During last season we often commented that it seemed a cursed season, albeit one that lasted fifteen months but it ultimately ended in delight and a trophy. Tonight we set out to play a crucial quarter-final on which the immediate future of our club rested. Would we prevail or would the inconsistency that continually surfaces nowadays around this team appear again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was frankly a surprising team selection with Willian preferred to P\u00e9p\u00e9, Lacazette to Aubameyang, and Martinelli confined to the bench despite the absence of \u00d8degaard. There is a tendency for some Arsenal fans to almost relish failure by some players, and the anaemic first seventy minutes would have had many of the naysayers shaking their heads in despair borne out of a feeling of \u2018I told you so\u2019. Rarely can a European quarter-final have proceeded in a lower key for the vast majority of the match. Willian was as ineffective and slow as he usually is, our central midfield had no drive at all and were wasteful in possession and Saka, while brilliant at times, showed naivety in the final third. Part of his problem was the lack of bodies in the box to find. Lacazette was outnumbered and had one of those nights typified by his failure to convert in the second half when in on goal from the halfway line, curling a looping effort against the post .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was by no means our only dangerous moment either. Saka missed a good chance from the inside right channel in the first half then was repeatedly fouled early in the second half as he ran through on goal, and although it was clearly not a penalty by the letter of the law it may well have been one by the spirit. Willian curved a clever free-kick against the outside of the post and after he was eventually replaced by Martinelli, Gabigol had a fine swerving effort tipped over by the Czech keeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The game changed after a belated triple substitution which saw the entry of Aubameyang, Elneny and P\u00e9p\u00e9, and our Ivorian winger sent through by Auba held off the defender with five minutes to go and turned the ball into the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arsenal 1 Slavia 0- P\u00e9p\u00e9<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There was an obvious and exciting energy and drive about the revised team which had been sadly lacking before and it was hard not to wonder what might have been if we had gone with this team from the start or at least altered things on the hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1-0 with a few minutes left it seemed Arsenal would take a decent position to Prague next week but the problem of game management arose again at the end of the match. Slavia had missed several presentable chances earlier and after Leno had made a fine save with the aid of the right hand post in the last minute Slavia levelled the match from the resulting corner after we had failed to deal with a corner – a moment eerily reminiscent of the Olympiakos game last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arsenal 1 Slavia 1 – Holes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a cruel moment that will possibly have a massive impact on the result of the tie. Slavia celebrated as the game was already won and Arteta would be well advised to show those celebrations to the players before they step out in Prague next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what conclusions can we draw without the remorseless criticism that floods the Goonerverse after nights like this? I think Arteta picked a very passive starting eleven, the team lacked energy, thrust and drive and though competent Slavia are not the sort of side we should be struggling to beat. The failure to utilise Martinelli denied the team pace and aggression and the ability of P\u00e9p\u00e9 to stretch defenders was immediately obvious when he arrived. Lacazette was hopelessly isolated given this was a home quarter-final of a vital competition. We missed Tierney desperately and while Cedric toiled manfully to fill the breach the Scot\u2019s natural left-footedness would have been a huge asset tonight. It\u2019s easy to become embroiled in negativity but my other concern was the lack of drive from central midfield. The team\u2019s central metronomes, especially Partey, were ticking over very slowly. Partey\u2019s inability to dominate is a concern that is growing by the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this tie is far from over, in fact an Arsenal side who are much more effective away from home and who may be able to add \u00d8degaard to the mixture are well-capable of victory against this Slavia side. We must begin with the sort of attacking intent we showed against Olympiakos and Benfica and in the league against Wolves, Southampton and Leicester. We must control possession, stretch them especially down their vulnerable right side and we must conjure up the spirit of previous Arsenal sides facing adversity. This tie is not beyond us but the team need belief and Arteta needs to give them the positive mental attitude that will overcome the Czech side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Believe, Holics!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During last season we often commented that it seemed a cursed season, albeit one that lasted fifteen months but it ultimately ended in delight and a trophy. Tonight we set out to play a crucial quarter-final on which the immediate future of our club rested. Would we prevail or would the inconsistency that continually surfaces nowadays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2721,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions\/2721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}