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Match Report: Arsenal 3 -2 Benfica

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Arsenal (1) 3 SL Benfica (1) 2

(Arsenal won 4-3 on aggregate)

UEFA Europa League, Round of 32, Leg 2 of 2

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

Thursday, 25th February 2021. Kick-off time: 5.55pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, David Luiz, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Dani Ceballos, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Emile Smith-Rowe; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Alexandre Lacazette, Willian Borges da Silva, Cédric Soares, Thomas Partey, Nicolas Pépé, Calum Chambers, Pablo Marí, Mohamed Elneny, Eddie Nketiah, Mat Ryan,Gabriel Martinelli, Karl Hein.

Scorers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (21 mins, 87 mins), Kieran Tierney (67 mins)

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 53%

Referee: Björn Kuipers (Netherlands)

Assistant Referees: Sander van Roekel (Netherlands), Erwin Zeinstra (Netherlands)

Fourth Official: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)

Referee Observer: Georgios Bikas (Greece)

VAR Team (UEFA): VAR Pol van Boekel (Netherlands); AVAR Rob Dieperink (Netherlands)

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

Make no mistake about it, tonight’s match may as well be a cup final, with all the importance that such a game carries for us at this point in the season. We have to be victorious, in order for the team to have a chance to progress into the Champions League next season, because if we fail, it will make things extremely difficult for us, as our Premiership form does not (at the moment), suggest a top four finish in May. With regards to team news for the game, Rob Holding has not travelled to Greece because of UEFA/Premier League concussion protocols after his head injury suffered in Sunday’s match against Manchester City, whilst midfielder Thomas Partey had a late fitness check after a hamstring injury, and is on the substitutes’ bench tonight. Let’s go!

Although Benfica pinned us back into our own half in the early stages of the match, we managed to get a grip and started to push the ball around a bit, particularly out on the wings where the visitors seemed to be vulnerable. Just on quarter of an hour, Kieran Tierney made a spirited charge down the flank, but he was prevented from advancing any further when defender Ferreira Silva won the ball with a sliding challenge. Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka were linking up well in the central areas, (which is where we miss Thomas Partey at times like this), and it looked like a matter of time before we found a way through the Benfica defence. And sure enough, young Bukayo Saka pushed a inch-perfect pass through the Benfica defence, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ran on to it and chipped a beautiful ball over Benfica goalkeeper Helton Leite to open the scoring after just twenty-one minutes. We started to get the wind in our sails now, and a few minutes later, Dani Ceballos tried to extend our lead as he hit a ball from the edge of the penalty area but his shot was parried away by the Benfica goalie for an Arsenal corner. Although there was a bit of a heartstopping moment when former Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen outjumped David Luiz and headed a ball over the bar from a free kick after thirty-five minutes, overall, we looked to be the more confident side at this point in the game. Five minutes before the break, Bukayo Saka ran onto a ball from Emile Smith-Rowe, and his neat shot went just past the Benfica post. Completely against the run of play, two minutes before half-time, we gave away a sloppy free-kick just outside the penalty area. Cupido Goncalves stepped up and hit a perfect ball into the back of our net past the outstretched arm of Bernd Leno to equalise the scores going into the break.

Despite some tough play at the beginning of the second half, four minutes after the break we found a way through the Benfica defence for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to score a seemingly perfect goal, only to find it was chalked off for offside. This incident merely served to fire us up, and we were then playing a high-line, pushing Benfica well back into their own half, almost near to the penalty area for large periods of the game. On the hour, the nightmare happened. From a Martin Ødegaard corner, in a classic smash’n’grab movement, goalkeeper Helton Leite grabbed the ball out of the air, and launched it down the field and Dani Ceballos, being the last man, attempted a header back, but it fell short, sadly. Ferreira Silva quickly ran on to it, touched it past Bernd Leno and walked the ball into the net. Absolute disaster. Almost immediately, Dani Ceballos and Emile Smith-Rowe were replaced by Willian and (at last) Thomas Partey. The effect was almost instant, as new boy on the pitch Willian found himself free down the left wing, pulled the ball back for Kieran Tierney, who composed himself and expertly drilled an unstoppable shot into the corner of the net. With thirteen minutes of the match remaining, Hector Bellerin was replaced by Alexandre Lacazette for a final push to grab more goals, which we desperately needed, because at that moment we were going out of the competition on the away goals rule. It was now becoming obvious that Benfica were just running down the clock as they were quite happy (obviously) to do so. When we did win the ball, and started advancing towards their goal, all they had to do was to get ten men behind the ball and slow everything up. Incredibly, with three minutes left of the match, somebody up there liked us, when Bukayo Saka hooked the ball over beautifully from the left, which went beyond the goalkeeper, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang headed the ball into an empty net! Despite a VAR check, in which everyone’s hearts was in their mouths, the goal was given, and we were ahead. Mikel Arteta replaced Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka for Calum Chambers and Mohamed Elneny to shore things up at the back, which worked perfectly, as minutes later, the referee blew his whistle to signal the end of the match, with Arsenal in the draw for the last sixteen of the Europa League tomorrow.

