Result: Arsenal 4-0 Norwich
Competition: Premier League
Date: 1 July 2020
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Starting lineup: Martinez, Mustafi, Luiz, Kolasinac, Bellerin, Xhaka, Ceballos, Tierney, Nelson, Aubameyang, Lacazette
Subs: Macey, Sokratis, Holding, Cedric, Maitland-Niles, Willock, Saka, Pepe, Nketiah
A brace from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and strikes from Granit Xhaka and debutant Cedric Soares secured a 4-0 win for Arsenal against Norwich that takes the Gunners up to seventh in the table.
In what was arguably the most polished performance of Mikel Arteta’s time in charge, the Gunners played some very tidy football and most importantly punished the visitors for their errors.
Poor defending gifted Aubameyang either side of the break, the move that led up to Xhaka’s strike was a throwback to the good old days and Soares’ screamer just moments after coming on as a sub was enough to bring a smile to the face of even the most curmudgeonly Gooner.
All in all, an enjoyable night at the Emirates for the players and not a bad one for the rest of us at home.
Pre-game
Bukayo Saka’s reward for signing a new contract was a place on the bench. To be fair, after four consecutive games he deserved a break. Reiss Nelson took his place in the starting lineup. The only other change from the side that started at Sheffield United was Dani Ceballos’ presence in the centre of midfield in place of Joe Willock. Surprisingly, David Luiz, who limped off at Bramall Lane with a knee problem, was fine to play.
First half
For the first time in a long time, Arsenal played a half of football that they genuinely seemed to enjoy. Buoyed by a couple of consecutive wins, back in familiar surroundings after four away games and facing the Premier League’s bottom side, we looked confident. If you squinted your eyes, we even looked like we had a bit of swagger about us.
The passing was crisp, the formation effective and the movement quick and incisive. By and large, it was 45 minutes of attack versus defence. Granted, the Canaries did have a couple of potshots at goal – Godfrey hit the post from 35-yards and McClean forced Martinez into a smart stop from a free-kick in stoppage time – but other than that, it was all us.
Dani Ceballos was particularly eye-catching. The Spaniard has too often been a passenger in games this season but here he was threading balls inside the Norwich full-backs with aplomb and showing forward intent at every opportunity. Norwich got so frustrated, two of their players, Rupp and McClean, both resorted to hacking him and ended up in the book.
Up front, Aubameyang pulled wide like Thierry to support Tierney’s touchline hugging position. Our captain stung Krul’s palm with an early effort and was also fed in nicely by Nelson on 19 minutes. After four games without a goal, he looked desperate to get on the scoresheet. He wasn’t to be denied.
On 32 minutes, Auba chased down Krul who dared to take him on. The Dutchman couldn’t get the ball out of his feet, had the ball stolen off him and with then had to watch our striker roll the ball home into an empty net. It was the Gabon international’s 50th goal in 77 appearances; the quickest any Arsenal player has reached that milestone. (1-0)
We consolidated our advantage five minutes later. Again Aubameyang was involved. This time laying off to Xhaka to crash home on the run. The move had started with Luiz spraying a lovely ball to Tierney. (2-0)
Second half
Both sides made changes at the break, Rob Holding coming on for Mustafi and the visitors bringing on three players. One of new faces, Adam Idah, immediately tested Martinez with a low effort that forced a terrific save from our keeper. Hernandez fired another shot over the bar not long after.
Nelson’s evening ended before the hour mark as Arteta tinkered with his set-up to counter Norwich’s threat. Willock came on to play in front of Ceballos and Xhaka.
With nothing to lose, the visitors kept pushing forward and VAR was forced to check a possible penalty when Kolasinac tumbled Cantwell. Had it been in the box, it might have been given. As it turned out, the nudge was at least a yard outside so nothing was given. It was a very dopey 15 minutes for the Gunners.
