Arsenal played FC Zürich Thursday evening at the Grove in the final group stage game of the Europa League. Matching the result of PSV Eindhoven, or bettering it, would see us top of the group, leaving PSV to play two extra games against the Champions League dropouts in January. We needed to end in the top place.
Bathgooner put it thusly in a private communication: “Zurich surprised us by being up for it. We had brief moments of fluency. KT3 scored a cracker to gain a HT lead. We missed a couple more chances. The last 30 minutes were an accident waiting to happen and not at all fun. We got away with a poor performance overall to top the group. Ends.”
And, really, that’s about it. Add to it a set of seven changes from the Forest game, and yesterday’s game turned on one moment of brilliance from KT3, who was our best player on the day. His low shot in the 17th minute swerved around two defenders into the bottom corner of the net after two Vieira shots were blocked.
That’s not to say we didn’t play some impressive pressing defense from the front at times, repeatedly forcing Zürich into mistakes (mostly forcing them to pass the ball out for corners or into touch). We had a couple-three breaks that slowed down as we got to their end, or ended with nothing happening other than ball-recycling. To their credit, Zürich were a far better squad than we saw in our 2-1 victory over them in September; their new coach has gotten a somewhat strident, Stoke-light tune out of them. Their shin-pads must be made of alpen-horn.
Some of the best parts of our game were missing: the incision, the fluency, and the movement were largely absent, leaving us to rely on grit and determination, and no small measure of skill, to pursue our end, and to prevent Zürich from pursuing theirs. We went through most of our defenders, and Tomi (substituted mid-second half) had to come off with what looks to be a hamstring issue. I have to imagine he’s a doubt for Chelsea, maybe for Japan’s world cup in the desert, a pity for both player and country if so. Saliba and Zinchenko (the latter we saw get a brief warmup as things got dodgy in the final third of the game) stayed on the bench, and will be ready to get in this weekend.
A word for Zürich’s crowd: excellent work, folks. Through a smaller TV than made in New Zealand I heard mostly your singing, and I am sure your flare/vape smoke made it easier for your side, who is accustomed (no doubt) to such things. Having been to the PSV game at the Grove two weeks ago, I can say you surpassed their efforts, and that’s saying something positive. You also didn’t seem to be prats afterwards, requiring hundreds of police to shepherd you to and from the ground peacefully is good value for money.
And so it goes. We’re in to the round of 16 in the top spot for Group A, in spite of PSV’s 2-1 win in Norway. We avoid two extra games in an already packed post-WC schedule, and we came out of it with only one major injury, whose seriousness we’ll find out about in the coming days. We look ragged and leggy, but with only three games to go before much of our squad gets a six-week rest we can push on (because, truly, at least Chelsea of our upcoming opponents are as ragged as we are) until the break. One game at a time, then…
Cheers scruz.
Short and accurate summary, don’t think much more was needed. Hope you’re fully recovered from vertigo now.
I’m also guessing the two now available dates become possibilities for the City and Everton postponed matches? And thus our load will not strictly be lightened, but may be more manageable.
(City will have one leg of their CL match on one of the midweeks but the other will be free, meaning both matches could be played then).
Well done Scruz. Nice report and of the length the game deserves. In the last drinks I made a plea against rotating the shit out of it. Well we rotated the shit out of it and boy it showed. Seven changes meant all our rhythm disappeared. I never want to see a midfield of Elneny and Lokonga again. The front players got no service. Still we got away with it – just.
scruz, your titular (careful, TTG) headline succinctly sums up that second half which was eerily reminiscent of that at Elland Road recently and left me begging for the singularly unimpressive referee to blow the final whistle.
As someone said elsewhere, this guy must have taken his rules from Jones the Whistle who refereed our game against Southampton giving them free rein to manhandle our forwards and added insult to injury by carding Gabriel for a late non-foul giving the Swiss a late opportunity to equalise. I am surprised he didn’t take Jones the Whistle’s booking of Saka for the temerity of falling to the ground after being hacked down as a template for booking KT3 for getting his shirt ripped (in fact he didn’t even give a foul) or booking Nketiah for failing to fall when his shirt was clearly pulled as he ran towards goal and as a result was unable to take his shot (prevention of a goal scoring opportunity, perchance?).
