Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Partey, Rice, Trossard, Martinelli, Jesus, Havertz
Subs: Neto, Setford, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Monlouis, Robinson, Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Merino, Nwaneri, Sterling, Butler-Oyedeji
Arsenal got back to winning ways after edging past Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, thanks to a first half own goal from Dmytro Riznyk.
Mikel Arteta made two changes to the team that lost against Bournemouth on Saturday, with Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus coming in for Mikel Merino and Raheem Sterling.
More worringly, neither Jurrien Timber or Bukayo Saka were deemed fit enough for the matchday squad – hopefully this was sensible planning with Liverpool in mind instead of something more ominous.
It was a dominant start from Arsenal who had Shakhtar penned into their own box early on, and they should have been after five minutes when a (left footed) Leandro Trossard corner fell to Riccardo Calafiori who somehow blazed over from six yards.
Shakhtar did well to weather that early storm through and had an opportunity of their own after countering quickly, with Gabriel blocking a goalbound effort from Equinaldo who did well to evade William Saliba.
Trossard then had two quick sighters of goal, the first after lovely play from Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz but skewed his half-volley wide, before attempting a near post flick after good work from Martinelli that again drifted just wide.
Just before the half hour mark – having been largely frustrated – Arsenal took the lead and there was more than a slice of fortune in the goal.
Martinelli found himself isolated against Shakhtar fullback Yukhym Konoplya and managed to wriggle inside after Calafiori’s overlapping run took the defender away for a split second, allowing him to smack a shot off the post which bobbled back in off goalkeeper Riznyk. 1-0.
The Gunners were close to doubling their lead when Jesus’ cut-back found Havertz in front of goal, but an incredible last ditch challenge from Mykola Matviyenko took the ball off his head for what would have been an easy tap in.
Jesus should have made it 2-0 before half time after some lovely play between Trossard and Havertz – the Brazilian did well initially to win the ball back and kickstart the chance – but hit his shot too close to the goalkeeper.
After the break, Mikel Merino was introduced for Ben White (who was booked in the first half) and Arsenal kept the pressure high with Trossard glancing a header just wide, before Martinelli saw another shot saved by Riznyk after Havertz whipped a dangerous ball across goal.
However, keen to build on his efforts at Bournemouth, another sloppy backpass from Trossard played Arsenal into trouble again although thankfully for him, Equinaldo shot wide when he should have passed to his teammate Danylo Sikan.
Heading into the final quarter, the game fell totally flat and there was yet another injury concern moment when Calafiori went down after his right knee buckled beneath him and was swiftly replaced by Myles Lewis-Skelly.
With 15 minutes to play, Arteta’s men had a chance to put the game beyond doubt after they were awarded a soft penalty following VAR intervention, when Valeriy Bondar was deemed to have handled Merino’s low cross.
Trossard stepped up from the spot and saw his lazy effort – straight down the middle – saved by Riznyk to compound what was a lacklustre second half performance from the hosts. PENALTY SAVED.
As the game lulled into injury time, David Raya was called into action to save Pedrinho’s long distance drive before coming to claim an important cross after Shakhtar applied late pressure.
After losing to Bournemouth, this was an important result for Arsenal but their second half performance should provide concern for Arteta who will have wanted this game to be more comfortable than it was.
With Liverpool travelling to N5 on Sunday, fingers will be crossed on Saka, Calafiori and White ahead of what looks like a pivotal game.
3 points! Will take it…
Been there done that
Same, but reading these comments you’d think we got battered. Yes it wasn’t vintage that’s for sure, but on another day we’d have been 3 up and out of sight at half time.
Hmmm
I have plans this weekend that mean I’ll miss Sunday’s game. Famous last words and all that, but this is the first time in years where that doesn’t feel like a disappointment.
The Arsenal won’t miss you.
Big big defeat incoming without a doubt
We know how to deal with Liverpool even with Julio Baptista and Arshavin.
