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Match report – Player Ratings – Arteta reaction – Video
Arsenal returned to winning ways last night with a 1-0 victory of Shaktar Donetsk, but it’s fair to say it wasn’t the most convincing victory we’ve ever had.
Mikel Arteta played a strong side, with only two changes from the side that lost to Bournemouth on Saturday. Mikel Merino and Raheem Sterling dropped out, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli came in. I thought we started brightly, playing with decent tempo, and we should have been ahead early on when Riccardo Calafiori had a great chance, but scooped the ball over the bar from close range.
It wasn’t vintage stuff by any means, but there were decent chances in the first 45 minutes that we failed to make the most of. Kai Havertz set up Leandro Trossard but he completely miskicked with a clear sight of goal; Trossard put one wide at the near post after good work from Martinelli; Havertz was denied by a brilliant piece of defending after Jesus set him up, again a chance that stemmed from a Martinelli delivery; while Jesus himself had a brilliant opportunity to end the goal drought that goes back to January, but there wasn’t enough conviction in the finish and the keeper saved with his feet.
By that point we were a goal to the good though. Martinelli shifted the ball well inside the box and his deflected shot hit the post, then the goalkeeper’s arse, and into the back of the net. It was a touch fortunate, I suppose, but also reward for the Brazilian’s decisiveness. He was probably our best player on the night, drawing praise from the manager afterwards who said:
He looked really sharp, he looked really fresh, fresher than anybody else on that pitch. You noticed that against Bournemouth, you could tell that was different. He had another gear, he added another level of threat, he started the game really well and he had a great performance today.
So, while it wasn’t brilliant, we were set well for the second half which was, by any…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/10/arsenal-1-0-shaktar-donetsk-three-points-and-an-unconvincing-second-half/
Author : arseblog
Publish date : 2024-10-23 06:20:13
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