It was with some trepidation that I switched on the telly box last night to watch The Arsenal visit the fair city of Bruges to take on the local team. This despite the Belgians having dispensed with their manager at the weekend, despite sitting in 3rd in the Belgian first division. My reasons were really around the on-going injury crisis – and I don’t use the word lightly – we are currently suffering, with Timber, Rice and Trossard not even travelling to Belgium, along with Saliba, Mosquera and Gabriel, with Havertz no closer to a reappearance and now 15 year old Max Dowman being added to the lengthy list of the Sick, Lame and Lazy, as my old P.E. Teacher used to describe them. To plug the gaps, we denuded the younger teams of some of their players with Nichols (19), Copley (19) and Salmon (16) filling out the bench. The starting side was as strong as it could have been, with a back four of White, Norgaard, Hincapie and MLS. The manager chose to play Odegaard back into form rather than starting Nwaneri and Gyokeres started for the same reason. Thankfully, Saka was rested giving Madueke a chance to make his case along with the ever willing, never hiding Martinelli on the wings. Eze was dropped to the bench, presumably as a punishment for falling asleep on guard duty at the weekend, and the bench welcomed back Gabby Jesus after 11 months out. Bruges for their part started with a former Man City youngster Carlos Forbs and Belgian international Vanaken in midfield.
The game started in a surprisingly open fashion, with both teams looking to get forward and attack. Arsenal looked a little easy to play through with Vanaken evading the attentions of Zubimendi and Odegaard and providing opportunities for Forbs, who can best be described as being like the proverbial off a shovel giving MLS – noticeably not terribly well backed up by Martinelli for once – a torrid time. On 20 minutes a cross from the right-hand touchline from Norgaard came out for MLS to skew a shot fortunately into the path of Hincapie who poked the ball first time from 8 yards out onto the post. On 25 for me came the key moment on the match. Madueke received the ball in midfield back to goal from Zubimendi. The defender closed him, but Madueke showed considerable strength and guile to shift the ball inside and hold him off, quickly moving into a sprint and pulling away from a second midfielder. Closing on the penalty box, Madueke took another touch inside and let fly a left footed, out-swinging shot which was still rising as it, satisfyingly, hit the underside of the cross bar and went in, with the keeper making a good effort and still getting nowhere near. The silence from those who started and signed that ridiculous petition was audible. This is a player who can really develop further under the tutelage of Arteta and his team and I for one am thoroughly looking forward to watching it.
As if spurred into action by Madueke, Martinelli – who up to this point had been somewhat ponderous- kicked into action. His corner, won by attacking his man with a tricky run – was well hit towards the back post for Hincapie, again, to head across goal, only to see the ball hot a defender on the line. There followed the period of 10-15 minutes up towards half time when the home team began to play again, seemingly having recovered their composure. At this point it felt rather like we were hanging on for half time and they had a couple of efforts, notably from Stankovic which tested Raya, the latter effort requiring a very good save after he had way too easily broken a high line offside trap, set free once again by Vanaken. Madueke finished the half strongly by cutting inside again and letting fly, this time only for the keeper to make a good flying parry-save.
Arsenal seemed to start the second half with renewed vigour and belief. After only a couple of minutes, Zubimendi was given the ball on the left side of the final third and decided to run into the space offered by Bruges. His defender didn’t really get too close and Zubimendi hit a fantastic, floated ball towards the back post for Madueke to head in from underneath the crossbar. It really was an almost dreamlike passage of play, as the cross seemed to stay in the air for an age while all around blue and black stripe-clad opponents sleepwalked, leaving Madueke alone to head in. At this point the game was all but done. 8 minutes later it truly was over. Martinelli received a pass from MLS in the edge of the final third on the left-hand touchline. Martinelli controlled and turned, brushing off his defender as he pushed the ball inside. He then dipped his shoulder beating a further defender as he continued to move at pace inside and from the left-hand side of the area hit an unstoppable curling effort into the top right. In the summer, there was, as for Madueke, some ridiculous criticism levelled at Martinelli, with some Arsenal fans – apparently – saying that he should be sold. The man has just become the first Arsenal player to score in 5 consecutive Champions Leage games. He gives everything and never hides, unlike some wingers we have had in the past. I hope this puts to bed such nonsense. The keeper really hadn’t done too much wrong but had been beaten by 2 powerful, perfectly placed shots and a sublime cross for the second.
