Arsenal (0) 1 Manchester City (0) 0
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Sunday, 8th October 2023. Kick-off time: 4.30pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Declan Rice; Gabriel Jesus, Eddie Nketiah, Leandro Trossard.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli, Jakob Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Kai Havertz.
Scorers: Gabriel Martinelli (86 mins)
Yellow Cards: Jorginho, Gabriel Jesus
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 51%
Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt, Lee Betts
Fourth Official: Tim Robinson
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR John Brooks; AVAR Darren Cann
Attendance: 60,233
Unfortunately Bukayo Saka is not playing today after limping off during the Champions League defeat by Lens last Tuesday, and Gabriel Martinelli is expected to miss a sixth successive game because of a hamstring issue (editors note: we write these match reports prior to and during the game so that they tell the story of the day!), although he appears to be fit enough to take his place on the substitute’s bench. With the apparent absence of Rodri, John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne, this could be a very good opportunity to grab three points from the Premiership champions today.
The match kicked off in a cracking Sunday afternoon atmosphere here in North London. William Saliba won an aerial challenge with Erling Haaland within the first two minutes, so obviously this duel between these two players will be a feature of the game.
Declan Rice headed the ball off the line and Nathan Aké’s follow up shot went way over David Raya’s crossbar and into the crowd. We won our first corner of the match after ten minutes and Martin Ødegaard’s delivery was not handled convincingly by Phil Foden but eventually the visitors’ defence cleared the ball.
Jorginho was booked for a frustrating tackle on Phil Foden, and as the match was starting to settle down, both evenly matched teams were looking for chinks in each other’s respective armour, which is only to be expected. However, after some quick passing by the visitors as they were atempting find an opening in our defence, Ruben Dias played the ball forward, looking for Phil Foden, but Jorginho read the danger extremely well.
After just eighteen minutes, we were extremely lucky not to concede a goal when we were closed down as we attempted to play out from the back and as the ball was played back to a nervous David Raya, who took far too long to clear the ball, and unbelievably his kick was blocked by Julian Alvarez; the ball was deflected into the side netting but it could very easily have gone into our open goal.
Bernardo Silva hacked down Eddie Nketiah as he attempted to get forward and he was quite rightly booked for his troubles.
David Raya was looking very nervous today as he hit a pass straight to opposition players on the edge of our penalty area, but the visitors could not capitalise on his error, thankfully.
A great chance to score the opening goal from Eddie Nketiah as he was just inside the opponents’ penalty area which went wide of Ederson’s post, and after a nasty challenge by Mateo Kovacic on our captain which was checked by VAR and he was awarded a yellow card by referee Michael Oliver, when many in the stadium felt that it was a red card.
After a foul on Gabriel Jesus which led to a free kick which was taken by Martin Ødegaard that was easily plucked out of the air by Ederson, Erling Haaland held the ball up and brought Julian Alvarez into play, but thankfully his a shot flew high over the crossbar from just outside the penalty area.
Mateo Kovacic caught Declan Rice on the ankle, which was a nasty foul; it was definitely a second yellow but the referee waved away our protests.
There were some very strong tackles flying in from both sides, and the game was starting to look very spikey indeed.
With five minutes of the first half remaining, Phil Foden sent Josko Gvardiol away down the left wing and he whipped in a ball that David Raya just about got his fingertips to, doing just enough to ensure Erling Haaland was unable to reach it thankfully. Very few opportunities to score occurred in injury time, so both sides went into the break goalless.
Gabriel Martinelli replaced Leandro Trossard at the beginning of the second half, and as we kicked off, we were all hoping that we can get three points from this encounter. Gabriel Martinelli put a fantastic ball into the penalty area from the left wing, but a leaping Eddie Nketiah was unable to reach it.
David Raya just cleared the ball away in time as Julian Alvarez put him under pressure in the early minutes of the second half. A couple of minutes later, Eddie Nketiah won a corner as his cross deflected behind Ederson’s goal. The resulting corner kick into the penalty area was cleared as far as Martin Ødegaard, whose strong shot flew over the crossbar.
Gabriel Martinelli gathered the ball up on the left-hand side, but his strong shot was too close to Ederson, and the City goalie saved it easily.
Eddie Nketiah was picked out inside the penalty area by a high pass, but Ruben Dias prevented him from turning in on the City goal and after Rico Lewis got the ball into the back of our net (which was cancelled out for a foul), we started to dig in and look for opportunities to score the opening goal of the game.
Some really good build up play by our boys ended with Gabriel Jesus sneaking past Phil Foden on the right but his cross just could not beat Nathan Aké sadly. We were subsequently awarded a corner, which ended up with Oleksandr Zinchenko whacking a superb effort over the crossbar as the ball was half cleared to him.
After Matheus Nunes tried to close down David Raya which led to a corner that went nowhere, a long-range shot from our captain flew over the bar. Kai Havertz, Thomas Partey and Takehiro Tomiyasu replaced Jorginho, Eddie Nketiah and Oleksandr Zinchenko with fifteen mintues of the game remaining in order to bring fresh legs into the fray.
Declan Rice superbly robbed Matheus Nunes of the ball in a dangerous position on the edge of our penalty area, and a few minutes later we had a shout for a penalty turned down as Gabriel Jesus was clearly brought down in the City six-yard box.
With just four minutes of the match remaining, we finally broke the deadlock when Takehiro Tomiyasu headed the ball down into the path of Gabriel Martinelli, whose right-footed shot flew into the City net, off the head of Nathan Aké that caught Ederson wrong-footed.
The goal gave us a massive confidence boost and we were pushing hard for a second goal. In the four minutes’ injury time, Gabriel Jesus received a pointless yellow card for a confrontation with Ederson, but despite some heavy tackling from boith sides, we ran out one-nil victors here tonight.
What a match! So tight at times, so dogged.
Declan Rice, William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli were outstanding today, and although David Raya was nervous, even hesitant at times, we were well organised and incredibly resilient in defence, keeping Erling Haaland at bay, and in the end, all of our hard work was rewarded with the winning goal, albeit with it coming through a deflection off Nathan Aké.
We are now equal points at the top of the Premiership with our “friends” from N17, and after the international break of next weekend, we have a small matter of a London derby with Chelsea over in SW6. 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: Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, 21st October at 5.30pm (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 