Monthly Archives: August 2022
Arsenal 2-1 Fulham: Gabriel Goes From Zero to Hero
Pandemonium at the Emirates!!
Match Report – Match Highlights – Post-Match Press Conference
Final Result: Arsenal 2-1 Fulham (Odegaard 64′, Gabriel 85′) | (Mitrovic 56′)
Arsenal XI (4-2-3-1): Ramsdale; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney (Nketiah 61′); Elneny, Xhaka; Saka, Odegaard (Holding 90′), Martinelli; Jesus (Tomiyasu 89′)
With Manchester City’s win over Crystal Palace propelling them to first place, Arsenal knew that only a victory against Fulham would keep their 100% record intact and take them back to the summit of the league. The Gunners’ caused wasn’t helped with the fact that there were some injury absences from Thomas Partey (tight thigh) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (sprained knee). Partey missed a considerable chunk of game time last season due to these same thigh issues, so it’s really a concern with the crunch clash against Manchester United in the horizon. However, Arsenal had good squad depth to compensate for the injury absences with the introductions of Kieran Tierney and Mo Elneny.
Fulham arrived at the Emirates in good form as well as going unbeaten, following two draws against Liverpool and Wolves, as well as last gasp win over Brentford, and all eyes were on their talismanic striker, Aleksandar Mitrovic, that had scored three goals in his first three Premier League games. The game also saw ex-Gunner, Bernd Leno, return to a place he once called home, and all eyes were on the big German to see if he could activate his inner Manuel Neuer, as all ex-Arsenal keepers do when they come to the Emirates.
Arsenal had the chance to open the scoring when Martin Odegaard swung in a sumptuous ball for Gabriel Jesus who cushioned a goal-bound chance for Granit Xhaka but the Swiss maverick didn’t connect well with the ball and guided it wide. With Xhaka in a more advanced role this season, we have seen the Swiss midfielder have so many touches in the box, as well as a goal against Leicester and a couple of assists.
The clearest chance of the game occurred late in the first half when Bukayo Saka was clean on goal, but the Fulham shot stopper, Leno, was on hand to make a big save. I know it’s just four games into the new campaign, but Saka hasn’t seemed to kick into the next gear, and we will need him to start firing soon, especially with Nicolas Pepe leaving the club to OGC Nice.
Fulham got the first goal against the run of play when Gabriel Magalhaes dallied on the ball in front of his box, got robbed by Mitrovic, who wasted no time in slotting the ball past the onrushing Aaron Ramsdale. It was a terrible goal to concede in all ramifications, bearing in mind that Arsenal was on the ascendancy with Leno making two fine stops from Odegaard and Jesus, but the lads kept pushing and the home fans rallied their players on. The Gunners got the goal their play deserved when Odegaard latched onto Saka’s ball and blasted a shot that deflected off Tosin Adarabioyo’s shin which went past the petulant Leno.
That goal lifted the spirits of the Arsenal faithful and it was all about going for the kill, but Fulham weren’t pushovers. Fulham almost grabbed an unlikely winner when Ramsdale made an outstanding save from a Mitrovic point blank header, with Ben White blocking the rebound from De Cordova-Reid. Arteta brought on Eddie Nketiah for Tierney, making loads of tactical switches that saw Jesus move to the left, Martinelli to the right and Saka to left back, but eventually he switched back to default mode and the Gunners kept on pressing till they got the breakthrough in the 85th minute.
Martinelli, whose deliveries left a lot to be desired in the course of the game, swung in a delightful corner that was attacked by William Saliba and Leno. The German goalie came out second best and Gabriel was on hand to side foot the ball into an unguarded net, sending the Emirates to raptures. There was some level of anxiety when the VAR folks did their thing, but in the end, it was given and Arsenal got a vital lead. After what seemed like an eternity of stoppage time, the ref’s whistle was like music to the ears of everyone connected with Arsenal, as sheer elation took center stage, with the Gunners returning to pole position in the Premier League.
Rewind to last season and Arsenal was just winning their first game of the season against Norwich following their shambolic losses in a row. Oh! How things have changed at the Emirates.
Something is brewing in this Arsenal side and you can see the togetherness of the lads, management and fans. When Saliba scored an unfortunate own goal against Leicester, everyone rallied around him, encouraging him and lifting his spirits, and he went on to have a stellar game. Gabriel is a great player no doubt, but he has these moments when he loses concentration in critical periods, which go unpunished more times than not, but yesterday was different as it was a glaring error that led to a goal. He played like a man on a mission from that moment onwards, with support from everyone around him, and it was really pleasing to see that he turned out to be the man that secured a gritty victory for his side. Kudos to him
The tight Premier League schedule sees Aston Villa and yet another ex-Arsenal goalie, Emiliano Martinez, visit the Emirates, so we can bask on the euphoria of sitting at the summit of the Premier League for yet another week.
