Arsenal may not have played well for the majority of any Premier League game this season but the Gunners somehow find themselves third in the table, a point off the reigning champions and with only one defeat to their name this term.
Once more the Gunners were far from their best but an early header from David Luiz was enough to earn them a 1-0 win over Bournemouth at the Emirates Stadium though had Unai Emery’s side been more incisive in the first half the game could well have been won by the interval.
Instead they were forced to hold on for dear life in the second half but on a weekend where top four rivals Tottenham and Manchester United dropped more points Arsenal will toast a hard-fought three points.
football.london examines the key talking points from the game below…
![[FILE] Liverpool’s Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Salah (L) runs with the ball as Arsenal’s Brazilian defender Gabriel closes in during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium in London. (Photo by Catherine Ivill / POOL / AFP)](https://www.afriupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/000_97B779-scaled-e1703231851386-120x86.jpg "Liverpool host Arsenal in battle for Premier League Christmas No. 1 1")
A cloud hangs over Pepe
It is not Nicolas Pepe’s performance against Manchester United that offered a cause for concern at Arsenal so much as how he responded to that nadir of his fledgling career in England.
Every player is entitled to an off-day and Pepe’s performance last Monday was so error strewn that it almost made it easier to discount. It felt like the equivalent of seeing a world-class golfer hit ball after ball into the rough on the opening day of a major championship. Perhaps it was nerves, perhaps something physical but whatever you could be sure it would be an aberration, swiftly forgotten and written off as a freak occurence.
Pepe certainly has not been as bad in the two games since but the problem is that the spectre of Old Trafford has not left the club record signing. Against Standard Liege he seemed to greet the support of the Emirates Stadium and team-mates who were desperate to put a goal on a plate for him with terror, as though he feared things could get worse.
Even a well-delivered corner from which David Luiz scored the game’s only goal only offered a momentary fillip to Pepe’s confidence. Compared to the fearless Bukayo Saka on the opposite flank Pepe seemed to be carrying his demons with him.
If footballers at their best are creatures of instinct then Pepe in recent weeks has been the very opposite. His every action on the pitch seems to require lengthy thought, he seems very aware of what he has to do next, which perhaps explains why even when running at blistering pace his movement seems cumbersome and indecisive.
The talent is evidently there, even in his struggles. In his 63 minutes against Bournemouth Pepe completed as many dribbles as any player on the pitch, made a key pass and delivered several dangerous corners. For the time being it still feels a matter of when, not if, Arsenal can unlock the best version of their club record signing.
There is no confidence, no swagger to Pepe at the moment. It is perhaps fortuitous for him that he need only look infield to see a player who not only oozes self-assuredness but has also been a hugely supportive figure for his Arsenal team-mates.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has already done plenty to boost Pepe’s morale, handing him a penalty in the comeback win over Aston Villa, and he is sure to do more. Similarly if the Ivorian can replicate his team-mate’s instinctive ability to get to goal and find the net then his confidence will surely be returned before too long.
Arsenal’s killer instinct has vanished
Their second half revival meant much of this was forgotten but truly the depths Bournemouth plumbed in the first 45 minutes at the Emirates had to be seen to be believed. Eddie Howe’s side were slapdash in possession, offered no threat in attack and left enough space in midfield that Granit Xhaka was able to drive through the pitch without anyone laying a glove on him.
A few years ago Arsenal’s stock trade was teaching these opponents a humbling lesson if they were not up to scratch, it does not feel a lifetime ago that Arsene Wenger’s sides were winning games before they had even begun because they punished simple errors. Under Unai Emery it is not like that.
Teams can get away with poor spells because there is no poacher’s instinct to Arsenal, there is too much respect for what even the most basic of Premier League teams can do on the counter attack. Hence you have Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi mopping up desperate hoofs to the halfway line and by the time the ball gets to the box… not all that much threat.
For all Arsenal’s dominance of the first half what did they really create? The match was won by a set piece but Aaron Ramsdale’s goal was largely peppered from range. Aubameyang, Pepe and Saka are not the sort of players you should invite to shoot from the edge of the box but Emery’s side also ought to be able to get closer to goal before they resort to shooting.
But this Arsenal is just too conservative to get runners into the box. Without Joe Willock on the pitch the midfield tends to scheme from deep, be that Dani Ceballos pulling the strings inside the opposition half or Xhaka unleashing a full-back scampering forward. There is no Aaron Ramsey figure to keep centre-backs honest.
It is little wonder, then, that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang endured such a frustrating afternoon against limited opposition. Too often he was the only player in the box or he was given the ball and effectively tasked with getting to goal and then scoring.
In years gone by Arsenal players would have seen the weaknesses Bournemouth were presenting in defence and think about how they might get in on the fun, all of them looking to kill offv the game inside its first quarter. Sometimes that backfired but there seem to be more occasions when it thrilled the Emirates Stadium even into Wenger’s final years, for instance a thrashing of Everton in his final season.
Now Arsenal are reflective of Emery and his innate conservatism. They could have killed Bournemouth off before the first half was out. They did not get close to doing so and very nearly paid the price.
Why the defence is bound to get better
When Arsenal next take the field at Bramall Lane on October 21 it seems eminently possible that three-quarters of the defence that started on Sunday will be left out by Emery. The thunder of hooves has been apparent for a while. After the international break the cavalry will have arrived.
Kieran Tierney and Rob Holding – both of whom will not be involved with their national teams – ought to be available to play against Sheffield United. Even though Arsenal kept their first league clean sheet since the opening weekend of the season there were plenty of heart-in-mouth moments at the back.
Sead Kolasinac is too often a liability on his flank and does not even make up for it with contributions at the other end. Today Sokratis Papastathopoulos was error-prone, in other weeks it is David Luiz.
Tierney is better at both ends, Holding has scarcely put a foot wrong in his appearances so far.
“Kieran and Rob are closer to playing,” Emery said. “I think Rob Holding can play 90 minutes with a good performance.
“Now we are also working with David Luiz and Sokratis, but really, I am very happy. He is going to have a chance to play a lot of matches.
“Kieran Tierney is closer to us, he played on Thursday and today he was on the bench if we needed him. Hector Bellerin needs a little more time, more matches and more training. This international break is going to be important for him.
“I think he will be closer to starting for us in the next matches in the Premier League.”
Bellerin’s return might be the most keenly awaited but he is perhaps the one that Arsenal can most cope without with Calum Chambers looking solid in the role. Still when he, Tierney and Holding are available there will be more pace, consistency and attacking threat to the Gunners backline.
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