Last season I wrote about Arteta’s archetypal ‘perfect’ game being against Brighton; it was complete dominance against a team who wanted to have possession of the football, wanted to control the narrative of the game on the ball and Arsenal allowed Brighton to create basically nothing. We got two goals, albeit slightly later than Arteta would have liked (53 and 87 minutes) but Brighton never really troubled Arsenal and it felt like the kind of dominance Arteta strives for.
The reason I bring that game up this morning is because it feels to me like that home game against PSG last night was the archetypal Mikel Arteta home performance in the Champions League. If he could map our perfection – or as close is possible in a sport in which there are so many variables – then I think this would have been it. Arsenal winning 2-0 with two goals in the first half and then keeping a very good (French Champions and with pots of cash, no less) Paris Saint Germain side who really had no answer for Arsenal’s strength all over the pitch.
By the end of the game Arsenal had limited PSG to between 0.27 and 0.4xG (depending on which model you are reading) – this was the lowest they had executed this season and is testimony to the miserly Arsenal defence that really afforded PSG very little in terms of glaring opportunities. There was one shot off the bar in the second half and one from Mendes from outside of the box in the first half that clipped the outside of the box, but apart from that, I don’t remember Raya doing any worldie saves; although I will say that his claiming of the ball and aerial command of his own box was once again impressive.
Arteta named an unchanged side from the one that beat Leicester, shaking off concerns that Calafiori had picked up a knock in the game at the weekend; the Italian actually ended up playing the full 90 and so any worries about his fitness have thankfully been expunged. And with that unchanged starting XI there was an air of calm inside the ground; I thought that this game kicked off with two very good teams ‘feeling’ each other out, with us not giving them too much, whilst PSG also had passages of play in which they had a bit of the ball. But when you play in games like these it is often the fine margins and that little bit of class that can separate teams. Step forward Leandro Trossard, who I thought was excellent yesterday along with man-of-the-match Havertz. Trossard could have actually have gone down in the build up to the goal, but he shimmied past the PSG players, beat a couple of men and then played a perfect cross into the danger area between defender and ‘keeper. That felt like a proper old-skool 90s centre forward goal. Havertz started about five yards behind the defender and as a result he was able to get the run up and leap to get beyond him and leave Donnarumma in no-mans-land.
One-nil to the Arsenal, a goal Alan Smith would have been proud of, so then it was just about how PSG would react. And to be fair to them they did react; Hakimi got beyond Calafiori and forced a save from Raya at his near post, there was the Mendes chance that I mentioned already, plus a couple of simpler saves. 1-0 is always a dangerous score line, as the cliché goes, but 2-0 is much more fun. Step forward Bukayo Saka on 35 minutes from a free kick on the right hand side. Whilst there were plenty around me saying it was poor from the PSG ‘keeper, as an ex-keeper myself I’m going to cut him some slack, because those kind of balls are so hard to defend against. When Saka swung it in near the front post low and curling, you’re trying to keep an eye on the movement of the ball, through on-rushing attackers and your own defenders, as well as Martinelli, Partey and I also think Gabriel were there. You’re in between the sticks in that moment basically just expecting a touch and I think seven or eight times out of 10 there is a touch and you have to be ready to quickly react. It was unfortunate for him, but it was also a really good ball whipped in to a difficult zone to defend.
2-0, Arsenal in control, so then it was all about the reaction from PSG and how we would defend in the second half. And I thought we were great; we gave them very little, we controlled possession, then looked to hit them in transition in which we did a couple of times. I thought we were unlucky with one Havertz header that the defender got a touch on which slowed it down for Donnarumma to catch, plus there was an excellent move that – had Martinelli been able to apply the finish – would have been one of the goals of the round for sure.
We saw the game out and collected our first three points – and vital three points against one of the toughest opponents we’ll face in this group stage – to really kick off this Champions League campaign. The way this competition is structured you need to win your home games and then pick up a few points on the road; we’ve gone to Italy and picked up one and in our next game we play Inter away and if we can pick up a point or three points against the Italian Champions not only will it underline our credentials for going deep in this competition, it will also put us in a commanding position to consider more rotation when we get to match day’s seven and eight. The way this competition is structured it feels to me like it is a race to get to 15 points then, once that is secured, you can start to look at bringing in rotational options.
That’s a long way off just yet, but this win and something in Milan will make a lot of us start to think that way I think, although Whether Arteta see’s it the same remains to be seen.
And so it is onwards and upwards. We now have three days in which to get ready for Southampton on Saturday and hopefully that means Timber can shake off whatever muscular ‘feeling’ Arteta said he had at halftime and why he went off to be replaced by Kiwior, who I thought started shaky and grew in to the game. The strength in depth is real folks.
Back tomorrow with some more thoughts. Have yourselves a good’un.
Leave a Reply