Thankfully, Norwich were the masters of their own downfall again. A suicidal pass played blind across his own box by Drmic fell straight to Aubameyang who had the simple task of tucking home past Krul for his second. It was calamitous defending. Quite Arsenal, in fact. Auba jogged to the touchline to celebrate with Saka who was warming-up. (3-0)
With 15 minutes remaining, Cedric Soares came on for his Arsenal debut. 152 days in the making, he took over from Bellerin. Would you believe it? He only went and netted a screamer inside five minutes. After a corner was cleared to him on the edge of the box, he nudged the ball onto his left foot and crashed home a sweet striker. (4-0)
Willock and Pepe both tried to add a fifth late on, but we settled for four. What a treat, all the same.
The three points lifts us above Sheffield United, Burnley and Sp*rs; a welcome move up the table before a tough run of games against Wolves, Leicester, Liverpool and our north London neighbours.
Nice
Well today was a good day. Lets stuff wolves as well to build the confidence.
A very good day, if that happens
That first 45min was brilliant but again let’s all calm down. It’s Norwich, and 2 of the goals were gifts. So let’s put some context and not get carried away. Good win much needed and shows we’re heading the right direction. Consistency is what we need now to build on this. And even though I predict3d we’d win I didn’t predict us scoring more than 2 goals as it seems like we can’t score more than 2 goals in most games. So I’m also glad we got more than 2 goals and kept a clean sheet.
I’d say you are missing some context by dismissing what caused the mistakes, that’s the second GK forced error leading to a goal in as many games.
now the bigger teams will see this and you wont see opposing gk dither on the ball against us much in the future unfortunately.
though tbh after one goal like that youd expect opponents to up their game in that regard, maybe krul is too arrogant.
Arteta: I want more from my midfielders
Ceballos: Hold my hairband
Ceballos was superb.
He was everywhere today; distributing, recycling possession, threading defense splitting balls, tackling and slide tackling, leading the press from the front at the 90th minute…
Boy desperately wants to become a gunner.. playing for the contract, isn’t he?
£50M for being good against the last.
Think Arteta told him to play for a perm deal. I think I saw the point when he was like he had to step it up.
Buzzed
Cedric ‘Roberto Carlos’ Soares
Agree, Norwich or not, that was the most balanced we’ve looked in a long time.
bring on Barcelona
Not such a bad proposition these days…
(Who are we kidding, we’d still get worked, but today was damn nice)
Today’s been a good day
?Let’s not get Spurzy now. ?
Ceballos had a cracking game today.
Now this was the Dani Ceballos I wanted to see.
With change in formation by Norwich he again became invisible. Arteta should find a solution to these tactical changes and I trust him to find one <3
Good win, still need to iron out those silly passes and giving the ball away in the back. Wolves game will be the test, must win game.
Lovely convincing win to end a wonderful day as an Arsenal fan
This has been a rare occasion in the last few years… I enjoyed watching Arsenal play football.
Thank you Arteta, the players, and everyone at the club who made this possible.
Cebellos looked great tonight, really positive
Saka signs, Cedric scores, Tierney and Ceballos playing great.
Some respect on Raul’s name now? Or is it a case of it’s Raul’s fault when it goes badly and it’s in spite of him when we do well?
We’re currently 7th, so a few wins don’t exactly make our transfer strategy look any more coherent. Let’s see what shape we’re in at the end of the season
No, its a case of we beat a team at the bottom of the table and that’s great. On the other hand, we judge the team over 38 games and over successive seasons and this season, and last, haven’t been good enough. Raul, with his prominent strategic role at Arsenal in appointing both the manager and signing players, undeniably bears large responsibility for that. “Some respect” when our league position improves.
It’s also a case of stick
ing the knife in immediately when we play badly…
That’s his job
If he doing is it properly, he shouldn’t be seen or herd.
If he could take Mustafi down to some Pub Quiz Nite and negotiate a transfer to said pub team, I might be persuaded to review my estimation of Raul’s general character and intelligence. But, for the moment, nah. He’s still a ti, in my honest opinion.
Wonderful seeing Willock, Nketiah, Nelson and Saka this season getting minutes and growing in confidence. First time in a while Arsenal have made me smile! I definitely thing 3 at the back is the way forward in the short-term although arguably it’s yet to be really tested. I’ll admit being underwhelmed by the signing of Soares but he had a good few minutes and interesting his decision-making was mentioned by Arteta on a night when Bellerin seemed to have another stinker in that department.
