Arsenal (3) 4 Rapid Vienna (0) 1

UEFA Europa League, Group B, Matchday 5 of 6

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Thursday, 3rd December 2020. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Alex Rúnarsson; Cédric Soares, Shkodran Mustafi, Pablo Marí, Sead Kolašinac; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Mohamed Elneny; Nicolas Pépé, Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson; Alexandre Lacazette.

Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Kieran Tierney, Bukayo Saka, Dani Ceballos, Willian Borges da Silva, Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Joe Willock, Emile Smith-Rowe, Matt Macey, Folarin Balogun, Miguel Azeez.

Scorers: Alexandre Lacazette (9 mins), Pablo Marí (17 mins), Eddie Nketiah (44 mins), Emile Smith-Rowe (66 mins)

Yellow Cards: Mohamed Elneny, Shkodran Mustafi

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 71%

Referee: Radu Petrescu (Romania)

Assistant Referees: Radu Ghinguleac (Romania), Mihai Marica (Romania)

Fourth Official: Marcel Birsan (Romania)

Referee Observer: Pascal Garibian (France) 

Attendance: A maximum of 2,000 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

For the penultimate match in Group B of the Europa League, we are without the services of David Luiz, after his head injury on Sunday’s match against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Emirates. Also on the missing list tonight is Thomas Partey (thigh problem) and Gabriel Martinelli, who has a knee injury, but the big news is that two thousand spectarors are allowed into the Emirates to see the match tonight for the first time in almost nine months! Let’s go!

Good to see the supporters back; our players went across to applaud them just before the kick-off and were greeted with rousing applause all round the stadium. At last. Within ten minutes, the players rose to the occasion, with Alexandre Lacazette picking up the ball from a throw-in, running towards the goal, and with all the confidence in the world, hit the ball from thirty yards into the back of the visitors’ net. By rights, it should have been two-nil a couple of minutes’ later, when Nicolas Pépé jinked and juggled over on the right, crossed the ball low, only for Shkodran Mustafi’s diving header to go a couple of feet wide of the post. Several chances came our way, then from a deceptive inswinging corner by Reiss Nelson, defender Pablo Marí, returning from injury tonight, rose to head the ball into the Rapid net for our second goal after just seventeen minutes. Arsenal were completely in control now, spraying passes across the pitch, creating chances for the wide players to run onto. After some superb movement out on the right, Alexandre Lacazette side-footed the ball against the foot of the post from twenty yards, and just before the half-hour mark, Ainsley Maitland-Niles broke through the visitors’ defence, chipped the goalkeeper, only to see his final effort go wide of the post. Time after time, we won the ball in the critical areas of the pitch and advanced confidently towards the visitors’ goal. A minute or so before half-time, we scored our third of the night, when some quick one-touch passing that started from around the half-way line, which was worked between our players accurately into the penalty area where Reiss Nelson lined it up perfectly for Eddie Nketiah; although his first shot was saved by the goalkeeper, he reacted quickly to head in the rebound to ensure that we went into the half-time break three goals ahead. 

The second half commenced with Rapid Vienna scoring a bizarre goal within two minutes of the restart. The ball bounced around like a pinball in our penalty area, pinging from Alex Rúnarsson and out, then on to Sead Kolašinac via Kelvin Arase (twice), before Koya Kitagawa scored for the visitors from close range. Rapid Vienna started to get back into the match now, with two efforts from Yusuf Demir and Koya Kitagawa on our goal going perilously close. A few minutes’ later, some superb work by Nicolas Pépé found Alexandre Lacazette, who was unlucky in not adding to his tally, when his shot went just wide of the post. On the hour, Ainsley Maitland-Niles was also unfortunate not to score, but goalie Richard Strebinger managed to parry his strong shot away for a corner. Mikel Arteta brought on Emile Smith-Rowe, Dani Ceballos and Willian for Alexandre Lacazette, Reiss Nelson and Mohamed Elneny, and just minutes later, young substitute Emile Smith-Rowe grabbed our fourth of the night, when some unselfish work by Nicolas Pépé enabled him to score from close range. Shkodran Mustafi was substituted for Calum Chambers, whose return from injury led to a burst of applause from our supporters. Our substitutes energised the team thoroughly, and we created some exciting chances to score. With ten minutes’ left on the clock, Dani Ceballos was unfortunate not to score when his thirty-yard free-kick was tipped over the bar by Richard Strebinger. Another one of our “young guns”, Folarin Balogun, replaced Eddie Nketiah, which rejuvenated the front line for the remainder of the match. Time and time again, our strikers were putting extreme pressure on the Rapid Vienna goal, with our players playing some close, neat passing football which deserved more goals, but it was not to be.

A thoroughly entertaining match, that saw us not only keep our one hundred per cent record in this season’s Europa League, but also one that gave some of our players a good ninety minute run out to clear the mothballs away. It was good to see the return from injury of both Calum Chambers and Pablo Marí (who also got on the scoresheet, of course), also the young players who came on as substitutes which helped our victory tonight enormously. But make no mistake, it will be a different Arsenal on Sunday afternoon against Tottenham Hotspur, and that match is a must-win for us; with our poor Premiership position, we cannot afford to make any mistakes which ma lead to a defeat. We’ll see.

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 Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, 6th December at 4.30pm (Premier League). 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.

Unai Emery is a good manager who has had success everywhere he has been.

