Following our excellent one nil away win in Athens last week, it seemed odds on that we would complete the job against an Olympiacos team who, whilst strong at home, often struggled away from their home stadium. So it was with good heart that the Arsenal faithful rocked up in North London last night.
For a mid week European game, especially one against Greek opposition, there was only one place to be before the game, which was in my favourite Cypriot restaurant in London, The Apollo, on the junction of Seven Sisters and Hornsey Road just ten minutes from the ground. The place was jumping, with a great buzz, many regulars present and walk ups being turned away due to lack of space. My son and I were greeted like family, as always, but we were probably in the 20% of clientele that did not converse freely in Greek (with a Cypriot accent). We dined exceedingly well on taramasalata, calamari and kleftiko, washed down by Keo beer and Cypriot red wine. As a precaution against a cold night, landlord Nick kindly ended the meal for us with complimentary metaxas.
During the meal the team news came in and it was a selection that I think everyone approved of. The full current 1st XI, as chosen for Sunday’s game against Everton, with the first choice back four, Xhaka and Ceballos in midfield and Ozil, Laca, Auba and Pepe up top.
So to the ground and a chilly night in North London, not helped by a new security check system that took 15 minutes to get through, meaning I only reached my place on the North Bank lower as the teams emerged.
Reader, I will draw a veil over the first 45 minutes. It was turgid, very slow, featured lots of bad passing and miscontrol from both teams and ended 0-0. We did get the ball in the net, via a familiar route of Xhaka to Saka to Laca, but only to see an offside flag. Time for Arteta to do his thing at half time.
Out for the second half and, from my North Bank perspective, one immediate thing to notice is that the Olympiacos defenders now running about in from of us were massive. Clearly we weren’t going to get far just slinging crosses into the box. They also looked very well drilled and worked as a unit. We were working better in the second half, with Pepe featuring strongly on our right. Time and again he twisted and turned and squirmed his way into the box, time and time again he created space for a shot on his right foot, only to turn back again onto his left. There was one mazy run where I wasn’t sure if he beat five men, or the same man five times. Truly he is more one footed that little Jackie Wilshere and that’s saying something. He reminded me of that old Peter Cook and Dudley Moore joke about a one legged man auditioning for the part of Tarzan. “Your left leg I like. Your left leg is perfect for the part. I have nothing against your left leg. The trouble is, neither do you”.
Time and again Saka overlapped on the left, beat his man and put in a good cross/cut back, only to see one of the beanpoles cut it out. But we couldn’t work the goalkeeper. Then we conceded a corner, beanpole Cisse (who wouldn’t look undersized in the NBA) strolled in between the fullbacks and planted it into our net. Cue an explosion of noise from the lively 5000 travelling Greeks. Tie squared up.
53 minutes. Arsenal 0-1 Olympiacos (agg 1-1)
Time for subs. Torreira on for Ceballos. The crowd were calling for Martinelli for Laca but no dice. Arteta went with a change of formation, going to three at the back and swapping Hector for Joe Willock, a gutsy call. But nothing further looked like breaching the Greek defence. Extra time it was. Many of the crowd decided that 10pm on a freezing cold school night was long enough, but your correspondent, metaxa now long gone from his veins, soldiered on.
Nothing in the first period of extra time. Mustafi picked up what looked like a hammy and replaced by Sokratis. The departure of Mustafi, who had played well, was greeted with dismay. How times have changed! At last, Martinelli was brought on as the fourth sub (allowed in extra time under UEFA rules) for the ineffective Laca. He immediately made a difference with his direct running.
Then, finally, with seven minutes to go, Ozil put a ball into the box. It was deflected towards Auba, who scored with an outstanding, athletic overhead kick. Cue pandemonium on the pitch and on the terraces.