Should be clear on this as well, that’s not me turning into an angry youtuber and going “we’re shit, Liverpool about to cook!”. There’s every chance we find our groove again and get a result this weekend. It’s just the way things have been falling for us this season, the refereeing nonsense in particular and not to mention the media coverage around us, have made this a pretty unenjoyable couple of months- more so given how we felt going into the season. And honestly having a little detachment from it all and checking the score afterwards on Sunday feels like… Read more »
I know it might seem a easy stick to beat arteta with… But why not play Ethan? Merino looks clunky, slow in possession and with it , whilst offering not much offensively or defensively. Sterling ambling around with little cutting edge , the lack of work rate was concerning for me, as a man who unfortunately got sacrificed over the weekend, having a point to prove after the Chelsea debacle and STILL not putting in 100% I find it peculiar. Enough of his age if he’s good enough to play he should! Surely Viera would of played if he was… Read more »
I find your analysis a bit harsh although I was hoping to see Ethan as well. Think Merino has a lot to offer but needs game time to get used to the way we play. He created the opportunity for the penalty with a nice cross and made some good recoveries. I think Sterling still is haunted by what they did to him at Chelshit. I remember Havertz struggling for 2 months as a starter so bit harsh on a guy who has played less than 300 min for Arsenal. I think he pressed well and managed to recover the… Read more »
You’re right about making a judgement call hastily I will admit. Just saying how I and many fans see it. Merino dosnt offer the same ball progression as partey, and dosnt control the tempo. Jury’s out as a left 8 but I’d rather Rice there, and as a 10 yes he can attack the box aerially but not nimble enough and dosnt offer penetration. As a rotation player he’s good. But is that what we need? Maybe you could argue rice as a 6 and merino as a 8 with odegaard fit however again, as we’ve seen, rice as a… Read more »
Disjointed and nervy performance from Arsenal but we are missing so many good players. Unfortunately I think we will be seriously understrength against Liverpool on Sunday and unless we seriously up our game from tonight we are probably losing that match.
Awful performance. Trossard is impact player and must not start. If calafiori out and timber not back i think we may well be 7 points behind come Sunday night. Team seem to be really lacking any creativity. Been unlucky with injuries but then so have others. TP5 our best player in first half by country mile.
3 points, a clean sheet.
I just hope Calafiori is fine 🙁
A twist too. He’s a strong lad but I fear the worst for Sunday
Guess we can still try Timber at LB with Kiwior as CB but this is far from ideal against Mo Salah.
Just want to what Declan rice does so well these days.
If we are honest, not a lot.
I think he was fine during first half but he’s ghosting too much when games are tight. I look at Xhaka who always asked for the ball and then see Dec hiding sometimes and am a bit bothered. Maybe he’s struggling without Ødegaard, which would be understandable but still.
clearly experiencing some fatigue after playing pretty much non stop since early last season… just doesn’t seem to have the same pop and athleticism he had last season
He’ll be fine playing deeper, breaking up play, carrying the ball, arriving late in the box. Ball progression isn’t his thing. Typical English midfieder, he’s a lot better when he’s running on to the ball and not when he’s facing his own goal.
Results can’t be used to judge games like this. We are by far superior to teams like this and we made them look like Prem contenders…I understand pragmatism but lately our tactics are increasingly pessimistic and negative. Side passes, ultra safe, basically not allowing either team to play football and getting in a scrappy goal seems to be our tactic and I don’t think that should be allowed at Arsenal FC ..
At a point in the second half I was shouting at my screen “press them .. why are you guys just sinking back.” We seem to be more concerned about how shape and it makes it hard to get on the front foot when we win the ball, since everyone has just being behind it holding the shape.
I get it when we use this tactics against “big” teams. In fact, I encourage it against those teams. But we seem to be doing it more and more regardless of opposition, it is irritating me.
Why did Trossard take the penalty? Havertz takes them for Germany and Trossard has been rubbish in the last few games.
He is rubbish every time he starts. He is very good off the bench with 25 minutes left.
Agreed. It doesn’t help though that our Nos 1 and 2 penalty takers are both out
Well usually his finishing is quite good but this was an awful pen which makes Tielemans’ miss against France looks so much better.
Just an utterly dreadful performance. More worrying for me is not the fact that without Odegaard we have zero creative ideas but now defensively we seem to be alot more complacent. Teams are having a lot of joy against us and quite a few mistakes are creeping in. A big improvement is needed for Liverpool or we might get a bit of a humbling.
Just to say something positive on a night where there were a few negatives. Thomas Partey is quietly playing out of his skin. He’s so progressive with the ball he’s a joy to watch when he’s on it.
His unexpected resurgence in the first team has honestly been one of the high points of the season so far. Just love the way he plays that role, and hate that due to all the chaos we’ve seen the team go through the past couple of months (mostly out of our control), we’ve not been able to fully utilise his talent in that position.
