Match Report: Valencia 2 – 4 Arsenal

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València (1) 2 Arsenal (1) 4
UEFA Europa League, Semi Final Second Leg
Mestalla Stadium, Av. de Suècia, s/n, 46010 València, Spain
Thursday, 9th May 2019. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Čech, Sokratis, Koscielny, Monreal, Maitland-Niles; Torreira, Xhaka; Kolašinac, Özil, Aubameyang; Lacazette.
Substitutes: Elneny; Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Leno, Mustafi, Guendouzi, Nketiah.
Scorers: Aubameyang (3), Lacazette
Yellow Cards: Özil, Lacazette
Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)
Attendance: 49,500

There are certain Arsenal matches this season that truly defy description (almost); this game may just fall into that category when the curtain descends on everything in a few weeks time. Make no mistake about it, Arsenal were professional, clinical, utterly single-minded in their approach to ultimate victory and it has to be said truly magical. Despite going behind to a well-taken Kevin Gameiro goal after just eleven minutes, we were neither fazed nor bothered by this unfortunate situation; we just simply dusted ourselves down and started all over again.

The electric partnership between Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette simply terrorised the València defence, and when the former equalised the scores seven minutes later, it was to be the start of something truly special here at the Mestalla Stadium. Previous to this, the home side sere in the ascendancy, buoyed by their early goal; their inability to capitalise on this showed their limitations and defensive frailties. Mesut Özil suddenly became the player that we all know he can be; time and time again he popped up to liberally stoke the ball here and there at will to ensure that Arsenal kept up the momentum. By the end of the first half, it was becoming apparent that the eternal triangle of Özil-Aubameyang-Lacazette was completely running the show for Arsenal.

Just five minutes after the restart, the fantastic Alexandre Lacazette left his indelible mark on the game at last. Receiving a pass in the penalty area, he was magnificent in his strength, unbeatable in the turn, and when he finally struck the ball firmly with his trusty right foot, it was only going to end up in one place – the back of the València net. All this seemed to be forgotten when Kevin Gameiro scored his second goal of the night a few minutes later, but hey, who cares? Off we went again. And again Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came to the rescue with yet another goal, only this time his second goal completely destroyed the spirit of the home side, so much so, that their supporters started to leave the stadium with twenty minutes still remaining on the clock. By now, we appeared not to be bothered by the opposition as we controlled play completely. Two minutes from the end of the match, València were unceremoniously snuffed out by the man of the match, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang; receiving the ball, he advanced with speed towards the València goal, and as goalkeeper Neto stepped forward to attempt to narrow the angle, the Arsenal man blasted the ball into the roof of the net to finish the night’s proceedings perfectly to propel us into the final of The Europa League, where Chelsea lie in wait for us.

Truthfully, this match was far more than Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s hat-trick or Mesut Özil’s vision; it was a brilliant mix of teamwork, effort, work ethic and an incredible desire to win at all costs. Most impressive was tbe attitude of not worrying about the system of play from the home side; our thoughts were quite simply along the lines of “we’re here to win, play however you like, but tonight we are truly unbeatable.” And for ninety wonderful minutes, we really, really were. Arsenal are now just one match away from returning to the Champions League, and if we hold our nerve, concentrate on our game plan, we can do just that. Oh, and also pick up a trophy along the way too, of course. Next instalment in this tale is in Baku on Wednesday, 29th May against our old adversaries Chelsea; don’t be late. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. 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.

Wet day in Vauxhall trumps sunny Spain

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I have made better decisions in life.

It is 17°C in Alicante this morning. Today’s highs will be 26°C. Arsenal fans are gathering in the Spanish city for a couple of days of sunshine boozing before getting a 2 hour train north to Valencia on Thursday for the game.

I turned down the chance to go to the game. Most of my mates flew out Monday lunchtime. They have been sunning themselves for 2 days already.

The reason why I turned it down? I had tickets for today’s ODI against Pakistan at the Oval.

So instead of waking up this morning in lovely Spanish sunshine, I am looking at of my window at grey clouds, could air and rain until 4pm. Cold and wet. It must be the start of the cricket season in England.

Earlier this year I spent a couple of weeks in Antigua watching England get thrashed by the West Indies. I did not care about the result, it was a cracking bit of time away.

The Vauxhall Oval is going to be very different to the Sir Viv Richards Stadium that I sat in earlier this year. Instead of looking for a bit of shade to sit in, I will probably be looking for somewhere to stay dry.

Arsenal have not been great this season. That is an understatement. And as Liverpool showed last night, the tie is not over.

Valencia did not look great at Arsenal. There only threat was from set pieces. But at 3-1 and with Valencia having the away goal; the 1st goal is key.

Wining the Europa League would turn Unai Emery’s 1st season from a tough one to a trophy laden, successful one.