113 minutes. Arsenal 1-1 Olympiacos (agg 2-1)
When they resumed the clock showed 25 minutes of the 30 to be played. Surely we could hold out? But the bad old Arsenal came back to bite us again. Xhaka, out on the left, dithered a bit and decided to play the ball back to Leno. The pass wasn’t the best, and Leno’s touch was heavy, forcing him to concede a corner instead of kicking the ball up field or into row Z. The whole of Greece went forward. We cleared the corner but only to the edge of the box, from whence another cross came in. We seemed to freeze a bit and El-Arabi slipped the ball in. Cue more pandemonium, but this time with a Hellenic accent.
119 minutes. Arsenal 1-2 Olympiacos (agg 2-2)
There was just time for one more twist, this time the cruellest of all. We stormed forward, the ball bounced around in their box and suddenly there was Auba, on the six yard line, with only the keeper to beat. The man you want in the place you want him. The whole North Bank rose as one to salute him. But Auba screwed it wide with the goal gaping. He collapsed to the ground, aghast. The final whistle went.
FT Arsenal 1-2 Olympiacos. Agg 2-2 Olympiacos win on away goals.
Sometimes it needs a night’s sleep to put things in perspective. Walking away from the ground, poleaxed at what had just happened, only negative thoughts occurred, not helped by the negative comments from my fellow supporters on every side. Yet as I sat down at my laptop today, one thought filled my mind; what would Dave have said?
Yes, Leno and Auba made mistakes which cost us. But Leno and Auba have been our best players this season. I for one am not calling them out – they have won us countless games this season. Arteta maybe made mistakes in his subs. But he is a breath of fresh air and I believe will be a great manager. We were maybe getting carried away with three wins on the bounce. There is still much to be done with this team under their young manager. This summer we need to move some players on and bring in fresh blood to makes this Miquel’s team. Time for Edu and Sanlehi to do their stuff. Time to sign up some players (e.g. Saka and Martinelli) to fresh contracts as we build a new side around them.
In the meantime we have two competitions left to focus on, starting with the F.A.Cup against Portsmouth on Monday night. Then 11 more premier league games, with top four the ultimate target. Let’s get behind the team. We knew there would be bumps in the road. That’s life.
Cheers Countryman. You’ve done an excellent and well measured job writing up a tough game. A pity it all went downhill after the metaxas but that happens sometimes…
I agree completely with your final paragraphs and I think Dave would too.
A very good summary of the game I saw, C100. Glad you enjoyed the pre-match.
That was a difficult game to watch. We started brightly and had a good chance to score within three minutes, which was pretty much the beginning and the end of Laca’s evening. After that we looked lethargic, uncreative and lapsed quickly into our best skillset – passing backwards to the CBs and crosswords through the MF. No names, no pack drill.
I thought our defending for both goals was just terrible. I’m hoping Mari gets a start on Monday night. Your comments on Pepe are kinder that I would have been, but more importantly, they made me laugh – always a good thing. Robin Van Persie much preferred his left leg too, but his chocolate leg? That was worth a regular lick – and he scored often when it was unwrapped. (Wait a minute, it’s Olympiacos not Everton we’re writing about here 🙂 ).
I thought we made the Greeks look better than they were. I wish we had had someone willing to run into that defence rather than across it and I wish we’d changed bigly at half time. Martinelli for Laca, Auba into the middle seemed like it would pay dividends after the first 45 minutes (that thankfully, you didn’t bore us with). Wolves will take care of the Olymps in the next round I think.
A healthy endorsement from me of your recommendations for continued enthusiasm. This season is about righting the ship that was sinking rapidly under the command of Unai L’Un and laying a solid foundation for next year. We now have the correct Captain on board and his compass is set for success. With some patience and support, it will come.
Credit to the crowd too last night for really trying to lift the team. Keep it up folks.
Excellent execution of a difficult task, Countryman. Nicely measured with a healthy dose of Goonerholic-like equanimity.
