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Match Report: Olympiakos 0 – 1 Arsenal

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Olympiakos FC (0) 0 Arsenal (0) 1
UEFA Europa League, Round of 32, First Leg
Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus 185 47, Greece
Thursday, 20th February 2020. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, Bukayo Saka; Mattéo Guendouzi, Granit Xhaka; Gabriel Martinelli, Joe Willock, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang; Alexandre Lacazette.
Substitutes: Dani Ceballos, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Rob Holding, Nicolas Pépé, Emiliano Martínez, Eddie Nketiah, Sead Kolašinac.
Scorers: Alexandre Lacazette (81mins)
Yellow Cards: Granit Xhaka, Shkodran Mustafi
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 49%
Referee: Felix Zwayer (Germany)
Attendance: 32,115

And so, back to The Europa League for the first time in this calendar year, which has now become a crucial fixture in a soon-to-be-important competition for us. Mesut Özil has not travelled with the players for the match, due to personal reasons; however, we welcome the return of Mattéo Guendouzi to the team tonight, after having being dropped for the 4-0 drubbing of Newcastle United at The Emirates last Sunday afternoon.

Right from the get-go, we absolutely dominated the match with superb on and off the ball play, and for the first twenty minutes, our chances were many and the accuracy of the shots were few; however, having said that, both Alexandre Lacazette and Gabriel Martinelli were desperately unlucky not to open the scoring with golden chances, which looking at them from afar, should have had Malheiro de Sá, the Olympiakos goalie picking the balls out from the back of the net. The criminal thing was not only did we not score, but we also started to lose our grip on the match, thus allowing the home side through with several chances, in which Bernd Leno worked extremely hard in order to keep a clean sheet; the best save he made in the first period came when Youssef El-Arabi’s shot was parried at close range just after the half-hour mark. The game now became pedestrian and slow, and the half-time whistle came as a relief for everyone in the stadium.

Bearing in mind that the second half of our matches this season regularly shows a resurgence, the team did not disappoint anyone here tonight. When the tiring Gabriel Martinelli was replaced by Dani Ceballos after the hour mark, we sensed things would change for the better, starting with a David Luiz free kick, in which he was unlucky not to open the scoring. The match started to show some spark now, with both sides showing a desire to score, and in doing so, quite a few hefty tackles started to fly in here and there, so much so, that five bookings were taken by Felix Zwayer, two of them being Arsenal players, Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi, both of which seemed minor and pointless in the greater scheme of things. Mikel Arteta must have felt that enough was enough when Mathieu Valbuena’s shot went narrowly past Bernd Leno’s post, that he made his second substitution of the night, and this one turned the fortune of the game in our favour. When Nicolas Pépé replaced the ineffective Joe Willock with a quarter of an hour left on the clock, his mere presence lifted the by-now fatigued and frustrated Arsenal team. Suddenly we played faster, speeding up through the gears, and on the eighty-first minute, the trap was sprung. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang received the ball and quickly flicked it into the channel for Bukayo Saka to run onto; slipping away from his man, he passed the ball into the six-yard box for the predatory Alexandre Lacazette to score easily from close range. In the remaining minutes, Sokratis Papastathopoulos hit the bar and Alexandre Lacazette was desperately unlucky not to score again, but it was not to be, and we return to North London satisfied with a job well done, even though it looked a different proposition in the latter stages of the first half.

Yes, it was a dull match at times, and yes, we were lucky not to concede a goal early on the match, but the ends justify the means, and we go into next week’s return leg in the ascendancy, which is always a very good and warm feeling. Bukayo Saka was again the star of the night with his intelligent play and his pinpoint passing into our opponents’ box in order for the strikers to run onto, and Bernd Leno played superbly in preventing Olympiakos from scoring. Okay, it wasn’t pretty, but we won, and let’s enjoy this moment. 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: Everton at The Emirates on Sunday, 23rd February at 4.30pm (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.

The man who could save Arsenal millions

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In recent weeks Bukayo Saka has put in some superb performances at left back that has left some calling for him to get an England call up.

The 18-year-old is exciting. And it will be even more exciting when he is played further forward on the left wing.

Saka is a winger. He is an attacker. A goal scorer. A creator. He is not a left back.

Whilst he can be commended for his performances at full back – and his time there will make him a  much more rounded players, anyone that thinks he will do an “Ashley Cole” and move from winger needs to remove those thoughts from their mind.

Arsenal lack wingers – the only senior natural winger in the squad is Nicolas Pepe. Saka and Reiss Nelson are both huge talents.

This lack of wide man has led Mikel Arteta to play Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out wide.

Whilst Aubameyang is a goal threat, he does not really create much. Playing on the left wing he is currently averaging less than 1 chance created per 90 minutes (0.7). That is not good enough.

Gabriel Martinelli has also played a little bit on the left wing. But like Aubameyang he does not really crate much – 0.3 chances created per 90 minutes.

