What Now? Ødegaard’s return, Merino's Cameo | Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal Instant Analysis & Reaction

It's another difficult result to grapple with, I think. It's one that can leave us fans often slightly confused as to the final takeaways, often exasperated, of course, with the lack of three points, and also exasperated after the levels of control we seized on the game after Pedro Neto's equaliser. As always, though, we're going to try and bring clarity on what seems at the moment, yes, like quite a blurred result in terms of how we should look at it, also how we should look at it in relation to a performance with undoubtedly lots of positives to take away, but also, and I'm not going to shy away from it, the need for points on the board. So, let's dive in. Welcome back to the Harvey Gratian YouTube channel. I'm so glad you found us or are joining us once again. We're going to start with Arsenal's build-up, because with Odegaard returning and with us assuming that he's not up to full fitness levels yet, despite playing the full 90 minutes and as looking as loud and as orchestrative and ever-present in and out of possession as usual, but with him returning, I was interested to see how Arsenal's build-up that has been very fluid of late, how that would be impacted or not, and the balance that was struck. And the takeaway was that the fluidity was not impacted. From deep and from Ry's goal kicks, of course, we started with Partey and Rice as a more rigid two, but we looked to leave this rigidity pretty swiftly and soon it became as revolving our build-up as ever, with Partey dropping between the centre-backs, Rice often stacking himself on top, Partey also manoeuvring himself as a lone pivot at times, sometimes even Ben White joined him inside. And as for Odegaard, it was nice to see a bit of a pendulum relationship with Declan Rice, often alternating between which centre-mid drops. Odegaard would often as well, of course, drop to shuttle play on that right touchline that often Kai Havertz has taken on a role for Arsenal in recent weeks, without Odegaard as a connector being available. And he was part of those deep swings that we got used to seeing at the start of this season. Rice would often do the same, but in the left-back position, often leaving the middle solely populated by Thomas Partey. But what I did like most, and this goes to Declan Rice now, is his relationship with Durian Timber, who started wide, Timber at left-back, and had a lot of territory in terms of roaming around in those higher left-hand-sided pockets. Often, yes, interchanging high and low with Declan Rice, but for the most part, Timber went high and between the lines, and this kept Declan Rice deeper to cope with Chelsea's transitions. And all in all, this fluidity for Arsenal, especially right in the mid-rift of the first half, often wrestled us control of the ball higher up the pitch and made Chelsea drop deeper. But before we get onto where Arsenal went from here, as well as the key changes that came with the Mourinho and Trossard subs, let's talk about those aforementioned, briefly, Chelsea transition. Because for Chelsea, they are a team, simply put, especially with how they were set up against us, that are built around hurting you on the transition, with powerful runners and big passes at the ball. And our mid-block, as for our out-of-possession approach, our mid-block got more compact as the first half went along. But for the first 15 minutes, there was a real focus from Chelsea of how do you manipulate that party positioning in the Arsenal press, and where he can, at times, with the levels of physicality that he has now at 32, where he can, at times, be stuck in between backing up the press as Erdogan jumps, and hanging back in those number six between the line spaces on Cole Palmer. And if Chelsea could manipulate this positioning right, of course, they had Palmer running and passing with Neto on his outside, Jackson drifting across to the left-hand side, and this Arsenal mid-block that started with our wingers pretty aggressively positioned in what was almost a front-block line of four. Gradually, they dropped slightly further back, but kept the aggressive high-to-mid-block intentions. They also got narrower, and we picked our moments from then on to jump really well, often trying to pin Chelsea in on their left-hand side. And ultimately, Chelsea's goal didn't come from the transition. We had mellowed them out pretty well, I think, by the start of the first and second halves, respectively. The goal came from us not quite getting our rotations right after Saliba went wide to press the ball from the corner. Neto lined up a shot, and that's the type of unstoppability that Neto has within him, I think, but there is that feeling once again as Arsenal fans of missing out and falling on the wrong side of those margins once again. I think, is that a fair takeaway from the game? I think yes and no, because it was a moment's lapse in concentration that you bring upon yourselves in some way, however brutal the finish, but variance all the same. Once again, feels like it's playing a real brutal part in the Arsenal games at the moment, but it certainly spurred us to making our own changes on the ball that I'm most interested in, and ones that I think in the second half, certainly in terms of our intentions, how we were thinking in high possession, we needed to make, that I'm going to speak about now, because I felt at times, and I need to watch the game back to solidify this thought, that overall, like I said, it was a positive, a really positive performance with lots of good bits to take away, but maybe for being hypercritical in high possession, when the aim should be, again, when we talk about the threat of Chelsea transitions, the aim should be sustaining our hold on the ball, just getting our foot on the ball at times, and moving that Chelsea block about, taking control, dictating things. I felt at times maybe we did not do that, certainly as much as I would have liked. I've seen some people saying in the instant takeaways that maybe we should have been a bit more rigid on the ball in terms of the deeper fluidity. I think the deeper fluidity bought us time in the final third to really give us the opportunity to start moving Chelsea around, and I think there's a time and a place for this argument of being a bit more rigid, but you also have to nuance it with, I think, Thomas Partey on the day, and his really, really aggressive at times tendencies on the ball, which I think unnecessarily sacrificed as control, but there's also the additional caveat to that in terms of that's what an uber-fluid build-up at times can give you. It can leave Partey on his own in midfield, and that can accelerate someone's thought who already thinks, playing the sixth role, he interprets it like an interior does Thomas Partey, and he thinks very vertically, and maybe that accelerated those thoughts even more, but to be honest, even with how the role of our centre-mids at times were stretching that Chelsea shape wide, and trying to decompact them on more of a horizontal axis, I still felt Thomas Partey should have spent more time on the ball today, and that's going to be a feature that we're