Now that we have all put our collective hearts back into our quivering chests, this was a memorable night for everyone involved with the club. Yes, it could have gone badly wrong, but it never did, thanks to the collective sheer guts of this group of players, their never-say-die attitude and desire to win. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang got his shooting boots back on, Bukayo Saka is growing into a fantastic footballer with a natural ability for finding space when there does not seem to be any, and Kieran Tierney must surely be, currently, one of the best two or three left-backs in the world. We may have only got five shots on target, but hey, three of them were goals; and this group of players are growing together in stature and class. Believe me, the best is yet to come from this group of players.

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: Leicester City at King Power Stadium on Sunday, 28th February at noon (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 fans need to stop with the Giroud revisionism – his exit led to Aubameyang’s arrival

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Every time Olivier Giroud scored a goal for Chelsea, Arsenal Twitter goes into a meltdown in what is becoming one of the biggest re-writes of an Arsenal players history.

Giroud was never a bad player for Arsenal.

He was limited, he was never a great goal scorer, he relied on others to create and he would have long spells without scoring. But he was never a poor player.

Giroud has shown for both Arsenal and France, and to a lesser extent for Chelsea, that a side needs to get the right players around him to get the best out of him.

At Arsenal that was Alexis Sanchez. For France is was Antoine Griezmann and Chelsea it was Eden Hazard.

Giroud is at his best when he is not expected to be the man to get the goals.

His highest league tally for Arsenal was 16. He has just 17 league goals in 71 league games for Chelsea.

When France won the World Cup in 2018, Giroud failed to score a single goal.

But all this was OK as long as Sanchez, Hazard or Griezmann were contributing from out wide.

Giroud is one of the games greatest hold up players in modern times.

How often did we see Sanchez pop a short pass into him, Giroud ply a one touch lay-off and Sanchez goes through and scored?

Arsenal were at the dangerous best when we had Sanchez on the left, Theo Walcott on the right and Aaron Ramsey in behind Giroud.

All 3 were more than happy playing the ball into the big Frenchman, continuing their run and getting the ball back in a goal scoring position.

As for goals, Giroud was a master at getting i infront of his man for a new post knock in.

Giroud’s fault came when fans demanded more from him. When Sanchez or Hazard wasn’t scoring (and left).

Without a world class wide forward, Giroud was simply not as dangerous.

He is not the type of player that takes a game by the scruff of its next; wins it through his own individual brilliance.

And this led to frustrating criticism from the stands when goals began to dry up from out wide.

When Arsenal Giroud, no one was upset.

Some fans have attempted to revise history by claiming Giroud was replaced by Alexandre Lacazette. He wasn’t.

Lacazette was already at the club when Giroud left us in January 2018.

It was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that was his replacement.

The story goes Arsenal wanted Aubameyang, Dortmund wanted Michy Batshuayi and Chelsea just wanted a striker.

So the deal was in motion, with Giroud joining Chelsea, Batshuayi to Germany and Arsenal getting their man in Aubameyang.

If anyone does not think Arsenal got the best deal then they are deluded or agenda driven.

Since joining Arsenal, Aubameyang has 62 Premier League goals. Remember that Giroud figure from earlier? 17.

It was Aubameyang’s brilliance in the semi final, and repeated in the final, that saw Arsenal win the FA Cup in 2020. Giroud could not have scored the goals Auba did.

Imagine the outcry if we had kept Giroud instead of signing Auba; and the Gabonese striker joined Chelsea?

We would all be fuming.