While they were busy handing out complimentary Metaxas, the Cypriots in the Apollo must have been hoping APOEL could come back from their 0-3 deficit against FC Basel, but alas I see they couldn’t manage it. I am glad to hear your evening began so well. 🙂
Great report and an excellent measured summary.
Last year on our way to final we had a couple of lucky breaks when despite playing poorly we managed to go through over two legs. Auba and Laca were both in sizzling forms and by April we were clearly prioritizing EL — somewhat stupidly if I may — over Premier League whereas a different order of priorities would have most likely gotten us the 4th place.
I thought the team tried hard, they were patient and stayed organized and didn’t panic when things were not happening. Our midfield has become technically limited and both Bellerin and Saka had a forgettable game. I don’t think as a team we are yet capable of playing the way Arteta wants on a Thursday-Sunday basis. So as far as PL is concerned this may be a blessing in disguise.
11 games, 3 more until final if we go all the way in FA cup. 14 games in 11 weeks with no international travel. The team should think of this as a great opportunity to play each game with full commitment and energy. And I think yesterday’s showing should convince Arteta to be a bit more proactive about substitutions.
Also, Martinelli should start more. Not every game but much more. Right now he brings more to the team than either Laca or Pepe … Pepe I can see will be effective in some games but his limited European experience showed yesterday as he judged the nature of the game wrong, trying to force the issue with footwork alone and not wait for moments (he needs to bring a bit more variation to his games). I think Martinelli – Auba – Pepe is probably the best forward line we can have now with Eddie, Laca and Reiss in the second group. For the PL let’s play Auba through the middle for the remaining 11 matches.
I think the attempt to play Laca into form isn’t really working and maybe a break, reducing the spotlight on him, letting him get more relaxed would work better. Nothing about him looks like last year’s Lacazette anymore.
Thanks C100.
I think you dealt outstandingly
with the short straw that this
match report turned out to be.
Some food comments already
but it’s late, I’m sleepy so I’ll
stick my own tuppence
tomorrow after the recommended
night’s sleep for perspective.
“food comments” 😮
I meant good comments!
Many thanks for the kind comments all. Trying to walk the walk I’ve just secured an away ticket to Brighton.
For more measured thinking, the always excellent Amy Lawrence in the Athletic
https://theathletic.com/1642491/2020/02/28/arsenal-aubameyang-arteta-europa-league/?source=shared-article
Osaka Matt – ha!
I thought you were commenting on my fondness for talking about food! cba (RIP) used to say that he only read my match reviews for the restaurant reports!
Distressingly, I was unable to attend and tried to keep tabs on the game whilst chairing an after dinner talk. Not easy although , albeit it with several Gooners present. I’ve seen nothing of the game but found Henry Winter surprisingly upbeat but your report C 100 is a model of reason and good sense. I agree re Arteta , it is only his second defeat. My mates were raging at Xhaka rather than Keno for his stupid pass back. ( Xhaka passing back, surely not?) Was this fair ?
Today’s financial figures show that at a club owned by the Kroenkes we are sliding deeper into the brown stuff and will almost certainly need to sell a couple of the more valuable players and hope we can find four or five top prospects . Sad night .
Excellent, measured report CM100. A sanguine analysis in the tradition of the Guvna. I can hear his chuckle at your Peter Cook and Dudley Moore reference. I can also hear cba praising the delights of Greek Cypriot cuisine.
Mikel Arteta will have learnt a few things from last night’s unfortunate defeat not only about his players but also about the art of game management. It will stand him in good stead. I was not one of those who believed either last year or this, that the EL should be prioritised as the easiest route into the CL. Cup competitions are a lottery and a single off day (as we discovered yesterday) can see you crashing out. Moreover the dysfunctional nature of much of our play earlier this season, the poorer squad with the loss of the experience of Koscielny, Ramsey and Monreal and the better teams in the EL this season led me to believe that Arsenal could not, without more luck than we’ve had in a decade, win the EL.
