You know you’ve been deeply damaged by football when you start to enjoy the bland games more than the fun and exciting ones. Brentford should be dramaless. It often hasn’t been, but yesterday it was a stats-nerd paradise. Brentford had one shot on target, we had 7. They had zero goals, we had two. Perfectly boring.
The game was never in doubt. We controlled Brentford’s secret weapons. Their long throws were useless. Their eight corners didn’t deliver much considering all the set piece hype Keith Andrews carries around with him. Outtara and Schade did nothing. Igor Thiago didn’t get a shot off and had to resort to thugging it up with Hinapie.
It was mostly a nice afternoon…
woaaaah, don’t run from your laptop because you know I’m going to say it!
… but it wasn’t all nice.
The consequences of Arteta and his choices in big games and his desire to have players on that training pitch for pictures all the time slapped us up again. Christian Norgaard did not get the nod in midfield, meaning it was Dekkers and Zubi again… and Declan, in his fourth straight 90, exited on 85 with a calf issue. Did we need him on that late?
Calf issues are classic fatigue injuries. We have had three of those in the last 10 days. Arteta can beg the league for more rest between games, but really, he should be asking if he is doing all he can with the variables he can control. The answer is clear, and we have the broken bodies to prove it (and we have them every season, while managers like Arne Slot keep players like Salah and VVD fit all season).
If you do not prioritise, if you pretend there are no other options (despite Berta giving you options), you will always be Jeff Goldblum in the lab saying…
High performance life has a tendency to slam on the brakes and remind you that bodies do not care how mentally strong you are. If they are pushed too hard, they stop cooperating. Mosquera also exited. Not sure what the issue was there, but I will not be putting Arteta on the chopping block for that one.
Back to the game. Arteta did have the decency to rotate Ben White (Timber), Noni (Saka), and Martin (Eze). Merino kept his place because he is a god. It all worked out rather nicely.
The first goal saw Noni back heel White on the overlap. The cross went to the front post. Merino checked his run, powered to the front post, and put his header under Kelleher.
A proper striker’s goal. Is it me or has Merino added the post attacking stuff this season since he started working with Gyokeres? I think so. It is incredible that Merino has had 29 goal contributions in 2025 for club and country. What a mad man. He has been given that number 9 role and he has got a taste for it like my son has a taste for the TV remote when Arsenal are breaking in transition. The story is sensational, mostly because we all assumed the guy who looks like he plans Facebook ads at a small London digital shop is actually better than R9 in front of goal… and after yesterday, maybe an equal to Iniesta in tight spaces. How is Merino the most important Arsenal player right now?
If there was one criticism of the game it was that we were struggling in front of goal. We created plenty of open play moments, but the final passes were a little off. More often than not, it was the final action in front of goal. Noni, who looked brilliant in the first half, squandered two really good openings. Declan galloped into a great space eight yards out and duffed his lines. There were a number of cutbacks put over the bar.
Martin Odegaard returned to the game and put in a full 96 minutes. It was decent. Nothing crazy. But you have to remember his game is about speed and connections. He does not have either of those things right now and he still created four chances. He will improve, give us more versatility, and hopefully start adding some big goals.
David Raya also deserves a shout for tipping a Kevin Schade header onto the bar from a set piece. An incredible save that kept his sheets cleaner than a Pascal Cygan full head biccing. Did that work? No. It did not. I just wanted to mention Pascal for some reason.
In other news, title contenders Chelsea lost to Leeds United 3-1. Quite spectacular. Leeds put 14 shots on their goal and were well worth their win. I think that loss highlights the stupidity of that Caicedo performance and also the impact a big emotional game has on players energy levels.
Liverpool also limped out of the title race with a draw against Sunderland after going 1-0 down. Liverpool dominated possession and ripped off 23 shots, but they only hit the target four times. Sunderland had nine shots and forced six saves. Also worth noting the Florian Wirtz goal was terribly deflected.
City won the night before, but let’s be real, conceding four to Fulham in a 5-4 thriller is not good.
So, three games into the opening of Phase 5, Arsenal are:
5 clear of City
6 clear of Villa
9 clear of Chelsea
11 clear of Liverpool
14 clear of Spurs
Crazy that Villa could get within three points of Arsenal this weekend. Their winning streak has been insanity, but beat them and we are nine clear of third and heading into a pretty simple run of games.
That is crazy.
The conclusion here is pretty simple… we are backed into a corner this weekend. Arsenal have to go all out because Villa away is hard, and they are basically one of the best teams in Europe right now. But we cannot look past these Arteta decisions. Rolling out his favourites every single game, then showing the whole squad on the training pitch the day before matches, is not helping anyone.
Norgaard played 34 of 38 games for Brentford last season. He has played 14 minutes in the Premier League this year. If Arteta thinks he is shite, he better have an idea of how he is going to cope without Zubi and Declan, because those two are not going to last the season at this rate. We usually find out how good Jorginho is at this phase of the season. Now we have a midfielder who is getting less love than Big Mo. Andrea Berta might have to lean into those two free loans he has available in January if the dislike is real.
Declan will have a rotation option when Jesus and Gyokeres are able to free Merino and Kai for the left 8 role. That would still leave us short of a viable 6, unless Declan is the rotation option.
Ok, shorter post tonight. Get your fresh AOP On The Whistle right now. x
⚡ BRENTFORD (H) | ON THE WHISTLE | EARLY BIRD
It was a GLORIOUS no-drama kind of evening against Brentford which made for GOOD discussion.
Rotation management is a part of being a great coach. No good saying that Arteta is one of the best coaches in the world unless he can get that core skill right. Right now he’s getting away with it but we seem to be losing players faster than we’re getting them back.
The one good thing arising from not winning the Chelsea game is that I now know I no longer need to wear my lucky red pants before a game. Getting them washed in time was becoming a challenge; but it turns out there are other factors involved in Arsenal winning a game