Huddersfield Town were defeated 1-0 by Arsenal in the last game of the season, and the last game of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal career. It was a game that could have gone differently if Town had taken their chances. But the performance was good and it provided proof that Town have potential to play well against top teams without parking the bus.
Here are a few of my thoughts after the game…
Formation change: 3-5-2
Town played most of the game in a 3-5-2 system, with Ince playing a deeper and more central role than normal, and Pritchard playing mostly as a striker. The wingbacks played very aggressively, which meant Town played high up the field and pressed Arsenal when they tried to build up from the back.
The new system worked well, and was a departure from the negative tactics we’d used in recent games to grind out much-needed points away against Man City and Chelsea. There were fifteen minute spells at the start of both halves where Arsenal couldn’t cope with our intensity and regularly coughed the ball up when we put them under pressure.
Missed chances cost Town again
Like many games this season, Town couldn’t turn their dominant spells into goals. Despite opening Arsenal’s defence regularly with our attacking play, we didn’t do enough to test Ospina.
Tom Ince probably had the best chances in front of goal but couldn’t keep his composure to finish the opportunities that came his way. That familiar feeling returned of being pleased he was getting into good positions, and frustrated that he can’t convert them into goals.
Had Town taken the lead when they were on top I don’t think we’d have been as open at the back, and we’d have been unlikely to concede to an Arsenal breakaway. It’s not particularly important for this game, but it’s something I hope Town can address for next season.
Wenger’s send off
It was nice to be there to see Arsene Wenger’s last Arsenal game, and everyone at Town played their part in making it a memorable occasion. It felt like the right thing to acknowledge a manager that had contributed so much to English football.
It was unfortunate that the scoreboard was showing an advertisement for most of the 22nd minute, so the planned tribute was a bit muddled and lasted well into the 24th minute. I’m not a huge fan of mid-game tributes but it was nice to see everyone give Wenger a bit of love after a fairly tough few final years at Arsenal.
It wasn’t all a love-in though. It made me smile when our fans called out the hypocrisy of Arsenal fans eulogising the manager that many of them had campaigned to remove. Some of those teary-eyed fans have short memories
Pitch invasion
The traditional pitch invasion took place after the final whistle, though it cleared in record time and it seemed a bit of a non-event. Jonas Lössl was the only Town player that got caught up with the fans, the rest scarpering into the changing rooms before they could be pestered for their shirts by Town fans.
I noticed there was quite a lot of booing of the pitch invaders from fans around me. I’m not sure how I feel about it but booing seemed a bit extreme. I’ve never jumped on the pitch myself, but it seems like a fairly harmless thing to do (though I think it’s technically illegal).
The strongest feeling I can summon up about it is that it’s a bit annoying, as the fans running on the pitch means having to wait longer for the players to come out for the lap of honour, but otherwise who cares?
What next…
Now we’ve got our first season in the Premier League under our belts it’s hard not to look ahead to the next one. I’m hopeful that we’ll see a less busy transfer window this summer, the emphasis should be on keeping hold of what we have and adding quality in a few key areas.
So my biggest hope for the summer is we don’t lose our biggest assets. The first priority will be to get Wagner to commit to the club. With a bit of luck he’ll sign a new contract in the next couple of weeks and that should ward off the interest of the likes of Leicester, who have reportedly been sniffing around.
We may have to deal with clubs coming in for our best players too. Mooy and Schindler are the more likely to attract interest, but we can’t afford to lose either if we want to keep continuity within the squad. It may be sensible to reward our top performers with fat pay rises to make sure their heads aren’t turned by bigger clubs over the summer.
I loved the pitch invasion. Thought it was a lovely grassroots tradition in these cynical, corporate times. Credit to the Terriers fans, too, for their generous tribute to Arsene. Gooners have a soft spot for Huddersfield, because of our shared Herbert Chapman history. Delighted you guys stayed up and all the best for next season.
Agree with nearly everything you’ve put, apart from the pitch invasion.
It was annoying, it was a party atmosphere from the start because of the result in midweek there was no tension at all, no massive emotional outpouring of achieving something in the 90 mins which you can understand so the request to keep off the pitch should have been adhered to.
In all honesty it’s just a disregard for everyone else which unfortunately for me the way the world has gone.
I think Ince will have a good season next year if we can take some of the weight off his shoulders.
He’s constantly got into the positions he did with Derby but it’s not turned into goals in the main I think he’s done well.
Mooy and Schindler are a concern but only if they desire to move to a mid table team as I don’t see a top 6 team courting them.
Mooy is a funny one as I was asking people how much is Shelvey worth the other day in the office. Because of age and he’s English answers were around £25m, how about Mooy ? I said £15m, similar age but no English premium.
If we’ve bought him for £10m or so then it’s absolutely incredible we could even consider selling for anything less than £20m to £25m
I think he’s every bit as good as Shelvey when he plays as he has done these last 3 games and wants to or is allowed to be more attacking.
If he’s just going to go side to side and backwards and slow the team down to a pedestrian pace then we could get anyone to fill the gap who works hard.
Schindler is rock solid and it would be a shame if he left for a mid table outfit, I think he could play at the back in and around better players for a top six team effortlessly.
One note on VLP I hope he wasn’t in the team yesterday because of the outrageous diving he’s still doing.
I was fuming at him in the Chelsea game, you’ve 10 other players doing their best to keep them out and near the edge of his own box he throws himself to the floor untouched, Morata is then clean through and we are lucky when he rounds Lossl he pulls it back to no one.
I think the only real strengthening needs to be down the flanks.
I want to see two pacey wingers come in we are just too slow for this league. We break them get so far only to pass backwards or sideways or VLP does his 1000 step over.
I like Quaner but he was bought as a striker and is no winger, he just doesn’t have the quality to be one, he can run at players and for the last 10 mins he can be effective but it’s not his strength that’s needed it’s guile and ability.
I was happier with his last game when he switched inside more against Everton he looked loads better.
You can’t make someone a winger, and to try with players of our ability at this level is a disaster.
I watched Brighton these last few weeks and even their wingers drive at teams with pace.
I think it’s the only real difference between us and the rest of who we will need to beat to survive next season.
So many times people think we have no cutting edge or we are wasteful it’s because we not create enough great scoring opportunities, there was nothing between us and Everton, Palace etc it’s just they attack with pace and create good scoring opportunities 3 on 3 or 2 on 2 and we practically have to breakdown an organised defensive unit by the time we get to the box.
I would love to see us compete for a player like Joe Allen, especially if we lost Mooy but I don’t think we would.
All in all an excellent season, what an effort by everyone from the stands and on the pitch.
I really enjoyed the last day and for once in many years we werent biting our nails , the atmosphere was great as usual , I thought we could have had three or four goals in this game and I believe we have finally climatize done to the premier league , bring it on next season , I can’t wait ,