of errors, you know, for the whole team, from failing to deal with the corner amicably, to not following runners, to lacking in communication, to probably falling off with concentration. What conceding two goals within six minutes in what has been described as a cup final, or better yet, every remaining Premier League game is defined and described as a cup final by the manager and the players. It's a terrible performance from us. At the end of the day, if you can't win, don't lose. If you don't defend well and you don't take opportunities in the opponent's half, you're not going to get anything. Credit to Aston Villa, in my opinion, because they look like a team that's trying to realise their ambitions. You know, big three points where the Champions League qualification place is concerned, especially because of the form we're in and actually the form they've been in as well and certain question marks there. So credit to Una Emre and his men. They deserved it on the day and they took advantage of lapses in concentration. But they also earned that luck with that passage of play. So big up Villa. Today was a poor game. Ultimately, if you don't defend well, you don't take advantage of the opportunities provided in the opponent's final third and you're not switched on under transition, especially against a team like Aston Villa, then you can't complain as to why you didn't get anything from the game. Now, by the time that we've conceded the first, we're obviously flying forward. We're trying to obviously get back into the game in some sort of capacity. By then, we've kind of shot ourselves in the foot, in a sense. And what I specifically mean by that is Telemans is a very lucky lad. If you go and watch the first goal again, we've tried to hit back almost instantly. It's actually the initial phase as players progressed towards what you're seeing on screen. It started from Villa's box. Telemans half cleared the ball, really. And if you don't remember, Zinchenko had a decent first half and capitulated in the second. He's giving it to Jorginho. And I think if you watch the game again, people, Gabriel and Saliba, before Watkins has been split 1v1 with Smith-Rowe, Gabriel was telling Jorginho to go back home to David Rayo, who's kind of offering an angle. Jorginho tries to be a hero and he's obviously got that eye of a needle pass. It didn't come off. Telemans is intercepted. You play with fire, you get burnt. Telemans has set Oli Watkins big up to Smith-Rowe. But Telemans has set Watkins. Watkins against Smith-Rowe. There's only going to be one winner. I wouldn't blame David Rayo because he's our last line of defence. But I do think as a keeper, again, while phase is developing, it's either you come or you don't really pause. I think he's not really done either. And it was disappointing to watch him get chipped. Take nothing away from Aston Villa and Oli Watkins people. But they've gone in that regard. We're hit on the transition. You know, it's gone from bad to worse. We're losing 2-0. I mean, there are no silver linings. But if Aston Villa are to go on and claim, you know, Champions League qualification, hopefully they do it at the expense of Spurs. If we have to drop points to anyone, at least let it be Unai Emery and a former Arsenal man. It's a shame they've done the double over us, but they deserved it. They, you know, they were street smart when they needed to be. They exploited our team when they needed to. They took advantage of the opportunities they had. Arguably, while we had possession and, you know, we had more shots on target, for me, they had the better shots in the game. They warned us, I think, with Telemans kissing the crossbar and Oli Watkins going close before. Obviously, they put the ball in the back of the net. We know what Unai Emery is about. We know he's a very good manager. He's got a lot of pedigree. And I have to give credit to how they played, man. I think Carlos was monumental. I think Torres did well. And Luca Dean and Torres, in particular, to the build-up of their first goal. I liked that, you know, when I take off my Arsenal cap, obviously, I think they played all right. I think Zinolio's role as a bit of an inverted wide man, put a spanner in the works. I also think John McGinn tucking in kind of did that. I think on occasion when we had possession and when Rodgers and Watkins would go along with the RB, Rodgers would step in and they would try and nick the ball in front of us, Telemans the same. I really think they're kind of narrow formation kind of work to treat. That coupled with us not being good enough in the final third, not being switched on in the defensive third. And there being many chinks in our arm in midfield, really and truly, I didn't see the fluidity I would have loved to come to expect with the team. And I actually feel Benjamin White kind of struggled watching the game again against Zinolio. But, you know, the Kai Havertz experiment in central midfield doesn't work. The only occasion he half looks decent from that is, you know, literally on occasion where Zinni stepped in and a couple of times Havertz has been fed the ball through, but it didn't really happen. You could argue Jesus on the left-hand side. It didn't really work. If I'm honest, I mean, through the middle, it didn't really work. You know, him, Havertz, they looked deserted. Tross Hart and Zinchenko, in my opinion, had a very good initial starting period. But then it became square pegs in round holes. Rice looked lost. Jesus looked lost. Odegaard looked lost. Saka and White weren't quite there. My centre-backs didn't really do anything wrong, apart from their parts to play like the whole team with the two goals. But it just feels like we're missing something. You know, evidently Declan Rice has a lot of limitations on the ball. Martin Odegaard is the only one that is, you know, on a different level to his peers, man. And to be honest with you, the only one I would say I was quote-unquote happy with. But credit to Aston Villa, commiserations to Arsenal. We just need to get on with it. It's as simple as that. Now, people, I hope you've all enjoyed the video so far. Please make sure you're liking, commenting and subscribing. Now, watching the game again, I've got some additional thoughts in relation to the game, and I don't know where to start. The first I would say, the first, you know, the first thing I would say, the four goals I've seen my team concede this week in all competitions have been appalling. It's never nice to concede a goal. But for a team that I believe has made, you know, serious defensive improvements based on this week, terrible. Shambolic against Bayern Munich, shambolic against Aston Villa, really and truly. And I know there'll be certain players that are obviously, you know, going to be the narrative and the people that have made the mistakes and whatnot. But I don't know about any of that. I think everybody needs to be held accountable for the second goal. Based on social media, I can't believe people are not asking questions of Jorginho, for example. Zinni had a stinker. I think Zinni was OK in the first half. I think he put in a number of key passes. I actually feel he was