Arsenal's Fate Is In Their Hands

Match Review: Arsenal 3 Zagreb 0 - Champions League 24.11.15

Part one of the Champions League great escape was a breeze, as we cruised past Zagreb at the Emirates. It was not just an important victory in the context of staying alive in the Champions League, but for team morale. The team was in dire need of a positive result as injuries and poor form has seen our good start to the season stall somewhat. The result leaves our fate in the competition in our own hands, with a final day showdown in Greece to come.

With Coquelin now confirmed out for three months, we will be getting used to the sight of Flamini in the Arsenal midfield. Aaron Ramsey is fit again and took a place on the bench, while Campbell replaced Gibbs in the starting line-up. The rest of the team remained unchanged from the defeat at West Brom.

We were a little bit tentative to begin with, but we grew into the game and it was clear that we would have too much for Zagreb. Alexis and Cazorla both passed up decent opportunities and Giroud was denied what seemed like a clear penalty when he was shoved over just inside the box. Eventually though, Zagreb were carved open with just under thirty minutes on the clock.  

Zagreb overcommitted to an attack and we broke on them, with Flamini setting Alexis up down the right. The winger checked back inside and curled a perfect ball onto the head of Mesut Özil, stooping to knock the ball past the keeper. It was a sort of role reversal, you’d have almost expected it to be the other way round, but no matter the combination it was good for the team to settle any nerves there might have been.  

One quickly became two as Zagreb made a mistake in their own area. Instead of clearing their lines after intercepting Monreal’s pass, they tried to play out and immediately gave the ball straight back to our left back. Nacho took full advantage, bursting past the Zagreb back line and squaring the ball for a simple tap in for Alexis. You could tell it was an important moment for Alexis, he’s been struggling for form and that goal lifted some of the weight from his shoulders.

We ran riot for the rest of the half, with Cazorla and Özil both being denied by the Keeper and Giroud having a header cleared off the line. The second half was a bit more sedate, with not much happening until Alexis rounded off the win in the seventieth minute. Campbell deserves a lot of credit, as his excellent reverse ball split the defence and was weighted just right for Alexis to nip round the Keeper and fire into the roof of the net.

For me, getting the job done in Greece is imperative. We really could do without the long trips on Thursday nights and early matches on Sundays. Plus we want to stay in the top club competition in football, not dropping down to the level where Sp*rs play. Hopefully this win and performance can give us the confidence to push on in the league and put recent disappointments behind us. We have a series of very winnable games coming up and it’s important that we take advantage ahead of December’s game against Man City.

Teams

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Cech, Bellerin (Debuchy 82’), Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal (Y), Flamini, Cazorla (Chambers 82’), Alexis, Özil, Campbell, Giroud (Ramsey 67’)
Subs
Ospina, Chambers, Gabriel, Debuchy, Ramsey, Reine-Adelaide, Gibbs

Dinamo Zagreb (4-4-2)
Eduardo, Pinto, Sigali, Taravel, Matel, Machado (Coric 84’), Gonçalves Dos Santos, Antolic (Henríquez 70’), Pjaca, Rog, Fernandes (Soudani 57’)
Subs
Soudani, Musa, Sovsic, Henríquez, Pavicic, Coric, Mikulic

Player Ratings

Cech - 7/10 - Not called on much, but made one excellent reflex save
Bellerin - 7/10 - Solid after a shaky game last time out
Mertesacker - 7/10 - Untroubled
Koscielny - 7/10 - Untroubled
Monreal - 8/10 - Excellent, defensively superb and got an assist going forward
Flamini - 8/10 - I thought he was great, hopefully he can perform against better teams too
Cazorla - 8/10 - Bounced back from the weekend, a much needed confidence boost
Alexis - 8/10 - Two goals that will hopefully help him out of his little slump
Özil - 10/10 - Stunning, played everyone off the park with total ease
Campbell - 8/10 - More of this, less of the West Brom Campbell please
Giroud - 6/10 - Pretty anonymous, seemed to let the game pass him by a bit
Subs
Ramsey - 7/10 - Looked a little rusty, but his return is a massive boost
Debuchy - N/A
Chambers - N/A

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