Laurent Koscielny celebrates his goal.
Matteo Guendouzi assists... on the celebration, not on the goal.
In their 1st 2 games of the 2018-19 season, their 1st 2 competitive matches with Unai Emery as their new manager, Arsenal Football Club of North London had bad losses to Manchester City and West London team Chelsea.
This was followed, over all competitions, by a 14-game winning streak and a 22-game unbeaten streak. The people who told us that Arsène Wenger was the problem were ecstatic. They said they had "their Arsenal" back.
Then came the defensive injury crisis, one which Wenger seemed to have to negotiate his way through every year, and Emery did not do it as well.
On top of this, Emery was showing great disrespect to 3 of his 4 best players: He frequently leaves midfielder Mesut Özil off the team sheet entirely, only plays forward Alexandre Lacazette for a half (if at all), and has done both with midfielder Aaron Ramsey. (The other of the 4, forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, has played nearly every minute of the Premier League season.)
Emery cited "tactical reasons" for leaving Özil out. There was talk that Özil "doesn't fit the system."
Mesut Özil is one of the most accomplished active soccer players -- and rises further up the list when you take out players who have cheated, or have benefited from their teammates' cheating. If Mesut Özil does not fit your system, you change your system. You don't punish your teammates by leaving your best player out of the lineup completely.
Arsenal had fallen to 16 points out of 1st place. 7 points behind North London arch-rivals Tottenham, in spite of having beaten them 4-2. 2 points from 15 against good teams (draws with Liverpool and Manchester United, losses to Liverpool and, as previously stated, Manchester City and Chelsea). The most goals allowed by an Arsenal team at this point in the season in the Premier League era.
For the small minority of Arsenal fans who wanted "change," this was the result: Arsenal were looking as bad as they had in the mid-1990s, when George Graham had to leave the manager's post due to corruption charges, and Wenger hadn't yet come in.
Oh yes, they had their Arsenal back. The rest of us, not so much.
But yesterday, Arsenal played Chelsea at home, and decisively beat them, 2-0. Özil was at least put on the bench, but was not permitted to enter the game. Lacazette was, in the starting XI, and showed why his manager should have faith in him, as he scored in the 14th minute. Laurent Koscielny, recovered from a torn Achilles tendon, returned to the centreback position that has given Arsenal so much grief lately, and scored in the 39th. Arsenal played defense the rest of the way, and held the Chavs off.
Was this Arsenal playing very well, confirming Emery's belief in his team selection? Or was it Chelsea simply being bad?
Personally, I don't care which one it was, as long as Arsenal win. And Chelsea, well, we know that there a cheating team run by a Russian mobster, with Nazi fans. As the saying goes, "I hate Tottenham because I'm an Arsenal fan, but I hate Chelsea because I'm a human being."
But all was not well. Right back Hector Bellerin had to leave the game due to a knee injury, and he could be out for the rest of the season, or even at the start of next season. This would be a tremendous loss, as Arsenal are still loaded with defensive injuries, even with the return of Koscielny, who was terrific yesterday, on both offense and defense.
The January transfer window is still underway, and, theoretically, Arsenal could still bring somebody over. But who's kidding who? Arsenal almost never bring in important players in the January transfer window.
It remains to be seen whether this team has turned the corner. I hope they have. I never wanted Arsenal to lose under the new manager, just to justify my desire to have Wenger stay. Surely, Wenger wants Arsenal to win, no matter who their manager is.
Nevertheless, this was by far the biggest game Emery has ever won as Arsenal manager. The hope is that it will lead to other big wins, including Friday night's FA Cup 4th Round match at home to Manchester United.
The fear is that it was a blip on the radar screen, a fluke, an anomaly. And that Arsenal will go back to not getting the job done because of Emery's usual poor team selection.
We shall see.
*
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Days until the Yankees' 2019 Opening Day: 67, on Thursday, March 28, home to the Baltimore Orioles. A little over 2 months.
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