Why Arsenal's season isn't over yet

The art of learning not to care about preseason results

After the MLS All-Star Game drubbing, Arsenal Twitter was feeling itself. Declan Rice looked good. Kai Havertz scored a goal. Jesus had a cheeky chip. Jurriën Timber was being declared too good not to start.

And then Arsenal hopped on a short flight north, lost 2-0 to Manchester United on a blistering hot day with a poor playing surface beneath them, and it all changed.

In the time since the final gun blew on the United friendly (“there are no friendlies”), or rather since the last penalty was kicked, I’ve seen some takes:

• Eddie Nketiah, thanks for the memories, but it’s time to say goodbye

• I feel sorry for William Saliba, having to play next to Gabriel

• Aaron Ramsdale isn’t a modern goalkeeper, and Arsenal may need to upgrade on him to compete

• Arsenal can’t build with Declan Rice at the base

• Arteta’s insistence on the Kai Havertz experiment will mean Arsenal go back to fighting for top 4 rather than the league title

And, of course, from the greatest hits collection:

• Arsenal cannot win the league without a 25-goal striker, and that’s not Gabriel Jesus

Now, I was on Twitter the day we lost to Hibs in preseason. I was there when Ruben Loftus-Cheek made an unnecessary challenge on Thomas Partey in a preseason game and cost him the first chunk of the season. I was there when Gabriel Jesus left Brazil’s World Cup game injured and Arsenal’s season was declared dead. So I’ve seen some things.

But the reaction from Arsenal fans (which is mostly online) since the United game has been something else. I’d imagine that much of it comes from the raised expectations for this season’s unit, as well as Arsenal’s early business. Fans at this point want to see a well-oiled machine every time out, particularly given we just replaced a couple of aged components inside the Arsenal FC engine with top-of-the-line, well-engineered parts that were acquired at a premium and hyped to the heavens.

So, should we really be worried? If you follow me on Twitter (I will never call it “x”) or aren’t new to the blog, you’ll know my answer is “no.” If you need some reasons why I feel fine about what happened, I’ve broken them down in a handy bulleted format below.

• The game was swung by individual mistakes. Given the scoreline and the rhetoric, you might think Manchester United drubbed Arsenal. But as Scott has pointed out, this was a largely flat and even game punctuated by 2 or 3 chances to score. Even the less-flattering first half had a relatively even field tilt for all but the minutes between 30 and 40 or so, and the first half’s shots ended 7:3, shots on target 3:2 and possession 53:47. The second half was definitely better, with Arsenal dominating possession, but still nothing to get excited or upset about for either club.

  

• Preseason is about experimentation and change. This is one of the most important points I can make. Mikel Arteta is trying things here that he may not during the season. There was an excellent breakdown of Takehiro Tomiyasu’s movement in buildup floating around Twitter today I’d recommend checking out. The TL;DR version is that it’s completely different, but it did work beautifully at times. But experimentation is about both finding what will and what simply cannot or will not work, so even a 2-0 loss is valuable to a coach, because it provides learnings. And it’s very likely that the squad has already watched the match back with Arteta and staff calling out each mistake, success and adjustment needed.

• Fitness. The players on the pitch are all at completely different levels of fitness right now. There was a point early in the game where during a corner Declan Rice was gasping for breath. Believe me when I say that’s not in-season form for Rice, who’ll emerge as one of the club’s fittest players throughout the season. His engine is immense, but he hasn’t warmed it up yet. And he’s not the only one who’s simply not physically ready as of today.

• Time to jell. In the first half alone, there were a number of players lining up together for literally the first time, or at the very least, playing more than 20-30 minutes competitively together for the first time. Football, like so many others, is a chemistry-based sport. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that after his initial trainings, Declan Rice isn’t yet tuned into Martin Ødegaard or Kai Havertz. Players who have a preternatural chemistry despite never playing together are the exception, not the rule, and shouldn’t be viewed otherwise.

• The learning curve. This is probably the one that I’ve seen the most difficulties grasping, with both Rice and Havertz, but particularly the latter. The important thing to understand about Kai Havertz and the role we’ve seen him in so far is that he’s not playing the Granit Xhaka role. While he did drop deeper in buildup at times, he also led the press alongside Eddie Nketiah. The questions about whether he can succeed in such a position are understandable, but it’s important to remember that this is the position — call it a 10 or an attacking 8 — that he played in Germany, where he rose to wonderkid status. He can play the role. But he needs some time and repetitions to re-train his brain and his body, as well as adjust to the left side of the pitch.

  • On the same note, Declan Rice is adjusting from being a left-sided DM to being a lone 6. They may seem like the same thing, but they’re not. Martin Ødegaard is adjusting to both being somewhat deeper in buildup, and being part of the double-pivot out of possession. And Jurriën Timber, a career center-back, is going to take some time to fully nail the responsibilities of being a right back, inverted or not, in Arteta’s complex, patterned JdP style of buildup. These players are skilled, they’ve produced in games that matter, but they are still adjusting.

• The games don’t matter. Like it or not, there’s nothing on the line. Players are human, and particularly when you’re a player whose status is assured, you may react differently on a cellular level to a mistake or an opponent’s goal than you might in-season. When there are points on the line, you may find another gear you didn’t have (or didn’t have yet) in the middle of July.

• It’s early. This feels like a good one to end on, but it may be the most important. Declan Rice was announced as a Gunner eight days ago. Timber was 10 days ago. At the very most, they’ve got a combined 14 trainings between them, interrupted by a transatlantic flight and two games, by the way. There are another 14 days until the Community Shield, and six days after that is when the Premier League season kicks off. Mikel Arteta’s training sessions will become increasingly detailed and intense the closer the season gets, the players will learn each others’ quirks and tendencies, and Arsenal will re-integrate others who’ve barely trained, like Emile Smith Rowe, Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Reiss Nelson. It’s very likely we haven’t seen the XI that will start the season all on the pitch together yet.

With the way the squad came out the gates firing a year ago, there is reason to believe Mikel Arteta knows how to prepare a squad for a season. And whether Arsenal lose to Barcelona and Monaco handily or defeat them by a combined 8-0 score, it will mean nothing on the 12th of August, when the first ball is kicked.

Until then, I’m going to continue enjoying these previews we’re getting of the season to come, our massively increased depth and talent levels and the general good buzz around Arsenal as a whole. Not to mention, the Champions League draw is now just five weeks away. Now, that is exciting.