Thus I am pretty relaxed about dropping out in the round of 16 as dropping out a couple of rounds later wouldn’t generate sufficient income to justify the toll it takes on our first team. I see this as an opportunity for more time on the training ground for Mikel Arteta to drill the players into the way he wants them to play,more recovery time between matches and an opportunity to climb the table.
We on the other hand, will be able to see what they’re made of and who has the motivation to get us to 5th place or better.
COYG
Top match report in difficult circumstances, C100. Like others, I endorse your concluding two paragraphs. The Guv’nor would approve.
Dr F his customary insightful self @4, too.
Dear old cba. You couldn’t believe half of what he wrote but I miss those rapid fire bursts of overnight posts.
Article about the direction for the rest of the season is worth a read:
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11945278/arsenal-what-now-after-shock-europa-league-exit
There is one picture in it that is a bit emblematic of Arsenal’s problem as a club.
Josh Kroenke pictured wearing an LA Rams shirt while his 3 employees wear Arsenal shirts. Not a good wardrobe choice by Josh. What was he thinking.
Cheers C.100, a very thoughtful & realistic take on last night’s events. I guess if you knew what was awaiting you a couple of more Metaxas would have been consumed.
All the players seemed consumed by the same disease – inability to control or pass a football, it was like watching a team from the lower leagues. We got what we deserved despite the emotion at the finale. The defending of the 2 goals conceded left a lot to be desired, in fact it was non existent. Auba’s goal was brilliant and the miss at the end happens to all strikers at some time. His goals this season have saved us from being in a far worse position than we are already.
I agree with my erstwhile fellow drinker Bath. I doubt we have the ability to go much further in that competition and this now gives Mikel Arteta a better opportunity to get his ideas across and see who takes them on board and who doesn’t. Getting back to more regular schedule of Saturday & tues/wed games will be a little easier on all concerned ( although sky sports will probably see to that ).
There’s still a lot to play for this season starting with the FA Cup at Pompey on Monday evening.
COYG
Sir Chips lays it on the bottom line after the club announces a group post-tax loss of £27.1 million for the year ending May 31, 2019, the first overall loss since 2002.
For 2019-20 we will see increased commercial revenues from Adidas and our renewed deal with Emirates, but another season outside the Champions League will continue to apply pressure to our financial results.
Personally I thought we had a
better shot at winning the Ropey
League this time around than the
previous 2 seasons. However, it
was a short rather than mid-long
term goal. And also only useful as a
short cut to the CL rather than a
competition we want to win for its
sake. Hopefully MA will have learnt
from the experience.
Lots to play for over the next few
weeks, a cup run and some decent
performances in the league would
be nice.
Interesting thoughts from
Dr F (as usual!).
Laca is starting to remind me
of Giroud in that when he’s bad
he really is bad and all aspects
of his game go off. The 2 recent
goals don’t seem to have made
a noticeable difference and I
think it’s time for a rest. An in
form Laca is a great asset and an
invaluable one if Auba is gone as
expected during the summer.
A good chance for Martinelli, Nelson, Eddie
and Saka. Also I wonder if we should
consider Pepe for a look in the centre.
When a striker is not clicking, nothing clicks. The instinctive calmness and confidence are not there, and the harder you try the more they recede. A break is maybe what Laca needs.
@14, Ned : Arsenne Wenger was widely ridiculed for his ‘4th place is a trophy” comment. He wasn’t implying at the time that 4th equated to some ghostly representation of a silver cup in the Emirates trophy room. Rather, the ‘trophy’ was the level of financial reward that accrued from that accomplishment.
Under Wenger, Arsenal annual revenues reached ~£450M, with ‘Matchday’, TV an Sponsorships contributing fairly equally. Matchday revenues were best in Europe. Period. TV was fired by CL success as well as PL reward. Sponsorship was woefully below where it should have been given the worldwide stature of the brand but was still pretty good.