Meanwhile Saka has 8 assists this season, which is more than Martinelli and Aubameyang combined.

Some have made the point that Arteta could keep Saka at left back and play either Martinelli or Aubameyang ahead of him, in an ultra attacking left hand side. But Saka at left back is not as effective going forward as Saka on the wing.

At left back, Saka creates 0.8 chances per 90 minutes. That nearly trebles to 2.3 chances created when he is played in a more forward position on the left hand side.

The statistics show that he is easily our most creative player on the left wing.

You then have Kieran Tierney.

Tierney is the best crosser of the ball at the club. He has shown in his few games this season that he is a threat going forward similar to that of Trent Alexander-Arnold at Liverpool.

Tierney averages 1.1 chances created per 90minutes.

So in Tierney, we have a left back that creates more chances than Saka. And in Saka we have a winger who creates more chances than Aubameyang and Martinelli.

https://twitter.com/KeenosAFC/status/1229368016309227520

It is a simple equation. The more chances you create the more chances you have to score.

Saka and Tierney on the left will create 3+ chances a game between them. Any other combination does not even create 2 chances a game.

By pushing Saka forward on the wing, it also forces Aubamayang back into the middle. He is out best striker. He should play down the middle.

With Hector Bellerin and Nicolas Pepe beginning to build a relationship on the right hand side, it would make a lot of sense for Arteta to play Tierney / Saka on the left until the end of the season. Saka could save us millions!

It is clear that Saka and Tierney are our most creative duo. It will be exciting when they are together.

Keenos

Arsenal need to focus on creators in the transfer market

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Arsenal’s biggest problem this season has been scoring goals.

32 goals in 25 Premier League games equals 1.28 goals a game. Only 3 times during 28 years of Premier League football have Arsenal averaged less goals per game – the peak years of George Graham’s “boring boring Arsenal” – 1992/93, 93/94 & 95/96.

Arsenal added £72million Nicolas Pepe to a strike force of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette in the summer.

The trio cost Arsenal nearly £200million and last season scored 57 league goals between them – with Nicolas Pepe’s 22 coming in France. This season they have just 22 league goals; 14 of which were from Aubameyang. It is just not good enough.

Despite the 3 being below par this season, they are not actually underperforming as goal scorers.

To score goals, you need to get the opportunities, and the fact is this season Arsenal have not created enough changes.

For Arsenal to be 17th in “big chances created” according to the Premier League’s own statistics shows just how bad the problem has been this season.

If Mikel Arteta wants his side to challenge for top 4 next season, he needs to get the side creating more chances.

Mesut Ozil has been our chief creator this season, leading the way with 2.3 “key passes” per 90 minutes. But this output is his worst in an Arsenal shirt – and well below his Arsenal career high of 4.3 key passes per 90.

It is clear the Ozil’s influence is on the team is dwindling. He is no longer the consistent creator he was a couple of years ago. But this blog is not going to turn into an Ozil-bashing one.

In the past Ozil has been backed up by Santi Cazorla (avg 2.3) & Alex Sanchez (2.5) and even Alex Iwobi (2.8).

Last season Ozil was 4th when it came to key passes per 90 behind Iwobi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Saed Kolasinac. All 4 averaged over 2 key passes per game. This season Ozil is the only man above 2, and his next nearest is Nicolas Pepe at just 1.9.

Arsenal need to try and get some creativity into the team.

Aubameyang on the wing might get a few goals, but he does not create much –  averaging less than 1 key pass per 90 minutes.

Arsenal need to add 2 creators to the squad – one to play wide left and one to potentially replace Ozil who is no longer reaching his high levels of 4 seasons.

So who is out there?

In an attempt to find a gem, I have gone all money-ball. Looking at players who actually create a lot of chances rather than those big names we think create a lot. It is also important to look at those players who create through “short passes” rather than both short and long.

Focusing on short passes ensures we exclude those who create chances through corners (James Maddison) and focuses our time on those who create chances in and around the box.

I have also added the criteria of being “under 27” so that we do not go big on a player who is at his peak, and will unlikely remain beyond the initial 4 year contract.

This is my findings:

We saw against Newcastle how having a more progressive midfield can transform the team.

Whilst Dani Ceballos might not be the long term answer, Arsenal do not to look at getting in central midfielder who is a better passer than Granit Xhaka, Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira.

We used to have the likes of Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla playing from deep. We have missed someone who can contribute from a deeper position alongside our problems to create from up top,

In summary:

  • Aubameyang is not a winger
  • We need to buy (or promote) at least 2 players to provide competition and support for Mesut Ozil and Nicola Pepe (or in Ozil’s case potentially replace)
  • We need to sign a central mdifielder whose first thought is passing forward

Keenos

Note: This blog was written prior to Arsenal’s 4-0 win over Newcastle