Arsenal 4 Leicester City 2: Another Jekyll and Hyde show in London
Arsenal were looking to make it a sixth straight win over Leicester. The Foxes are still chasing a first league win and that was unlikely at the Emirates. What the travelling fans wanted to see was a reaction, some fight. But this is Leicester and we're a mad club, so strap in.
The away end, as usual, sold out. Loyal supporters or gluttons for punishment? You decide, but the away league record at Arsenal for the last 52 years before kick off was: Played 28, won 1, drawn 4, lost 23. Leicester fans are good at embracing the ‘good day out, minus the football’ mindset, luckily.
This was a free hit in many ways for Steve Cooper. He wasn’t going to be judged on the result, most people had Arsenal down as easy favourites to win, and likely not even taking into account their dominance over us head to head. For Leicester, it was a chance to right some wrongs after just how bad things were in the last two games.
As team news dripped out at 2pm, it guaranteed that the why aren’t we starting Abdul Fatawu questions will roll on. Some even questioned keeping James Justin in over Ricardo again, despite Ricky struggling at Walsall. The team looked about as good as it’s going to get.
From the team that started at Everton, it was two changes in midfield. Ayew and El Khannouss were out, Skipp and Buonanotte were in. But were we finally going to get a glimpse of what the plan is? Especially with reports coming late this week of players also wondering the same thing and feeling frustrated by their efforts being questioned.
Not really, a firm plan still evades us. Last time out at Arsenal, we were unknowingly (at that stage) in a relegation battle with no plan, and Martinelli scored that day too and we lost 4-2. Time is just a flat circle. Where Leicester continues to hurt us all with a glimmer of hope only to rip it away.
Photo: Becky Taylor
Waving a white flag
The only recognisable identity so far this season for Cooper's team is some kind of meekness or aversion to getting off the mark early in a game. Aside from the first half at Crystal Palace, we've been allergic to starting positively within forty-five minutes. In virtually every game we've seen some or much improvement in the second half and today followed that script.
The commitment in this case to the script was one of the worst examples yet. We spent nearly the entire first half trapped in our own half, add in how meek we looked and it seemed the only plan was to just hang on.
When the captains shook hands beforehand we may as well have been waving a white flag asking for mercy. The away end would have been looking for anything to provide entertainment at the break.
In the opening forty-five minutes, we managed just one touch in the Arsenal half. Stephy Mavididi and Jamie Vardy were frustrated passengers, especially the former when he just had no outlet. Justin had tried a shot but it was hit and hope and the rest of the half played out with us penned in.
If our plan was to defend and be conservative, we lacked the composure and failed at some of the basics. We can be disgusted by the foul on Vardy that was ignored as Arsenal broke and made the move that saw Martinelli slot home to give Arsenal the lead.
But the defending is unforgivable. Some may lay blame at Victor Kristiansen, the move started that side, but there were nine Leicester players in the box. Nobody had the foresight to track him, mark him or stick a foot in.
When Arsenal doubled their lead, courtesy of Trossard, it was more of the same. This time the move came down their left, pitting James Justin into the firing line, but again, when the ball was slipped through to the Belgian, nobody was with him or ready to react. Too easy.
Yes, the second half was much better. It had fight, spirit, some individual pieces of brilliance and some plucky don't let the big boys have it their way moments. But when we insist on setting up a mountain to overcome, it's always going to be a tough ask.
Oddly though, teams haven’t punished us in these drab first halves as much as they should. Arsenal tried, but Mads Hermansen put in an absolutely heroic show in goal and it’s largely down to him that we were only 2-0 down at half time.
We’re living dangerously in this respect. It is a concern that we look better, or able to motivate ourselves once we are behind or up against it. At some stage we’ll come up against a team who will put three or four past us in the first half if we can’t change the slow starts.
Hermansen Heroics
Has a goalkeeper put in a better performance and still conceded four goals? If the scoreline is especially unfair on anybody, it's Mads. Without him this would have been closer to a cricket score and the end result doesn't do nearly enough to give him any credit.
