Arsenal (3) 4 PSV Eindhoven (0) 0
UEFA Champions League Group B, Matchday 1 of 6
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Wednesday, 20th September 2023. Kick-off time: 8.00pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, Takehiro Tomiyasu, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Karl Hein.
Scorers: Bukayo Saka (8 mins), Leandro Trossard (20 mins), Gabriel Jesus (38 mins), Martin Ødegaard(70 mins)
Yellow Cards: Ben White
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 59%
Referee: Felix Zwayer (Germany)
Assistant Referees: Stefan Lupp (Germany), Eduard Beitinger (Germany)
Fourth Official: Sven Jablonski (Germany)
UEFA Referee Observer: Alexandru Deaconu (Romania)
UEFA VAR Team in Geneva: VAR Marco Fritz (Germany); AVAR Juan Martinez Munuera (Spain)
Attendance: circa 60,000
Tonight sees our return to the UEFA Champions League for the first time since the 2016-17 season, when we were miserably ejected from the competition by Bayern Munich in the Round of Sixteen. Still, that was then, and this now and who knows what we are able to achieve with our gallant squad of Young Guns? For this match, we will be without the services of Gabriel Martinelli, who was injured in Sunday’s victory at Everton, and David Raya continues to be in goal tonight as well.
Despite the awful weather, our supporters are in good heart, and after a minute’s silence for the recent disasters in Libya and Morocco, the match got underway. PSV are the first team to have an attempt on goal tonight as Noa Lang was allowed too much space to run towards the penalty area before he hit a low effort to the near post but fortunately David Raya got down quickly to save comfortably. The visitors look very confident as they continue to put us under pressure; however after just eight minutes, we took the lead when goalkeeper Walter Benitez dropped a shot and Bukayo Saka was on hand to capitalise on the goalie’s error. A fantastic start for us! Just a minute or so later, Gabriel Jesus was desperately unlucky in not grabbing the second goal, and then a good run on the edge of the penalty area by Bukayo Saka saw our man find some space. He skipped a challenge and then found Leandro Trossard, who sent a cross to the back post but Gabriel Jesus nodded the ball wide under pressure from the PSV defence. After twenty minutes, Leandro Trossard grabbed our second goal of the evening when Bukayo Saka ran down the right wing and picked out Leandro Trossard perfectly and the forward hit a wonderful strike into the bottom corner of the net. We continued our pressure on the PSV goal when Kai Havertz ballooned a shot over the top of the crossbar from close range, and a couple of minutes later, a Gabriel Jesus effort came even closer to scoring our third goal. The visitors came back at as, and although a Johan Bakayoko effort went wide of the post, we were dominating the match. We were committing players forward all the time, to try and grab a third goal before half time, and with seven minutes of the half remaining, Gabriel Jesus scored our third goal of the evening when Leandro Trossard managed to get behind the PSV defence on the left wing, looked up into the penalty area before sending a perfect cross to the feet of Gabriel Jesus, who simply drove the ball into the back of the net. Unfortunately, Ben White got tangled up with Sergino Dest and he undeservedly received the first yellow card of the game, and although two minutes injury time was played, nothing really happened, and we went into the break very much in command.
The second half started with much expectation from everyone in the crowd here at the Emirates, and there is a gneral hope that the boys can capitalise on their three-goal lead. Shortly after the restart, our captain placed a perfect pass to Gabriel Jesus just inside the PSV penalty area, but sadly, he was unable to turn the defender. The visitors tried to catch us on the break, but the resulting effort from Johan Bakayoko was easily covered by David Raya, and a few minutes afterwards, Reiss Nelson and Takehiro Tomiyasu replaced Leandro Trossard and Oleksandr Zinchenko with an idea by the manager to rest players before the North London derby on Sunday afternoon. We continued to apply pressure on the PSV defence, and although we were actively looking for that elusive fourth goal, the pace of the game has changed a little bit, with Arsenal seemingly happy with the goals that they already have, and PSV seemingly happy in not conceding any more goals either. With twenty minutes of the match remaining, Mikel Arteta made some more changes as Emile Smith-Rowe made his first appearance of the season; he came on the pitch along with Fabio Vieira; Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka made way for this duo. Kai Havertz held the ball up and then found Emile Smith-Rowe, who used his upper body strength to hold off a defender and passed it neatly to Reiss Nelson, who in turn slotted the ball to Martin Ødegaard, who took a simple touch before hammering an unstoppable twenty-five yard strike into the bottom corner of the net to make it four-nil to Arsenal on the night. We were still hungry for yet more goals though, as our strikers continued to apply massive pressure on the PSV defence; Reiss Nelson was desperately unlucky in not grabbing a fifth goal when his shot was blocked, and as the match petered out, with the crowd starting to leave, there was a huge sense of a job extremely well done.
Tonight, our captain Martin Ødegaard was absolutely immense, leading by example and getting his just reward by scoring the fourth and final goal tonight. Declan Rice and Kai Havertz had complete control, and it was heartening to see Emile Smith-Rowe making his first appearance of the season, let’s pray that it won’t be his last. David Raya had very little to do in our goal, and Leandro Trossard constantly and consistently showed his class througout. A job very, very well done tonight, chaps.
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates on Sunday, 24th September at 2.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 