Arsenal may be playing tightrope football, but they are rarely putting a foot wrong

Arsenal’s current mode of tightrope football is giving their games an edge that comes with inevitable precariousness. All in all, 12 of Arsenal’s 26 matches this season in all competitions have been closely bound — either won or lost by a single goal or drawn. That is just under half of all their games.

So it was not out of character for Arsenal to experience a cup game that should have been out of sight but ended up neck and neck as the late drama tipped into a penalty shootout. The North Bank crowd got into the spirit of things. Each Arsenal taker was cheered on, and then they howled and twirled their scarves at each approaching Crystal Palace player as if they were pantomime villains. 

The quality of the strikes from both teams were marked by fearless finesse, and we wondered if we might still be watching these two teams trading penalties until the turkey was being served. Finally, after 15 attempts and the score at 8-7, one of the goalkeepers was able to read the direction of the ball and Kepa Arrizabalaga dived to paw away from Maxence Lacroix. 

It was, as it has been quite often lately, fine margins football. It is reasonable to wonder if it is too risky, if this tendency is playing with fire, but it is also reasonable to imagine that Arsenal are hoping to elevate themselves into a more ruthless approach if circumstances allow them to kick on. 

Make no mistake, this is not entirely by design. Mikel Arteta is trying to stay competitive in every match while managing resources that are, like most teams living with the relentlessness of the modern football workload, imperfect. Some players are injured, others need minutes, and newcomers to the club are, in some cases, still trying to click with the Arsenal rhythm. 

Arsenal were operating with a depleted attack for the first part of the season and, more recently, a decimated defence. Who knows whether they might be liberated if they ever get to use a more even choice of resources, but in the meantime, needs must. 

They have just won three consecutive matches that have all been tightly contested. “The margins should have been bigger, then we are not worried about what happens in the last few minutes. That’s something that we have to improve on and be better at,” noted Arteta in his post-match press conference.