Nicolas Pépé seizes his chance in Arsenal's classy comeback at Leicester
On a crisp, sunny day at the King Power Stadium it was Arsenal’s Europa League travellers who looked to have been touched by the breath of spring. Behind after six minutes, Arsenal dominated possession and were good value for a 3-1 win against a depleted Leicester City team.
Leicester will point to absences here, most notably their best midfielder and best centre half, James Maddison and Wesley Fofana, plus an injury to Harvey Barnes’s knee after half-time that will require an operation.
But for Arsenal this felt like a significant turn, reward for one of their best away performances of the season. “The team is improving, it’s taking a direction I like,” Mikel Arteta said afterwards. “Attitude-wise, the way we are playing within our model is much closer to what we want.”
Much of the buildup to this game had focused on status. Is there such a thing as “the big six”, and if so how do we measure it? Finance? Expectation? Actual league positions?
At kick-off Leicester were 15 points and eight places clear of their visitors. By full time there was a clear sense of Arsenal’s greater squad depth. The quality of the replacements, most notably Nicolas Pépé, was simply too much for Leicester’s own weakened team. “We were down to the bare bones,” Rodgers lamented at full-time.
Arteta made six changes, including bringing in Willian, Pépé and Alexandre
Lacazette. Bukayo Saka was given a much-needed rest. Pépé seized his chance brilliantly, with a performance of such conviction that by the 55th minute he had been involved in two Arsenal penalty awards, won a free-kick that led to their opening goal and forced the substitution of Leicester’s 19-year-old left-back Luke Thomas, who struggled with Pépé’s movement and dribbling ability.
Leicester switched to a 4-4-2, with Kelechi Iheanacho playing close to Jamie Vardy, a nudge that failed to draw any obvious response. Vardy is 34, has played constantly for the past six years and seemed bothered by his groin. He was a ghost for most of the game.
Arsenal started well enough, right up until the moment Leicester had their first attack of the game and scored a brilliant goal. It came from the right flank. Iheanacho held the ball. Youri Tielemans made a clever run outside, glided away from Kieran Tierney’s lunge, and just kept on going, reaching the edge of the area unimpeded by David Luiz and Pablo Marí.
The shot on the run was low hard past Bernd Leno’s right hand. There is something old-fashioned about a central midfielder who can surge from deep to score regularly. It helps when the opposition offer you the defensive equivalent of a welcome basket and a round of polite applause.
Arsenal were commendably un-deflated, helped (presumably) by Arteta’s constant barking and yelping from the touchline. This is a manager who loves to “call” every play, springing up every few moments like the spiffily-dressed dad-coach of the all-conquering local U-11s. His players responded and six minutes later seemed ready to equalise as Pépé was tripped swerving into the box. The VAR overruled the penalty decision. Wilfred Ndidi had made contact just outside the area.
Arsenal found inroads on the left. Willian switched flanks for a while, and began to influence the game. “He was really good,” Arteta said. “We’ve seen that in training, he’s revealing himself.”
Seven minutes before half-time Pépé was fouled for the fourth time, drawing a booking for Thomas. Willian whipped in a flat free-kick and David Luiz scored with a wonderful header, running across the front of a static Leicester defence and glancing the ball into the corner.
Emile Smith Rowe left the field with a hip injury. But Arsenal still had time to take the lead from another penalty kick, this one awarded by the VAR. Ndidi blocked a Pépé shot with his hands raised. Lacazette hammered the ball into the corner. Arsenal deserved nothing less, having driven the game single-handedly since Leicester’s goal.
Brendan Rodgers reacted at half time, taking off Thomas and bringing on Mark Albrighton. But Arsenal went 3-1 up on 52 minutes with a goal made and scored by Pépé himself. This time he dribbled inside, saw the ball trickle into the six-yard box as Willian evaded a joint-challenge from Kasper Schmeichel and Timothy Castagne, and was there to tap it in.
Leicester kept running, but never really looked like hauling it back. There has been something hugely impressive about their ability to function through the absence of key players. Here they looked tired and low on quality.
For Arsenal, victory was a timely reminder of Arteta’s own playing resources ahead of a tough run of games that will decide the eventual tone of this strange in-out season.
Those who pour scorn on the relevance of a national final between Livingston and St Johnstone do a huge disservice to a group of history makers from Perth. St Johnstone have now taken delivery of the League Cup for the first time since formation, 137 years ago. Until this behind-closed-door experience, St Johnstone had only featured in two League Cup finals, which ended in 1-0 defeat to Jock Stein’s Celtic in 1969 and a 2-1 loss to Rangers 29 years later. This victory takes “overdue” to fresh extremes.
If the absence of bigger clubs is bemoaned by sponsors and television executives, it provides the kind of welcome opportunity St Johnstone seized upon. Scottish football is a better place when honours are shared; St Johnstone have now ended Celtic’s run of consecutive trophies at the 12 mark. The names of Clark, Rooney, Kerr, Gordon, Booth, McCann, Craig, Conway, Kane, Wotherspoon, McCart and May have been etched into St Johnstone folklore. Tens of thousands of supporters are not required for that to be a celebrated sporting fact.
After Scottish Cup success in 2014, St Johnstone are just the fifth team in Scotland to win more than one trophy in the 21st century. “I’m gutted we can’t share this with the fans in Perth but we’ve still got to enjoy the moment as much as we can,” said Callum Davidson,
St Johnstone’s manager. “I’m over the moon. I’m not really an emotional person but I’m emotional here because I’ve seen how much it means to so many people.”
Proof that football doesn’t deliver fairytale endings as routine can be found alongside David Martindale’s runners-up medal. To neutral observers it seemed set that Martindale’s redemption journey, from a six-and-a-half year jail term to managing Livingston would be topped off by a League Cup triumph.
Instead, focus should fall on Davidson; impressive in the early stages of his managerial career even before he broke St Johnstone’s League Cup hoodoo.
Davidson, who started his playing career in Perth before a move to Blackburn Rovers, should cherish this success. His decision to swap backroom coaching in England for management has been fully justified.
That this final lacked plenty in artistic impression was no great shock given the heavy burden of history. The 90 minutes at Hampden were attritional, with a set-piece responsible for the moment that won the cup. Shaun Rooney, St Johnstone’s right-back, rose to meet an outswinging Craig Conway header for a goal that immediately felt significant.
Robby McCrorie, the Livingston goalkeeper, will feel he should have done better with Rooney’s header which squeezed over the line via a post. Martindale’s frustration could only have been intensified by the fact Livingston were the better side until the goal while failing to regularly trouble Zander Clark. St Johnstone’s goalgoalkeeper reacted well to an angled Josh Mullin drive but was otherwise a bystander.
St Johnstone’s bullish opening to the second half suggested the final could be settled long before full time. McCrorie saved well from a close-range David Wotherspoon attempt shortly before the latter rather unimpressively tried – and failed – to deceive the referee, Don Robertson, into awarding a penalty. Livingston rallied without appearing to have the belief they could earn an equalising goal. St Johnstone’s win was fully deserved.
In the cold light of day Martindale must reflect both on his own incredible progress and that of the club; Livingston were in the bottom tier of Scottish football in 2009-10 and only one level higher in 2016-17. For now, though, he will encounter irritation; finals like this are so uncommon as to make one wonder when such a chance may arise again.
“I’m very pragmatic, it’s difficult to take but it’s done,” said Martindale. “We can’t let this affect the rest of our season. I’m over it, I’m focused on securing top six in the league. I’ll make sure the boys are over it too, I told them that when St Johnstone were picking up their medals. You have to move on from your past.”