going to talk about as we move on in this video. Like I said though, deep in our deep build-up, the intentions, I thought, were really good, and the temperament, which is a big positive, and I think if you could have levelled the criticism at this Arsenal team in recent weeks, and one that Arteta spoke about himself after Liverpool is certainly going on in the second half, and when players like Kivio and Marsluis Skelly came on, and that back four against Liverpool was really chopped and changed, that understandably, we went away from the committed approach to playing through the Liverpool press in the first and second phases that we did with a lot of success in the first half. So I think if you can level that criticism at Arsenal in the last few weeks, not the Inter Milan game, but Newcastle and Liverpool, etc., I don't think you can level that at them against Chelsea today, because I think the intentions, certainly deep in the build-up, were spot-on. But like I said, I would have just liked, at times, us to spend more time on the ball when we're circulating it in the Chelsea's final third. Give time for White to pick his moments, to support Saka on the outside, get Oerdegaard moving about in the pockets, and then also moving outside of that Chelsea block and organising things, getting those rice and timber rotations snappy and dynamic, having Kai Havertz ask more consistent questions both ways at the two Chelsea centre-backs, which were Fofana and Colwil. But let me watch the game back first. Ironically, Martinelli's goal comes from a moment of this measure and patience and composure around the Chelsea defensive line that Oerdegaard, of course, gave us, even though there was a lot of space to play into. But next, and for the final portion of the video, something that I'm most interested in, I want to focus on the reaction after the Pedro Neto goal, with the Trossard, but in particular the Mikel Mourinho substitution. It gives us a template for the future and player usages going into the future, but also I think it's important for us to emphasise that But let's start talking Mikel Mourinho. For those of you that hadn't seen my scouting report on the Spaniard, or had not watched any of him for Sociedad last season, this was a quintessential Mikel Mourinho performance. This was a routine showing for him, stylistically and quality-wise, in relation to his last season's games for Sociedad, because Mourinho is someone, especially last season, he doubled down on this, but when he's playing in the frame of mind that he did today, he's always thinking about how to play through teams, vertically and fast. He is someone that is super economical on the ball, and this might make you think that he rushes things, but as we saw today, that's absolutely not the case. That mainly means actually being very happy to take a few extra seconds on the ball at times, but not taking any more touches than is necessary, often to buy him a little bit of time, a second here or there. We're talking Mourinho's little constant body movements and shuffles, or clever shielding of the football to buy him an extra second, and that's when the passing lane opens up, and without taking any unneeded touches, Mourinho can shuttle the ball quickly on through the lines, and these levels of composure, the willingness to spin his man on the half-turn, and access the tight spaces is something Mourinho does bring to the side, even if he doesn't give us that tight space carrying and dribbling that another type of Guarnieri or timber figure would give us. So it's not carrying, but his pocket play, and how he looks to facilitate these speedy, snappy combinations through the lines, focus on a very intuitive brain, and quick, slick, and typically Spanish releases of the ball, and today was the closest version Mourinho has played to the role that Mikel bought him for, obviously the six being the deepest player, and in the long term that will be Declan Rice when Mourinho plays in the left-centre mid, but it was Thomas Partey here, and Odegaard being obviously the big point of reference, dropping deep in those low swings on the right-hand side, and Mourinho, this meant when needed, could drop lower next to Partey, and knit play together on the left-hand side, and facilitate sort of speedy exchanges. He's more the centrepiece with movement around him in this type of role, and then when he's off the ball, that's when Mourinho becomes a bit of a mover himself. Maybe he spins his man or picks the right pass, but ultimately with Odegaard hinging deeper, I loved actually, I thought the balance of that midfield three of Partey, Mikel Mourinho, and Odegaard did work as a unit very, very well. How many times did we see Partey hurry things through the lines to one of Odegaard or Mourinho, and then they would find the other man, as the free man, higher in the pockets? It was often staggered, and play was happening really quickly and intuitively, and we were getting a lot of joy and ease playing through the Chelsea lines, and I think Mourinho brought us, in his substitute appearance, the right balance of volume in terms of trying to facilitate speedy play, and get us going with ambition and ticking towards the Chelsea goal, but also a clarity to not still be over-aggressive and rash in our passing choices, although one or two passes of his went astray, but for the most part, it was the clever, vertical Mourinho of Saucidad, with Odegaard playing as the other interior, and this felt much more coherent, even when we were trying to speed things up. There was an ease and a clarity, but still a fluidity with how Timber and Mourinho rotated, how our midfielders continued to pendulum, and I don't want to repeat myself, but the slickness in how we started to progress through the lines of that Chelsea block and keep our outside threat had a much more balanced look, certainly, and it should get us excited going in and then beyond the international break, but this is where I'll end, because once again, ultimately, the performance levels were good from this Arsenal side, and certainly, yes, we can pinpoint blind spots, but also we have to accept that we've been hit hard by a mixture of injuries, red cards, etc. The good thing is, we are four points away from Manchester City, which is a chasing distance. Of course, though, we're a further nine points back from Liverpool, and I think getting into the international break now, it's about rolling the dice and going for it once again. You could make the logical argument that Arsenal secure the most points in the Premier League from now on till the end of the season. Whether it would be enough, time will tell, but you can definitely make that argument, and over the break, it's not about anything changing majorly, and we're going to focus on those maybe little blind spots, but also the positives to take from today and other performances as we focus as the content going forward, fine-tuning things, but getting a healthy squad back and showing the league what Arsenal's true levels are. We've got a real chance, guys. There is so much to play for this season. We have a real chance, but, of course, points are points, and it's time to start accruing them. I believe, the team believe, so let's get to work.