Resilience? Arsenal have it too..

Morning all.

Arsenal are back in action today against a Roy Hodgson team which is likely to be organised, solid in defence and difficult to beat. Watford need points and you can bet your bottom dollar that they’ll fight as hard as they can to get all three.

Watford have drawn 2, lost 3 and won 1 since Roy Hodgson replaced Claudio Ranieri on the 25th January. The win being at Villa Park, the draws at Burnley and Man Utd. At Vicarage Park, Hodgson is looking for his first win. Crystal Palace thumped his team 4-1 and Brighton beat them 2-0.

The draw at Old Trafford was an excellent result for Watford but if one looks at the stats, they tell a very different story to the score line. Utd had 67% possession with 22 shots at Ben Foster’s goal. But, if a team can’t take its chances in front of goal, they’ve only got themselves to blame.

Arsenal and scoring goals isn’t something which comes easy either. I’ve lost count of how many times players have hit great scoring opportunities high, wide, or at the keeper but even so, we’ve managed to battle through games to earn a win. Every time Arsenal play I think, this is the day the goals go in – never materialises though, certainly not in the kind of numbers the opportunities we’ve created should return. Maybe that day will be today….

The two sides have met before this season with Arsenal coming away from the game with a 1-0 victory. Here’s how we lined up that day.

There are five players in that picture who either won’t be involved because they gone, or are unlikely to start today. The latter being Nuno Tavares, Sambi Lokonga and Takehiro Tomiyasu.

Apart from the front three, I think the team pretty much picks itself. Will Mikel Arteta bring Gabriel Martinelli back into the team, will Nicolas Pepe get a start after his super sub performance against Wolves and will Emile Smith Rowe start the game or be on the bench are the only questions going through my mind. I think Mikel Arteta will start with the same eleven which beat Wolves. We’ll see soon enough.

Mikel Arteta was full of praise for Roy Hodgson during his post match interview yesterday, more out of respect than anything else I’d imagine but as much as he praised Hodgson for making his teams hard to beat, he talked about Arsenal’s own resilience too, which in my opinion, is at a level not seen for a number of years.

I think it’s very related to belief and trust – and when you have the willingness those players have to be successful and to play the game we want to play, how much they like to interact and play with each other: that is where everything starts to flourish. At the end, the consequence of that is probably the resilience you are mentioning as well. That has to be built and to do that you need good experiences as well, and good experiences help the belief to do it again, you are more confident, you know how to resolve certain issues when they appear on the pitch and it’s good because it was very much needed in those games to win the matches.

I know there’s been times when Arsenal have looked like they didn’t fancy a bit of hard work in certain matches but I do think that’s changed since the turn of the year. There seems to be a bit more grit, determination and the willingness to keep going until the end now. I think about the Man City game, both Wolves matches, even the League Cup fixtures against Liverpool to a degree, and a number of those were playing with ten men. Compare them to pre 2022 when we surrendered so easily in certain games, I think it’s like comparing chalk with cheese.

If anything sums up what Arsenal are about today, it’s the attitude of captain Lacazette, who might not be scoring goals, but he doesn’t know when to stop running, tracking back to defend, or give up on a lost cause. He really does lead by example, an example which has clearly been set by Mikel Arteta.

The officials for the game:

Referee: Craig Pawson.
Assistant referee: Lee Betts, Richard West.
Fourth official: Simon Hooper.
VAR: Darren England.
Assistant VAR: Eddie Smart.

As said before we played Wolves, if Arsenal players don’t give them a decision to make, they can’t make it.

See you in the comments.