Will Dat Moment From Dat Guy Prove A Title Winner?

Match Review: Arsenal 2 Leicester City 1 - Premier League 14.02.16

As Alan Smith said in commentary on Sky, might this match be the one we look back on in May as the turning point in our season. Danny Welbeck’s late heroics may just have ignited the Arsenal title challenge which was threatening to blow out for good on Valentine’s Day. A goal down at the break, it seemed Arsenal were about to put the final nail into the coffin containing our chances of finally regaining the Premier League trophy. As such, it’s not just the result, it’s the way the result came about that is important. With us, Sp*rs and Leicester seemingly the only teams truly in the race, I’m praying that this is indeed the moment we look back on and point to as the catalyst for our title run.

I don’t hate Flamini, but I definitely breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw that Coquelin had replaced him in one of two changes from the Bournemouth win. Flamini is passionate and has the ability to put in a solid performance every now and again, but once he gets an extended run in the team, he becomes a bit of a liability. He’s simply nowhere near Coquelin’s level and to have him back starting was a huge boost, as was the surprise inclusion of Danny Welbeck. The striker returned to action in an U21 game in the week and wasn’t expected to be back in the first team squad until the Hull fixture. Mertesacker replaced Gabriel in the other change from the previous game. Wenger stated before the game that the Brazilian missed the game through injury, but I suspect that Mertesacker would have returned to the side had Gabriel been injured or not.

A lot of people in the media and a lot of pundits have been suggesting that Leicester are pulling out lots of big results because teams don’t show them enough respect. To an extent I think that’s right, Leicester are one of the most disciplined and well organised sides I’ve seen at the Emirates. Ranieri deserves a huge amount of credit, you could put a spirit level against the two lines of four they set up with and probably find they were rigidly in line for most of the game. Not only that, but when they win the ball back they break immediately with numbers and they also seem to be very adept at isolating an opposition player with the ball and forming almost a box around him to force him backwards or into a mistake.

I thought we struck the right balance though, Leicester are a team set up to frustrate and counter attack and they do it incredibly well, which makes them a huge challenge for us. We often have problems committing too many players forward, losing the ball and getting hit on the counter so it’s not surprising that most of the first half was cagey and we were cautious in our approach play. The approach of going out and aggressively attacking Leicester that some wanted to see from us would have been suicide, it was exactly what Leicester wanted. No team has managed to rip Leicester to shreds this season because they’re a great team that deserves to be top and they punish teams with an arrogant mindset of going out and dominating the supposed plucky underdog.

Unfortunately game plans can only go so far, especially when the referee decides to get involved. Martin Atkinson channeled his inner Mike Dean on Sunday, with a display of staggering incompetence and inconsistency. Leicester took the lead just before halftime thanks to two terrible calls by the referee, the first as he allowed Wes Morgan to use Mesut Özil as a human pogo stick to head the ball away and start the counter attack that lead to the penalty. Atkinson was then successfully conned as Vardy took the ball, kicked it in a completely different direction and then ran into Monreal. It was called all sorts of things like ‘clever’ and ‘gamesmanship’, I prefer ‘cheating’. Monreal couldn’t get out of the way, the original attempt he made to play the ball didn’t impact on the man and Vardy is the one who initiated the contact. He doesn’t have ‘every right to go down’, he wasn’t brought down, he ran into Monreal went over dramatically to try to con the ref and he succeeded. But yeah, what a fairytale…

Some might say that Atkinson ‘evened things up’ in the second half, but I’d assert that he just started doing his job properly. He let Leicester get away with a whole host of fouls and pushes in the first half and at the same time booked Coquelin for his first foul of the game in a nothing area of the pitch. So when Danny Simpson committed two yellow card worthy fouls in quick succession in the second half, Atkinson was completely correct to send him off. Even if it was a little harsh, Leicester’s lead was based on two terrible mistakes from the ref. The sending off didn’t make up for those mistakes, it was simply a rare occurrence of Atkinson making the right decision.

The sending off gave us impetus and you could see the players visibly pick up as the crowd ramped up the noise. From that point onwards we laid siege to the Leicester goal and I think the players realised that the season was on the line. It was now or never, either win this game or effectively concede the title. It wouldn’t have been settled, but Leicester have a run of very kind fixtures coming up and with a five point lead and confidence well intact, they’d have been near impossible to stop.

