Tag Archives: Europa League

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

Match Report: Arsenal 3 – 1 Valencia

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Arsenal (2) 3 València (1) 1
UEFA Europa League, Semi-Final First Leg
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Thursday, 2nd May 2019. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Čech; Mustafi, Koscielny, Sokratis, Maitland-Niles; Guendouzi, Xhaka; Kolašinac, Özil, Aubameyang; Lacazette.
Substitutes: Elneny, Leno, Mkhitaryan, Torreira, Iwobi, Monreal, Nketiah.
Scorers: Lacazette (2), Aubameyang
Referee: Clément Turpin (France)
Attendance: circa 60,000

If Arsenal can get anything out of this excellent victory here at The Emirates tonight, it would be a collective sigh of relief, followed by a sense of a job well done in this competition, this, the only chance of silverware for us this season. There were times in the match when we were extremely profligate, yet other times when we looked completely in control. Soon after the start, València showed their intent in earnest. The miss by Ezequiel Garay should have been a warning to us, but we failed to heed it; after just eleven minutes Mouctar Diakhaby scored the opening goal with a strong header in our six-yard box which was just the lift that the visitors needed.

Alexandre Lacazette saved our blushes half a dozen minutes later with an absolutely superb goal which showed his class and professionalism. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang did the hard work in the box, drawing defenders to him; the visitors didn’t see the danger from Alexandre Lacazette initially, but my word, they certainly did when, just seconds later they were picking the ball out of the net after the equaliser had been scored. Arsenal now saw an opportunity to impose their will (and their type of football) on the match. Our two bandits were constantly penetrating the visitors’ defence, and by half -an-hour on the clock, we were in the lead, with yet another well-taken goal by Alexandre Lacazette. A well-delivered cross by Granit Xhaka found our striker, and as he headed the ball down, València ’keeper Murara Neto could only attempt to try to prevent the ball from crossing over the line by hauling it out at the last minute; thankfully the man in the middle with the vibrating watch knew the truth and gave the goal. Until the break, Arsenal were dominant. Time and time again we penetrated the València defence, but to no avail; it looked fairly obvious that the visitors were mightily relieved when the half-time whistle finally came.

Everyone in the Arsenal camp in the stadium were looking forward to the restart, and the thrill that it may bring. Not so. The visitors appeared to have other ideas and were knocking on the door of a possible draw here. Somehow our defence held firm, and in doing so earned the respect of the Arsenal supporters. Laurent Koscielny, despite carrying an injury, time and time again threw himself into the fray, halting dangerous attacks by the visitors; Sokratis showed both his strength, and positional sense, to halt further València goals, and young Ainsley Maitland-Niles, despite his earlier heart-stopping moment in the first half with the headed back pass that never was, composed himself and showed everyone the footballer that we all know that he can be. To be fair, Alexandre Lacazette should have got his hat-trick, but a series of calamitous shots and half-hearted chances meant that it really didn’t happen. But what did happen, was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s coup de grâce in injury time. After some dilly-dallying on the edge of the penalty area, Sead Kolašinac finally got an awkward ball across for the Gabon international to score the third and final goal from an acute angle.

At last. Not only a win, but an extremely important win at that. Of course we are not in the final just yet, but this victory certainly has gone a long, long way into not only getting us into our first European final in a quarter of a century, but also a massive confidence boost for an otherwise much maligned squad of very good footballers who now need every bit of support they can get in the final weeks of this troubled season. 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.

Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 0 Napoli

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Arsenal (2) 0 Napoli (0) 0
UEFA Europa League, Quarter Final, First Leg
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Thursday, 11th April 2019. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Čech; Sokratis, Koscielny, Monreal, Maitland-Niles; Torreira, Ramsey; Kolašinac, Özil, Lacazette; Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Leno, Mustafi, Suárez, Guendouzi.
Scorers: Ramsey, Koulibaly
Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)
Attendance: circa 60,000

Back to The Emirates, and of course, back to winning ways, which is de rigueur for our home matches this season. How different tonight’s match in both attitude and aptitude from the horrendous car crash that befell the team at Goodson Park just 96 hours hence (or thereabouts). Tonight’s match was a tale of two midfielders, the departing Aaron Ramsey and the remaining Lucas Torreira, both of whom completely oozed class and dominace here in North London this evening.

Aaron Ramsey’s opening goal was surely nothing short of sublime, and coming as it did, on quarter of an hour after the start, showed Arsenal’s intent. As we have seen before with the Welsh Wizard this season, the move he started became the goal he finished. A nifty pass to Mesut Özil, who then gently pushed the ball on to Alexandre Lacazette which travelled quickly to Ainsley Maitland-Niles; the man who started the move then received it and in the blink of an eye it was in the back of the Napoli net. Just like that. Confidence in a football team is always 90 per cent of the proceedings, and for the next ten minutes or so, Arsenal showed their class. Ten minutes after taking the lead, Lucas Torreira received the ball on the edge of the Napoli area, and merely took a chance with a quick shot that caught the unfortunate Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly on its way to wickedly going high and over goalkeeper Alex Meret and into the net to make it two-nil to Arsenal. The remaining twenty minutes of the first half became a running battle between our strikers and the Napoli defenders as to who was to gain the upper hand. By rights, it should have been us, with both Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang getting mighty close with some superb shots, provided by our midfielders, who were doing sterling work in providing them with the necessary tools to finish the job. Despite all this and more, we went into the break two goals to the good and a promise of an even better second half.

Undoubtedly the happier of the two managers, Mr. Emery kept his nerve and the team as it was before in a never-ending search for that elusive third goal. The Napoli manager, our old friend Mr. Ancelotti had other ideas and put pressure on our defence which managed to hold firm throughout, even with the heart stopping moment when Napoli did manage to finally get the ball past Petr Čech and into the net, only for the match officials to correctly rule it out for offside. Phew. The match levelled out, and Mr. Emery made three substitutions in ten minutes; Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alex Iwobi and Mohamed Elneny for Mesut Özil, Alexandre Lacazette and Lucas Torreira. Off we went again. Despite some wonderful football emanating from the football brain of Aaron Ramsey, we just could not get that killer third goal to take to Naples next week. Still, a good win, and one that we can hopefully build on next Thursday.

What price Aaron Ramsey, we ask ourselves? He seems to be on the way to becoming more of a complete midfielder as he gets closer to the exit signs to start his new career at Juventus. With performances such as this tonight, we are starting to question the wisdom of allowing him to leave North London. We are now all surely praying that this clever footballer doesn’t come back to haunt us one day; but the world of professional football works in mysterious ways, as well we know. Still no Denis Suárez, who is becoming almost Garbo-like in his non-appearance on the pitch, sadly. It would have been good to see Mattéo Guendouzi stretch his legs for a while at some point in the match, but as the game was going our way early on in the proceedings, his skills were not required tonight. And so, it’s Naples for the chaps next week, and we are all hoping that we can see the job through well enough to get to the semi-final draw. 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.