Really sad for Jesus…
He did well. Only thing missing was a goal but it will come. Think we need to manage his fitness as well so understand the substitution!
He’s a grown man. A professional earning 250 grand a week. Do your job and there’s no problem. I doubt my employer or my customers would be quite as forgiving as arsenal fans. I wouldn’t waste much more emotion on him mate. He’s the player on artetas naughty step for the mentally weak this season. You’ll be singing his name when he comes back in a Fulham shirt in 12 months.
Underwhelming.
This game is a perfect example of why we’ll win nothing again this season: we have absolutely no cutting edge. We can’t even score a penalty now.
Fantastic summer window, wasn’t it?
But we are strong and tall and also strong.
Still blows my mind that Arsenal fans were happy with the fact we signed Raheem Sterling. Utterly useless player and we’ve done Chelsea a solid to sign him. We had all summer to sign a striker or a competent wide forward and we spunked our money on a defender we didn’t need.
We didn’t sign him, he’s on loan for a year.
Let’s also remember that Chelshit is paying for 2/3rd of his wages as well.
22nd of October.
4 points from top of the league and still involved in all international and national cups.
you’re playing a dangerous game here, introducing “perspective” into the situation… taking away people’s right to overreact in the moment, how dare you.
We won and got a clean sheet. You can say no more, except what should have been a confidence builder ended up as exactly the opposite.
Happy with the win but that was Absolute shite. Jesus may never score again. Merino is miles off it still and Sterling is utter garbage (quelle surprise). On the plus side, Martinelli played well. Jesus looked good other than not scoring and Partey was great until he moved to wing back??! Arteta not playing Nwaneri in a game like this is a really stupid call.
We need martin back
Obviously! His creativity aren’t the only thing this team is missing. Is it a coincidence that our press seem to have weakened since his injury?
A ghost from the past visiited Emirates tonight. Disjointed and slow in mind and reaction. Losing duels all over the pitch. Too many players who didn’t put in a decent shift tonight. And our nemesis, we’re not able to comvert chances into goals. Indecisive and poor finishing. We miss Martin and Saka big time
We have no luck. But you make your luck. The club did what Arsenal have done for 50 years. They pulled up short on the project in the summer. Usual story. 2-3 players short of exactly what we want and we start looking at the bank balance. How we could look at that back 5 and dms and then at the front 3 options and not feel ashamed that we have inflicted the little gabbys on big gabby and co. I’ll never know. When we’ve won titles in the past still been short but others have been shorter (71,89,98) or… Read more »
Trossard was absolutely rubbish in this game, why on earth was he taking the penalty when it was clear he wouldn’t score it? Havertz should’ve taken that, and made a record .The whole second half was so slow and sloppy, but hopefully with a few days to recover before Sunday the players will freshen up. At least it was a win in the end.
Really worried about Calafiori injury. That’s the same knee that was reconstructed when he was 16 yrs old. We knew the risk when we bought him. Fingers crossed but I suspect it’s not good news
ESM or Nelson rather than Sterling for me
I love Arteta but he just does not trust our young home grown players. Unai Emery bloods them but he is so reluctant to
I prefer Eddie Nketiah to Jesus at his stage of career. Our squad is actually weaker
I’d rather Lee Chapman than nketia.
This team is crying out for a tomas rosicky type player. Everything seems to be pass backwards first. I know Saka and odegaard are out but shame on Arsenal for not having quality backups for those players. Sterling can’t play on the right. He’s probably past it on the left, as well. Jesus was ok. Maybe he can get back to where he was when he first came. With the Italian injured and saliba out lord knows who plays center back. Kiwor is marginal. Zinchenko can’t cover Mo Salah. If Timber is also out and we don’t have Saka and… Read more »
White or Timber beside Gabriel
Stop starting Trossard
Nwaneri deserves his chance over Jesus and Sterling ( this seasons Willian)
The centre backs have turned into timid dithering rabbits
And this endless moribund passing is not accidental it’s coached into them. Not. Bloody . Good. Enough
I hope we get Saka back by Sunday. The last two games have been brutal to watch. Also, love the guy, but it might be time for Trossard to resume his super sub role for us. He’s been awful the last two games.
Nobody will remember anything about this game in 1 month, other than that we won