Watford 1 - 3 Arsenal

The warm feelings I had for Watford that were generated by spending so much time at their training ground for the Ultimate Worlds were reinforced by their hospitality towards the Gunners yesterday.  Wenger put his slickest passers at the heart of his midfield, and Watford could not deal with Ozil, Xhaka, and Cazorla.  They set up Alexis and the two wingers time after time, and at the end of our impressive first half Alexis returned the favor, putting a perfect cross onto Ozil's head as he streaked through on goal.  3-0 and a done deal.  The second half was more of a slog.  Watford must have been lectured rather severely in their halftime talk, and came out far more determined to make a game of it.  And they did, with the help of some substitutions and an enervated Arsenal display.  Poor decisionmaking by our three front men resulted in each of them trying an audacious chip at the end of a counter when a pass was on to a better-positioned teammate.  A comedy defensive sequence for Arsenal (two successive attempted clearances bounced off defenders back into the six yard box) made the Watford goal possible, and they came close a few more times.  But the three points were richly deserved.

I'm very concerned about the Ox.  He was poor all game, and should have been substituted earlier.  He looks short of stamina and his decisions are as bad as ever.  His marvelous ball control skills and ability to take defenders on fooled me into thinking he was a potential number 10, but now he seems a poor choice for a number 7.  Shame, really, but this may be his last chance to impress an Arsenal manager.  Wenger may never lose faith in one of his boys, but his successor is not going to make this version of AOC a part of his plans.

Theo pleasantly surprised me.  His defense is improving and he did everything you'd want from him on offense (except STAY ONSIDE more often).  Yeah, he could have passed earlier once or twice, but he put some delicious crosses in that Oxlade-Chamberlain should have been looking for.  Walcott is a good number 7, as is Alexis, whose time as frontman is I hope drawing to a close with the arrival of Lucas and return to full fitness of Giroud.  Alexis really looked as though he was enjoying himself out there.

Ozil was his usual excellent self.  This was Xhaka's best game for us.  I liked Cazorla's contribution (but that penalty was not great).  This is a midfield that will make EPL bottom half teams look pretty bad.  Elneny was good when he came on too.  Jack wasn't being Jacky enough except when he was being too Jacky (what a dumb foul); I suspect he will round into form in September, bag some goals in October, and then get injured and be out until February.

The defenders (I include the near-perfect Cech) did their jobs admirably.  Monreal seemed to have the hardest time, but I think that was mostly the result of Watford's tactics and AOC's listless defending.  Rob Holding seems to have the makings of a very good central defender.

The international break comes at a good time.  Once more, Arsene Wenger has left points on the table by resting his Eurostars.  No way does Liverpool score four if Koz is in there.  But Wenger apparently thinks that points don't count in August.  I think that may have been the sixth or seventh opening day loss in the last decade (it seems like it anyway).  Having dropped five points in three games, we'll be climbing out of a hole from the start and may never catch the leaders.

I won't argue with the transfers.  I don't know these two new guys from La Liga, but am hopeful.  Certainly, Xhaka and Holding have improved the team already.  Christian Bielek must be wondering if he'll ever get a start now.  Per and Koz are still around, Gabriel and Shkodran look like their backups, and Holding could supplant one of them.  Then there's Chambers behind him.

Leicester City 0 - 0 Arsenal

We were somewhat fortunate to escape with a point as the number one and number two teams from last season huffed and puffed but could never apply the finishing touch to their many chances.  Leicester would have gotten both their penalty shouts last season, but Clattenburg was having none of it today.  I thought the first was not a penalty, but the second was, though just barely.  From the referee's angle, they looked shoulder to shoulder, and Musa was clearly looking to go down at any hint of contact.  But when you kick the back of an attacker's leg after he's passed you, you generally get called for a foul.  Bellerin was very fortunate.

Speaking of good fortune, Coquelin was once again lucky to be on the field at the final whistle.  He was good all game, and I know that aggressive defense is his game, but it seems he's playing on a yellow card for 70 minutes every time I see him start.

I have to say that it was a good spectacle, with lots of end to end action and nice saves from the GKs.  But I'd rather we win every game comfortably while I'm sitting instead of pacing around and yelling in frustration at every misplaced pass.

I like to rate the players (not numerically) before I see the blogs do it, so here goes:

Cech was sure and composed.  Great game.  Bellerin is relying a bit too much on his speed.  I liked the way he played today but he was beaten, or out of position, way too often.  Monreal was excellent once more.  Koscielny was man of the match for me.  Holding was as good as you can expect a 20 year old to be; I have no complaints.  Coquelin managed to walk the tightrope while playing the destroyer to perfection.  Xhaka was disappointing; perhaps he took his defensive duties so seriously he forgot to make those raking passes he's famous for.  Cazorla looked pretty good to me in the #10 role, but had fewer options than he should have.  Walcott did OK, but just OK.  AOC was the busier and more dangerous-looking winger, but like Walcott, has trouble passing the ball in tempo.  Alexis had a poor game for him; I thought he'd be able to outmaneuver their relatively immobile CBs.  But give Leicester credit.  They collapsed on us well when we had the ball in their area.  Ozil was the only substitute who made a positive difference.

Decent point.  And now we should have all our players back from the Euros--and who knows who from the transfer market?

