MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 1 – 0 PSV

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Arsenal (0) 1 PSV Eindhoven (0) 0

Europa League, Group Stage Matchday 4 of 6

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Thursday, 20th October 2022. Kick-off time: 6.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Matt Turner; Takehiro Tomiyasu, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Albert Sambi Lokonga, Granit Xhaka(c); Bukayo Saka, Fabio Vieira, Eddie Nketiah; Gabriel Jesus.

Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Thomas Partey, Martin Ødegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, William Saliba, Reiss Nelson, (Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar) Marquinhos, Karl Hein, Catalin Cirjan, Khayon Edwards.

Scorers: Granit Xhaka (70 mins)

Yellow Cards: Kieran Tierney, Granit Xhaka, Martin Ødegaard

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 62%

Referee: Alejandro José Hernández Hernández (Spain)

Assistant Referees: José Naranjo (Spain), Diego Sanchez Rojo (Spain)

Fourth Official: Muñiz Ruiz (Spain)

UEFA Referee Observer: Kristinn Jakobsson (Iceland)

UEFA Delegate: Miroslaw Ryszka (Poland)

VAR Team at UEFA HQ, Nyon, Switzerland: VAR Juan Martínez Munuera (Spain); AVAR Ricardo De Burgos (Spain)

Attendance: circa 50,000

Tonight’s match at the Emirates is of course, the rescheduled second game from a month ago, and quite frankly, it is one that we need to win in order to continue our one hundred per cent record in Group A of this season’s Europa League. Our opponents are currently in second place in the table, and it is also interesting to note that the PSV Eindhoven coach is the former Manchester United player Ruud van Nistelrooy; if his team is as competitive as he was, then we should certainly see an interesting match tonight.

Within minutes of the kick-off, Eddie Nketiah’s right footed shot from outside the box missed to the right of the PSV Eindhoven goal, which led to the next ten minutes or so of pressure on the visitors’ goal with Kieran Tierney, Granit Xhaka and Eddie Nketiah getting very close to opening the scoring with superb shots on the PSV goal from open play. The match rocked backwards and forwards but overall at this point in the game, we were the dominant team, although when PSV Eindhoven came forward, they did threaten us although they were caught offside on several occasions, the most dangerous one being when Guus Til tried a through ball, but Xavi Simons was caught offside, thankfully. Nine minutes before the half-time break, Bukayo Saka crossed the ball (following a corner) into the visitors’ penalty area, finding Gabriel, who had an attempt to score from a very close range, but narrowly missed the goal unfortunately. With five minutes left before the break, Graniti Xhaka won a free kick in the PSV half, and although his through ball found Fabio Vieira, his left-footed shot went agonisingly wide. In injury time, Granit Xhaka was booked for a petulant tackle on an opponent, which was a shame really; it also meant that we went into the break honours even.

The second half started rather sluggishly, but livened up seven minutes into the half when Bukayo Saka set up Gabriel Jesus, whose strong left-footed shot from the centre of the box was saved in the centre of the goal. The visitors came back at us, with an excellent Xavi Simons effort from the centre of the box which went high and wide to the right, and almost immediately from Matt Turner’s goal kick, Gabriel Jesus grabbed the ball, and got it to Bukayo Saka, but the goalie managed to get his hand to the effort somehow. PSV Eindhoven started to get frustrated, so much so that Érick Gutiérrez was booked for a nasty challenge, which merely served our desire to win this match. Granit Xhaka, Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus were lining up to take pot shots by this time, and although the visitors tried to hold us up by committing fouls, it seemed inevitable that we would score, and score soon as well. Mikel Arteta made a double substitution with Thomas Partey and Martin Ødegaard replacing Fábio Vieira and Albert Sambi Lokonga in order to push forward and get a goal, and sure enough with twenty minutes of the match remaining, utilising a pass from Takehiro Tomiyasu, Granit Xhaka’s right-footed shot from the centre of the box beat the goalkeeper and ended up in the bottom left corner of the net to give us the lead in this match at last. In order to consolidate our lead, two more substitutions were made when Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel Jesus were replaced by Ben White and Gabriel Martinelli to add yet more spark to the side. Martin Ødegaard and Gabriel Martinelli linked up well, with the latter being unlucky to score with eleven minutes of the game remaining, and both Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah were desperately unlucky not to score as the match entered its last five minutes. Reiss Nelson replaceds Bukayo Saka, and a couple of minutes later, both Martin Ødegaard and Kieran Tierney were given yellow cards for fouls which were borne out of frustration more than anything else. After an excellent Eddie Nketiah shot from the centre of the box which was blocked by a PSV defender, the whistle blew for the end of the match, and our unbeaten record remained intact.

