Arsene Wenger says a switch to a five-man defence helped Arsenal steady the shop after a poor first half that had them on the ropes against CSKA Moscow.
The Gunners bounced back from 2-0 down to secure a draw in the Russian capital that ultimately saw them through to the semi-finals 6-3 on aggregate.
Here’s what the boss had to say to BT Sport after goals from Danny Welbeck and Aaron Ramsey put a smile on his face at the end of a nervy evening.
On being worried about CSKA threatening a comeback…
Yes, I feel that maybe we were a bit surprised by the intensity of the game and were not at the races in the first half. After that we came back, they scored a second goal. Ignasevich had a chance to score goal three and we were a bit on the ropes. We had a good response after. We were better organised in the second half than in the first when our distances [between players] were too big. From then on, once it was 2-1 we looked always like we might come back for 2-2. We missed many chances.
On the change in formation enabling the pressure from CSKA…
Well, if you look well at the game again, we were in trouble in the first half. Once we moved to a five we looked much more stable and didn’t give so many chances away. The second goal comes from a long distance shot but in the box we didn’t give anything away anymore.
On the goals…
We have players who can always score. I think once we scored to make it 2-1 it was a big blow for them. They didn’t recover from that.
On whether Arsenal should have been in more semi-finals prior to this…
It should be every year, it’s never enough. You can see this week in Europe, that you had a lot of turnarounds and that you have to be completely focused in every game. Let’s prepare well for the semi-final and see who we play.
On wanting to avoid Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals…
Ideally, maybe they are the strongest on paper. But let’s just play well against the team we get.
I’m sorry what’s the song for Elneny again?
Why can’t we organise ourselves from the start?
The Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast has had the opinion these last few months that the top teams around Europé can’t defend anymore. It’s all just “hell for leather and hope you score more than your opponent”.
I’m not saying that we are OK because other teams can’t defend either, I’d rather say that we’ve been ahead of the trend. Because this term “organised” isn’t something that we’ve done in a long time.
Credits to Arsene for his tactical awareness and duely employed at various stages of the match. Something a section of the fans accuse him steadily that he lacks! To the players as well, Mo was a midfielder, then a defender, then a midfielder…. (Getting dizzy typing that already) and still turned up with two sublime assists and a MOTM performance
Poor first half showings has been more common than not this season and it makes you wonder what messages are given to the players ahead of the games. Is it poor planning or motivational input from the coaches or players not listening ? Either way its a worrying trend.
Totally agree. Far too often this season we have given stupid early goals away and had to chase the game from there on. This failing gives lesser teams an immediate boost in their confidence to beat us. It seems to happen at the start of each half too.
AW telling us, yet again, that we were surprised by their intensity beggars belief after Forest, Bournemouth, Swansea, Ostersund, and others.
Arsenal have not been at the races all season it must be said..
are WE ever at the races, we hear this time and time again
Could anyone explain the logic of moving el neny to the center of defence in the second half? I felt that gave so much space to cska in the midfield. It also showed that we can’t trust Ramsey and wilshere to play together in front of the defence. They seem to lack positional awareness and need a xhaka or elneny behind to cover their forward runs. Once chambers came on it looked more sound because elneny got into the cm position and mopped up everything in front of the defence. But that change at the beginning of the second half… Read more »
Unfortunately we haven’t been at the races for ten years. And he is still none the wiser.