This match between challengers and strugglers felt just like the comfortable couch the place you retreat to relaxation after you may have eaten one too many slices of turkey and two too many mince pies.
As post-prandial leisure, it wasn’t nearly as good because the Gavin and Stacey finale however the three factors it introduced Arsenal did raise them above Nottingham Forest and Chelsea and into prime place to present chase to Liverpool.
This was a job finished by Mikel Arteta’s facet and nothing extra. It was the naked minimal requirement that marked the beginning of their try to shut the hole on Arne Slot’s facet.
The sketchy 1-0 win moved them to inside six factors of the leaders though Liverpool do even have a sport in hand and the wind of their sails.
It additionally proved to Arsenal that they’ll win with out Bukayo Saka, their finest participant, who can be out for a number of extra weeks with a hamstring damage sustained at Crystal Palace earlier than Christmas.
Arsenal regarded shorn of attacking inspiration with out Saka however Ipswich, who’re one off the underside of the Premier League, weren’t ok to reveal their uncertainties.
Arsenal closed the hole to the highest and moved as much as second with a 1-0 win over Ipswich
Kai Havertz’s close-range end within the first-half proved to be the distinction on Friday night time
Strugglers Ipswich weren’t ok to reveal Arsenal’s uncertainties
Ipswich did trigger some nervous flutters among the many dwelling crowd within the second half as they started to exhibit a modicum of attacking ambition however Arsenal had been by no means actually threatened. Even so, the ultimate whistle was greeted with a roar of reduction in north London.
They had been grateful to Leandro Trossard for the sport’s one second of attacking aptitude when he beat his man within the Ipswich space and crossed for Havertz to faucet dwelling from shut vary.
However Arsenal’s unconvincing displaying in opposition to Kieran McKenna’s facet will improve worries amongst their supporters that, with out Saka, they are going to discover it onerous to maintain a problem to Liverpool.
The remainder of Arsenal’s attacking band – Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli – performed solely fitfully. Sterner checks than this, away at Brentford and Brighton, await Arsenal and so they should step up a gear if they’re to maintain up the strain on Liverpool.
The absence of Saka had been on everybody’s thoughts within the build-up to the sport and because the groups waited within the tunnel, the tv cameras zoomed in on Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz locked in intense dialog about their roles as Martinelli regarded on.
Martinelli, as anticipated, occupied Saka’s function on the best flank however earlier than he had even touched the ball, Ipswich practically scored. The sport was a number of seconds outdated when the ball was swung over from the guests’ left. Sam Szmodics was in house a number of yards from purpose and prodded a foot at it. If he had made contact, he would have scored.
Gabriel Martinelli, as anticipated, occupied Bukayo Saka’s function on the best flank
Arsenal’s unconvincing displaying in opposition to Ipswich facet will improve worries amongst their supporters
Thereafter, the primary half become a sport of assault versus defence with Arsenal pissed off by the massed ranks of blue shirts behind the ball. A sequence of affected person build-ups foundered. The primary time there was a glimpse of an opportunity was when Jurrien Timber burst ahead from defence and unleashed a drive that thudded into the midriff of Arijanet Muric.
However then, halfway via the half, Arsenal broke the impasse. A Martinelli cross was solely half-cleared to Leandro Trossard on the sting of the Ipswich field. Trossard ran at Ben Johnson and fizzed in a cross and Havertz stole in behind Jacob Greaves to raise it excessive into the web.
If there was an expectation {that a} purpose may elevate the tempo of the sport, it was a false expectation. It settled again right into a state of post-Christmas torpor, as woolly as the sunshine fog that wisped across the floodlight glare on the stadium.
The primary curiosity was within the cameos, within the collision between Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips, two of England’s nice success tales from Euro2020, two gamers whose fortunes have diverged within the years which have elapsed since that event.
Rice is on the coronary heart of this Arsenal workforce of title challengers now after his transfer from West Ham, whereas Phillips continues to be attempting to rebuild his profession after his transfer from Leeds to Manchester Metropolis stalled his progress and led to him being criticised by Pep Guardiola.
Phillips did his finest to compete and to disrupt Arsenal’s possession however he noticed treasured little of the ball. It looks like an awfully very long time since he was one of many stars of the great Leeds facet long-established by Marcelo Bielsa.
Arsenal started the second half with higher urgency and when Phillips tripped Rice on the sting of the Ipswich field a couple of minutes after the interval, the house followers sensed alternative. Martin Odegaard might solely clip the free kick into the wall.
Emboldened by Arsenal’s toothlessness, Ipswich really started to enterprise into the opposition half and swung crosses in from each flanks. Their followers, behind the purpose their workforce was now attacking, responded by elevating the quantity of their help.
Ipswich practically paid for his or her new spirit of journey instantly. Arsenal received a nook and when Rice curled it to the again submit, Gabriel ran on to it. He met it unmarked three yards out however in some way contrived to direct it an inch huge of the submit. The Arsenal centre half turned away in disbelief.
The primary curiosity was within the cameos, within the collision between Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips
Arsenal had different probabilities to increase their lead. Rice aimed a thunderous volley goalwards solely to see it blocked by an Ipswich defender and Havertz missed his kick when he had the purpose at his mercy.
Odegaard turned an increasing number of influential as the sport wore on and his prompting freed substitute Mikel Merino to unleash a stinging shot that Muric did effectively to push apart because it arrowed in direction of the nook of the web.
Arsenal’s dominance had been such that the sport ought to have been out of attain however their lack of an attacking edge meant {that a} sense of dread accompanied every late Ipswich foray into the Arsenal half.
A greater workforce might need been capable of expose that nervousness however despite the fact that Ipswich had been prepared, they weren’t that workforce. Arsenal noticed the sport out. They obtained the job finished. Nevertheless it was not the type of show that may have Mo Salah, ,Virgil van Dijk and co trying over their shoulders simply but.
