This match, the outcome of which would affect neither the Arsenal’s top place finish nor PSV Eindhoven’s second place and dismissed by some as ‘a free hit’ or ‘a dead rubber’, provoked some debate as to whether we should just ‘play the kids’ to rest our overworked first choice players or instead take it seriously and unnecessarily put at risk the fitness of key players for whom it’s now abundantly clear that we lack adequate cover. Advocates of the former approach, however, didn’t take into account Arteta’s allegedly unremitting will to win nor the £2.4m reward for another win in the group stage which, for a club on the cusp of FFP legitimacy isn’t to be sniffed at. Moreover after a frustrating, undeserved defeat at Villa it would further ruffle the sensitivities of the Goonerverse, not to mention the players, to have to come to terms with two defeats on the trot.
Mikel Arteta made eight changes from the team that lost at Villa. Aaron Ramsdale regained his place between the sticks to acclaim from the travelling Gooners. Cédric and Kiwior flanked the first choice ‘hard centre’ pairing of Saliba and Gabriel. Jorginho, tonight’s captain, and Elneny joined Havertz in midfield while the forward line consisted of Nelson, Nketiah and Trossard. Mikel had clearly had a look at Matt’s choices, nine of whom he selected but chickened out of starting the two kids. The selection gave several fringe players the opportunity to make their cases for more playing time.
Our opponents lead the Eredivisie by 10 points and are unbeaten this season except for a certain 0-4 reverse in north London. PSV apparently selected a few young players, notably replacing de Jong with Pepi at centre forward, and started energetically straight from kick-off, appearing keen to avenge that drubbing at TNHOF. They deployed a high press and our unfamiliar players struggled to find a way through it. An early warning came in the 6th minute. PSV played their way out from the goalkeeper with far more confidence and élan than we had exhibited then Pepi played a lovely through ball from the halfway line to the right winger Bakayoko who left Kiwior for dead and played a square ball into our box for the familiar van Aanholt who was rushing towards our penalty spot. He was about to strike at goal when Saliba deftly touched the ball to the side and the Dutchman and Saliba landed on top of Ramsdale who had dived towards the ball at the feet of van Aanholt. The threat was not yet averted as the ball rolled to the edge of the six-yard box to Pepi who struck it with venom only for an alert Gabriel to stretch his right leg across behind the pile of bodies to deflect Pepi’s goal-bound shot over the bar. Great defending by our ‘hard centre’. The resultant corner led to a free header for Obispo at the far post that fortunately looped wide.
Along with determined pressing that kept us pinned back and won the ball back far too easily, PSV then showed directness, speed of thought, close control, crisp accurate passing and an ability to find a teammate moving in space that tested our defenders, particularly our full backs and most particularly Kiwior who found Bakayoko a real handful all night. The interplay of their triangle of central attackers looked a particular threat. The widely lamented selection of both Saliba and Gabriel now looked prescient, the former preventing Pepi’s connection with a curling ball into our six-yard box from Bakayoko from the right. Nelson and Nketiah raised our spirits as they combined to give Nketiah a shot from a difficult angle that went for an unproductive corner but it was a brief intermission as PSV returned swiftly to attack mode. When we regained possession, Nelson appeared to be our best outlet but his efforts yielded no opportunities on goal.
A worrying moment followed when Ramsdale, in his Champions League debut, went down with an ankle injury (possibly a result of that earlier melee) and required treatment. The sight of Raya warming up prompted the thought that that lad hasn’t had any luck this season but fortunately for his c.v., he was able to continue. After 14 minutes of being largely on the back foot we briefly began to assert ourselves with some silky movement through midfield and passing around their box but without any end product. A misdirected header by Havertz from a lofted free kick was as close as we got. Again, Nelson caught the eye, carrying the ball across the midfield as well as on his right wing beat.
Having been the hero of the early alarm, Gabriel was at fault when he completely misjudged the flight of a lofted through ball from Bakayoko to allow Pepi to run in on goal and the Brazilian will have been grateful that Cédric baled him out by intercepting Pepi’s cut-back to Vertessen who then headed the recycled ball against the foot of Ramsdale’s left post with the keeper beaten.
PSV now dominated possession and threatened mainly our left flank with Bakayoko skinning Kiwior at will and on one occasion cutting inside, he shot just wide of Ramsdale’s far post. Our replacement full-backs and midfielders struggled to get through PSV’s high press and for a spell we just couldn’t retain possession. It seemed for a while that our forwards just couldn’t get hold of the ball so it was a pleasant surprise when Nketiah nodded a high ball from Cédric down into space inside PSV’s box for Nelson to run onto unmarked but unfortunately the keeper beat him to it.
