No Mes- ing about
impermeable – before they lost 4-0 at Liverpool, who are almost as bad. Their 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge was impressive but this game at Watford was not, despite Wenger’s insistence that his team was “unlucky” having “played well for big parts of the game”.
Wenger went for the same front three that helped to pin back Chelsea, Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck and Alexandre Lacazette, deciding that Iwobi and Welbeck were fitter and sharper than Mesut Ozil, who had only been back in training for one week after injury. Welbeck and Iwobi worked hard but Arsenal could get little to stick to Lacazette up front.
When Welbeck limped off after an hour, to be replaced by Ozil, Arsenal lacked that physical focal point even more, a point made by Troy Deeney on television afterwards.
Lacazette has impressed so far with his penalty box sharpness, his awareness and skill. But it is no coincidence that all four of his Arsenal goals have come at the Emirates. He is a player who excels when his team have the ball in the opposition half, so that he can make the clever darts to find space in the box. He is a master of spying a gap where other players cannot.
But away games are different and it is not unfair to ask whether he is the best option for some of these difficult road trips.
Especially when they have a proven Premier League target man in Olivier Giroud on the bench.
He is back in a supporting role this season, having turned down a move away from the Emirates this summer. While Wenger likes having him as a Plan B who he can throw in in the second half – as he was at Watford – there may be occasions when Arsenal are better with him on at the start.
Arsenal go to Belgrade for their next Europa League group game and Wenger is likely to make plenty of changes, as he did for the FC Koln and BATE Borisov games. But their next Premier League is at Goodison Park next Sunday. And Wenger
Arsenal’s resurgence after a poor start to the season was halted dead in its tracks at Watford with the 2-1 defeat leaving the Gunners already nine points off league leaders Manchester City. The thrust of Arsene Wenger’s frustrations after the loss though were aimed towards the referee and Ri-
charlison. Richarlison did undeniably dive to win the penalty that Troy Deeney tucked away but a team like Arsenal should not have allowed that to derail them as much as it did that it became the turning point in the game. Manchester United has some difficult decisions to make.
Alexis Sanchez returned from a disappointing international break with a minor thigh problem which is why he did not play at Watford. He will surely come back in but Wenger has a harder call to make on Ozil.
He did not think Ozil was fully fit to start on Saturday, but when he came on he missed a golden chance to make it 2-0 and secure the three points. But he missed and so Arsenal left with none.
“It’s difficult to come out on any individual after a game like that,” Wenger said afterwards, not wanting to criticise Ozil, but not desperate to defend him either.
“He had a good chance to score the second goal and on the positive note he gave a good ball to Iwobi as well to score the one against one with the keeper.”
Sanchez will surely be in the team for Everton away, and Giroud could be too. But it is hard to see Ozil as a solution to their problems on the road. – The Independent
Yes, Salah completed more successful dribbles (7) than any other player. Yes, he was a threat on the counter attack. Yes, his play was great on the eye. But too often an end product is absent like he was against United.
He did get one though, but missed. A chance to take the lead after picking the ball off the laces of Philippe Coutinho and firing at David De Gea’s goal after a stunning save by the Spaniard… but firing wide. You don’t get many chances like that against the top teams and although Salah’s goalscoring has been regular on his Premier League return, these are the chances that win you games and you have to take them.
There can now surely be no doubt about it. Kevin De Bruyne’s performance in the thrashing of Stoke was sublime and could not even be ignored by the Potters’ social media team who lavished him in praise. He got two assists but was directly involved in five of the seven goals. De Bruyne has all the attributes to become the best player in the world one day and with Pep Guardiola – who has a history of cultivating Ballon d’Or winners – behind him, you wouldn’t bet against it.
Yes Tottenham got their first Premier League win at Wembley against Bournemouth on Saturday, but it wasn’t pretty, thrilling or even particularly interesting. But they are learning to win in an unfamiliar setting, on an unfamiliar pitch.
Part of the problem is the space. The Wembley pitch is 8% larger than White Hart Lane. You might think that would give them more room to stretch the game, to put their combinations together, to express themselves, but in fact it seems to be having the opposite effect.
And so unlike at White Hart Lane, where the crowd is almost on top of you, and the ball pings back into your area as quickly as you can clear it, Wembley is a place of space and time. Time for Tottenham to build. Time for Tottenham to move the ball. Time for Bournemouth, meanwhile, to set themselves, close down, shift across. With 10 men on the edge of your area, you will still get attacked, but you will almost certainly see the shot coming.
On an afternoon where Michy Batshuayi, playing in place of the injured Alvaro Morata, failed to find the net, another Chelsea striker was doing just that to take his tally to five goals in 10 games. Tammy Abraham scored twice in Swansea’s 2-0 win over a sloppy Huddersfield side. The forward showing the goalscoring hunger to chase down Jordan Ayew’s goalbound chip after giving the Swans the lead with a well-taken effort from 15 yards in South Wales.