Sports Weekly All-Media Reporter Yan Yu
It’s a sunny day in May.
In fact, for a short period of time, there was drizzle floating over the Emirates Stadium, and the small raindrops fell on the players and coaches on the sidelines, enough to soak their clothes. However, from beginning to end, the eyes of Arsenal fans were always bright – 3-0, a big lead at halftime, and finally a big victory over Fulham at home. This was the first time the Gunners had played such a smooth winning game in a month and a half. So can it help Arteta's team move towards final victory? It's really hard to be sure. The Gunners simply don't have the qualifications to celebrate victory in advance. But after all, we won, and we won in a very pleasant state. This is extremely important. Forget about the gloomy April, Arsenal can still get up to speed in this final sprint.
First of all, let’s cool down first, but don’t get carried away because of a big victory-although the last time Gunners fans could watch a game so happily was when they defeated Tottenham 4-1 on February 22. First, the advantages brought to Arsenal by this big victory are all temporary. Even though they are in the leading position in the league and have 6 points more than Manchester City, this is the data after two more games. When Manchester City successfully overcomes Everton and Brentford next week, this 6-point lead will probably be gone. And compared to Manchester City's 4 goal difference advantage, this is not an advantage. If everyone maintains a complete victory in the end and then competes on goal difference, theoretically speaking, this gap will certainly not be a problem for the team led by Guardiola.
Secondly, Arsenal's "difficulties" have not yet been overcome. Two or three days later, on May 5, there will be the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid. The time is tight and the task is heavy. The Gunners only drew 1-1 with their opponent in the away game in the first leg. They cannot say with certainty that they will advance. If he loses, the public opinion and psychological pressure will probably hit him hard again. Even if it can pass, it will most likely consume a lot of money, making it difficult to deal with the league in the following weekends – despite West Ham's 0-3 defeat to Brentford, which seems to be quite weak, this defeat pushed the Hammers to the edge of the cliff. So suppose that if those who are in a last-ditch situation suddenly burst out without warning, the joy that Arsenal has today will turn into a dream and disappear.
But then again, you must be cautious, and you should first fully experience the pleasure that winning brings. The exciting part of this game is not just the score, but the entire process and many highlights can give people a feeling of spring breeze. The Gunners now have full energy again. In fact, if you only discuss the score, you will definitely feel that Arsenal's number of goals is too few, which is not enough to make people happy: they scored 3 goals in the first half, and then handed over a "zero goal" answer sheet in the next 45 minutes? Looking at the expected goals values of 3.23 vs. 0.37, the score does seem a bit low. In comparison, in the 4-3 match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern, the expected goals value of the two sides was 1.90 vs. 3.06.
Considering that it is wrong not to accumulate character, I will no longer criticize Arsenal for not winning enough games. In terms of good selection, in this game, in addition to the overall appearance of the Gunners team, which is eye-catching, the most critical changes are probably that Dzhekeresh showed a shining point, Saka achieved a recovery in form, and teenager Skelly performed like a "rebirth". These three aspects are not only the key to Arsenal's ability to win the game, but also give people more hope. After all, through these three points, they have solved several important problems that the Gunners have encountered before. Take Saka, for example, as Arsenal's most important player in recent years and a core member of the team who has just signed a maximum-salary contract extension. His previous performance has fallen into silence, which makes all Arsenal fans feel extremely chilling: Is he already exhausted at the age of 24? What happened to the so-called "candidate for the first right in the world" who was decided first? Go and see Olise, then look at Yamal, and Saka, who became famous earlier, for a while gave people the feeling that he was a genius child who grew up and disappeared into the public.
Indeed, for Fulham, passing the ball and successfully scoring a goal is not the kind of huge achievement that can be amazing, especially in the pass that helped Dzekeresh score the first goal, that is, the change of direction shown before the assist was very exciting. However, the opponent who was knocked to the ground was just the veteran center Jimenez who temporarily played a defensive role. If the difficulty score is calculated, some points must be subtracted. But from pretending to make an inside cut to suddenly turning down and then making a cross pass, we can still detect a little bit of the agility that Saka had when he was at his peak. Then came the extremely calm and powerful shot in the penalty area. The England winger did not choose to shoot towards the far corner according to the conventional procedure. Instead, he turned his ankle slightly and volleyed towards the near corner in an instant. This shot was both powerful and full of ideas. I hope this feeling can continue and get better, just as Arteta said after the game: "Saka has returned to school at a particularly critical stage of this season. At this moment, he is in excellent physical and mental shape, his mood is clear, and his desire for victory has soared to its peak."
