Fleck exposes familiar Arsenal frailties despite youthful hope
Signs of promise, particularly in youth, but a lingering defensive vulnerability that undermined their attacking efforts. Sound familiar?
It must feel that way for Mikel Arteta, who has been in charge for only six games but is already flicking through the same script as his predecessors in the Arsenal dugout.
Once again Arsenal showed glimpses of the football they want to be playing under Arteta. Once again they took the lead. Once again their defence failed to hold firm under pressure, and three points soon became one.
At least it was one point, because by the end it may well have been none against a Sheffield United side who started strongly and finished stronger at the Emirates. John Fleck scored the second-half equaliser for Chris Wilder’s team, who had fallen behind when the energetic Gabriel Martinelli, only 18, had put Arsenal ahead.
There was refereeing controversy, too. That felt almost as inevitable as Arsenal’s defensive surrender, given it was Mike Dean’s 500th Premier League match.
Nicolas Pepe was brought down after a surging run into the penalty box, but the great showman of the refereeing world shook his head, and the great video assistant referee adjudicator in
Stockley Park came down on the side of Dean.
Sheffield United escaped, then went up the other end and equalised.
Wilder’s side are above Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in the table for a reason, and their resilience proved crucial in the second half.
“I don’t think we were anywhere near our best,” Wilder said. “The result is better than the performance.”
Arsenal were not at their best, either. “I am very disappointed,” said Arteta. “In the Premier League, if you don’t put the game to bed then in the last 10 or 15 minutes this type of team just needs a long ball, a second ball, a setpiece, and you can give the points away.”
The positives came from the teenagers, largely. Bukayo Saka performed well from an unfamiliar left-back position and Martinelli impressed again in attack, scoring his ninth goal of a remarkable debut season in England
Martinelli’s goal, tapped in from Saka’s close-range cross, gave Arsenal the lead at the end of the first half.
For a while, Arsenal were in control. Martinelli was nutmegging defenders, and Lucas Torreira scurried around midfield.
But the nervousness is always there, and the equaliser came from a largely harmless position, with Callum Robinson standing up a simple cross to the back post. From there it bobbled to Fleck, whose effort spun into the ground, and then up into the top corner.