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Match Report: Olympiacos 1 – 3 Arsenal

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Olympiacos (0) 1 Arsenal (1) 3

UEFA Europa League, Round of 16, Leg 1 of 2

Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis, Piraeus 185 47, Attica, Athens, Greece

Thursday, 11th March 2021. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-3-3) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, David Luiz, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Willian Borges da Silva, Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Martin Ødegaard, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Bukayo Saka.

Substitutes: Dani Ceballos, Alexandre Lacazette, Rob Holding, Cédric Soares, Nicolas Pépé, Calum Chambers, Pablo Marí, Mohamed Elneny, Emile Smith-Rowe, Mat Ryan, Gabriel Martinelli, Karl Hein.

Scorers: Martin Ødegaard (34 mins), Gabriel (79 mins), Mohamed Elneny (85 mins)

Yellow Cards: Gabriel

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 59%

Referee: Daniel Siebert (Germany)

Assistant Referees: Jan Seidel (Germany), Rafael Foltyn (Germany)

Fourth Official: Christian Dingert (Germany)

Referee Observer: Karen Nalbandyan (Armenia)

VAR Team (UEFA): VAR Marco Fritz (Germany); AVAR Sascha Stegemann (Germany)

Attendance: A minimal amount of attendees (circa 3,000) due to coronavirus restrictions

Perhaps history will repeat itself? Tonight’s match is taking place in the same stadium as the Benfica game was played in, back on 25th February! Let us hope for the same result this evening. Mikel Arteta has called for the boys to win their next five matches, in order for Arsenal to springboard to bigger and better things at the end of this season, which will be a tough call, no doubt about it. This game will be a perfect test for everyone; as we saw last year, Olympiacos are certainly no pushovers, capable of a very powerful sting in the tail, so everyone has to be on top form out there tonight Let’s go!

After the missed chance that Martin Ødegaard completely blew after just two minutes, one was starting to wonder if this was going to be one of those nights for us. Keeping that thought in mind, just three minutes later, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was desperately unlucky not to score, when his point-blank header was saved by the Olympiacos goalie, Malheiro de Sá, when he pushed the ball on to the crossbar and out into open play. We certainly had the best of the opening stages of the match, with Kieran Tierney working well out on the left, seemingly cutting inside at will. Although the home side did start to look quite dangerous, we recovered our composure and started to play the way that we know how. David Luiz had a weak free kick on target from twenty yards that was easily saved, and despite playing well, we were still capable of making sloppy mistakes that almost cost us dear. A poor back pass from Gabriel onto the feet of Bruma was thankfully saved by Bernd Leno, but these appalling lapses of concentration must really end. By the half-hour mark, we were racking up the free kicks outside the Olympiacos penalty area, and most of them were lost opportunities that ended up tepid attempts to score, when a bit more application surely would not have gone amiss. And at last, after thirty-four minutes, we finally took the lead, quite deservedly, when Thomas Partey slotted the ball to Martin Ødegaard who promptly advanced a few yards and hit a fabulous twenty-yard left-footed shot that the Olympiacos goalkeeper had no chance in stopping, let alone saving. Nothing like a goal to lift the collective spirits, and although we looked good, with five minutes left before the break, David Luiz made a terrible error in our penalty area, in which we were extremely lucky not to get punished. When will we learn? Gabriel received our only yellow card of the evening for a rather soft tackle, and as the first half petered out, we managed to consolidate, keep calm, not do anything too silly, and go into the break in the affirmative.

And so the second half started with the home side kicking off proceedings. What will the next forty-five minutes or so, bring? Thomas Partey possibly answered this question with a testing shot that Malheiro de Sá easily gathered up, two minutes after the restart. The Olympiacos back line started to make errors, just enough for our forwards to starting pushing and probing to find the gaps. Dani Ceballos replaced Thomas Partey after fifty-five minutes, and again, three minutes later, we shot ourselves in the foot, when a series of poor defensive decisions over the course of just seconds saw the ball come loose and that was all it took was for Youssef El-Arabi to stroke the ball home comfortablyfrom just outside the penalty area to level the scores on the night. With the scores as they are, we need to regroup and impose our collective will on this match, and quickly too, before something else goes horribly wrong. However much we tried to break through the Olympiacos defence, the more we were denied, with the home side getting most of the team behind the ball to stifle our play. With twelve minutes left of the match, a superb Willian cross made contact with the head of Gabriel who headed the ball firmly into the net, to restore our lead. After eighty-two minutes, Mikel Arteta made a triple substitution with Mohamed Elneny, Emile Smith-Rowe and Nicolas Pépé replacing Willian, Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard; almost immediately the changes bore incredible fruit. Mohamed Elneny hit the ball from twenty yards that gave the Olympiacos goalie no chance in saving it, and more importantly, his successful shot gave us a two-goal cushion. Alexandre Lacazette replaced Pierre-Emerick Aubameyangwith a couple of minutes left of normal time, to save collective legs for the North London derby on Sunday afternoon. Nicolas Pépé was unlucky not to score in injury time, when a firm Alexandre Lacazette pass flew across the six-yard box, only for an Olympiacos defender to clear the ball right from the tip of his boot. Despite a flurry of action from both teams in the five minutes of injury time, that was that.

