Arsenal (1) 5 Sheffield United (0) 0
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Saturday, 28th October 2023. Kick-off time: 3.00pm
(4-3-3) David Raya, Ben White, William Saliba, Jakob Kiwior, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Emile Smith-Rowe, Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka (c), Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel Magalhães, Martin Ødegaard, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny
Scorers: Eddie Nketiah (29, 50, 58 mins), Fábio Vieira (88 mins), Takehiro Tomiyasu (90+5 mins)
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 67%
Referee: Tim Robinson
Assistant Referees: Eddie Smart, Nick Greenhalgh
Fourth Official: John Busby
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Michael Salisbury.; AVAR Nick Hopton
Attendance: 60,153
Mikel Arteta has made four changes in our first home game in the Premiership since beating Manchester City here in North London before the international break. Great to see Emile Smith-Rowe getting a start today, and as he has taken the place of our captain, the armband today is worn by Bukayo Saka.
We started the match completely on the front foot, with the ball almost breaking for Kai Havertz in the penalty area, but a quick-thinking lunge from defender Jack Robinson stopped him from getting an early shot at the goal, which could easily have opened the scoring for us.
The boys are pressurising the visitors, and from a Gabriel Martinelli corner, Jakub Kiwior desperately tried to get to the ball, but it flew way past him, which was a wasted chance.
After a thirty-five yard shot from the visitors courtesy of Gustavo Hamer which went wide of our goal, Bukayo Saka won a free kick in the Blades’ half, which although went nowhere, it was a great chance to open the scoring. The visitors are playing it really tight today, doing everything they can to keep out our strikers, but they surely could not keep this up for ninety minutes. Can they? No they can’t, actually.
After Gabriel Martinelli was receiving some treatment from the medical team after a bad tackle, Declan Rice crossed the ball into the penalty area, and after defender Auston Trusty missed it completely, Eddie Nketiah hit a beautiful right-footed shot from the centre of the Blades’ penalty area into the bottom left-hand corner of the net. Sheffield United came back at us briefly after the restart, but we quickly regrouped, got it together and put more pressure on the visitors’ goal.
Bukayo Saka passed a beautiful ball over to Gabriel Martinelli, whose left-footed shot from the left-hand side of the penalty area was saved by goalie Wes Foderingham as the ball was heading for the the top left hand corner of the net. We are in complete control of the match now, coming up to the half-time break. After a couple of corners in which Wes Foderingham miraculously kept our strikers from scoring the second goal, referee Tim Robinson brought first half matters to a conclusion.
Arsenal started the second half in fine fettle, pressurising the visitors’ goal relentlessly, which resulted in a well-deserved goal just five minutes after the restart, courtesy of a Bukayo Saka corner which found the trusty right foot of Eddie Nketiah, who shot from the left side of the six yard box to the top right-hand corner of the net; it was thought, however, that Ben White was impeding Wes Foderingham but the VAR team cancelled out the visitors’ appeals.
Eight minutes later, we were three goals up when Emile Smith-Rowe perfectly set up a beautiful ball for Eddie Nketiah to crack it into the back of the net from twenty-five yards for his hat-trick and our third goal of the afternoon. Great play, chaps.
We almost grabbed a fourth goal soon afterwards, when Gabriel Martinelli ran down the wing, cut the ball across to Ben White, whose strong shot was saved well by Wes Foderingham.
After sixty-six minutes, Ben White and Gabriel Martinelli were replaced by Takehiro Tomiyasu and Leandro Trossard, just to get some fresh legs on the pitch. Our boys are in complete control of this match now, and it is now starting to look like a training match at London Colney.
With fifteen minutes of the game remaining, Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe were replaced by Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira to give new legs a run out for the rest of the match.
We had a penalty appeal turned down when Eddie Nketiah took a tumble in the penalty area after a clumsy clash with centre-back Auston Trusty, and with two minutes of the match remaining, Fábio Vieira was hacked down by Oliver Norwood on the very edge of the penalty area, with referee Tim Robinson being asked to go to the pitchside monitor by the VAR team to check. A penalty was given, and Fábio Vieira made no mistake from the penalty spot.
A minute later, Mohamed Elneny replaced Declan Rice, and in the ten minutes of injury time, Takehiro Tomiyasu scored our fifth goal of the day when he hit a beautiful right-footed shot into the back of the net from the centre of the penalty area following a corner, and despite a VAR check again, our Japanese international’s first goal for the club rightly stood.
A couple of minutes later, referee Tim Robinson blew the whistle for the end of the match, much to the relief of our visitors here this afternoon.
All in all, it was a total wipeout for us today here at the Emirates, we were in complete control from the start of the game until the end.
Big congratulations to Eddie Nketiah for his hat-trick (particularly his sensational third goal) this afternoon. Everyone played very well today, with twelve shots on goal, (eight on target); with these impressive statistics, our confidence will be on the up for the Carabao Cup match against West Ham United on Wednesday evening. And, most importantly, we are just two points behind Tottenham Hotspur in the Premiership table tonight. Very well done, 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: West Ham United at the London Stadium on Wednesday, 1st November at 7.30pm (Carabao Cup). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
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She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 