Saka had a performance of both passing the ball and completing the shot, but it only lasted half the game and stopped at the right time. Dzhekeresh was replaced by Jesus in the 64th minute, thus missing an opportunity to score a hat trick. The tall Swedish player does still look a little stupid sometimes. He feels that his movement is not flexible enough, and his foot skills are not delicate enough. However, despite the flaws, the advantages can still cover up the shortcomings. With those two goals and an assist, it was enough for him to receive praise from everyone. After outflanking and then pushing the ball in front of the goal, coupled with the successful header, Zhekeresh has scored 14 goals in the Premier League, and the total number of goals scored in all competitions this season is 21 goals. Although this set of data does not reach that shocking level, as long as you do a little research and research, it will make people feel that it is quite extraordinary – 14 goals can temporarily rank fourth in the Premier League player scoring list. Just slightly fewer goals than Haaland, Igor Thiago and Semenho. 21 goals is the highest number of goals that the Arsenal team has achieved in a single season since the season from 2019 to 2020 (Aubameyang scored 29 goals in that season). And Zhekeresh has become the first player to score 20 goals or more in the first year after joining Arsenal after Sanchez in the 2014-2015 season (Sanchez scored 25 goals at that time), and achieve such a goal score.
Last season, many people said that Arsenal lacked shooters. Now, the Swede's data can be said to have "reached the standard." Although this kind of performance is not amazing if you look at it carefully, if it can finally help the team achieve a breakthrough, it will be a complete success. Let’s talk about this game again. Dzhekeresh’s performance can bring two special feelings to people: first, he looks rough but is actually as careful as hair. The reverse kick passed to Saka was as precise as silk; second, if the team can frequently pass the ball to the center at the tactical level, then there will actually be opportunities, and in fact, more goals will occur.
In this game, the two goals scored by Djekeresh came from the low and high transfers from the two wings. However, Arsenal's style of play is definitely not limited to the wings. Compared with the previous stereotype of "playing back and passing back", the most gratifying thing about the Gunners in this game is that they are more courageous to pass the ball forward, and there are many long-distance overhead kicks and through balls that they dare to take risks. Among them, front midfielder Eze passed several such balls (although this has something to do with the fact that the opponent did not arrange personnel to mark and harass him), and the players in the backcourt were equally unambiguous in their long passes. With such a combination of long and short distances and interweaving of front and back positions, wonderful offensive goals appeared one after another.
In terms of midfield and backfield, the biggest change when the Gunners faced Fulham was that the young Skelly finally returned to the position he played in the youth team. As a 19-year-old local young player, he got a chance to play in the first team last season by occasionally playing as a left back. So far, he has participated in a total of 70 games in various competitions. It was not until this round that he became the starting midfielder for the first time. As for the effect, everyone has witnessed it. Although it cannot be called flawless, it can indeed reduce the burden on Rice and Suvemendi. The two played together for 90 minutes and joined forces with Skelly. Skelly was often positioned deeper and assumed the responsibility of connecting the midfield and backcourt. Seeing this situation, as an Arsenal supporter, I could only sigh with emotion again: If Arteta had made such arrangements early, how could the situation have caused the two midfielders who were in the main positions to be exhausted, and Sovemendi's condition had completely disappeared?
As the old saying goes, it’s not too late to repair the sheepfold after the sheep is lost. Now that you know the mistakes and can correct them, there may still be a possibility of saving them. Judging from the mental state displayed by the Gunners' starting players in this game, they are indeed forgetting the painful experience in April and running towards new hopes in the new month. Saka, Dzekeresh, Skelly, and then there is the left back Calafiore who worked extra hard to score goals after returning from injury… The only "shortcoming" is right back Ben White. After getting the chance to start in 3 consecutive games, the Englishman's state is still a bit worrying. Maybe Arteta will give Mosquera more playing time in the next game? The injury status of Timber, the original main force, is still unclear. The Gunners coach must not let the right gate become his fatal weakness.