Vermaelen Sighting

You remember TV5, of course.  Thomas Vermaelen was once the rock of our defense, someone I figured would be around for a long time.  He was with us for five years.  He was our captain in 2012-13.  He scored goals on occasion, too, some of them big, though only in two seasons (eight in 09-10 and six in 11-12).  His form dropped and Mertescielny kept him out of the squad except for rare times when one of them was hurt and he was fit.  He got injured a lot (typical for Arsenal).  We got 15M pounds for him two years ago from Barcelona, who discovered that it wasn't Arsenal that was keeping him injured.

Imagine my surprise when I watched a Roma-Porto ECL qualifier and heard his name.  Yes, there he was, looking determined and aggressive clearing the ball and intercepting passes.  It turns out that Barca loaned him to Roma for the season, with an option to buy.  That option looks less likely to be exercised after Vermaelen's poor decisionmaking cost him two first half yellow cards and Roma a vital first leg victory.  They were very fortunate to hold a rampaging Porto to one second half goal and carry a 1-1 scoreline back to Rome.

Arsenal 3 - 4 Liverpool

Okay, I'll get my complaints out of the way first:

-  Playing Holding and Chambers together was suicidal.  There's no reason Kos couldn't play, and Monreal would have been the better choice to deputize.  I'd have used Holding before Chambers, but neither were better than Monreal.  Gibbs would have been fine on the left.

-  I thought it was nuts to leave Coquelin out there so long with a yellow card.  I was yelling for Xhaka.  But when he came in, he looked pretty bad--and picked up a yellow as well.  Coquelin finished the game (but was very fortunate to do so).  So maybe I'm complaining about myself.

-  Walcott should not have taken that penalty.  Alexis and Ramsey at least would be ahead of them in the pecking order.

-  [edited to add] The fans who left the Emirates early, and those who stayed and booed at the end.  With supporters like that, it's amazing Arsenal has done so well so long.

I'm not going to bitch about Arsenal mistakes.  Both teams made plenty, but both teams looked fairly crisp when allowed to play, and put enormous energy into the play.  The Liverpool goals were excellent.  I thought Cech went down too early on the second (from Lallana), but he's the pro and made some good saves on the day.  Liverpool played defense just well enough, and both Coutinho and Mane found the upper left corner when given the opportunity.  The officiating was fine.  In short, it was a great game and the better eleven won it.

I'll be checking to see how serious Ramsey's injury is.  It looked like a hamstring issue.  Midfield is where we can afford to lose a player, though, so it's not crucial if Ramsey has to take a month off.

I'm going to try to take a more relaxed view this season.  I didn't watch any other games.  It's probably Wenger's last season with Arsenal.  I love him, but it's time.

Ugly Americans

I missed the USWNT game today, a loss after PKs to Sweden.  From all accounts, Sweden bunkered in and got a very nice goal that the US matched.  Hope Solo made an ass of herself by calling the Swedes "cowards," for which she was justly pilloried by nearly everyone.  The writeups of the game also noted she tried some gamesmanship by pretending she had a glove problem before the last PK.  She's a very good goalkeeper, but she needs to be dumped from the team, in my opinion.  She's dragging them all down in the class department.

I did see most of the group stage games, and I thought the US was flat.  I've never seen them play so poorly in a tournament.  They really seemed to think they were so much better than everyone else that all they had to do was show up.  They gave away stupid fouls, they misplaced passes all over the pitch, and their tempo was way too slow.  Finishing was dreadful too.  The neutrals will be delighted, and I don't blame them.  We deserved to be dumped out of the tournament early.  We stank.

Guadalajara 1 - 3 Arsenal

Three nice goals (the Ox's was lovely), and some valuable experience for the players, especially the young guys.  Debuchy really looks like a man who'd rather be somewhere else.  It's hard to take away any real lessons from a game against the second string of a Mexican League outfit, even one as strong as Chivas.  But winning is better than losing.  And it doesn't seem as though there've been injuries.  Wenger says that Alexis will be ready soon.  Only Per is out long term.

Walcott is struggling to make an impression up front.  He's not a front man and we're overdosed with good wingers--ones who actually try to play defense some of the time as well as make runs forward.  I wish we'd sold him five years ago, or more.  All that jerking AFC around in contract talks, the ridiculously high salary that no one else will match, the months injured every year...it's not worth the goals he gets, considering that he's cost some too with his lack of defensive effort.

The "British core" may be shifting, with Walcott, Jenkinson, and Gibbs on the way out, and Chambers, Holding, and Welbeck coming in.  There's no reason AOC, Wilshere, and Ramsey can't still be regulars.  Iwobi should continue to develop.  Akpom may be an option up front; he seems to have the tools.  The Jeff could contribute.  Zelalem needs time, but I like him.

It was nice to see Cazorla looking sharp out there, wasn't it?  Coquelin lacked discipline; he'd have been sent off it it weren't a friendly.  Xhaka and Elneny are ready to start too.  The Coq will find it hard to get on the field.  We've got enough mids with bite to afford to play Ozil without fear of being soft through the middle.

I like the team now, but a strong, experienced center back has suddenly become a requirement, and of course we still need a fearsome striker.

Two weeks before Liverpool.  I just watched them against Roma (they lost 2-1) and they looked pretty good.  I don't think they're where they need to be, but it looks as though they're getting Klopp's message.