Shortly after, the ineffective Gyokeres was replaced by Jesus, to what sounded like a cacophonous welcome by the travelling support. Calafiori replaced Hincapie, whom we will need on Saturday. In his 30 minutes, Jesus looked bright and sharp and had a few moments of sublime skill. He offers us something which neither Havertz and certainly Gyokeres don’t with his guile and trickery and even managed a shot off the bar. Nwaneri came on and had a couple of efforts as well as the game now ran away from the home side. There was still time for Bruges to mount a couple of spirited attacks and on another day, a cross from Furo which was parried by Raya might have fallen sweetly for Forbs. But in keeping with the rest of the evening, it didn’t and Arsenal were rewarded with the 3 points and a clean sheet.
In truth, the scoreline doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story, as at times the opposition played through us with ease. I put this down to the 8 players missing though. We now only require 3 more points from games away at Inter and home to Kairat Almaty to finish in the top 2 of the group stages. Now for a few days rest, followed by Wolves and then a whole week without a game. We need the break.
A welcome report of a game of which I only heard the audio-only commentary live on dotcom (which I can commend alongside BtM) while at dinner in the Hilton at Gatwick South (which I also commend) and caught the final knocking and highlights on Discovery App when I got to my room. What a great result and what spectacular goals! I didn’t expect our makeshift XI to pull off such a victory though there clearly was a sticky patch in the late second half – which they survived! Great report, CER. On to Wolves.
Thanks CER, a thorough review of a game that as you say wasn’t quite as easy as the end result suggests. Towards the end of the first half I was thinking it’s going to be a long second half for us but then Bruges handed out a free settler just after half time like very genial hosts.
It was good MA gave Norgaaard a shout after the game – to come in at CB after playing very little this season and do a decent job of it shows some character on his part.
Another very fair and enjoyably descriptive account of a game that was, as CER says, harder than the final score suggests . It was a very good result and there were many plusses .
I’ve noticed an interesting feature of our play this season- scoring very shortly after half time . In three CL games we’ve scored very soon after the interval ( Slavia, Atletico and Bruges ) and we’ve got early second half goals against Leeds, Forest, Sunderland, the Spuds and Villa . It suggests a good and passionate interval debrief by Mikel . CER describes the goals last night very well and rightly ascribes praise to Madueke and Martinelli . I thought we were generally very effective and it was so good to see Ben White back to his best . It was also good to see Jesus back on the pitch and he was unlucky not to enhance his excellent goalscoring record in Europe. Sadly Gyokeres created very little impact . The comparison between Jesus in his first game for 11months and Gyokeres who looked like he hadn’t played for 11months himself was telling . I’m starting to hope we kept the receipt on Gyokeres but to be fair he needed the match and has time to improve . He certainly has the space to do so
Good stuff, CER,,as you say a comfortable scoreline but a not always comfortable game.
The developing habit of scoring just after half time does suggest that Mikel is enthusiastically reminding the players of the required foggin estandards during oranges.
I know it’s early days for a new player to settle in but Gyokeres is a bit worrying. When I saw him play for Lisbon against us he struck me as pretty one dimensional – a strong direct runner who had success in the Portuguese league but raised the question as to whether it would work against better centre backs in the Premier League. To me the problem seems to be that he doesn’t really fit the way we play. We don’t tend to go for the early first time ball into big spaces because Arteta wants the team to guard against the counter attack as it advances. When Jesus came on he immediately meshed much better with the other players and in his few minutes created three decent scoring chances where Gyokeres had had no luck at all. It all very well “occupying defenders” but there has to be more to it than losing the challenges and ending up on the floor. Early days for sure. Fingers crossed that he and the team adapt successfully to each other.
I don’t subscribe to the angst about Gyokeres. As far as I remember, he was looking very involved and making defenders concentrate on him before his injury. I accept that he isn’t scoring goals at the rate he was before moving to the PL, but that drop is adequately covered by extra goals that others on the team are getting following his arrival.
Sure, they might have been scoring more goals even if VG hadn’t moved to North London, but on the other hand if the defenders were busy watching out for Saka, Eze and Madueka maybe Viktor would be scoring more himself.