It was not one of the great matches, but we kept our record, and if we get a point from next week’s return leg in Eindhoven, then we proceed to the last sixteen of this competition as group winners which is the most important thing of all. It is to be recalled, with regards to this match that Eddie Nketiah had six of our twenty-five efforts on goal, failing to hit the target once, whilst Granit Xhaka missed a certain goal on his favoured left foot from an arguably easier position in the first half than the chance he scored with in the second half. Bukayo Saka saw two powerful efforts superbly repelled by the PSV goalkeeper, whilst Gabriel Jesus was particularly unlucky in his pursuit of a goal. But the bottom line of it all, is that we won, and we proceed in this competition.

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: Southampton at St. Mary’s Stadum on Sunday, 23rd October 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

Arsenal strengthen position at top of table despite not playing

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Morning all, and another round of Thursday night football. Although is 6pm more late afternoon?

Bit of a nightmare kick off for most today.

With most working 9-5 or 9-5.30, it means many of us will be having to duck out early from work, or arrive late for the game.

I would not be surprised if the Emirates is half empty at kick off as fans commute in from their jobs, and as the game goes on it fills up.

It will also be a nightmare outside the ground today as fans do not logistically have the 2 hours prior to kick off to enter, and more than usual with arrive with bags.

Having it at 6pm (so that the game does not clash with the evening Premier League games) once again shows it is more important to “maximise TV viewiership” than do what is in the interest of fans that go in, week in, week out.

The mid-week Premier League fixtures have fallen favourable for us. We remain top without even playing.

Chelsea drew away to Brentford whilst Tottenham lost away to Manchester United.

For many of our rivals, yesterday was their “game in hand” on us.

This round of games now mean that Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool have played 10 games. Newcastle and Tottenham have played 11.

We are top of the league and rightly so!

On Tottenham, Antonio Conte is turning them into a traditional Italian team.

Five at the back
Three defensive minded midfielders
Hoof it up to the big lad in the hope the smaller quick lad gets onto it

They might be having their best start in their history, but it is really turgid football, and once the results start falling away the fans will turn.

Onto tonight.

We win and we are in the next round of the Europa League, and one foot in the last 16.

Expect a fairly strong team due to this.

On a personal note, a year ago today I was made redundant from a job I had “loved” for 15 years. Since then I have gone onto bigger and better things (as well walked away with a nice redundancy package!).

It has taught me to value myself more.

Anyone going through the same thing, do not worry, do not be fearful of the future.

There are so many opportunities out there and if your current company do not value you, someone else will. And probably pay you a lot more for the same job.

Enjoy the game tonight.

Keenos

NINE contentious VAR decision’s in Arsenal’s last 3 games – how many were correct?

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Happy Wednesday!

Whilst the Premier League is having a mid-week game week, we are sitting on our thumbs waiting for a Europa League game tomorrow.

The home tie against PSV was cancelled due to “policing issues” following the Queens death. The re-arranged fixture postponed the Manchester City match that we were supposed to play this week.

Have any PSV or Manchester City fan been compensated? Probably not. Shows once again that the authorities do not care about those fans that spend their hard earned cash following their team over land and sea.

Over the last 10 days there has been a lot of talk about how Arsenal are getting the “rub of the green from VAR”.

