27 December 2024
Arsenal 1 Ipswich Town 0
After their mauling of Crystal Palace last time out, The Gunners welcomed Ipswich Town to North London knowing that nothing but victory would do if they wanted to keep in touch with leaders Liverpool. The only negative from their trip to Selhurst Park was a hamstring injury Saka picked up, which he has had to have an operation on. He is expected to be out for around two months.
Victories have been few and far between for Kieran McKenna’s side but they came into this game with some confidence having beaten Tottenham in North London this season. They should have taken the lead early on when a deflected cross saw Szmodics with a clear sight of goal unmarked but he could not get a telling touch to the ball to trouble Raya.
It was a scrappy start to the game with neither side able to control possession, but Arsenal started stretching the Tractor Boys with their wing play. Trossard did well on the left as he got to the byline and put a dangerous ball in across the six yard box. The visitors’ marking was dreadful as they allowed Havertz an easy volley at the back post to break the deadlock.
It is a common theme with the sides that come up from the Championship. It is such a huge step up to the Premier League that they continue to play the way they did the previous season. That just does not work at this level as you will constantly be punished if you do not defend as a unit and always track the runners. This was a perfect example of that.
The Emirates erupted as the ball nestled in the back of the net, feeling that they just needed to score to open the floodgates against the visitors. Arsenal have got an impressive record against newly promoted sides and you almost felt this game was beyond McKenna’s side despite the slender lead The Gunners held.
Arteta’s side continued to press and Gabriel laid the ball off to Rice outside the box. As he shifted the ball in front of him, he only had one thing on his mind. He unleashed a shot that narrowly dipped over the Ipswich Town crossbar, with his head held in his hands. If the Tractor Boys had any hope of getting anything from this game, they could not afford to give the hosts such time and space.
A ball was threaded into the box and Jesus ran onto it. He picked it up on the byline and Muric rushed out to meet him. The Brazilian somehow poked it past the keeper and into the back of the net from an impossible angle. Fortunately for the visitors it was ruled out for offside. The replay showed that the Arsenal striker had set off far too early.
Arsenal went in at the break with a one goal lead. It can always be a worrying scoreline as you can often be hit with that sucker punch in the top-flight. Ipswich Town will have felt they were more than still in this game but they needed to be more of an attacking threat. Aside from the chance in the opening minutes, they had barely ventured into the final third of the pitch.
The Gunners forced a corner early in the second-half. The deep cross found a completely unmarked Gabriel at the back post but incredibly he somehow managed to head it wide of the goal. It was an absolute sitter that you would expect any able-bodied person to score. As for Ipswich, this was that defensive mentality that will see them go down, not even tracking the hosts biggest threat at corners.
It seemed whenever Arteta’s side put a cross into the box that the Tractor Boys were completely static. Nobody watching the ball or even the men they were marking. At this point you felt it was just a matter of time before the hosts doubled their lead. Even without the influential Saka, they were causing the visitors’ defence all sorts of problems.
Odegaard picked the ball up in the middle of the park and ran at the Ipswich defence. Everyone backed off him and once he got into the box, they seemed scared to make a challenge. He weaved his way into a shooting position and pulled the trigger but Muric managed to get fingertips to it to send it over for another corner.
As the resulting cross came in, Rice met it with a thunderous volley that looked destined for the back of the net. Fortunately for McKenna’s side the defenders in front of him stood firm and blocked the shot before it could trouble Muric. Once again though the visitors were not picking players up at set-pieces and The Gunners were finding it too easy to find space.
Odegaard was haunting the visitors’ defence and laid it off to Merino just inside the box. He got a left-footed shot away that Muric did well to save, although the rebound almost dropped to Trossard a couple of yards out. The Tractor Boys were offering nothing going forward and even at one-nil, Arsenal looked very comfortable.
The Gunners got the win they needed and moved into second place in the table, leapfrogging Chelsea in the process. They are now six points behind Arne Slot’s Liverpool but The Reds still have a game in hand. Currently, all Arsenal can do is keep winning their games to keep the pressure on and hope that the league leaders drop points at some stage.
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