Written by kirsikka
The return of Adams gave the bench an extra sheen, but the starting XI only saw one change, with Kroupi coming in for Adli. Adams clearly still needs minutes to get fully up to speed, as this would be the ideal kind of fixture for his qualities.
It’s never easy going away to a team trying to secure the title, knowing they’re going to blitz you from the start and force their superior quality on the game. That’s why the calm way we approached things right from kick-off was admirable. We never allowed them to get a foothold in the game to dictate proceedings.
Man of the Match against Arsenal
Evanilson
Evanilson
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Hill
Hill
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Scott
Scott
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Tavernier
Tavernier
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Kroupi
Kroupi
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Someone else
Someone else
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Sure, they had more possession, but it wasn’t quality possession. And this wasn’t a case of us sitting back in numbers and asking them to break us down. We faced up to them and told them they’d need to show their Champions credentials if they wanted to get anything out of the game. Sadly for their fans, they’d only brought a fake ID with them.
The truth is, they’d created nothing when we made the breakthrough. Christie spotted a superb run around the back from Truffert and played a perfectly weighted pass to pick him out wide left in their area. His first time cross took a big deflection only to loop into the path of Kroupi at the back post, who volleyed home from close range.
1-0.
Surely we’d just angered the beast, though?
Maybe we had, but in that case, we were the axemen from Little Red Riding Hood, taking no ** from the bad guys.
There’s been a lot of talk this season about the change in the Premier League towards a focus on set pieces, and how Arsenal are the architects of that with their effectiveness from dead balls. And there has been plenty of talk on here about how we haven’t dealt with them very well this season.
That’s true. No denying it.
I did worry when from their first corner it landed on the head of an Arsenal player in the six-yard box, and he headed over when he should have scored. At that moment, it felt inevitable they’d get at least one from a set piece. Nothing of the sort.
Well… not really…
One corner was, I think, mishit and landed in front of the near post. There was a scramble around the ball, and Christie made a move to challenge for it, but before he got there, a shot was blasted toward goal from point-blank range and smacked into his raised arm.
This is horrible. It’s one of those where the officials have no choice, under the current rules, it’s a penalty, but it’s also a complete nonsense decision.
I have no issue with the ref giving it. It’s a case of blaming the rules, not the man in black.
Even Martin Keown at half-time admitted it was a gift of a penalty, and there was nothing Christie could have done.
I will say that over the seasons, all the changes to the handball rule seem to somehow break against us. I can’t remember too many “gifts” of these shitty handball rule pens in our favour, but I have so many seared into my mind that have gone against us.
Maybe we’ve had just as many, and that’s a sign I’m a glass-half-empty person? I don’t know. I feel positive, and I do genuinely believe we’ve been really hard done by on so many occasions by the handball rule around pens and attackers’ goals.
Anyway, the spot kick was dispatched, leaving no chance for Petro. 1-1.
Did we drop into our shell to see things through to half-time? Did we heck. We actually took control of proceedings and dominated through to the break.
I wonder what the manager says at times like that? The players have been brilliant, have made an on-paper superior team look ordinary and, aside from an unfortunate penalty, have pretty much kept them at arm’s length.
I can imagine Mike Bassett shouting at them, “Go out there and do exactly the same thing again. And don’t fcuk it up”. I imagine AI had a similar message, only delivered in a much more eloquent way.
We came out after the break and continued to control proceedings. To the point that it took only seven minutes of the second period before the Arsenal manager blinked and made a triple sub.
You know what? That’s when I really started believing. Changing three after such a short time is a message to his team that they’re being completely outplayed and he’s starting to panic.
It actually made almost no difference. About 20 minutes into the second period, and we were still firmly the better side. The question remaining was what would happen when we made changes.
69 minutes gone and on came Adams and Brooks for Rayan and Christie, with Scott shuffling forward in midfield.
It didn’t take long for the new blood to have an impact. Four minutes later, a gorgeous move saw AFCB take the lead. The ball was headed to Books in their half, who got their head up and played a low ball across the pitch towards Evanilson on the edge of the area. He stretched and just managed to get a touch to flick it into the path of a run from Scott, who took it into the area and slammed the ball home.
2-1, and the atmosphere really shifted. It was already nervy in the stands, but it felt like from that moment it bled onto the pitch as well from that moment.
Arteta had one sub ready to come on before we scored, but decided our goal was a reason to also play his final card at the same time. For me, that’s a panicked move. He already needed a goal and had planned a tactical change that he thought would bring it, but now, suddenly, he’s changing more.
It didn’t pay off.
To be honest, there weren’t many moments of danger.
There was a worrying moment when Petro dived to punch out a low cross only to send it directly into the path of a defender, which led to a shot that went wide. There was no real danger.
There was also a fortunate ball bounce that almost left an Arsenal player through on goal, but a last-ditch challenge from Jimenez cleared it.
In reality, we contained them. We matched them. We beat them.