Bear in mind also that four months of training that one might have expected to have helped Arsenal and Gyokeres’s styles to converge have had to be spent working out how to cope with various absences.
I’m happy to concede that things haven’t gone as well with regard to our new Swedish striker as they might, but it’s waaaaaaay to early to say he’s been a failure and I wouldn’t even accept “a disappointment”.
COYG
A well-judged report of a curate’s egg of game, CER. Paradoxically, although it was a less comfortable game than the result suggests, the scoreline didn’t particularly flatter us.
One thing that struck me on both the Mandueke and Martinelli shots was that the Bruges keeper did not get much elevation in his dive on either occasion. Even if he had, I don’t think he would have stopped either shot, as they were both high-quality strikes, but I then found myself comparing how high Raya gets when he goes flying through the air. I should probably get out more!
To TTG and Trev’s points about Gyokeres, what is starting to concern me is that, while he has many of the attributes that a nine needs to succeed in the PL — strength, work rate, presence, harrying, etc — he doesn’t have the pace to make them really effective, and pace is one of the things that even Arteta can’t coach into him. We should probably also stop thinking of him as ‘Arsenal’s No 9’. He is just one of our variety of strikers, each with attributes best used in certain games or phases of games. The same is true of Havertz and Jesus. Apply the ‘assuming a fully fit squad for a CL final, is he one of the first names on the team sheet’ test. I would suggest he isn’t.
To Pangloss’s point @5, by no means would I write him off, especially not this soon and certainly not on the basis of a couple of cameos after coming back from injury. Think how long Havertz took to settle. My point is more that Gyokeres is a horse for a course.
We don’t do premature write offs of Arsenal players but we do try to give an honest assessment of our players . Ned sums up Gyokeres well. In a striker whose first touch is often a partial clearance pace is a definite prerequisite. It’s not his strong suit .
Seeing Jesus enter the fray one was taken by his skill sets in comparison with the Swede . He looked much more threatening. I hope Gyokeres can settle in after his injury but my sense is that he is a flat track bully and we need someone to score against big sides in tight games .
“Early days for sure. Fingers crossed that he and the team adapt successfully to each other.”
That’s what I actually said. Doesn’t strike me as prematurely calling him a failure.
Ned’s point about his lack of pace is a good one.
Gabriel Jesus has always seemed the sort of player who hits the ground running, it’s maintaining that initial impact consistently over a longer period that was his challenge. Hard to tell of course as he’s been so unlucky with injuries the last couple of seasons.
Anyway, fingers crossed for him over the next few months.
As for Gyokeres I agree it is too early to tell, same as Eze really. Some players take more time to settle, often more attacking players though I must admit that is a generalization.
Nothing more to add on the match. But I do have to comment on Gyokeres. If you compare him to the other expensive strikers that recently changed teams, he is far outperforming both Isak and Sesko, and roughly the same as Ekitike. As for other strikers, Welbz is performing far better than he ever has and a I hope he continues, but I suspect he will drop off. Thiago at Brentford is having by far his best season ever and we will have to see if he can sustain that. I think there is the expectation that he is the next Haaland. Haaland is one of the best, if not the best striker, in the world. He has 15 goals in 15 league matches but has also taken 57 shots. If Gyokeres takes 57 shots then he should have roughly 11 goals (he’s only taken 20 shots). And nobody would be complaining. To me it’s more that the team has not figured out how to use him best.
A very fine summary of a game that returned many positives for The arsenal. In addition to the clean sheet, the three goals, the three point, the absence of injuries the highlights for me were Madueki’s first goal – he may well reach the heights under Arteta; the return of the quick of both feet and mind Gabi Jesus ad the introduction of gnarly Marli, leaping into the CL at age 16 like a young Salmon.
Thump Wolves on Saturday.
COYG and NLFE
P.S. @Ned – yep, spending your waking hours comparing the leap heights of goalkeepers is the work of a man who needs a vacation – let the monks take the strain and sojourn south into the sunshine.
Lots of common sense expressed above about Gyokeres and Jesus.
BtM: Thank you for your solicitous concern. Vacationing is a core skill. 🙂
Thumping Wolves is very sound advice 😂
I am quite curious about the front three though
Bukayo is still amongst the first names on the right.
Of course it’s great we have a choice!
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