But that was merely an aperitif. We then had our best spell of the first half, began to move the ball better and find our passing range. Whether PSV chose to rest or we solidified our midfield and pressed higher, we seemed more resistant to their attacks. Nice work involving Elneny on the right and Nketiah centrally led to a looping cross from the left by Trossard that floated over Havertz.
An extended period of possession in the opposition half ended with a 12 yard run by Elneny directly towards their goal before he unleashed a low 25 yarder that seemed to be heading for the lower left corner of the goal before just curling away to clip the outside of the keeper’s right post.
Despite our more assured possession, PSV reminded us of their threat with a breakaway starting from an interception in their own box followed by seven passes to leave them two on one with Cédric running back to help out the solitary Saliba. It seemed that a goal would be inevitable as Pepi passed the ball to Saibari but rather than shooting, the latter squared the ball back to Pepi whose shot was superbly blocked by Saliba as the rest of the defence arrived.
PSV’s rapid and progressive interplay was certainly easier on the eye than our relatively laboured efforts to move the ball towards the opposition goal without the drive and creativity of Rice and Ødegaard but, largely due to the excellence of our centre backs, they had nothing to show for their periods of dominance.
Apart from that breakaway Arsenal were now dominating possession, dictating the tempo of the game and passing the ball around midfield and the arc d’ennui with confidence. After good work on the left by Havertz, then interplay between Trossard and Jorginho, Kiwior swung in a low cross that Nketiah crouched to head towards goal but it struck a defender and was cleared. Was that our first effort on goal since Nketiah’s shot that was deflected for a corner?
On 41 minutes, a slow build-up involving at least 16 passes and 9 players moved the ball from right to left and right again just inside our half and then led to nice interplay on the right between Nelson and Cédric. Nelson surged forward onto a return pass from Cédric before squaring the ball to Nketiah who was standing centrally on the edge of the box. Rather than taking the ball with his right foot, Nketiah let it pass in front of him before hitting the ball with his left foot through a defender’s legs back towards the direction from which it had come. The ball ran quite slowly along the ground then struck the foot of the keeper’s left post before bouncing into the bottom corner of the net. The keeper’s dive didn’t get near it. “One nil to the Arsenal!” rang out and the camera panned to the PSV bench. To a man they looked nonplussed! Arsenal had scored with their first shot on target!
Before the half time whistle, PSV responded. Bakayoko skinned Kiwior with a fearsome burst of pace and his chip found the head of Pepi who, under pressure from Gabriel, couldn’t get his header on target. Gabriel then gave Kiwior another roasting for failing to control his man. As 45 minutes came up, there was a VAR check for a potential handball by Elneny that was swiftly dismissed. FPGMOL take note. Another cut inside by Bakayoko led to a left footed shot that Ramsdale turned away for a corner at full stretch low down to his left.
Half Time: PSV Eindhoven 0 -1 Arsenal
I have to confess that, despite our improved play in the last 20 minutes or so of the half, I felt we were fortunate to be ahead. The stats displayed on TNT confirmed this by recording 10 attempts on goal for PSV with 3 on target against 4 attempts on goal for the Arsenal with only 1 on target. But that one counted! We could clearly also thank our two central defenders for that lead.
Arsenal started the second half tentatively but PSV once again started energetically and almost immediately a Vertessen shot curled past Ramsdale’s right post with the keeper well beaten. Within five minutes, PSV were level. From a throw in high up on their right they worked the ball back to the keeper then forward to Tillman in left midfield who played the ball directly forward to Pepi that Saliba lunged for but missed. With advancing teammates on either side of him, Pepi bore down on the solitary Gabriel with the rest of the Arsenal defence awol. He slipped the ball left to Vertetten who curled it beautifully past Ramsdale’s dive and in off the far post. That woke up the home crowd and boosted the belief of the PSV players.
Our heads didn’t drop, although in this early phase of the second half, PSV looked livelier apart from Nelson who made another good transverse run from right to left across the front of the PSV penalty area beating several defenders but it came to naught in the left corner with Trossard. PSV certainly looked the more threatening side though Arsenal came close with a Nketiah far post header from a Cédric cross that looked from the perch of the travelling Gooners to have gone in but struck the side netting.
Just before the hour mark, Elneny sat down near the centre clutching a hamstring which prompted Arteta to deploy his re-inforcements: Ødegaard for Elneny, White for Cédric and Rice for Saliba. Almost immediately on the restart, Nketiah went down apparently with an eye injury after a collision with Havertz. Nketiah recovered after lengthy attention from the physio and a lecture from the ref.
