I was driving back from the parents’ place yesterday morning, before getting on with a day of work, so didn’t have time to pen some post thoughts two days after the 0-0 against Everton. What I would have said yesterday, however, was that I was still grumpy about that game. It’s games like that when you really just need a scabby goal to prove to the likes of Everton that turning up and offering nothing in a football game is not rewarded. We rewarded them with a point and then spent the rest of the weekend feeling unsatisfied, like when you have an itch on your toe but you’ve got thick socks and shoes on and your out and about, so you can’t just take off your garments and give the affected area a good scratch. So you try to do it through your shoes, maybe with your other foot, but it doesn’t really work. So that itch just stays there for an annoying period of time before going away.

That’s how I was yesterday, but as we approach the double header with Palace over the next few days, it will start to die down and focus will shift on these two games. Arteta will speak to the press again today and I suspect he will be asked questions about how Arsenal break down these stubborn opponents, especially at home, because the blueprint has been set by both Fulham and Everton this week and I suspect that Palace will take a similar view and approach. Whether they do that tomorrow I’m not sure, because it’s a cup game, but on the weekend I suspect we’ll see them set up in an organised fashion, look to give us the ball, frustrate and annoy in a compact shape.

This is not a new phenomenon to Arsenal, or any team operating towards the top of any division. So-called ‘lesser’ teams will always try to stink out a point or smash and grab; Jordon Pickford even used the words ‘smash and grab’ at the weekend. Arsenal have to react. Arteta has to react. We have to find different ways of scoring and different approaches. There’s probably been too much leaning in to the set piece narrative and whilst we can all have a chuckle when we score and chant “Set Piece again, Set Piece again, ole ole”, you do wonder whether it does affect the players’ psyche in some sense. Think about it; if you get so good at something, why do you not just lean in to it more. That’s great, but it also because a psychological crutch and I think Arteta will be looking to find ways in which we can be better in terms of how we operate in front of goal from open play.

I know that sounds really obvious, it is, but if I think about the ways in which you can improve this, I think in simple terms, which could be:

  • More emphasis in training on attacking movement
  • Shooting practice in training
  • Throwing in new personnel from the start in matches
  • Buying somebody else in come January

The latter is what everyone is clamouring for, of course, but we can’t do anything about that now. So how do we solve this current issue that we’ve seen in the last two domestic games? We can’t just hope that more teams like Monaco come to town and play. Do we even need to solve this issue? I mean, Martinelli stays onside at Fulham and we scrape a 2-1. Odegaard doesn’t fluff his shooting lines on Saturday and we probably eek out a 1-0. Life then feels very different despite the statistics looking exactly the same.

I was out for a walk yesterday and I was ruminating on this problem and thinking about the 2022/23 season. In that season I remember people talking about how we were ‘running hot’ on our xG. We were very potent in taking chances and to some extent, it seemed a bit of an outlier; teams just don’t do what Fulham did two weekend’s ago and score with their only chances. We were not like Fulham, but perhaps we were taking one in two chances or one in three in games in 2022/23. Things were falling for us and players like Martinelli were outperforming their previous season’s and subsequent season’s that we’ve seen. But this season it seems the opposite; you look at the numbers and stats and we’re getting in to good positions, we’re not giving up many chances, we’re operating as a team in the top of the league should, we’re just not putting the ball in the onion bag.

It all feels very Christmas has come early right now; what I mean by that is Christmas period last year, when we lost of West Ham despite battering them, lost to Fulham and were crap, then lost to Liverpool despite battering them at home. After that game against Liverpool, guess who we played?

Crystal Palace. We won 5-0 at home. I’m not a fan of history repeating itself, but I’d love a dose of that to come early right now, that’s for sure. Now, that was after the Dubai trip I believe and we came back a new team going on to win game after game, which of course can’t happen because of the volume of games. But there needs to be some kind of spark that we need. And we need it quick. Perhaps securing passage to the semi final of a domestic cup can help?

I don’t know. That’s low on the priority list and I don’t think many of us – me included – want to see Arteta put out a full strength team tomorrow night. We looked leggy on Saturday and a week off for most of the first team should probably be in order, regardless of the consequences tomorrow night, but Arteta does occasionally drop in hybrid teams in matches like this. Teams with a smattering of first teamers in them amongst some of the Hale Enders. Could he do that tomorrow? It wouldn’t surprise me.

Catch you all tomorrow.