We are back at it. Thank you everyone who read my last post about Arsenal. Today’s post I will be talking about the Gunners’ return to Europe. It’s been a full year since Arsenal played in Europe with the game away against FC Zurich marking the start of a hectic schedule for them, and all teams involved in European competition. So far, we’ve seen the downfall of Chelsea, which ultimately ended the tenure of Tuchel (we all know his downfall was actually the encounter with Cunte). Liverpool got humbled by Napoli, while TAA showed his excellence as a defender. So the question was: would Arsenal or Man Utd blow it to keep up the trend? We all knew, deep inside, that it was going to be Mad Utd.
Arsenal’s opponent, FC Zurich, have been flying in the Swiss league. Played 7. Lost 5. Tied 2. Scored 4 goals, conceded 16. Naturally, a reaction was expected against the European giant Arsenal. Ever since Arsenal joined the Europa League (to obviously give the competition more quality and fame), they’ve won 75% of their group stage games. Arsenal made 6 changes to their starting lineup, keeping Gabriel, Martinelli, Xhaka and Lokonga. The game against Zurich also featured the first start for Nketiah, who had lively sub appearances for the Gunners in the league. It also marked the debut for 19 year old Marquinhos, a summer acquisition from São Paulo for a mere 3mil. We also got to see Fabio Vieira, a surprise summer signing from Porto. Last but not least, we saw the debut of American hero and New England lad, Matt Turner, in goal.
The game went on as expected. Arsenal dominated possession and created numerous chances to score, missing the clinical edge once again to kill the game off in the first half. Matt Turner had one shaky moment where he was given a bad pass by Gabriel, and he tried to play it to Xhaka only to pass it to the opposition, who took a shot and hit the post. Behave yourself Matt and don’t let it happen again. Arsenal’s first goal was a beautiful counter attack. After a block from Holding, Fabio Vieira took a couple of great touches to get away from two players, and sent the ball through to Nkeitah to chase on the left wing. Nketiah spotted a deep run from Marquinhos, and sent a beautiful ground ball cross towards him, who finished it emphatically to score his first goal for Arsenal. The teenager came to tears with his goal, making it a more emotional moment than Richarlison’s tears for the cameras. Arsenal played some beautiful football at times, which is highly encouraging to see, as their performances haven’t dipped since their season started. With Arsenal being Arsenal, we gave Zurich the chance to tie it up, as Nketiah went through the attacker to concede a penalty. Kryeziu converted the penalty just before halftime.
Second half was the same as the first half, with Arsenal clearly showing their superiority over Zurich. Again, chances were created and they had great interplay between the midfielders and attackers, only to fluff their chances. With the impressive Marquinhos on the pitch, Arsenal were able to grab the lead. Marquinhos pulled the ball back on the right wing and sent a beautiful cross towards the far post, where Nketiah was able to head the ball down and squeeze it under the goalkeeper’s foot, who should’ve done better. Arteta decided to bring on some of his big guns to try to kill the game as: Odegaard, Jesus, Saka and Zinchenko came on as subs. Arsenal were comfortable, but were made to sweat for the last 10 minutes of the game, as Zurich put extra pressure on without causing much of a fuss. A better team with better attackers would’ve tied the game up.
Final thoughts: Arsenal need to learn to put the games away with the amount of chances they create. To play under pressure for the last few minutes of the game against a team like Zurich, is unacceptable. Overall, it was good to see the fringe players get some minutes and perform as expected.
Lastly, RIP to the Queen of England. She has been a monarch for 70+ years and still was unable to witness Arsenal achieve the ultimate glory: win the Audi cup. Bless us in heaven Ms. Queen, and tell Queen Danearys I said hi. Also, how dare you? To be selfish and die and rob us of PL soccer on the weekend. Also bless you, as Arsenal will stay top of the league for another 4 weeks, and it’ll allow Partey to get healthy. Arsenal remains the only team to score 10 consecutive left footed goals in the PL, and to be invited for a cup of tea with the Queen. We are gargantuan.
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