And for large portions of Arsenal's 3-2 win at Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg on Wednesday, it certainly was not. But for Mikel Arteta and his players, there was a beauty in the physicality, the remorseless levels of aggression. Arsenal won because of what they did without the ball. Yes, there were nice moments from them in possession, most obviously Martin Zubimendi's goal for 3-1.
I've felt the affection of the people. Very happy to return with a victory. We've been looking for a clean sheet for a while now. We've changed a few things, but every game is different. Hopefully, we can achieve it in the following matches as well," he told the media.
After starting the Tony Popovic-era with a 12-game unbeaten run, an experimental Socceroos lineup fell to their second-straight defeat, going down 1-0 to Venezuela at Houston's Shell Energy Stadium. While there was a certain level of fight to their 2-1 loss to the United States last month, this was a much more passive, disappointing defeat. Just 20 minutes in, the 50th-ranked Venezuelans had three-quarters of possession, which only fell to two-thirds at half-time and 66% at game's end.
We have to improve a lot of things, especially our pressing. We haven't been good. We've already had two games in which I don't think we've been good. We have to improve that pressing, above all, and with the ball, give it more rhythm, create more chances. I think we have a lot of room for improvement. We have to analyze it with the manager during the week and improve it for the next game.
The first five or six weeks, of course we had the player we signed but he was not completely ready. He was getting fitter but he had to do this in a Premier League game. This is not normal for a player. Ideally you would use him earlier in friendly matches but there is no time in the middle of the season for a friendly so we had to build him up playing Premier League and Champions League games.
There were sections of Bayern fans that questioned the Colombian's 70-million euro price tag when he was bought from Liverpool over the summer, but it's quite difficult to argue against the blistering start he's had to life with the reigning Bundesliga champions - and this is without the presence of Jamal Musiala in attack, who will not be making his return from injury until sometime next month.