Okay, we’ll take that. Despite the schoolboy errors, the lack of concentration by some of our defenders and a goalkeeping howler that led to the Olympiacos goal, we somehow got through this match as deserved winners. Arsenal can take comfort in bringing back to the Emirates a commanding lead next Thursday evening, a clear two-goal lead that we should be able to defend, in order to propel us into the quarter-finals of this competition. Fingers (and everything) crossed.

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 the Emirates on Sunday, 14th March 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.

Arsenal make £92.2m operating loss

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It is that day again where the brilliant Swiss Ramble gives his fantastic of analysis of Arsenal’s latest accounts.

His thread is below and I would highly recommend everyone reading.

For me the headline if the loss we made – and it will be the headline that most will be running with.

It is the operating loss of £92.2m rather than the loss after tax of £47.8m that is most concerning.

The operating loss (or profit) is the figure prior to player sales. As a business you do not want to rely on one off asset sales to make a profit – in the case selling a player.

If you rely on that strategy, eventually you have no assets left to sell – or the value of those assets decreases.

Arsenal should not be relying on selling a player to break even. But then we are in extraordinary times.

Our match day revenue dropped £17.5m following the cancellation of half a dozen home games last season.

Broadcasting is also down £64.1m. This is due to due to revenue from 10 games falling into 2020/21 accounts. Commercial revenue is up £31.4 with new deals having kicked in.

The other big change is the increase in player amortisation – IE transfers. This has gone up by £19.4million, which highlights the increased investment in the playing side of the squad.

So £92.2million is our operating loss.

Now there are two sides of a coin. One positive, the other negative.

Lets start with the positive.

The first tweet highlights that it is not Arsenal making huge losses.

The likes of Tottenham and Everton have already posted huge losses, and Manchester United and Liverpool are both expected to do similar.

According to Swiss Ramble, Arsenal’s revenue would have been £35million higher were it not for the drop in match day revenue and deferred broadcasting revenue. These losses of £54million were offset by £19million in cost savings during the Covid crisis.

So without Covid, we would “only” have made an operating loss of £57.2million. Or just £12.8million after player sales.

These figures show the importance of Champions League football.

Arsenal earned just £19.3million from the Europa League, whilst Tottenham who made the Last 16 generated £69.3million. That is a swing of £50million.

That £50million in additional revenue would have seen Arsenal make a post-tax profit even with Covid.

We also would have made an operating profit if Covid did not happen, once additional match day revenue for Champions League games is added in.

The concern for Arsenal is that even when European TV revenue is stripped away from the Big 6 club, we still have the lowest revenue – with both Arsenal and Tottenham generating £320million without European football.

So the positive is that without Covid, we still would have lost money, but just not a big a loss.

The negative is looking at this year, and next.

This year match day revenue will be almost non-existent. You can almost write off all of the £78.7m generated in 2020..

That alone would see Arsenal’s operating loss increase to £170.9million.

We also made just £16.79m in player sales in 2020/21 against £48.29m in 2019/20 (according to Transfermarkt). That is £31.5million less generated.

So our post tax loss, by the time you add the lack of match day revenue and drop in player sales could end up as high as £158million for 2020/21.

Very few businesses can absorb a £158million loss, which is why earlier this year we took advantage of the government loan scheme.

And next season things could get even worse.

Without European football, we will lose the £19.3million from the Europa League (if we do not make it). So any gain made from having fans back in the ground will be chipped away due to no European football.

A £19.3million drop from Europa League to no European football might not seem huge, but it will see us make a £60million loss against those teams in the Champions League.

And this is TV revenue only.7

Arsenal usually make £3.3million per game in gate receipts. Making the Champions League last 16 generates an additional £13.2million in match day revenue. And we do not know if commercial deals have a non-European football clause in them.

So not much positives about today, but well worth absorbing and understanding the data so that you can begin to understand why the club have been cost cutting and had to take out the government loan.

Keenos

Match Report: Burnley 1 – 1 Arsenal

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Burnley (1) 1 Arsenal (1) 1

Premier League

Turf Moor, 52-56 Harry Potts Way, Burnley BB10 4BX

Saturday, 6th March 2021. Kick-off time:12.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Calum Chambers, David Luiz, Pablo Marí, Kieran Tierney; Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Willian Borges da Silva; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Hector Bellerin, Gabriel Magalhães, Dani Ceballos, Alexandre Lacazette, Rob Holding, Nicolas Pépé, Mohamed Elneny, Mat Ryan, Gabriel Martinelli.