Amidst the thirty-seven shots, yes, thirty-seven (said in the voice of radio Five Live scores), Hermansen had to make thirteen saves. There were a couple of double saves and some that he made by instinct and good judgement alone.
The two late goals to win it for the home side were harsh on our Great Dane. Pre-match, Arsenal’s set piece threat looked a concern. Where Cooper’s side didn’t always nail the basics, we had stood up to the set piece test quite well until extra time.
When the 7 additional minutes flashed up, most of us knew which direction the script was heading in. There wasn’t much Hermansen could do when the ball bounced off Wilfred Ndidi from the corner and went through his legs. Arsenal were ahead again and you could see our players looked a little deflated.
This display put many in mind of Kasper Schmeichel. Where we had a huge gulf following his departure, Hermansen has made us all relax. He was likely already an early contender for player of the season. It didn’t work out for him today, but his efforts will stop us losing games. You could argue his saves have kept us in some of the draws.
The question of whether he’s better than Kasper is premature. His ceiling looks to be high no doubt, and he’s easily one of the best bits of transfer business we’ve done. The concerning part, and it’s no surprise, is that we’ll struggle to hang onto him, regardless of whether we stay up or not.
Hermansen couldn't deny Arsenal their sixth straight win over us but at least he kept it respectable. Sadly he also stood out to a number of new admirers who have previously ignored him because, Leicester, or something.
An unlikely main character
Starting the second half with a bit of fight and effort was pleasing, if not baffling for the why can we not do it earlier argument. It’s one of the big issues Cooper has yet to address. He seems to know what to say, or our leaders are doing it, to generate a turnaround in mindset, but not how to avoid getting ourselves stuck in the position of needing to do it every week.
Whether you asked Arsenal fans or Leicester fans, nobody saw this second half coming. The script said Arsenal should have carried on and easily put the game to bed. So it would have woken a few people up when the Foxes pulled the first goal back. It had the feel of coming from nowhere, though we had at least looked more willing and able to get the ball past the halfway line.
Step forward, James Justin. The unlikely main character for the Foxes. His blocked shot was our only respite in the first half and he walked away with two goals. On any other day, he’d be our man of the match were it not for Hermansen’s display. While his first goal was a simple but strong header, from a brilliant Buonanotte freekick, his second goal was a thing of beauty.
Celebrations for the first goal were muted with a desire to just get back to it. Even at that point it felt like a consolation goal rather than leading to more. But when Ndidi sent a great ball into the box from the left, it was Justin who latched onto it and unleashed a brilliant first-time strike that went in off the post to level the game at 2-2.
If you had some kind of bingo card in play for the game or the whole season, you definitely didn’t have Leicester to come back into this game or for the goals to both come from our right-back. After how poor we’d been in the first half, this was another Jekyll and Hyde display.
Justin’s faced criticism in the last week for his very honest but not overly thought out admission of how the Leicester players approached and started the Everton game.
Add in the BBC interview where they asked him about England and it put him in the firing line. What better way to prove quite a lot of us wrong (a lot of us have been crying out for Ricardo), than getting the Foxes level.
It was twenty minutes of madness that would be more of a surprise if our club wasn’t so ridiculous. We didn’t stick the landing and come away with any points but the odds of that at half-time seemed so unlikely. Had we pulled it off, it would have been a smash and grab. Arsenal’s xg was over 4. Ours, despite two goals, was still 0.2. Hard to complain about the result given that.
The big issues remain for Cooper. We cannot keep starting games like this and his substitutions continue to baffle. Bringing on Abdul for 30 seconds? Our first substitute not even appearing until the 84th minute. An argument that maybe this time Conor Coady would have been the appropriate substitute when staring down trying to hang onto a draw with lots of extra time.
Effort and willpower was on display in the second half from the players, but it still didn’t scream cohesive performance with a clear plan.
A lot of it was moments of brilliance from individuals, see Justin’s second goal, which won’t happen every game and we will need to show something a little more convincing for the next game.
Bournemouth come to the King Power before a two week international break and while nobody was looking for a result from this, the pressure will be on us.