After the game restarted, Nelson, high on the right, nicely controlled a high ball, beat a defender then darted into the box, shimmied past another defender but his confident left footed shot only found the side netting. When PSV next moved forward, Tillman produced another lovely pass from the halfway line right through our defence for Saibari to run onto. After jockeying for the ball with Rice on the edge of our box, he won it, veered left, turned and his shot beat Ramsdale but rebounded off the keeper’s right post and the ball fell to Kiwior who cleared it gratefully.
As the game entered its final quarter it was pretty even, with both sides endeavouring to win the ball back high up and probing well organised defences. However PSV again began to threaten and the Arsenal defenders were required to make several crucial tackles and interceptions around and within our box. Bakayoko was still their major threat and having once again left Kiwior in his dust, the Belgian international won a dangerous free kick on the left edge of our box when Jorginho decided he wasn’t going past him. That free-kick was cleared and when Bakayoko was surprisingly replaced on 73 minutes, it must have been a relief for Kiwior who will see him in his nightmares for the next few nights. The best we could do in response to PSV’s recent pressure was a brief piece of keepy-uppy deep in their box.
PSV’s dominance at this point in the game is evidenced by Ødegaard having primarily a defensive role during his first 15 minutes on the field.
On 80 minutes, Kiwior headed a cross from an Ødegaard free kick on the left into the net with the keeper stranded. The linesman flagged for offside which Gabriel, who also leapt for the ball behind Kiwior, certainly was but VAR strangely confirmed the onfield decision. ‘Strange’ as Kiwior’s onside position was ‘clear and obvious’. There was no interference with play by the offside Gabriel as the play took place in front of him and he touched neither the ball nor the keeper but hey-ho, we know we just don’t get the rub of the green.
On 88 minutes ESR and Jesús came on for Havertz and Nelson leaving a glum looking Zinchenko on the bench. There followed a basketball-like period with feints and thrusts at both ends of the pitch. However, as the game came towards last knockings, a greater degree of control was exerted by Arsenal’s midfield and attack and the defence stood firm to PSV’s probing but our only end-product was a long range shot from Trossard that soared well over the bar.
Gabriel then repeated his earlier error, again misjudging on the halfway line the bounce of a long ball from the keeper. Til ran onto it into space and into the box with Rice tracking back in parallel to stop him moving centrally. As a result the Dutchman took it wider than was optimal and from a difficult angle on our left fired across Ramsdale’s goal and past the far post with Saibari open for a squared ball.
Six minutes were added, in which each side had opportunities to win the game. PSV had the first when ESR cleared the ball from our box straight to a PSV player but he fired straight at Ramsdale.
Then, as the clock passed the 6 added minutes, Arsenal could have, somewhat undeservedly, won it. A throw-in on the right from White was headed on by Nketiah to Trossard who swerved deftly to beat a defender and shot from close range. This excellent effort was blocked by the keeper only to fall nicely for Kiwior who sliced a thunderbolt well wide from just inside the area. The referee promptly blew the final whistle.
Full Time: PSV Eindhoven 1 -1 Arsenal
The stats confirmed that the second half had been pretty even with 7 attempts on goal from PSV (3 on target) and 8 from Arsenal (2 on target) and a draw felt about right. Both teams clearly wanted to win but not to over-extend themselves and we certainly played within ourselves.
Of the players for whom this was an opportunity to make Arteta think about them a bit more often, only Nelson stood out. Frankly, I do not know why he is not regularly given more time on the field to take the pressure off either Saka or Martinelli. Ramsdale was secure, made no errors and had no chance with the goal. Cédric was ok and more impressive with the ball than without. Kiwior had a hard night against Bakayoko but became more prominent offensively once the Belgian was replaced and was very unlucky to have his goal chalked off. Jorginho made some key interceptions but sometimes struggled against the swift attacking movement of the PSV forwards. Elneny ran around a lot, had a good shot but is bypassed too easily. Havertz worked hard and contributed well throughout. Nketiah found it hard to get involved for long periods but took his goal well. He doesn’t link up in the build up as well as Jesús but he is always a goal threat. Trossard was quiet for long periods but showed his close control to good effect and might have won the game at the end. I thought Rice was a revelation when he replaced Saliba. Indeed, he was so competent in that right sided centre back role that he was like Saliba Mark II. It was nice to see ESR back on the field but he had little time to show he had lost none of his skills. Hopefully we will now see more of him.
What of the youngsters whom many Holics were keen to see get a run out? Well, it was clear we needed a strong defence against that PSV team who are very good indeed. After the game, Arteta said, “I don’t think it was the right context. Making eight changes already, to throw them in there against a team that hasn’t lost at home in nearly two years, I didn’t think it was the right moment.” I think he was right.
Four wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat and a +12 goal difference gain us 13 points to top the group. Job done. We can now forget about the Champions League for a couple of months and concentrate on the Premier League.
Job done. Onward.