Even when commentators are agreeing with the decision that the refereeing team come to, they are still saying “Arsenal got lucky there”.

But are Arsenal getting the rub of the green? Or is this it just the onfield officials and VAR working together to come to the right decisions? Let’s investigate:

Emerson Royal red card
Onfield decision: Red card
VAR decision: Red card
Notes: Emerson was late, from behind, scrapping down Gabriel Martinelli’s Achilles. These sort of challenges need to be red cards. They can no only be a red when it leads to a broken ankle.
Correct decision

Saka offside
Onfield decision: No offside
VAR: No offside
Notes: Technology could not conclusively overule the onfield decision, so it was correct they stayed with the linos decision.
Correct decision

Gabriel Martinelli challenge on Trent
Onfield decision: No foul
VAR decision: No foul
Notes: It was not a tackle. Trent attempted to block Gabriel’s cross and got caught by the Brazilian’s foot during the natural motion of him kicking the ball.
Correct decision

Gabriel Jesus penalty
Onfield decision: Penalty
VAR decision: Penalty
Notes: Challenge on Jesus came in from behind, with Thiago Alcantara kicking him in the leg. Alcantara was no-where near the ball. Just because a challenge is not enough for a player to “naturally” go down, does not mean it is not a foul. Often players in this situation have to go down highlight the contact others the referee will never give it.
Correct decision

Gabriel handball
Onfield decision: No penalty
VAR decision: No penalty
Notes: As soon as the ball comes off Gabriel’s chest, it can not be given as handball. Had the referee given the penalty, VAR would have overturned due to it rolling off the Brazilian’s chest.
Correct decision

Bamford goal dissalowed
Onfield decision: No goal
VAR decision: No goal
Notes: Clear push by Patrick Bamford
Correct decision

William Saliba handball
Onfield decision: No penalty
VAR decision: Penalty
Notes: Was a handball by Saliba. Questions can be asked about the offside in the build up, but that led to a cross which Arsenal cleared and started a “new phase of play”.
Correct decision

Leeds non-penalty
Onfield decision: Penalty
VAR: No penalty
Notes: Patrick Bamford clearly fouls Gabriel prior to the coming together between the two. The coming together was 6 of 1, half a dozen of the other.
Correct decision

Gabriel red card
Onfield decision: Red card
VAR decision: No red card
Notes: Lino advised referee that Gabriel had kicked out Bamford and a red card should be issued. On review it was clear that Gabriel did not kick out. Red card reduced to yellow card.
Correct decision

So of the 9 contentious decisions we have seen across the last 3 games, the joint decision making of VAR and the onfield officials came to the correct decision every time.

Of the 3 occasions VAR overturned the onfield decision, 1 went against Arsenal and 2 for. The 2 that went for Arsenal were part of the same incident and it was the linesman’s decision making that was overturned, not the referee.

Just because decision’s go your way, does not mean you are “lucky” if all those decisions are actually correct.

You could also argue that one of the biggest errors in the last 3 games went against Arsenal.

The linesman should have flagged for the Leeds players being offside in the build-up to their penalty.

This is the disadvantage of “keeping the flag down” as it means that if a new phase starts, the decision not to flag “in case a goal is scored” is not reviewed.

Leeds gained an advantage due to the offside.

The Leeds player was free to cross the ball in, unchallenged. Arsenal were then at full stretch trying to clear and the ball went straight back to him. 2 passes later and the cross went in which led to the penalty.

If VAR did not exist, the linesman would have flagged for the offside. It was a clear and obvious. Ne need to keep the flag down “just in case”.

My final thought is those that are saying VAR is winning us games; with no VAR the first Leeds penalty would not have been given and the second would have been given. What do they say about bad decisions equaling themselves out?

Casting our minds back to our only loss of the season – Manchester United away – and we will all remember that VAR ruled out our “opener”. So we could easily argue that VAR is costing us games rather than winning.

Tomorrow it is PSV at home. Remember if you are not going, sell the ticket on the TX. Give someone else a chance to go.

UTA

Keenos