Revenues fell to £395M last year resulting in a loss of £27.1M (the huge majority of the revenue was spent on player salaries, as always). The current regime is a little more tolerant of expenditure than the previous. Peter Hill-Wood and Co insisted on a £20M ‘buffer’ in the bank at the end of each financial year. That resulted in his famous ‘We’re not going to break the bank to keep Van Persie’ statement – which resulted directly in Wenger losing the league in the following season to Ferguson.
Matchday (the stadium s frequently less full than in the heydays) and TV revenues will have declined most. Fortunately, Sponsorship is holding its own, but still needs to improve. Another 4th placed trophy is the only way to correct the decline. There is no better man than MA8 to put that ghostly representation of a silver salver on the shelf. All that doesn’t glitter can be golden.
Btm,
A very insightful post . I still am influenced by a comment someone made to me that Wenger lost his ‘ certainty’ in the transfer market and around player contracts , pulling the plugs on several deals at an embarrassingly late stage and dithering over Sanchez , Ozil and Ramsey for example but otherwise I think his financial stewardship was superb and put us in an exceptional position. Given a self-sustaining model it has been extraordinarily difficult to compete with Chelsea, Citeh and ManUre over the last fifteen years and his continued ability to lead us into the Champions League was taken for granted by so many Arsenal fans ( I’d include myself there ) .
I’m probably stupid to read other Arsenal media than this because I get incredibly wound up by the naked animosity and hatred shown to Arsene after over twenty years of outstanding and very committed service .
An idiot informed me last night that a movement is trending on Twitter #Arteta Out. So incredulous am I that people can be so stupid I seriously wonder if I can be around a lot of so-called Arsenal fans. Thank goodness the level of debate in this bar is so much more balanced and temperate . I’ve never bothered with Twitter . One of my best decisions .
Arsenal Gent’s view of Thursday night. Keep the faith chaps!
BtM and TTG: Wenger’s ability to keep the club competitive on and off their field across two decades in which the game transformed beyond recognition financially was an achievement of the highest order, the scale of which is only now becoming apparent, let alone appreciated. Would his detractors have been so blasé about 19 consecutive seasons of Champions League football if they had known that three years later we would be facing a possibility of no European football and the midtable mediocrity that some of the denizens of this fine establishment will remember from their younger days?
The people who are tweeting “Arteta out” are not football fans, forget being Arsenal fans. They are narcissistic glory-hunters who cannot see beyond the last wave of their emotional tumult.
Even my 8 year old son said, after crying for a while, that “I guess we cannot win all matches but we are playing better.” 🙂
NBN/BtM et al., I remember Arsene himself saying in interviews that he considers the consistency of our performances and CL qualifications in the Emirates era to be his most challenging achievements. How the English media laughed at him and some fans joined in the mocking! I try not to bear grudges in my life but I still cannot accept the treatment he received towards the end from some of our own fan base. It remains a disgrace.
I think we will have to be (a) very creative in transfer market and look for values in Latin America (our recruiting from there hasn’t been good at all) and (b) patient and supportive of Arteta and many of these young players who I firmly believe will come good under Mikel’s supervision and our unconditional support.
The fan base must recognize that we have an unique group of high quality youngsters that do not often come around and they will thrive if we give them the extra push and support. They will have more ups and downs than the seasoned professionals but we have a rare unique group of young talents: Saka, Gabigoal, Eddie, Reiss, Willock, AMN. Even Pepe, Dani , Chambers, Holding, Saliba and Hector are at the first stages of their career.
I hope the club hierarchy is doing all they could to ensure we retain this group and let someone go only if we want to. It’s more important in my opinion to make sure Saka and Martinelli are signed on long term deals than extending Auba’s contract … I love Aubameyang, but if he wants to go after this season to get a few more trophies in his career we should make sure we get as much out of that transaction as possible and reinvest that in building the team.
Cheers Countryman!
