This was not a game that Leicester City’s goalkeeper, Mads Hermansen, deserved to lose. But it was still a game that Arsenal deserved to win.
“In the end, luck was on our side,” Leandro Trossard told the club’s website after the game. There’s some truth in that. As Arsenal searched for a way past the outstanding Hermansen, Trossard’s side-foot volley across goal was turned in by Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi. The Kai Havertz goal that sealed this 4-2 victory came when James Justin slid in to clear the ball against the Germany international’s boot.
But Arsenal getting a slice of luck in the final throes doesn’t tell the full story of the match. There was an element of fortune, too, in how Leicester came back from 2-0 down to equalise. First, Justin’s header deflected off Havertz before looping beyond David Raya into the net. Then Justin executed a superb volley that left Raya with no chance — if you presented the full-back with 100 more opportunities to strike that floating ball, he might not make such clean contact again.
Both teams had moments where fortune favoured them in front of goal but Arsenal generated so many, many more of those moments — and it was only the brilliance of Hermansen that kept them at bay. The 24-year-old goalkeeper had the game of his life — and yet conceded four goals.
💬 “I think it shows how the team bonds together, everyone wants everyone to do well. It’s a great team we’re in and everyone is happy.”
Trossard praises the team’s work-ethic after today’s injury-time win 👇
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 28, 2024
The numbers are quite something. According to Opta, Arsenal had 36 shots in this match — their joint-most on record since 2003-04 in a Premier League game. They had 16 shots on target, again their joint-highest on record since the ‘Invincibles’ season. Hermansen made 13 saves — the most in a Premier League game since David de Gea’s performance in the same stadium in December 2017. This was a battering.
Arsenal finished the game with an expected goals (xG) of 4.12 as opposed to Leicester’s 0.27. They had 75 per cent possession and 17 corners. The most extraordinary thing about this game is that Arsenal needed a last-gasp winner.
Arsenal’s start to the season has been taxing. Their first five fixtures included trips to Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. This was always going to be a different task: the onus was on them to take the game to Leicester and break down a deep block. What’s more, they had to do it without Martin Odegaard — their captain and playmaker-in-chief.
“We have to adapt to that,” Mikel Arteta said before the game about coping without the Norwegian midfielder. “The influence Martin had in our attacking phase is enormous, and we cannot question that. When you look at every metric, the way we plan the games, the types of things we have to try to get him in the spaces where he can be very dangerous for the opponent, it’s key — it’s always in relation to him.
“We don’t have him, so we have to adapt. We have to adapt our way of playing and find other ways to do it that are very efficient. It will be different — it won’t be the same — it will be different but hopefully very efficient as well.”
In Odegaard’s absence, Arsenal adapted. They capitalised on moments of transition to shift gear into attack when there was more space available. Their opening goal was one such example: there were just 13.5 seconds between Riccardo Calafiori regaining possession on the halfway line and Gabriel Martinelli sweeping home his finish.
Havertz and Trossard produced a modern spin on the classic little-and-large strike partnership, and Arsenal placed a huge emphasis on rotations and positional play. When they needed a spark to help their final push, 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri produced a cameo of such dazzling brilliance it suggested he may be the squad’s most natural replacement for Odegaard.
Arteta will be delighted with how his team met the challenge. “I am really pleased with the performance,” he said after the game. “The way we played, the chances we created, how we dominated the game and after 2-0, the result should have been much bigger.
“But this is the Premier League, the quality of the opponent, the quality of Leicester, they scored two goals and I’m even happier how we dealt with that situation afterwards. It was emotionally superb, in control, very clear in what we have to do, how consistent we have to be to attack the spaces and continue to do a lot of the things we were already doing. We fully deserved to win the game.”
Much has been made of Arsenal’s tactics last week at the Etihad but in this game, they showed a different face. It will serve them well this season. They will face more matches like this than the rearguard action in Manchester. And this time, it was Arsenal who were the beneficiaries of a stoppage-time winner.
Even without Odegaard, Arsenal produced one of their most devastating attacking performances. For it to end in a draw would have been a travesty.
(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