Enter Wenger’s super subs. The first was Theo Walcott and I have no problem in saying he owed us a big moment. The winger has been out of form since we beat City in December and his no shows have hurt the team at times. But he has a knack of turning up and suddenly banging in an important goal (think of the first 5-2 against Sp*rs, the Chelsea 5-3 etc.) and although later events overshadowed his effort, it was no less important. A lot was owed to Giroud providing a brilliant headed assist, knocking it down for Theo on the half volley. Walcott was composed as Schmeichel rushed out, cooly slotting the ball underneath him to equalise.

We had a litany of chances after that, but a combination of excellent defending/goalkeeping and some woeful finishing kept us out. Mertesacker and Ramsey missed very presentable chances and Giroud was denied by an excellent Schmeichel save and as a 94th minute corner was headed away, it seemed the game was finished. But Monreal, unfairly the villain from earlier earned redemption as he raced for loose ball and won it. Wasilewski was too slow and clattered Monreal as the Spanish left back won it, giving us one last chance to put a free kick into the box. Enter Wenger’s second super sub, Danny Welbeck.

Welbeck had been introduced with around six minutes of normal time remaining as Wenger switched to a 4-4-2 in a last ditch attempt to find a winner. Having already missed a decent chance to score already, you might have been forgiven for thinking the change hadn’t paid off. But as Özil stood over the 95th minute free kick, Dat Guy came up with Dat Moment. I’d been thinking just before about how we hadn’t had a last minute winner for a very long time (the opening day against Palace last season to be exact) and what a time for us to find one. The season was on the line, I have no doubt in that. It’s a bit of a cliché but it seemed to happen in slow motion, the ball floated in perfectly and Welbeck glancing the header perfectly into the far corner. Cue pandemonium.

The question is whether that moment is looked back on in isolation as a ‘wow that was a great moment in that game’ or ‘that was a great moment in a great season’. As an individual moment it’ll live on for long time as one of those ‘I was there moments’ at the Emirates, but will it count for much more? Already it has made us favourites with the bookies to go on and win the title, but as the dust settles and the euphoria fades, we have to focus all the positive energy from this moment and direct it in to the upcoming run of games. The fixtures don’t get any easier, as after the FA Cup game against Hull we face two fixtures against Barcelona and a trip to Manchester United. Not long after that the North London derby looms at White Hart Lane and it is looking ominously like it could be the most important clash between the two sides in many, many years.

It goes without saying that the next few months will not be easy on the fans and it won’t be easy for the players either. But from a position where we were on the brink of our challenge collapsing, the players have pulled a massive couple of results out of the bag. They’ve reignited the season and the ignited the Emirates too. Now it’s time for both fans and players to unite. No more negativity, no more doubting, we can do this and the fans have a part to play. Let’s all get behind the players and the manager and do all we can to help Arsenal become champions once again.

Teams

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)

Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny (Y) (Chambers 45’), Mertesacker, Monreal, Coquelin (Y) (Walcott 68’), Ramsey (Y), Chamberlain (Welbeck 85’ (Y)), Özil, Alexis, Giroud

Subs

Ospina, Chambers, Elneny, Flamini, Elneny, Walcott, Welbeck

Leicester (4-4-2)

Schmeichel, Simpson (Y/R), Morgan, Huth, Fuchs (Y), Kante (Y), Drinkwater, Mahrez (Wasilewski 58’ (Y)), Albrighton (King 83’), Okazaki (Gray 61’), Vardy

Subs

Schwarzer, King, Gray, Wasilewski, Ulloa, Dyer, Chilwell

Player Ratings

Cech - 8/10 - Made a couple of big saves in the first half, will be vital in the title run

Bellerin - 8/10 - Full of running and attacking intent, defensively sound too

Koscielny - 6/10 - Made a rash decision just before the penalty, still seems shaky to me

Mertesacker - 7/10 - Didn’t get beaten by Vardy or Mahrez once

Monreal - 7/10 - Unlucky for the penalty, put in some hard working going forward too

Coquelin - 7/10 - Vital to have him back, will be key to our title hopes

Ramsey - 7/10 - Another good performance, hopefully he’s hitting form at the right time

Chamberlain - 7/10 - Another player who’s had a difficult season but has picked up his form

Özil - 7/10 - Get’s a 7 for the clutch free kick at the end, atrocious for most of the game though

Alexis - 6/10 - Snatching at chances and looking frustrated, needs to relax and just play

Giroud - 8/10 - Made a huge contribution, including a brilliant assist

Subs

Chambers - 8/10 - Slotted in seamlessly and was brilliant

Walcott - 8/10 - Deserves huge credit, great finish under pressure

Welbeck - 10/10 - DAT GUY

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