Hazzetta dello Sport 2024 - Issue 6: Arsenal v Leicester City
It’s time to batten down the hatches and hide in a sealed room between 3pm and 5pm. To avoid any notion of the scoreline, or even news of the starting line-up.
It’s going to get messy. Those of us who are attending are simply sadistic.
It is a fearful prospect that Leicester City face on Saturday afternoon. Arsenal are far better and wiser than when we last faced them. Now established as masters of the dark arts, they have come through a difficult spell of fixtures with decent results and there is a sense they are collectively stronger for the experience.
A symptom of this has been a lot of column inches dedicated to their style and gamesmanship. A nice Saturday stroll might quieten that all down.
Cooper-Ball
While comparisons are difficult to make between the North London club and our own, we have a rare example here. We come into this game under something of a media glare after we stole some of those inches and airwaves too this week, as criticism of Steve Cooper reached the national media.
It was fair to say even before the drab goalless draw to Walsall, there were more than a few Leicester supporters whose concerns had turned to full-blown worries, or worse, after the draw to Everton. Now the red alert has been pressed, and the pressure is really on the manager.
It felt poignant upon the final whistle last Saturday that there was this pause in atmosphere, with no over-riding emotion or action. Both set of players dropped to the deck. Normally a scene you’d find in late April or May, it was an exposure that both teams felt they need to win.
Never has my pretentious, overblown build up been so accurate. A slog fest of little quality played out to the foreground of a huge thunderstorm met my pre-match expectation for a low key, scrappy, gladiatorial encounter.
For forty-five minutes, the Foxes chased shadows as Everton looked more motivated and the home side lacked any ideas, and maybe even some belief. The odd sight of Bobby De Cordova Reid kicking a ball all on his own during an extend half-time in absolute pouring rain hardly gave a ringing endorsement of a united dressing room.
An understandable argument against the grumbles is that Leicester are 15th, outside of the relegation zone and we have scored in every game. The deeper statistics are damning though: according to the xG scorelines, Leicester are ‘supposed’ to have lost all five. We’re conceding goals regularly and the number of shots on target are feeble. That we are scoring at all reminds me of a Brendan Rodgers pattern.
Individual brilliance or graft alone produced enough goals in the 2021/22 season to scrape us to a mid-table finish. That’s occurred a lot this season already, and we still haven’t won.
Whether it be Abdul Fatawu’s brilliant cross in the opening game or Wilfred Ndidi’s inspirational part at Crystal Palace. Stephy Mavididi made it his personal mission against Everton to get a goal. He delivered, and then was eager to find the winner. However, Cooper dragged him with less than five minutes to go in a safety-first move.
Selection woes
Walsall is no more than thirty minute drive away from where I was working on Tuesday. Instead I went one hour in the other direction and had the pleasure of seeing a linesman pull his calf at a step five non-league game to be replaced by a public bystander.
The reports from midweek illustrate that there was none of that individual skill to dig us out, and Facundo Buonanotte’s tireless efforts to provide it came across as frustrating overplaying. I suppose Danny Ward took on that role in the end, with three penalty saves.
We have seen those performances before in cup fixtures where a mish-mash team thrown together has zero cohesion or plan to produce a result. Which is why the selection of certain personnel was the more troubling sign.
Oliver Skipp has appeared accomplished and solid since signing. It was a surprise he was the fall guy at home to Everton to allow a #10 type player into the team. He didn’t play a minute, and then he didn’t get on at the Bescot until the final ten minutes. Cooper selected Boubakary Soumare instead, whose continued appearance in a Leicester shirt I am sure is an attempt at a social experiment in how to cattleprod people into a frenzy.
The game against Everton also broke a 184 game run of an academy player being on the pitch for Leicester City. The ignorance of youth in priority of needs must is a huge concern.
It was reported this week by Jordan Blackwell from the Leicester Mercury that we didn’t have a loan offer for Will Alves that the club thought was appropriate for his development. On Tuesday evening, we played a team from the fourth tier and you would assume the club think he’s better than that. Yet he didn’t play and he didn’t feature for the Under 21s. He’s in a limbo of not playing any football.
A tough place to go
There’s been murmurs from Arsenal’s supporters that they might find this a tricky encounter. We assume they have not seen us play since the opening day draw against Spurs. A lot of that fear comes from the potential unavailability of David Raya, who is battling a muscle injury. The arduous fortnight the Gunners have faced also means there are question marks about Jurrien Timber’s fitness, alongside a raft of injured players.
However, they still boast a likely front three of Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli. They’ve all done damage to stronger Leicester teams in the past; let alone a re-promoted version. One of Arsenal’s most dangerous potential tools is their ability at set pieces. As seen in their massive clash versus Manchester City, they take advantage of goalkeepers’ weaknesses at corners.
If we take the last four fixtures between the teams, Arsenal have scored four times from set pieces. In the only game they didn’t, they had one disallowed after it was temporarily cleared. This has actually been an area where the Foxes have had a marked improvement, particularly going forward, where we’ve been scoring goals ourselves from them with a regularity unseen since the mid 90s. We won’t get a stronger test of those credentials.
The obvious thought process, regardless of Cooper’s handbrake nature, is that the starting eleven will look like that which started against Crystal Palace, with three defensively minded midfielders and Ndidi the highest of the three. You would assume that a game like this would be better for the likes of Jordan Ayew, where he’s not required to get up and down the pitch, and can instead stay compact and solid. Outside Jannik Vestergaard, the squad is fit to play.
A defeat is incredibly likely and, with it, a position in the bottom three on Saturday evening.
Forget the big six: It’s the no-win six down at the other end that we need to concern ourselves with. Within this select group, Everton and Palace face off on Saturday afternoon in what’s likely to be a very nervy game again. Wolves host a resurgent Liverpool team in the late Saturday fixture.
One of the more intriguing games is Villa’s visit to Portman Road. It will be interesting to see how they get on in contrast to ourselves. While Monday night see BRussels’ Saints go to Dean Court.
For us, this game is a difficult prospect before the next four games quietly decide our season. I will see you in mid-November when we have stopped hiding from behind the back of sofa.