Lacazette has come in for criticism for his goal droughts during his stay at Arsenal. But he has 45 Premier League goals to his name. Giroud in the same time (for Arsenal and Chelsea) has just 21.

Now a case could be made that Giroud would actually suit Arsenal now.

With Aubameyang on one side and Bukayo Saka or Nicholas Pepe on the other, Arsenal could do with someone like Giroud for them to play off.

Someone that they could play the ball into knowing they’d get it straight back. Someone who Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin could aim for with a cross when they hit the touchline.

But for Giroud to ply with Aubameyang, you’d need to ignore that fact that we had to sell Giroud to sign Aubameyang.

And with Lacazette already at the club, it would make no sense to have the 3 of them – Giroud, Lacazette and Aubameyang.

Now if it happened the other way – with Arsenal signing Auba in the summer and it being Lacazette involved into a January 3-way; I would kind of understand the debate. But it didn’t happen that way.

So really the debate is simple for Arsenal fans:

Arsenal were not wrong selling Giroud to Chelsea. Giroud has not improved since joining Chelsea. He is the same old player that will score 8 in 10 and then 1 in the next XI.

Let’s stop the revisionism over Giroud. Let’s stop pretending that Aubameyang is not 10 times the goal scorer.

Keenos

6 goals in 8 games – Is Aubameyang form really a “major problem”?

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In recent months, we have seen some really extreme views from Arsenal fans in what has been a rollercoaster of a season.

Some people have shown their true colours, sharing views based on RTs, likes and attention.

These usually take the form of sharing an extreme view that makes like sense, all because you are an attention seeker.

It is not only just the wannabe YouTubers and Twitter celebs doing this either.

These ones are who go viral, who we all know about. But others are doing the same. Extreme views for a bit of attention.

I read one view yesterday that sums it up:

Aubamayeng’s form is becoming a major problem…time to start playing Martinelli and bench Auba

I have decided not to post the actual tweet in the blog because I want to avoid a “pile on” and people abusing the Tweeter in question. We have no idea how fragile he or she is and it is common in these situations for people to post an extreme view for attention, and then play the victim when they get that attention.

Aubameyang has not had a great season. He struggled prior to the turn of the year with just 5 goals. Although this was highlighted by a bigger problem at Arsenal – that we were not creating enough chances.

His current run reads a lot better:

  • 6 goals in 8 games
  • 6 goals in 6 starts
  • 5 goals 5 Premier League games
  • 5 goals in 3 Premier League starts

If 6 goals in 9 games is “a major problem” then I do not know what the Tweeter is expecting? 10 goals in 8 games? 20?

Yes, Auba has had chances to score more – he could have grabbed himself a double against Benfica; but I am certainly not worried about his form.

Anyone that has followed Aubameyang’s career will know that he has a history of missing easy chances.

He is better when he does not have to think is a tag that has been given to many a world class striker in their time. And Aubameyang falls into the bracket.

What is the problem here? Is it that Arsenal fans need someone to constantly hate? And with Mesut Ozil now gone they are slowly moving onto Aubameyang.

Is it that they do not actually like Aubameyang – they detest a rich young man who likes fast cars, load clothes and hair cuts that would get you suspended in Primary School?

When you take into account that Aubameyang has been carrying some personal problems on his shoulders in the last few months, to say 6 goals in 8 games is “out of form” is just stupid. It is attention seeking.

And then they say that Martinelli should start is equally as ridiculous.

Have you forgotten about Alexandre Lacazette? Or do we not want him to play because he is also in poor form?

Lacazette had a nice little run around Christmas where he scored 5 goals in 4 games, but his current run is 1 goal in 9 games – although he only started 4 games.

So even if Auba was dropped due to his “bad form”, it would be Lacazette and not Martinelli that comes in for him.

This sort of Tweeter would probably be the first to say “we played Martinelli too much too soon at a young age and after a poor injury” if he played 5 games in a row and then picked up reoccurrence of his injury.

For some fans, Arsenal and Arsenal players will never win.

They will moan when a youngster is not picked; they will moan when he is not picked enough. They will moan when a player only scores 6 goals in 8 games. They just like to moan.

Negativity garners attention – TalkSport make a radio station out of it.

You constantly see people on Twitter and other social media platforms doing the same. Sharing extreme negative views for attention.

Ultimately, if you need to spend your time attention seeking on Twitter, you clearly have something key missing in the real world.

Keenos