Sayonara
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Pepe to OGC Nice: Good Move for the Player and the Club
Pepe’s current statistical records at Arsenal reads – 112 appearances, 27 goals, 14 assists.
This is certainly not an amazing return from a player that joined the club for a record fee of £72m in the summer of 2019. In the second episode of the Gooner Daily Podcast, I discussed about the Curious Case of Nicolas Pepe, where I shared my thoughts about my thoughts on his situation at the club.
Despite being the club’s most expensive acquisition, he clearly started on the wrong foot as he wasn’t his manager’s choice as an attacking signing – it was well documented that the Arsenal gaffer, Unai Emery (good ebening), wanted the services of a certain Wilfried Zaha from Crystal Palace, an established Premier League right-footed inverted left winger that would have cost £80m, but Raul Sanllehi, in his infinite fraudulence and wisdom, I suppose, signed a relatively unknown left-footed inverted right winger that had a breakthrough campaign for £8m less.
Zaha has gone to improve in leaps and bounds for Crystal Palace, earning a talismanic status in the club, while Pepe, on the other hand, has been on the trenches.
However, the disgruntled Emery didn’t give Pepe the Jose Mourinho treatment of Andriy Shevchenko, but instead, featured the Ivorian winger consistently alongside Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the Arsenal attack, and in all honesty, Pepe didn’t light up any fireworks. His opening goal for the club was actually a gift from Aubameyang, when the Gabonese forward gracefully allowed Pepe play the penalty kick against Aston Villa, which he converted. Pepe’s first triumphant moment with the club arrived when he converted two free kicks against Victoria Guimaraes, coming on as a substitute. Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Pepe.
Sadly, things turned really sour at Arsenal and Unai Emery lost his job, with Mikel Arteta taking over, but Pepe still got a chance to feature for the new gaffer. Unfortunately, Pepe couldn’t build on his good end of season form with the arrival of that aged pensioner from Chelsea, Willian. For the life of me, I couldn’t fathom why Arsenal gave a three year deal to a 32-year-old, and his performances clearly showed he wasn’t half arsed, which is why I was quite bemused when he terminated his contract with us after one season to join Corinthians in his native Brazil.
With Willian featuring consistently on the right wing, Pepe had a bit-part role in the team but eventually won his place back when the Brazilian’s form was so poor that it stunk all over the place. Pepe justified his selection and grabbed the bull by the horns by actually putting up some outstanding performances, finishing that campaign with 16 goals in 47 appearances.
The biggest dent to Pepe’s fledgling progress was the emergence of last season’s Player of the Year, Bukayo Saka. Despite being older than Saka and more technically astute, Pepe couldn’t offer more to his game than the Young Englishman – defensive contributions, intelligent link up play, better decision making in the final third and most importantly, the manager’s trust.
Saka’s continuous sojourns on the right wing relegated Pepe to the bench on a permanent basis and with Arsenal failing to qualify for Europe last season, Pepe made to make do with three early League Cup appearances, scoring two goals against West Brom and Sunderland, with Saka getting the nod as Arsenal progressed to the latter stages of the competition. It was even worse in the Premier League, with Pepe garnering only 600 minutes from a possible 3,420, with his only telling contribution in the League coming in the 2-1 win against Wolves.
Arsenal’s pursuit of Raphinha this summer, despite signing Marquinhos, showed that the Gunners wanted an upgrade on Pepe to provide better competition to Saka. With the Brazilian opting to sign for Broke-lona, the tabloids reported that Arsenal are chasing Wolves’ Pedro Neto, which is also considered as another upgrade on Pepe.
With these transfer speculations of an incoming winger, it only made sense for Pepe and his representatives to seek a move elsewhere, as his future no longer lies within the Emirates Stadium. The club has officially announced that the winger would be joining French outfit, OGC Nice, on a loan move for the entirety of the 2022/23 campaign. With Pepe joining Arsenal on a five-year deal in 2019, he will have one more year left, following the completion of his loan spell with Nice, with one foot on the exit door on a permanent basis. Hopefully, he will rediscover his 2018/19 form in Ligue Un that saw him score 23 goals and supply 16 assists.
Kudos to Pepe for staying as a model professional through this ordeal. For a player that was signed for such huge money, one would have expected that he would have shown some form of agitation for staying on the bench for so long, but as Arseblog suggests, He’s probably an introvert.
Pepe’s exit certainly opens the door for a new winger signing, like Neto, unless the club has bigger plans for Marquinhos, that has been tearing it up at Under-21 level. We also have Fabio Vieira, that’s adept on the right flank, but one thing is for sure – Saka needs competition and we can only hope he gets it this season.
Sayonara.
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