F365’s 3pm Blackout: No Arsenal substitute for Odegaard as Dyche on borrowed time

It’s business as usual for Arsenal now Martin Odegaard is back while the prospective new Everton owner tuts at Sean Dyche and Brighton win ugly.

Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest: Football team better with best player
A good player contributes to the team. A great player allies that with individual quality. A “unique” player, as Mikel Arteta termed it, improves everything and everyone.

That was always what Martin Odegaard’s absence represented. As wonderful a player as he is in his own right, Arsenal missed his leadership qualities and ability to bring out the best in his teammates most. Arteta can be questioned for how he dealt with the loss of his captain – particularly the use of Ethan Nwaneri – but ultimately there is no alternative option to fill every facet of that role.

Some can shoulder the chance creation burden. Others can knit the play together deeper, or emulate his guidance and control in possession. But no-one else can harness that same chemistry and pull it all together in quite the same way as Odegaard.

Bukayo Saka had suffered without the Norwegian, initially stepping up more than anyone before opponents realised they could double and even triple up on him to nullify that threat, safe in the knowledge Arsenal didn’t really have anyone else capable of consistently untying those defensive knots.

The pair combined wonderfully for Saka’s glorious opening goal, cutting inside from right to left before firing a delightful effort past Matz Sels.

It was Saka’s first goal contribution in almost a month; a second arrived early in the second half, although Thomas Partey perhaps deserves more credit for his sublime finish from 20 yards or so.

A hidden detail was Odegaard’s off-the-ball run, pulling Ryan Yates out of position and creating ample space for the shot. He and Saka earned both their standing ovation and rest upon a double substitution in the 82nd minute, the result secured and a difficult opponent sidestepped.

That provided enough time for the replacements to collaborate for the third goal, created and converted by Nwaneri with help from Raheem Sterling in as good an impression of Odegaard as one might wish to find. But Arsenal and Arteta know there is no beating the real thing.

Fulham 1-4 Wolves: Mario carts O’Neil to his biggest victory
When that Wolves starting line-up was announced, the common consensus was that the visitors would have to score at least four to get a result at Craven Cottage; that defence was destined to concede at least as many.

They have prioritised the signing of a centre-half in January for a reason. Some combination of Nelson Semedo, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Mario Lemina, Rayan Ait-Nouri and two of the three Gomes’ – Toti and Rodrigo – helped form the most makeshift of backline across the course of a potentially transformative victory.

Alex Iwobi’s sumptuous opener seemed to set the scene perfectly but a familiar hero emerged for Wolves. If they are to survive this season, much of that debt will be owed to Matheus Cunha.

His touches and finish matched the quality of Lemina’s ball for the equaliser, before the Brazilian played in the third Gomes, Joao, to give Wolves a deserved lead early in the second half.

It still did not feel as though Gary O’Neil was on the verge of equalling his biggest margin of Premier League victory but a first-time Cunha stunner from distance and Goncalo Guedes’ breakaway goal helped lift Wolves out of the relegation zone and inflict upon Fulham an unexpected thrashing.

Cunha’s contribution was obvious but captain Lemina led by example, deputising at centre-half and creating two goals for a side which has now scored just one fewer than Liverpool and Arsenal in the league. Having long seemed doomed, Wolves are the bottom half’s form team; only Liverpool are on a longer unbeaten streak.

Aston Villa 2-2 Crystal Palace: A tale of two Henderson’s as Sarr makes the most of Villa ‘high line’
We weren’t hugely kind about Dean Henderson in the last 3pm Blackout as the Palace goalkeeper proved Roy Keane right, and this was a game that managed to somehow support both of the disparate narratives surrounding him.

He made Ollie Watkins’ task to equalise for Villa much more simple by making the grave error of coming for the ball, stopping and then coming again, making him a sitting duck for Watkins to round and slot into an empty net. If Henderson had been in one mind he would have got their first and his critics wouldn’t have had further evidence for their case that he wouldn’t be a Premier League goalkeeper had he not come through the Manchester United academy.

But he made up for it, diving full length to superbly save John McGinn’s powerful penalty, to add weight to the argument for those convinced not only that he’s the natural heir to Jordan Pickford for England but should be starting ahead of him.

To call Villa’s line high would suggest they had a line of any sort. Ismaila Sarr thoroughly enjoyed himself running beyond their disjointed backline, racing through to finish after Jean-Philippe Mateta’s pass sent him away on halfway early on before he was again sent clear – seconds after Henderson’s penalty save – to set up the second goal, as Palace proved their commitment to the Bonkers Game bit by making up a footballer to re-establish their lead.

Having made his debut against Fulham last time out, Justin Devenny marked his second game with his first goal, which never felt as though it would be the last in a throughly enjoyable, ludicrously open game at Villa Park.

Ross Barkley equalised with a fine flicked header from a Youri Tielemans corner before the basketball began in earnest, with Palace continuing to break on Villa seemingly at will, with Sarr and Jeffrey Schlupp both spurning excellent chances to secure three points that would have taken Palace out of the relegation zone.

Villa have now won just one game in seven in the Premier League, and although they remain just three points off the Champions League qualification spots, they don’t currently look anywhere near solid enough to remain in that race.

Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton: Seagulls further prove Champions League credentials by winning ugly 
The finish could hardly have been more simple, with Kepa Arrizabalaga unable to get anywhere near Joao Pedro’s shot having parried Georginio Rutter’s shot, but the build-up was beautiful, featuring seven passes between Rutter, Pedro and Danny Welbeck, four of them one-touch passes, as they cut Bournemouth open while easing their way up the pitch.

It was incredible understanding and awareness of each other’s movement given this is the first time all three have been on the pitch together, with either Rutter or Pedro typically flanked by Proper Wingers behind Welbeck. All three preferring to operate in central areas means they’re difficult to tie down for opposition teams as they drift inside and swap positions.

The first goal was an excellent example of that, with Bournemouth chasing shadows before Rutter’s rasping drive and the second again involved all three before a Pedro played a stunning defence-splitting pass through to Mitoma, who swept the ball first-time into the far corner.

Bournemouth were the better team even before Carlos Baleba was sent off for two yellow cards, but predictably piled on the pressure after the visitors were reduced to ten men, ending the game with 16 shots to Brighton’s six, but David Brooks’ clever stoppage-time finish proved to be just too late against a Brighton side who will be further buoyed in their bid for Champions League football by winning ugly.

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Everton 0-0 Brentford: Toffees come unstuck etc and so on
Fair play to Sean Dyche for using this season as a controlled experiment to investigate footballing cliches. Having deduced early on that 2-0 is indeed the most dangerous lead, the home game against Brentford was used to see whether it is more difficult to play against ten men.

This overwhelming evidence suggested as such. Whatever your stance on Christian Norgaard’s red card on the stroke of half-time, the result was probably crystallised in that moment. A broadly even game was only ever going to turn into a half of attacking drills orchestrated by a team which has only outscored Southampton this season, and who would be required to have a lot of something nerds call ‘possession’.

Everton had 60% of the ball, a feat they last managed in February against Paddy McCarthy’s interim Crystal Palace. Most of the players struggled with the concept of playing on the front foot with 10 men ahead of them. It does not feel like something Dyche might work on in training.

Beto, brought on in the 71st minute, had more shots than Brentford overall. It was not a particularly poor result in isolation but Dyche’s most staunch critics might have taken a perverse pleasure in watching his ultimate nightmare unfold: more than half a game at home against a beatable side reduced to ten men. No scenario emphasises his weaknesses as a coach more.