What it will also do is parachute Arsenal back in the Champions League.

For obvious reasons, the Arsenal transfer budget is not yet finalised. There is plenty of money available with the increase in commercial deals and players leaving on a free. These two factors free up £60million a year to be spent on transfer fees, wages, bonuses, agent fees, etc.

Win the Europa League and qualify for the Champions League could add an extra £40million to that pot for next season.

Tomorrow is a huge night.

I just wish I was out there instead of getting the waterproofs out of the loft for a day at the cricket.

ps: Whilst I am talking about the sunshine, have you bought the banana beach towel yet?

Keenos

A season of two halves

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On July 14th I waited for the team coach to pull into a packed Boreham Wood carpark, something I haven’t done for probably 30 years. This was a long awaited new dawn and a new era.

Unai stepped off the coach to huge cheers and I felt that excitement for the coming season that had been missing for so long. We won 8-0, not a bad start at all for Unai.

The start of the season was as expected, City and Chelsea were write offs, but that was ok. We all knew this was the start of a rebuild.

From there on, we went from August to December unbeaten, amazing run and enjoyed every minute of it. Fulham away was a great day, we sang ‘We’ve got our Arsenal back’ and for the first time in years, it felt like the good old days again. Beating that lot up the road soon after was the icing on the cake.

Mid December we lost to Southampton on a freezing cold day. Without Rob Holding our defence frailties,  which had been masked, started to emerge and have stayed with us. Brighton away on Boxing Day was awful and not only did we look shaky at the back, we were suddenly void of creativity. The passion seemed to have gone and the dig deep mentality we have heard so much about in recent years was no where to be seen.

The inevitable thrashing at Anfield was the first dose of reality that actually we were still miles away from being a serious contender. As had become the norm, we turned it on at home against Fulham and went on to beat Blackpool in a stadium full of just Arsenal fans.  A slow pedestrian performance against a crap West Ham side saw us drop more points. Sideways football had taken its hold once again on this team, peppered with some suicide football of playing out from the back.

We almost looked unrecognisable to that team at Fulham. From there on, we put a decent enough run together at home and got all the points at Huddersfield.

And then April arrived.

Somehow, we found ourselves in with a serious shot of top 4 and possibly even nicking 3rd, mainly because, Utd, Chelsea and Tottenham were all as crap as us. It seems we’ve been playing a game of ‘you have a go’ ‘no, you have a go’. Without anyone actually wanting a go! With huge comparisons to the year we should have given Leicester as serious race for the title it seemed we didn’t have the winning mentality after all.

Much had been said about players not being good enough, I don’t disagree one bit with this. But they were good enough to be challenging for 3rd for most of April and good enough to be in a semi final of a european cup.  What they weren’t good enough at, is holding their nerve and showing a bit of ruthlessness into getting the job done and putting it to bed despite being given the batton over and over again.

As Arsenal fans we are split again. Who thinks Emery is the answer and others who don’t. I’m in the ‘I’m massively sceptical that he is the man’. This isn’t based on points, it’s based on what I see as no real improvement. And it’s based on we should have been winning some

Of these games away from home to sides who we made look much better than they actually are.  What I don’t want is to start falling out with fellow fans again, I’ve had enough of that.

I held Wenger accountable for everything, the set up, the squad he picked, and mostly not getting the best out of what he’s got by tinkering too much and playing players out of position and that all too familiar bottling it when  it really matters.

I understand that Emery needs the summer, we will see lots of comings and goings I suspect. With a war chest that won’t win us the league we will see how shrewd he is with buying the right players for the right positions. It’s not as if we are a tight club tbh, we pay players very well and have 100mill worth in our two forwards, so if that isn’t enough of a foundation then we are in big trouble.

Drawing to Brighton wasn’t really a surprise, we’ve been playing that way for months now. Bottling it wasn’t really a surprise, we’ve been doing that for years. What I hate most is the feeling of acceptance and resignation creeping back in. I don’t want it to, I want to be far more positive than I have been over recent months but I just can’t find that one thing to give me the hope back.

I would have taken top 4 and a final in the UEFA cup at the beginning of the season, but I feel disappointed  because it could have, and should have, exceeded my expectations. Its been made so easy for us and those opportunities don’t come around too often.

I will travel to Burnley expecting the worse and hoping for a surprise. We need to put out our strongest side for that as the final (fingers crossed) will still be a few weeks away and to finish with a big win will give some confidence.

I’m not going to Valencia but expect us to put this to bed so I can get on with eBaying the kids clothes and Xbox so I can book up for Baku.  Two days after that, I will then remortgage the house so I can pay for next years season tickets and do the whole thing all over again. It’s been full of ups and downs but one thing never changes. Always Arsenal.

JD