There was nothing lucky about that victory. It was a top-quality performance. Simple as that.
Selected Player Watch
—– Truffert —–
He outshone Jiminez today. Pretty much flawless defensively, and was such a constant thorn in their side getting forward. Earned the touch of fortune on the assist, which was going nowhere good until the deflection.
—– Scott —–
MOTM on the TV coverage, and showed he has the quality to match the best in the business. Good to see him score again.
—– Hill —–
Nothing flashy, simply quietly assured. Looked like he was trying to contain an attack that was a level below him. That’s how well he dealt with everything.
—– Kroupi —–
I still don’t think his long-term future is as a 10, but the more the season has gone on, the better he has done when playing that role. He still showed his striker instincts to be in the right place at the right time to score.
—– Jiminez —–
Defensively, he was excellent. There were a couple of superb breaks forward he made, but then he lost the ball by not releasing it in time. However, when that’s your only criticism of a defender away at Arsenal, then you know he’s done well.
—– Senesi —–
One wayward pass aside, he was back to his high levels again after a few recent performances that have been a little shaky.
AI and Tactics Watch
Many games are dominated by a personality, an individual performance, a moment of magic or a few players standing head and shoulders above their teammates to drag their side to victory. Today wasn’t one of those. Today was a collective result where everybody made a difference.
That comes back to the manager. The set-up. The plan. The way the players enacted his tactical wishes was perfection. When they watch the game back together, after its finish and, he could then simply say to them all, “Well done. No notes.” He won’t because he’ll always find room for improvement, but the fact that he could potentially tell them that is an endorsement of how well they did out there as a group.
There’s no doubt Arsenal have been a little shaky lately, but take nothing away from what we did out there. We totally nullified them. I actually can’t think of an open play, good quality chance they created (where we didn’t get a block in), they had in the game until an injury time shot was skewed wide from near the edge of the area.
They created nothing. And ignore the media tattle, I expect there will be about their performance, which wasn’t on them. It was down to us. Fecking glorious.
I’d even say, apart from the very first corner when they should have scored, we looked reasonably comfortable defending dead balls. This is against the team who have scored from more than any other PL side, with us being the team who have conceded the most. It’s a sign of just how well we stepped up every aspect of our game.
There have been more swashbuckling statement wins under AI, so this won’t displace the most exciting games we’ve ever seen in his tenure. However, I don’t think we’ve ever matched this for tactical intelligence. And it’s important to note I mean that to carry from the manager through to players executing it.
It’s a simple fact that we won, and we deserved it. We outplayed them. Not in a crazy adrenaline rush, relentless high press (although it was there at times), chaos in a way that we sometimes see. Today it was done in a pure football way.
We matched them up all over the park and won our duels time and again. They looked toothless.
Bloody hell.
I’m not sure I can find the words to express how superb that was as a performance. I’m in awe. We went there, approached it like we were playing peers instead of some monstrous Sky Six free hit, and we totally did a number on them.
Talking tactics for a minute, and then going back to a choice AI made in advance of the game. Any normal person would think, “No Adams or Cook to shield the defence from the start, so we probably need a hard worker in the 10 role. Maybe Tavs, with Brooks or Adli starting on the wing.”
Instead, AI challenged Kroupi to show he can contribute more, whilst still offering a goal threat. On the biggest stage. And he did just that.
It was a call of a genius, and it paid off.
After the run of draws, as good as they are in a historical context, I felt we needed something special to try and drag ourselves back into the European conversation.
Special? This was like getting Neapolitan ice cream with toffee sauce and hundreds and thousands for dessert in the 80s. Actually, no. It was high class, so think Viennetta.
Six games to go and I think we’re right in amongst it. However, the weekend plays out, 8th place and beyond won’t feel like it’s out of touch.
I think I’ve said it on many occasions under AI’s leadership, but savour today. Really enjoy every single bite. It wasn’t just a win away at Arsenal; it was pure brilliance.
Hey Bill, maybe you’ve already turned things up to ten in your efforts to keep AI next season. I think today shows he’s about the only manager we could get for whom it would be worth turning it up to eleven…
Your say…
Jim_AFCB said…
Given the fact that it was at the League leaders, and the quality of players they have, this has to go down as one of our best away performances in the Prem. We were never really under the cosh except for perhaps the last 10 minutes.
Very unlucky with the penalty. Those are always going to be given, especially away to a BigSix™ club, but I don’t know what Christie was supposed to do. His arm naturally moved up as his body moved, but when the ball is blasted from a yard away, there is no time to move the arm out of the way.
Came close to another goal when the same corner move that saw us take the lead at home last season would have come off had Christie not run too far forward, and the ball went behind him. – To join the conversation, please click here.
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DJ
I have been a writer and website administrator on the largest AFC Bournemouth fan website for almost 25 years. Previously on a now defunct fan network and since 2005 on vitalfootball.co.uk We have been nominated for various fan website awards down the years, however we have always been the bridesmaid…