Dr F, your last paragraph – absolutely spot on. Implement NOW a plan to retain their services for at least the next decade at Emirates stadium. With four world class players in your team, it is possible to win the CL. They clearly have the potential to be two of these.
Micah Richards on the bbc website, using words that sound like they could have been about Arsenal but surprisingly are not: “Chelsea play some lovely football but have got to stop the goals coming at the back. They don’t seem to have grasped how to see out games.“
And he’s right. Chelsea looked in complete control first half only to be chasing the game now.
Shouldn’t have said anything.
ArseGent link very entertaining. Thanks, c100.
The commonsense and perspective exhibited in here contrasts so starkly with the idiots out there in the Goonerverse . Much as I’d love Auba to stay it isn’t a great economic decision to retain someone who will be 31 next season and could fetch £50-60 million in an auction . We will have to think very seriously about selling Laca too and I’m sure we are scouring various countries for potential replacements. I like the look of the lad Bowen who West Ham have picked up , he’s worth watching .
In my fantasy musings I can raise a lot of money by selling Xhaka , Laca ( please not Saka!) , Auba , Mkhitaryan, Elneny , Sokratis and Kolasinac ( that would raise about £180 million ) . You’ve got to find good ( young) replacements and with the detritus in our fan base I hope they’d be afforded a degree of patience and support. Not all fans have the same emotional intelligence as exhibited in this bar.
Excellent discussion above. The wisdom, patience and willingness to take the long-term view (invariably the best in any key life decision) is as TTG says one of the delights of this place.
It will be a far, far greater sadness to see Saka reject a contract extension with us than BamBam who has been a great servant but is also a key sellable asset to fund our rebuild. I differ from Dr F in only one respect. I would not spend money to retain Ceballos despite his spasmodic glimpses of quality and excellent feet. 7am KO provides an excellent analysis of how Torreira’s replacement of him against the Greeks (a sub, I questioned at the time and blogs has dismissed as unambitious and ‘more of the same’) upgraded our forward passing and penetration significantly.
Talking of other sites, for years I have almost never strayed beyond Arseblog, Goonerholic and 7am kickoff. The latter I have frequented since Dave stopped posting and I have found a very similar community to Goonerholic (which regularly includes Lonestar Gooner). This site in its beta form has been a delight. A cautionary thought occurs to me. I have expressed it in the other place.
If, when we go live, some folk back read the articles and the drinks, they may think your reference to “the other place” means you are going to raise the matter in the House of Lords Bath!
And why wouldn’t I, My Learned Friend?
All rise for the learned Lord Bath!
Lord Bath of Pappagone?
Lord Bath of Asburton Grove?
Excellent stuff C100. I must say, I would have been far more scathing of the performance. I thought we were poor and borders on being complacent.
For me, the jury is still out in MA8. He has a massive job on his hands and only time will tell if he is up to the task. Like many, I like what I have seen so far but there is a long hard rocky road ahead. He will need at least two transfer windows before we start to see the way we are heading.
To those who have been very active with the blog and WhatsApp group, I salute you. An excellent effort one and all.
Forty nine, forty nine undefeated
Forty nine, forty nine I say
Forty nine, forty nine undefeated
Playing football The Arsenal way!
I was hoping the Mugsmashers would remain unbeaten until we beat them at home, C100. I’m not too unhappy that Watford grabbed the cherry though 🙂
BtM, I’m delighted Watford burst their bubble. 42 games unbeaten so not even close. No Invincible season. I would have been delighted to have Arsenal end their run but I think that they might by then have gone 50 games unbeaten so one of our records would have gone. Furthermore the pressure on our players who have not recently inspired me in their ability to resist pressure, would have been colossal. I have no faith in their ability to scrap the way Watford did and every expectation that Liverpool would not have been in the least bit complacent but as ever would raise their game for us.
Well done Watford. I’m sending Deeney a bottle of fizz and a bag of nuts.
🍾🥂🍾🥂🍾🥂🍾😂😂😂
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>