You know you have been deeply damaged by football when you start enjoying the boring matches more than the fun and exciting ones. Brentford should be drama-free. Often not, but yesterday it was a stats nerd’s paradise. Brentford had one shot on target, we had seven. They had zero goals, we had two. Perfectly boring.
There was never any doubt about the match. We controlled Brentford’s secret weapons. Their long throws were useless. Their eight corners didn’t amount to much considering the hype that Keith Andrews carries. Outtara and Damage did nothing. Igor Thiago couldn’t get a shot in and had to resort to attacking with Hinapie.
woaaaah, don’t run away from your laptop because you know I’m going to say it!
The fallout from Arteta and his choices in big games and his desire to have players on the training pitch all the time for photos baffled us again and again. Christian Norgaard couldn’t get the nod in midfield, meaning it was Dekkers and Zubi again… and Declan, in his fourth successive 90, left on 85 with a calf problem. Did we need him this late?
Calf problems are classic fatigue injuries. We’ve had three in the last ten days. Arteta can beg the league for more rest between games, but what he should really be asking for is whether he is doing all he can with the variables he can control. The answer is clear, and we have the broken bodies to prove it (and we have them every season, while managers like Arne Slot keep players like Salah and VVD fit all season).
If you don’t prioritize, if you act like there are no other options (despite Berta giving you options), you’ll always be Jeff Goldblum in the lab saying…
The high performance life has a tendency to put on the brakes and remind you that bodies don’t care how mentally strong you are. If they are pushed too hard, they stop working together. Mosquera also left. I’m not sure what the problem was there, but I won’t put Arteta on the chopping block for that.
Back to the game. Arteta had the decency to rotate Ben White (Timber), Noni (Saka) and Martin (Eze). Merino kept his place because he is a god. It all turned out quite well.
The first goal saw Noni White cut back on the overlap. The cross went to the front post. Merino controlled his run, drove to the front post and headed his header under Kelleher.
The goal of a real striker. Is it just me or has Merino added the post-attacking stuff this season since he started working at Gyokeres? I think so. Incredibly, Merino has contributed 29 goals for club and country in 2025. What a crazy man. He’s been given that No.9 role and he has a love for it, just as my son has a love for the TV remote when Arsenal are going through the transition. The story is sensational, especially since we all assumed that the man who looks like he’s planning Facebook ads in a small digital shop in London is actually better than R9 for the goal… and after yesterday perhaps an equal to Iniesta in tight quarters. Why is Merino Arsenal’s most important player right now?
If there was one criticism of the match, it was that we struggled in front of goal. We created a lot of open moments, but the final passes were a bit off. More often than not it was the last action in front of goal. Noni, who looked brilliant in the first half, squandered two very good openings. Declan galloped eight yards away into a large space and took out his lines. A number of cuts were made.
Martin Odegaard returned to the match and played the full 96 minutes. It was reasonable. Nothing crazy. But you have to remember that his game is about speed and connections. At the moment he has neither and still created four chances. He will improve, give us more versatility and hopefully add some big goals.
David Raya also deserves a compliment because he tapped Kevin Schade’s header onto the crossbar from a set piece. An incredible save that kept his sheets cleaner than a Pascal Cygan cycling with his head. Did that work? No. That didn’t happen. I wanted to mention Pascal for some reason.
In other news, title contenders Chelsea lost 3-1 to Leeds United. Very spectacular. Leeds shot fourteen times on target and were more than worth the victory. I think this loss highlights the stupidity of that Caicedo performance and also the impact a big emotional game has on the player’s energy levels.
Liverpool also limped out of the title race with a draw against Sunderland after trailing 1-0. Liverpool dominated possession and fired 23 shots, but only hit the target four times. Sunderland had nine shots and made six saves. Also worth mentioning was that Florian Wirtz’s goal was terribly deflected.
City won the night before, but let’s be honest: conceding four against Fulham in a 5-4 thriller isn’t good.
So three games in the opening stage 5, Arsenal are:
5 away from City
6 free from Villa
9 ahead of Chelsea
11 free from Liverpool
14 free from Spurs
Strange that Villa were able to come within three points of Arsenal this weekend. Their winning streak has been madness, but if you beat them we’ll be nine ahead of third place and heading into a pretty easy run of games.
That’s crazy.
The conclusion here is quite simple… we are in a corner this weekend. Arsenal need to pull out all the stops because Villa away is difficult and they are effectively one of the best teams in Europe at the moment. But we can’t look past these Arteta decisions. Rolling out his favorites every game and showing the entire team on the training field the day before the game doesn’t help anyone.
Norgaard played 34 of 38 games for Brentford last season. This year he played fourteen minutes in the Premier League. If Arteta thinks he’s worthless, he better have an idea of how to manage without Zubi and Declan, because those two won’t last the season at this rate. Usually at this stage of the season we find out how good Jorginho is. Now we have a midfielder who gets less love than Big Mo. Andrea Berta may have to rely on the two free loans he has available in January if the aversion is real.
Declan gets a rotation option when Jesus and Gyokeres can free Merino and Kai for the left 8 role. That would still give us a viable 6 unless Declan is the rotation option.
Okay, a shorter post tonight. Get your new AOP On The Whistle right now. X
#BEES #SUCCEEDED #INJURIES #STONES