Reflections on life through a Lens
It took me a while to come down after the Lens game for multiple reasons. One, it was rather enjoyable watching six goals. Two it was rather annoying being thoroughly frisked before being allowed in (and I mean thoroughly frisked) only to find that half the Lens fans had been let in flares. Three, it was extraordinarily cold. Four, I lost a glove. Five, my internet connection broke down yesterday.
So, what’s it like looking back to Wednesday, when we are already at Friday?
It certainly means expectations for Saturday against Wolverhampton will be higher, Havertz will be criticised if he doesn’t score, and a victory by just one or two goals will be greeted with “Arsenal fail to build on their European success,” in the naffpapers.
But that’s how it goes. Arsenal have just won four in a row, become the first team to have all the five attacking players score in a Champions League game (or something like that), and are currently considered to be a jolly good thing.
Except that the next match always comes round and the media will be looking for something, anything, to beat Arsenal with, with words about “failing to build on” something or other. If Wolverhampton bring a 20 man defence (I’m including the managerial team and the bench) and it ends up 1-0 to Arsenal, we’ll be heavily criticised.
However, in terms of a match in which everyone else has already had their say, let me try and find something fractionally different… which is the difference that Ødegaard makes.
I’d put a lot of the success in Wednesday’s game down to the captain’s return. Last season he played 37 league games and scored 15 goals (and just to be clear that is 15 goals in the League not 15 in a variety of competitions). It is a return to that form that I think I saw in the Champions League game and which I am hoping to see in the coming weeks.
Thus my view, for what it is worth is that last season a major part of the success came from the fact that goals came from four different sources: Ødegaard, Saka, Martinelli and Jesus each getting 11 or more goals in the league.
That not only meant we scored lots of goals (obviously) it also meant that no one quite knew where the goals were next coming from.
We haven’t played enough league games thus far to get a true picture of how this season is panning out in terms of goals, but if we look at all the goals in all the competitions we have Saka on seven, Ødegaard on six, Trossard on six, Jesus on five and Eddie Nketiah on five.
This looks to me like it is turning into the same approach again, and that game on Wednesday night made me think this “scoring by lots of different players” approach could be enhanced even further.
And it is an approach that has several advantages. One is that if the lead goalscorer is injured, there are others to fill in. Another is that the defenders really don’t have a clue who to mark. And another is that if someone is injured we have several goalscorers left on the pitch.
So yes, I was jolly pleased with the whole affair. Not with the total lack of security in the away end, while I was thoroughly frisked (and for reference perhaps I may point out that I am in my 70s and thus by most officials considered a marginal risk when it comes to law breaking), but with the rest of it..
I really thought it was all jolly good.
Tony Attwood 1/12/23