It was the Bodo of times, it was the Glimt of times…but Arsenal found a way in Norway.
The 1-0 win continues the Gunners’ 100 per cent record in Europa League Group A and means one point in the remaining three games will be enough to secure safe passage to the knockout rounds.
On a night when Mikel Arteta’s side struggled to find any rhythm on the home side’s artificial pitch, we enjoyed lucky breaks at both ends of the pitch.
Not only did the only goal come via a fortuitous deflection off Bukayo Saka’s chest, Bodo/Glimt went on to miss a series of reputable chances on either side of the break.
In his post-game press conference, the manager was keen to put the result and performance in context.
“Really happy to win here against a team that has won the last 14 games in European competitions in a row, so they deserve a lot credit to do that,” said Arteta.
“There’s not many European teams that can do that, we have come here on 15 and won it.
“We have talked about this in the last few days that was the challenge, in different conditions, in different contexts, making a lot of changes, find a way to win, and we’ve done it.
“The second half obviously there are a lot of things to improve, we know that, I’m not going to get too deep into that, I understand as well, why this is happening. But I think the boys deserve credit as well for the way they tried.
“Quality-wise, in terms of dominance and how we want to play, obviously there are a lot of things to get better than what we done today, but it’s another win, move on, now it’s Leeds.”
On the challenge posed by tonight’s opponents, he added: “[They were] really tough, I said before we played at the Emirates this is a really good team that is going to cause you problems.
“Especially the moment you start to lose certain duels and allowed, especially the left-back to progress the play so easily and go through your press too easily, and once we haven’t controlled that, we were in big trouble, and that was probably the difference between the first and the second half.
“Obviously, the conditions, the pitch, is another element that you could see sometimes that it was too fast for us but there is no excuse.”
Despite his squad being in the midst of a run of nine games in a month, Arteta opted to give minutes to most of his first choice starting XI across the 90 minutes. Given the artificial pitch – and the risk of injury that comes with playing on an unusual surface – that raised eyebrows in some quarters.
“We had 16 players available. So I have to play 11, and I don’t want those 11 to play 90 minutes here, because I know probably what is going to happen in the next day or two,” he explained.
“If they get injured here we should be talking about how we should not be risking a player, or risk (another) player. At the end, they have to play.”
Man that was painful to watch. Let’s hope we never play them again, ever.
Boredom Glimt
Brilliant
Exactly my sentiments
Very rarely miss a match, home/away/live/tv.. tonight I was otherwise engaged.. first thing I looked at in the match report was a injury news, then checked the score.
A win is a win.
Thank God for the win- we needed it.
Dennis appreciates your thanks
Loved Saka channeling the Welbz. Foot, BONK! Defender, BINK! Chest, BING!
And LIPS too, I think. That’s according to Saka himself.
I am pretty sure PSV have to play Bodo away. I don’t see PSV winning that game. Not sure how Zurich made it to this tournament or if they give a sh*t about it. A couple draws with PSV and a win at home against Zurich should wrap it up.
Exactly. Bødø can now start another 14-match winning streak on that pitch of theirs.
There were three things that were important about this match: 1) That we win. 2) That no one gets injured on that horrible turf. 3) To assess the levels of the second string players. 1&2 we accomplished. But I didn’t think any of our second string players did themselves any favours in claiming to be ready for first team involvement
On the other hand, can we really judge any player’s level fairly when it’s on that weird turf?
You can judge the second string players when you ease them into the first team one or two at a time. Seven all at once is different. Though in the Europa league, needs must.
Assuming we can beat Zurich at the Emirates, a win in either of our games against PSV will mean we avoid a round against a third place Champions; League team. That would help a lot.
Always good to do the double over Bozø/Gimpt
Yeah. A thumping for Bødø, and a squeaky win over Glimt. Serves them right for going around with a double-barreled moniker.
4 wins out of 4 so far in our November slogathon. 11 wins out of 12 in total in all competitions. Should be 12/12 if it wasn’t for a bent referee at Old Trafford and some sloppy finishing. Not bad at all boys! Also, I have a feeling Liverpool will beat City this weekend.
“Our November slogathon” 😀
Wishing time had gone faster, Jeremy?
Better still, Bodo/Glimt forward players found a way to let us win.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a team have that number of glit-edged chances and fail to take one.
I am not complaining though; the earlier we qualify top of the group, the better for us.
Yes, it was a tough game and one that we could have certainly drawn or lost but sometimes things go for you, other times against so I guess we were due something positive. We need only one more point for entry to the knockout round which will ease the pressure a little.
It was pretty dull fare. It looked like a half-hearted training session. No one really seemed interested. Nelson and Nketiah ought to have seen it as a chance to shine but both were pretty anonymous. The rest of the team looked like they were more concerned with getting off the pitch in one piece so didn’t want to risk injuries before the weekend.