Eddie Nketiah looked VERY confident.
Excellent game and a great Arsenal performance.
We dominated for almost the entire 90 minutes and took our chances when they came. Ceballos, Tierney and especially Auba were all excellent. And a big up to Martinez, who pulled off two brilliant saves at crucial points in the game. The only negative today was Laca, who looked very rusty. Great debut for Cedric: he’ll never forget that goal.
With Saka signing a new long-term contract it has been a great day for the club.
I love him but Laca has looked Big and Rusty since returning from his ankle injury.
Best day as an Arsenal fan for me in quite a while. Auba hits 50, Saka signed, debut goal, solid midfield performance, Pepe and Eddie looking razor sharp off the bench. Pints tasting extra sweet. Cheers gooners.
Well done chaps, good result.
Surprise of the day was Mike Dean choosing not to be a hero by awarding that a penalty against Arsenal. People can change 🙂
Mike Dean change? Never. A Leopard never changes it’s spots; Mike Dean will always be a cunt.
Maybe he respects Mikel
Hahaha… Hopefully he has become loyal from today moving forward (though I doubt that). Mike Dean will most likely be the same Mike “The drama” Dean in subsequent matches. Let’s just focus on ourselves and make him and his antics irrelevant in the scheme of things.
Even better Tim Krul was in goal, such an obnoxious twat, I took great delight in seeing him made to look stupid!
Today is my best and happiest day as an Arsenal fan since resumption of play by far. Well done boys. You really made us proud. This three points is the icing on the cake for us after the breaking news of Saka’s contract signing. So so happy!
This was more relaxing, I am not sure though how that 3 at the back formation is going to work against stronger teams. Delighted for Saka, he looks really humble guy, interesting how they all mention (I also saw Nketiah mention it) importance of David Luiz in giving them advice and support. Maybe that is also why he will stick around for one more year.
At least we are going to Wolves this time with some confidence and rhythm. We seem to have woken up and Arteta is cracking the whip in the right way. Tierney has been superb last few games, bringing a much more threatening presence on the left and Ceballos was always wanting the ball. It was a joy to watch today.
I liked how Tierney always looks to cross the ball from the flank and on many occasions it is really dangerous. We´ve been missing that, I remember on many occasions in the past how we overcomplicated where the better solution would be a good cross, look how often Liverpool uses those crosses and how successful they are with it, of course the crosses have to be quality for it to work. Today I noticed they were flying in really well in big part thanks to Tierney.
A Laca goal would have been the cherry on top
Agreed. He just needs the rub of the green. That said, Blogs did make me laugh on the Live Blog when he said that Laca turned like some old boy who’d had a hip replacement. ?
No chance
First game I’ve really enjoyed all season and thought we really deserved/earned the win this season
Best performance under Arteta apart from the United game. It was only Norwich, true, but we finally played how we’re really meant to play. Hoping we can keep it up.
Good win tempered by of course a bit of perspective that this is a struggling Norwich side near relegated. Thought we had a good first half, dropped off a bit second half but likely also because of impact of recent number of games. Thought Ceballos in particular outstanding first half. Arteta made good changes after ten minutes second half when Norwich went to back 3 after the break and had us under the cosh. Probably won’t last too long in 7 but in the right direction and I do think there is some merit to keeping… Read more »
A great result. I hope we get the same performance against Wolves. Sign up Pierre to new contract ASAP.
Does anyone know why Martinez got booked?
Great game … Really pleased!
I thought Kolasinac looked really great today. Martinez is proving we have that department covered for now.
From the go it was clear losing want an option for them with everyone please with real confidence e.g Ceballos and Nelson.
Xhaka seemed to surprise even himself with the goal.
And when was the last time a player scored for us on his debut? Well done Soares!
COYG!?
Kolasinac and Auba were our last debut scorers.. I can’t understand some fans flak on Kola he’s quite useful for us as a 3rd cb.
3 at the back seems to fit Kola as he’s like a tight leftback and can use his pace and body to occupy space and also not be to isolated from other better ballplaying CBs
curmudgeonly
Great word @AAllenSport!