All said and done, we got through it, got the job done and can shelve the Europa League until March.
Onward.
Thanks for this Scruz .
I was out taking curry. I can’t remember being less involved in a game pre- match and when I ran it back afterwards my instincts were right. I have been to Zurich probably over a hundred times and the idea that they had noisy, animated fans stuns me . Good result but I’m quite glad that I didn’t struggle back at the dead of night on the ( partially closed) motorway.
The World Cup is distorting club competition the world over and causing lots of unnecessary injuries
Pithy and to the point, Scruz. As mentioned in the previous drinks, I didn’t see the game, but your account suggests I missed little and saved some fingernails. On we go.
TTG@4: Your last sentence is spot on.
Thanks for the report scruz. 1-0 is a very interesting score. Reasonably close for Zurich but certainly no cigar. A case of it being Tierney’s night, and it sets us up well for the knock out rounds. Hoping Tomi’s injury isn’t that major.
Cheers scuz!
Hope you’re well mate.
Friday evenings always make me think of Dave. Would be posting his preview or biggin it up on twitter. Miss him lots as I’m sure we all do.
COME ON YOU FUCKING ARSENAL! NEED TO DO THOSE BUSTOP IN FULHAM CUNTS GOOD STYLE ON SUNDAY.
Wot Esso said. Big time.
I fucking miss Dave.
And we are missing a few others too.
Big love to all who are here.
Anyone fancy doing a Friday night music run in memory of Dave? I’ll kick off.
in honor of this coming tuesday.
For Dave…
Be fair. This is as much to wind cba up as it for Dave. I miss them both so much. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
Sorry to be so on the nose. But surely someone had to?
Lovely musical memories…
A gem from someone who too had left too early (and if you have never heard it before give it a try):
Scruz, the match had retroactively failed miserably to live up to the quality of your report. 🙂
There were a few glimpses of quality from Reiss that I thought were very promising. Tierney had his best match this season, and I join you in your sincerest hope of seeing Tomiyasu recover very quickly.
I don’t think Vieira, Sambi or even Eddie have been particularly poor for young “in the process” players, but they pale so much in comparison with the prodigies in their age group — Martinelli, Saka, ESR and Ødegaard— that we find them underwhelming. Or maybe I am being too generous?
Thanks scruz , a forgettable game and group but a very fair report. At least we got some playing time in for a few that we may relying on in the spring and I thought Turner improved as the games went on. And I can’t see anyone to fear in the knockout stage, not bad teams as you’d expect but beatable,
And in CBA’s honor, “Lenny” (as he used to say) sings:
Thanks Dino @13, hadn’t t listened to that for years 👍
For the friends I will be meeting tonight and the friends gone
For Chavski
A glass of the finest claret being raised in the Guv’nor’s memory here at Castle Ned. He is hugely missed.
So is cba. Moo!
Two one-of-a-kinds.
Some Gregorian chants to sip the claret with — slowly.
inspired by ned, in honor of dave.
and thanks for all the kind comments above. i am better, but still having bad days, or parts of them.
Outstanding musical selections above, and I’m missing those guys too.
Bit late to the party;
For cba…
When a club have a record of 11 wins, 0 draws, and 8 losses and they are in second place in the championship, as Blackburn Rovers currently are, it makes me think they are doing something right so I checked in to the question of who is their current manager.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/61795210.amp
For GoonerTerry and Oscar…
Where’s the we’re gonna do those utter bus stop in fulham cunts good style tomorrow then?
This is NOT the tune for tomorrow;
And where’s Cynic these days?
Cynic went off in a huff a couple of months back now.
Cheers scruz! A fine report from behind the sofa. 🙂 I know the feeling but thankfully this year is different in many ways.
Sadly, I haven’t had the chance meeting with Dave but I love to be here and that says a lot about him.
COYG
cheers las, and all…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>