LCFC 0 v 2 Arsenal
Post Match Analysis by Stuart Dawkins
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation.
For the second match in a row, City were the better team for the first half and then not dreadful in the second, and on another day they might have come away with something for their endeavours. Whether this might reset their season is another matter.
On the impact of the Project Reset protest which had gained a reasonable amount of media attention pre-match … I have no opinion at all. The reason for that – in a nicely ironic way – is bound up with the relationship that football has with money, itself a key theme in the debate around City’s recent woes. I did not see the Project Reset gathering nor the march to stadium. The blame for that lies with Sky TV and the Premier League. Like many people, I have other things to do on a Saturday morning than turning up early for a TV-dictated 12:30 kick-off, and so actually arrived at the match later than usual.
Witnessing the quickest ever goal at Goodison Park may have been a historic moment, but boy was it disappointing too. In the two games since then, one of the clearest possible explanations for City’s improvements has been the return of Ndidi. He had a solid game again today.
The only change from Van Nistelrooy’s now regular-ish line-up was Okoli partnering Faes at centre back. Once the match kicked off, Ayew played on the left rather than his more usual right, De Cordova-Reid playing on the other side.
City played well in the first half, even if anyone watching via Opta-type momentum stats might have seen data that suggested otherwise. Yes, Arsenal had more of the ball – no surprise there – but one headed chance aside, they created nothing until stoppage time. City had constructed a number of good breaks by then, although nothing that close to a good chance.
The 14th minute continuation of the Project Reset plan amounted to chanting of “We want Rudkin out” and one banner … together with Ayew almost getting a scoring opportunity in the Arsenal box. It’s hard to be precise at a match, but my impression was that the number of people chanting was no higher than were chanting similar things towards the end of recent dismal City home games, and the chanting less emotionally intense – itself reflecting the fact that the team were actually doing pretty well on the pitch.
It was Arsenal who were being sloppy. Makeshift striker, Trossard, had no impact – indeed the most notable thing about Arsenal’s attacks in the first half was the number of times they were needlessly caught offside. That was helped, of course, by having an Assistant Referee who was alert … but that’s enough sour grapes about the FA Cup departure.
It was the 35th minute before we got the chance to see one of Arsenal’s famed corner routines, and none of their corners in this match came to anything. I suspect that PGMOL has had a training session or two for referees in the past few weeks on some of the dark arts seen earlier in the season, as instead of Arsenal looking as though they would score from each and every corner, today a good proportion of them resulted in free kicks for City for various blocking and holding manoeuvres.
Justin had sat down with an ankle injury for a couple of minutes earlier in the half, and in the 41st minute he was replaced to give Coulibaly his home debut at right back.
City have conceded so many goals in stoppage time this season, that the announcement of four-minutes being added today coinciding with an Arsenal corner seemed worrying, this was quickly followed by the first time that a ball over the Leicester defence reached Trossard near the penalty spot – but he miskicked at what was not a clear-cut opportunity. Indeed, it was Ndidi who headed City’s best chance of the match just wide with the last touch of the half.
City were the faster side into midfield challenges, and their press was working well – they had reverted to Vardy leading the press and on a number of occasions El Khannouss was quicker than his opponent to chase loose balls down.
In the second half, Arsenal were more in the game, getting a stream of corners and curling a shot just over the bar in the 61st minute, but City responded well with Vardy leading a five-man on two-man break. But even then City’s weaknesses told as even the great man Vardy chose the wrong option, and the move petered out.
Arteta replaced the anonymous Sterling with Merino, but it was City who again created a decent break – the ball being gifted to Ayew on the half way line and his run and low cross was stolen from the toe of de Cordova-Reid’s boot by a defender to prevent an easy tap-in.
This was Ayew’s last contribution, as he was replaced shortly after by Mavididi. The crowd gave Ayew a good response, and rightly so. In my view he and El Khannouss were City’s best players – a view I have had for quite a number of games this season – with Ndidi up there too.
Arteta removed Partey and Lewis-Skelly and Arsenal began to take more of a grip on play, hitting the bar after a well-worked passing move.
Then, with 80-minutes on the clock, Mavididi broke into the box but tried to be just that bit too clever with a trick. Arsenal turned the ball over, broke quickly against a City team that had gone forward in support of the attack. The resulting overload led to a simple cross and open-goal header for Merino, and it was one-nil to the Arsenal.
The City players responded well to the setback, creating a good break and cross by Christiansen, but the cross was not quite good enough.
Daka and Buonanotte came on for De Cordova-Reid and Ndidi, each of whom had had decent games.
City kept pressing forwards and it was almost inevitable that from one of their attacks, Arsenal again broke quickly with extra players. This time it resulted in a cross being tapped in by Merino at the far post to make it 2-0. This triggered a significant number of home fans to leave – although it did not trigger any booing or other adverse crowd noise so maybe that was more about beating the unusual 2:30pm rush than a protest as such. City kept trying until the final whistle, and the remaining home fans applauded the team off the pitch.
Where does that leave City? Well, they have now lost five home Premier League games in a row without scoring, creating an unenviable record. The team need to be far more precise in their decision-making in attack. For example, watching the game live it felt as though they were giving Arsenal as good as they got in attacking terms for most of the game – but the lack of precision in the infamous ‘final third’ meant that all that good work apparently amounted to an xG of just 0.2.
The defence played well. There were no egregious errors, Okoli looked solid and whilst I hope that Justin’s injury is nothing serious, Coulibaly looked a more solid defender in his 50-minutes of play today.
It is tricky for Van Nistelrooy, personified as much as anyone by Ayew. He is the best City player at breaking things up, at holding the ball up and getting fouls against him – exactly the attributes a team needs when scrapping for survival. He is not a bad attacker, but without that ‘wow’ factor that the likes of Mavididi sometimes have. Mavididi – like Buonanotte – has ‘wow’ moments but can also do the most frustrating things that leave the team exposed. It’s probably a bit harsh to blame a decision made by Mavididi 10-yards from the opponents’ goal as being the catalyst for City conceding the first goal … but that was the dynamic.
Whether Van Nistelrooy can conjure the team into stability with more ‘wow’ remains to be seen, but he has very little time left to do it.
The biggest positive today was the body language of the team compared with the match at Everton and other debacles this season. I think a material reset in City’s fortunes this season is unlikely, but as a fan I have yet to completely rule it out.
Leicester City
Hermansen, Justin, Faes, Okoli, Kristiansen, Ndidi, Soumare, De Cordova-Reid, Ayew, El Khannouss, Vardy
Substitutes
Stolarczyk, Coady, Winks, Mavididi, Daka, Skipp, Vestergaard, Coulibaly, Buonanotte
Arsenal
Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Nwaneri, Sterling, Trossard
Substitutes
Neto, Tierney, White, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Merino, Calafiori, Butler-Oyedeji