Scorers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (6 mins)

Yellow Cards: Bukayo Saka

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 59%

Referee: Andre Marriner

Assistant Referees: Scott Ledger, Eddie Smart

Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Kevin Friend; AVAR Matthew Wilkes

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

Because of the hectic schedule Arsenal face over the next weeks or so, with important matches against Olympiacos on Thursday, and the North London derby against Tottenham Hotspur next Sunday, our manager Mikel Arteta has been forced to make five changes for the match here in Lancashire this lunchtime. Let’s go!

After a bit of a scrappy and messy start, we took the lead after just six minutes, when an advancing Willian slotted the ball out to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the left. He cut inside and hit a strong, low shot towards the Burnley goal, and all goalkeeper Nick Pope could do, was to push it into his own net, to give us the lead on this cold Lancastrian lunchtime. Of course, such an early goal only served to make us stronger, and for the home team to start chasing the game, which is exactly what started to unfold here with two teams with radically different agendas; Burnley playing a game of containment hoping to break out and score in a traditional smash’n’grab raid, and Arsenal who are confident, and looking for that second goal of the afternoon. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang almost fulfilled that desire after eighteen mintues, when a cruelly bounced ball (via Thomas Partey) meant that it ricocheted frrom his left boot at an obtuse angle (when by rights, on any other day, he most certainly would have scored), and three minutes later, when young Bukayo Saka was left with only Nick Pope to beat, and his normally trusty left foot flicked the ball past the Burnley far post, one was starting to wonder if that elusive second goal would ever come our way. At the other end, Bernd Leno had not much to do, but however, he did zip quickly from his goal to gather the ball after James Tarkowski connected with Charlie Taylor’s free-kick which did have the whiff of a goal about it. Just before the half-hour mark, Thomas Partey was unlucky not to hit the target, when his twenty yard shot bobbled from the surface of the pitch before it reached him, and then six minutes from the break, calamity occurred. As usual, we tried to play it out from the back and, not for the first time, we got it horribly wrong.The catalogue of disaster happened when Bernd Leno played the ball to Granit Xhaka, who tried to pick out David Luiz, who was deep inside Arsenal’s penalty area, but his pass bounced off Chris Wood’s chest and into the net. After all that hard work, as well. From this point onwards until half-time, the momentum was the home side’s and to be fair, we looked a different team. Thank heavens for the half-time whistle from referee Andre Marriner, otherwise I dread to think what wouldy have happened.

However, these silly things happen (due to a lack of concentration), and the second half started in earnest. As expected, it was quite a tough start for us, all in all, with the home side feeling the wind in their sails now after the goal incident late in the previous half. Bukayo Saka got the first yellow card of the afternoon for a clumsy tackle on Charlie Taylor, and it was becoming obvious that we were losing our grip on this match. In an attempt to get more firepower up front, Alexandre Lacazette replaced Martin Ødegaard after sixty-two minutes, and then, Burnley opened up our defence with Bernd Leno making a fantastic save from Chris Wood shortly afterwards. After Nicolas Pépé blatantly missed an open goal, a few minutes later he was involved in an incident when we thought we were going to be awarded a penalty, when it was thought that his shot hit Erik Pieters on the arm and rebounded onto the crossbar; however, as usual in these matters, VAR was consulted, and it became apparent that it hit his shoulder, so the obligatory red card was rescinded by Andre Marriner and the penalty was denied. In the last few minutes of the match, the game started to get more frenetic and cut-throat, with David Luiz blocking a surefire goal from Dwight McNeil, and in the four minutes’ injury time, the home side were living on the edge when a crucial block by Ben Mee to deny Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looked as if we were grab the winner, and then, unbelievably, Dani Ceballos hit the post with a superb strike from outside the penalty area. After all this, and more, the game finished as a one-all draw just seconds after the Dani Ceballos shot.

There’s no two ways about it, and no way to dress it up, we should have won this match easily today at Turf Moor. The inability for us to kill off matches and neutralise opponents is something that needs to be addressed by Mikel Arteta very quickly, otherwise this could seriously hamper our attempts to win trophies, not just this season (in reference to the Europa League), but in future seasons also; in the football world of today, you don’t win any sympathies for a club of Arsenal’s stature to be labelled as “the nearly men”. Agreed, that we should have been awarded a penalty earlier in the game (when VAR should have been used), but at the end of the day, we have only ourselves to blame for not returning to London with all three points. An opportunity lost, rather than one gained. Still, best foot forward, let’s consign this match to history and concentrate on the Olympiacos match on Thursday evening. 

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: Olympiacos at Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis, Piraeus, Athens, Greece on Thursday, 11th March at 8.00pm (Europa 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.