one of the more switched on players, but he went down, you know, it went down. And I think when he put the, I know it's going to sound sinister, but when he put the ball out for the Aston Villa man down on the floor when the ref didn't say anything, told me everything I needed to know. Of course, you know, I do think many people forget it was a corner. That's why Zinchenko is on the right-hand side. But there's no urgency from him to obviously go back over to the left-hand side. And then we've gone over it, several players are not filling in. So as much as I think we've improved defensively, we need to concentrate. And I think defensively, when I say defence, also the defenders, but the whole team, we've been poor this week in that regard. We have not taken our chances. Now, we did to a degree against Bayern Munich because we drew that game. We did it against Aston Villa. And how many real clear-cut chances were there? I think Kai had one. Jesus might have had another one. Shostakovich definitely had one. But again, I'm not pinning any players to it. We win, lose and draw together. By the end of the day, if you don't defend well enough, if you don't defend your area well enough, if you don't attack the opponent's box area well enough, if you don't win the midfield battles, you're not going to get anything. Aston Villa are called the villains. Uno Emre is obviously a very experienced man, and they're fighting for the Champions League. I saw a team that wanted to take advantage of Spurs dropping points this week in their own quest for the Champions League in Villa. I never saw a team that wanted to take advantage of Liverpool, wanted to keep our form going, wanted to make it difficult. Winning, losing and drawing comes with football. And take nothing away from Aston Villa, because they were accountable from their subs, to their manager, to everybody who played their part in their game plan. It all went well for them. But for us, I can't say, you know, I can't say we were at our best. If Aston Villa beat us and we were at our best, what can you say? But we shot ourselves in the foot. And again, game management, two goals within the last, you know, six minutes or so. It's unacceptable. If you can't win, don't lose. Something we've done this season. It's appalling in that regard. We know our squad is frail. People can talk about, oh, when everybody's fit, this, that and the third. Only a couple of players can be relied upon, if I'm completely honest with you. Trossart did not take his opportunity. Martinelli, anonymous off the bench. Jesus put nothing to the table. The Kai Havertz experiment in the centre-mid role. Mikel Arteta, it doesn't work. At this moment in time, it doesn't work. It's square pegs in round holes, really. And I didn't really see the fluidity I thought I would see on paper with Trossart, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Zuschenko and all of those kind of players involved. Arteta, I think Tomi Asu needed to come on much sooner, if I'm honest with you, or better yet, Zinni needed to come off much sooner than that. It's only when we've conceded two goals that he's come off, really. And I think, you know, at times, you know, you look at when Kyrgios came off against City and when Tomi Asu came on. I think Mikel Arteta could have done that a lot sooner. Not quite sure what Fabio Vieira is doing on the bench if we're not utilising him. I don't want to be sinister, and Smith-Rowe didn't do anything wrong, but Smith-Rowe's been a forgotten man this season. I said it in my watch, you know, when Smith-Rowe came on, I knew Mikel Arteta, my gaffer, who nine times out of ten has an idea, you know, he was out of ideas because he wouldn't bring Smith-Rowe on. The lack of depth is horrible. No clue why Partey didn't come on. It's games like this. Fans can lie to themselves and say we don't need a striker. We clearly need a striker or a plan B off the bench with some pace and stronger defensive options. You can see why we need, you know, more depth, in my opinion. I do think, as much as I'm not saying be negative or positive for no reason, because I do think Arsenal fans, you speak to some, I think there's a small section of our fan base that are overly toxic, if that makes sense, like people that are very overly positive to the point where they're being naive and people that are being overly negative. I don't really care where you stand on that. You lot are entitled to do what you want. For me, I think we should keep balance. There's reasons to be positive and there's reasons to be negative. What we do with that is down to us. I do think we have to keep some perspective, though, in that this is our first defeat of 2024 in the league. Now, has it come at a great time? 100% not, where we could have taken advantage of Liverpool. But at this moment in time, you know, it's one defeat this season in the Premier League, you know, and what? We've got a game in hand, two points behind City. Things can change very quickly. Manchester City have been waiting on a weekend like this where Liverpool and Arsenal have crumbled. Now, I don't think they'll be caught. I didn't think they'd be caught on the best of days, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves. You've got Wolves at the weekend. They're not going to make it easy. You go off to Germany to fight to keep the Champions League trophy hunt alive. And for the boys, you know, adversity is at our front door. How do we react to this? If you lot are going to crumble based on one defeat this year, then you might as well all pack it in. It could have been better. It could have been worse. And again, for Mikel Arteta, I do think whenever we come against Emre or David Moyes, I am a bit nervous because they do kind of show street smartness on you. And, you know, Emre's taking his Arsenal sacking very personally because he's been sacked, you know, he's just had our number really. But credit to Aston Villa, as I said, from their starting players to their defenders, I think Torres was good. I think Carlos stood firm. I think Luka Dean did well as well. I think Konzo, a player who I don't necessarily rate, stood firm. Emi Martinez didn't have much to do, but he did. I've already spoken on the John Mickens, the Zinolios, the Watkins. Watkins was quiet the whole game, really, but took his chance. Telemans did what he needed to do. So the whole XI and the subs off the bench really and truly did what they needed to do. From an Arsenal perspective, we go back to the drawing board. We need to be more clinical in the final third. We need to switch on from start to finish. And again, for me, I won't say the first half was amazing, but what the hell happened to my team in the second half? Need to eradicate that. So get that out of your system. I do think some players look a bit spent and tired. I do think we're relying on other players too much. I do think the depth or strength in depth better yet in our team is not strong enough. But we've got what we've got until the end of the season. And so we just have to keep going. Let me know your thoughts. Don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe and all that good stuff. One love, people. Peace.