ARSENAL (AWAY)
Don’t shout shoot, don’t boo, manage your expectations - it’s not fucking basketball - would you like an extra £650 season ticket?
There are two major problems with the Albion at the moment, as I see things.
Problem one is the hopelessness on the pitch. Pitiful. I had thought the Norwich performance was sort of okay… until Sarmiento stepped onto the grass and exposed the rest of the players for barely going through the motions.
The other problem is the passive-aggressive hostility emanating out of the club, primarily from Potter. If you want to trigger a fanbase that’s sat through just four goals from open-play all season, and fuck knows how many defeats, then blaming the fans for having the temerity to shout out loud is a really effective way to achieve this.
‘The performance was really good… the bit we haven’t done well enough is put the ball into the net… that’s why we came away with one point instead of three’ remarked Potter after the Norwich game.
I read this and I see a manager abdicating himself for the lack of goals - we played well, that’s my bit done, it’s the players you need to blame. This seems to be a theme with our Graham.
And what creates frustration and upset is when these two problems coalesce. A poor result, no goals, a generally shit afternoon at the football, which is then followed by some waffle from Potter about performance levels and opportunities and how none of the negative bits are really his fault.
Whatever you think about Potter, however much you love him, however much you think the players are culpable, however much you dislike him or are shit bored of the all-passing-no-scoring art project, the person in the dugout is (and always will be) responsible for the results on the pitch. A truism he’d do well to remember.
The Norwich game was just as shit as the other recent ones, but the clean sheet was at least something… and most definitely something to build on as we head to North London.
Potter is, at his best, an excellent defensive coach. Our defensive record this season, despite falling off a cliff of late, is still very good. Potter builds his teams from the back, with a gameplan designed to prevent threat and restrict the opposition from creating chances.
That he chooses to do this by retaining possession and not just coughing the ball up and sitting deep - like the other defensive managers in the league - is to his credit. But it can also count against him when things aren’t going well.
We leave the stadium and we think ‘we had loads of the ball, we should be creating chances, why are we so bad at scoring?’ but what PotterBall invites of you is to leave the stadium and think ‘we had loads of the ball, we restricted the opposition to few chances, we gave ourselves the best possible chance of not losing the game’.
That’s not a sexy sell, but in all fairness to Graham, it’s an approach that was working until fairly recently.
And for tomorrow’s fixture, we have a third problem to deal with. The Drayton Park is no more. This pub was one of the classic away boozers. Slap bang outside the walkway that leads to the away end, it was a glorious aberration of grubby carpets, oily red velour bunkette seats and £3.50 pints of Carling amongst the cliched craft ale establishments of Highbury & Islington. RIP Drayton Park, you will be missed.
The 2-1 win at Highbury back in Potter’s first season was a brilliant night. An 8.15 kick off, on a Thursday night! Plenty of time to enjoy the delights of the aforementioned Drayton Park, followed by a superb performance featuring defensive rigour, set piece threat, plus just enough attacking intent on the pitch to create a goal from the mass of possession we claimed.
And it wasn’t too long again - Watford away just seven weeks ago - that we played just like this. Our form since then has been disastrous - to fall this hard this fast is discombobulating. Unsettling. But is it recoverable?
We don’t need to beat Arsenal. But what we do need is for the team to locate their defensive mojo. The ability to keep a team at arm’s length by passing the football harmlessly for at least 60% of the game. Plus, if we’re lucky, a chance or two from a set piece. Some classic PotterBall, basically.
Apologies to anybody hoping to see something radical like Shane Duffy up top or a team set up to counter-attack… never going to happen.
After the Arsenal game we have Spurs and Man City away. Antonio Conte’s Spurs are the absolute worst team for a Graham Potter team to face. And a midweek trip to the North West generally results in a defeat, let alone a visit to the Etihad.
The fate of the season doesn’t rest on this fixture. But it’s probably our last opportunity to avoid Burnley setting their sights firmly on us, Sean Dyche’s ultra pragmatism grinding away at our points total. The fucker.
So with that in mind, here’s hoping we’re treated to another sterile exhibition of walking football, and the opportunity to head home with something tangible - a point, maybe even three - plus if we’re really lucky, the discovery of a decent new away boozer.