Mikel Arteta is a highly rated young coach, who has drawn praise from Jurgen Klopp, Arsene Wenger and Mauricio Pochettino.

Both men are good at their job. But they are being let down by the players around them.

The same issues we had in Arsene Wenger’s last season were present through-out Emery’s tenure and have not disappeared under Arteta.

The FA Cup win, and victories over Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea last year papered over some cracks. Defeats to Brighton and Aston Villa as the football returned from lockdown showed the Jekyll and Hyde team that we are.

Arsenal’s biggest problem is that the core group of players that have been with the club for the last 3 and a bit seasons are simply not good enough, and firstly Emery and then Arteta are paying the price.

We have amassed a squad of players that is lacking in quality, lacking in consistency and lacking in the right attitude.

And the issue is that due to the money that they are on and the length of contracts handed out, both Emery and Arteta, alongside Raul Sanllehi and Edu, have struggled to move them on.

That means neither Emery or Arteta have been able to build the squad they want. They have had to utilise the legacy players mainly bought in during Arsene Wenger’s later years, who have proved for some time that they are not god enough.

Now this is not a blog blaming Wenger for everything that has gone wrong.

He sanctioned the signing of some of those players, contracts were agreed by Ivan Gazidis, recruitment by Sven Mislintat. And Emery, Arteta, Sanllehi and Edu have not had perfect records of bringing players in.

But we have a good dozen or so players that need to be shipped out, and most of them pre-date Wenger leaving.

Take Mesut Ozil and Sokratis.

The pair are not even registered to play in either the Premier League or Europa League but will earn £23million between them this season.

We demand more of Stan Kroenke, but why would he invest when he sees £23million going out the door on players that do not play?

Then we have the likes of Granit Xhaka, Sead Kolasinac, Shkodran Mustafi for starters

Xhaka and Mustafi are in their 5th and Kolasinac his 4^th. Have any of them every done it on a consistent enough basis to justify still being here? No.

They earn a combined £15million.

Is anyone keeping a running total? If not we are up to £38million a year. And we are not done yet.

Calum Chambers joined the club in 2014. This is his 7^th season at Arsenal. He has been shopped out on loan to Fulham and Middlesbrough. Relegated at both.

Whilst Rob Holding is now in his 5^th season at the club.

I like the pair. They seem to be normal lads. But are they ever going to be good enough for The Arsenal? At 25-years-old, we need to stop talking about what they might become and focus on what they are. Two lower-mid table Premier League central defenders. You’d maybe keep one of them around as a squad player, but certainly do not need both.

Both earn in the region of £40,000. Another £2million.

All these players mentioned so far bar Xhaka is fringe player. A squad player. And the two unregistered players. They earn in the region of £40million a year between them. Nd none of them are good enough.

Over 5 years that is £200million.

And then we come on to the likes of David Luiz and Willian. Two newer signings.

The Brazilian pair earn £15million  year.

They were short term options signed out of desperation. Both should be surplus to requirements at the end of this year. But we will probably end up stuck with Willian.

And then we have “senior pros” Hector Bellerin and Alexandre Lacazette.

I love Bellerin. He is a fantastic person and personality, and gets grief from some fans just because he is a little different. But as a player he is no better now then he was in 2016 as a 21 year old.

Lacazette has yet to do anything that has justified his £45million transfer fee and huge wages. He is the 5^th highest earning player at the club but would not get into most peoples starting XI.

Bellerin and Luiz also earn £15million a year.

So we have Ozil and Sokratis. Xhaka, Mustafi, and Kolasinac. Chambers or Holding. Willian and Luiz. Bellerin and Lacazette.

That is 10 players who are not really up for it. Who have proved over up to 8 years that they are not the quality to take us forward. And they earn between them around £70million a year. That is one third of our wage bill on 10 players who are not good enough.

Over 5 years, those 10 players will cost Arsenal £350million.

Imagine the improvements on the squad Arsenal could make with a further £350m to be spent on transfer fees and 5 year contracts.

So if we got the 10 players clearly not good enough off our wage bill, that give allow us to finance 5 new signings. Players that improve the top end of the squad. Players like Thomas Partey and Gabriel Magalhães. Sign the likes of Max Aarons, Houssem Aouar, Dominik Szoboszlai.

“But we are losing 10 and only signing 5” you cry.

Yes, but lets remember 2 of those 10 are unregistered, and we currently have a 31-man squad.

Losing 10, signing 5 would see us with a 26-man squad, that would contain more quality than quality, looking something like this:

You can then fill in the gaps with the players you would want, but what it highlights is that due to having 10 players who are not really good enough, Arteta (and before him Emery) is being denied 5 players they do want. 5 players that would all probably start in the XI. 50% of the outfield players.

Until we ship out those players who have let us down time and again, we will not move forward as a club regardless of who the manager is.

The good news if that the contracts of Ozil, Mustafi, Sokratis and Luiz are expiring at the end of this season, so 4 of the 10 will naturally leave.

The club should be able to find buyers for Lacazette, Bellerin, Xhaka, Kolasinac & Chambers/Holding, even if we only accept a minimal transfer fee for them. That would leave just Willian.

Once these players are shipped out, even if it is just 7 of the 10, Edu and Arteta will then have the funds to rebuild the squad. Stronger, leaner, hungrier, better.

Keenos

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— 🎗 ///SHE WORE/// 🎗 (@SheWore) November 2, 2020